The Power of People Data

How the right metrics can transform a business

HR teams are sat on powerful people data that can drive change in business. This data is so powerful that it can directly impact profits, market value, market share, productivity, company reputation… you name it.

The trouble is, HR teams have often focused on metrics that simply describe how a business is performing. Or efficiency targets that only show a business’ people costs. Whilst these metrics are nice to know — they won’t always drive change or exploit the value of the department’s data.

HR teams are stuck in a data rut and it’s often because:

  • HR data is siloed
  • Teams have always reported in the same way
  • Creating meaningful metrics is really tricky

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Today, we provide two examples which show the merits of mixing multiple data sets. By looking at data in a more holistic way, we show you how to draw out more insight and impact your bottom line far easier.


RECRUITMENT EXAMPLE

Recruitment Teams often measure performance using:

  • Time to recruit per role (e.g. 10 weeks on average)
  • Cost to recruit per role/s (e.g. £2000 per employee)
  • Candidate drop-out rate (e.g. 20% drop-out from interview to join date)

Whilst these measures are important to track tactical recruitment activity, they are all short-term measures of success only…they only measure the process before joining a business.

Imagine if your recruitment teams could demonstrate that new recruits in the last two years have had:

  • 25% lower absenteeism than the average employee in their business
  • 30% higher engagement in staff surveys and learning & development activity
  • 15% higher performance ratings
  • 40% higher participation in employee benefit schemes
  • 2% attrition

These longer-term metrics would be a far better way of assessing the success of a Recruitment Team within a business. Using these metrics, the business can properly assess their recruitment strategy and processes…

  • Are you really recruiting the right people?
  • Are you driving continuous improvements in the performance and engagement of staff?
  • Are you recruiting people who stay within the business and add value?

Knowing these longer-term metrics, you can assess the success of your entire recruitment process from the copy on the job advert, to your website career pages, to your sift and selection process to the format of your interviews and all the way to your onboarding and induction process.


REWARD EXAMPLE

Reward Teams often measure performance using:

  • Workplace pension participation rate
  • Employee share plan participation rate
  • Employee benefit participation rate

Whilst these measures are important to track tactical employee benefit activity, they are all short term measures of success only…they only measure the reward part of the process.

Imagine if your Reward Teams could demonstrate that employee benefit participants have:

  • 30% lower absenteeism than the average employee in their business
  • 25% higher employee satisfaction
  • 10% higher performance ratings
  • 20% higher retention
  • 15% higher learning & development pass rates

These business-wide metrics would be a far better way of assessing the success, or not, of a Reward and Employee Benefit programme within a business. Using these metrics, the business can properly assess their reward strategy and processes…

  • Are your reward programmes really attracting, motivating & retaining your talent?
  • Are your employee benefit programmes helping you achieve your business goals?
  • Or are they counter-productive and helping you to retain under-performers?

Knowing these business-wide metrics, you can make data-informed decisions about your reward and employee benefit activities and ensure that help you to support your business goals…and they’re not just a cost for your business.


Data³ helps businesses to create meaningful HR metrics that really track performance so you can make quicker, smarter, data-driven people decisions. Can we help you recruit, develop and retain talent better?