SECTION 3

Analytics

Rob Tripp

ONCE UPON A TIME, back in the days of expensive mainframe computers, we were so pleased when we developed a cohort-based analyses of attrition (we used to call these Markov models, a simplification of the statistical underpinnings of the models of the time) and the aging workforce and found a way to use those tools to tell compelling stories about the workforce. Today, we have effective and sophisticated prediction models for both organizations and individuals on our desktops or even “in the cloud.” Although the term workforce analytics is still new to many people, as with the term workforce planning, thirty practitioners will have thirty definitions!

Routine reports and metrics, even embedded in colorful dashboards with awesome “wow” factors, can take you only so far. And having access to high-quality data about your workforce is only a starting point. Today, many of the really important questions about the workforce require the power of statistics, operations research, and game theory applied to “big data” involving not just traditional employee demographic data, but also employee and customer surveys, financial data, economic and business data, education and global political data, cultural norms, and on and on.

In today’s increasingly complex world of global competition for talent, you need people who can translate business issues into workforce questions, use those powerful tools and approaches to develop deep and actionable insights about the workforce, and tell compelling data-based stories that lead to action.

The line between workforce planning and workforce analytics is sometimes artificial: Where workforce planning at its core deals with matching the demand for talent with the supply of talent, workforce analytics can take you into a deep understanding of your workforce that can enhance your workforce planning efforts.

The next several chapters in this short section will give you more insight into the scope and breadth of workforce analytics and the tools, skills, and competencies needed to be successful.

Jeremy Shapiro and Tom Davenport, two of the leading writers and speakers about the expanding use of analytics in business, have given us “The Rise of Talent Analytics,” a high-level overview of business and HR leaders who are learning to use analytics to make better decisions. As they state, “Great HR leaders never worry about having a seat at the table. . . . Talent analytics . . . create a quantifiable difference in . . . the execution of their strategies.”

With a bit more detail into the “how” as well as the “what,” Leo Sadovy and Christian Haxholdt from the SAS Institute, in “Workforce Analytics,” deepen our understanding of the approaches and tools that help us gain deep insight into our workforce, helping the HR leader add “value to the strategic decisions that can make or break an organization.”

“Predicting Analytics” by Amit Mohindra and J. Allan Brown gives us a tour of the breadth, promise, and perils of predictive workforce analytics. As in many other activities, predictive analytics in HR is the wave of today. Let’s get on board!