29 Sep Three Top Tips to Unleash the Power of HR Metrics

Discover how to start using people metrics to propel your business metrics

Businesses are run by metrics because numbers are an objective, precise and reliable way of measuring success and the processes that determine it – but can numbers also be used to measure candidate attributes that will determine if they will be top performers? The answer is YES. Many leading companies are already running their hiring process by numbers to achieve better outcomes. If you’d like to start basing your own recruitment process on accurate, quantitative data so you can make better informed hiring decisions, read on.

1. Follow the thought-leaders

As an emerging field, the topic of People Analytics is all over social media. Twitter and LinkedIn are great ways to get in on the conversation, get educated and find helpful resources such as discussion boards, groups, articles and blog posts. Best of all, it’s totally free.

Here are some leading thinkers that you should search for on Twitter and LinkedIn: David Green, Jeremy Shapiro, Andrew Marritt, Mark Berry, Greta Roberts, Luk Smeyers, Michael de Graaf, Richard Rosenow, Josh Bersin, Megan Jones, Evan Sinar, Damien Delalla, People Analytics: Data-Driven HR (LinkedIn group).

If you’re not finding what you need through social media and would prefer an in-depth description of analytics and how it works all in one place, here are some comprehensive books on the subject: Keeping Up with The Quants by Tom Davenport, and HR Analytics: The what, why and how by Tracey Smith.

2. Amp up the analytics capabilities of your HR team

If you’ve been staffing your HR department with great people persons who are confounded by numbers, it’s going to be difficult to apply analytics in your organisation. Therefore, it is imperative to start adding people to your team who possess the necessary skills to analyse data and present it in an interesting way. Key skills to look for include: statistical and consulting abilities, storytelling, data science and management, as well as strong leadership.

3. Get a strategy together

Analytics not only enhance HR practices, but also enhance business productivity. By identifying business objectives first, the human factors which affect these can be addressed. For this reason, it is imperative that you know your business and its areas that need improvement. Things like productivity, product quality, communications, customer retention, and so on, could potentially be areas which need to be developed. If you work backwards by first identifying the issues within the business, then look for people who possess the necessary skills and qualities to improve these areas, you can easily find the right person for the job through using analytics. In other words, analytics are great, but they need to be used effectively so that they can properly benefit your company.

In short, by improving your knowledge about People Analytics, enhancing your HR team’s analytics capabilities and understanding how human metrics can affect business metrics, you can soon be on the road to using analytics to drive your business to success!