How to build out a robust set of strategic and operational metrics to drive powerful insights for impactful decisions.

Starting your People Analytics journey can be a challenge for any organization who are new in this area. You do not need to set a comprehensive list of metrics and reports published in a management dashboard to be successful. This exercise required much effort, from data collections to calculations and creative distributions, to make leadership informed. Your leadership loves data; they enjoy consuming information to make more and better-informed decisions. Therefore, they are also busy leading the business to sustain, differentiate and win in the competitive marketplace.

This brief article introduces our approach to building out a set of metrics that your top leaders and key influencers will adopt and embed in their short- and long-term decisions. The volume is not essential; the relevance is.

Step 1: Source and validate your key drivers

The first step before selecting your metrics is by understanding your business. This seems evident and straightforward, but it is imperative to master your business drivers from multiple sources. Considering relevance over volume, the more you have sources of information, the more your investment in metrics will be adopted and meaningful for your business, even with a small number.

Some key driver examples:

• Company Strategy
  Your business already has a North Star, it’s mandatory to understand it and to articulate on how the HR/Peoples function can have a positive impact to it success.
• Market Trends & Benchmark
  The abundance of easily accessible social media articles and research is an unlimited source of information. These sources of information may not always be relevant to your business, or you may only have access to a preliminary view promoting a solution or a service. They exist because leading organizations have asked these questions before, using them to drive their strategy. Without details, use it to stimulate your curiosity and influence you by questioning your context.
• Insight Discoveries
  If you already have a long list of metrics and statistics, this is the time to use it. Pay attention to variations over time; if possible, compare your results again your industry benchmark. Finally, identify the insights that may impact your business to achieve its goals.
• Leadership Observations
  Do not underestimate your leadership perceptions and concerns. They deal with pressure points and challenges all day long. They have ambitious goals to achieve, and any disruptive elements may impact their plans. Your HR Partners representatives are very close to them, and with this close relationship comes an opportunity to collect people-related observations. Compile these observations, articulate them as potential impact, and validate and confirm with your leadership team.

Step 2: Define your metrics supported by your HR practices and related processes

Now that you better understand your business and collect valuable information from your key drivers, it’s time to define your metrics.

An efficient approach is categorizing your metrics into 3 Tiers. This approach is not meant for distribution rather than making sure your most critical metrics supporting your business strategy are driven and influenced by tactical and operational ones. To be valuable, a metric must be insightful and actionable over time. Considering these fundamental elements, all levels of your organization are vital contributors and play pivotal roles in the success of your results, from bottom-up to top-down.

This linkage and alignment are essential, and again, all players are necessary at all levels. No long-term surprise that your strategic metrics are not returning the targeted outcomes. Your operation teams are aligned to provide all the relevant data, and your center of expertise and delivery teams are constantly informed from insights and can take immediate actions.

We hope this short article inspired your creativity to embed this approach in your organization.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need consultancy services to build a compelling set of metrics using this approach.