Have you ever dreaded or procrastinated on an important task because you thought it would be difficult, but when you got around to it, you were pleasantly surprised at how easy and painless it was?
Maybe you’re in the procrastination phase and feeling unsure about taking the plunge to apply people analytics, despite being sold on the potential value to your business. You might hesitate because case studies by large global giants like Google, Microsoft, and others create an impossible benchmark against which you think you will be measured and found wanting. Unlike you, they have huge budgets and seemingly limitless resources at their disposal.
What if I told you it’s not as difficult as you think? The industry has grown so much in the past two years alone that it’s easier for companies to succeed by learning from and avoiding the pitfalls of their predecessors.
The primary challenges that make people analytics appear difficult are the investment and the technology. Let’s address these two common concerns.
Any investment in any aspect of your business should be measured against the ROI. People analytics initiatives pay for themselves many times over by producing an ROI that more than justifies the financial outlay. This is because the value of people analytics does not lie in the HR function alone. It impacts the whole organization.
Ways people analytics can deliver a strong ROI include:
Protect and maximize your ROI by carefully following recommended best practices in the right way for the right reasons. This way, you stand a better chance of avoiding missteps that can have disastrous effects on organizational performance.
Don’t handicap yourself from the get-go by taking up people analytics for the wrong reasons—say, because you want to upgrade your HR technology and it seems like the next logical step.
Don’t be a leader who is more concerned with replacing existing tools than providing evidence-based answers to those weighty questions on the minds of business leaders. The correct mindset is that people analytics is NOT a strategic initiative in and of itself. Instead, it is a solution that your organization can use to address critical challenges.
Don’t invest in the solution until you know what critical business issues must be tackled. Identifying the central questions you want people analytics to answer will lessen your chances of costly mistakes by ensuring the function is aligned with your business goals.
You may think you can’t afford to adopt people analytics, but in reality, you can’t afford to not do it.
It’s a universal truth that change is the only constant.
Unfortunately, humans are naturally resistant to change. Luckily, we are also pretty good at adapting to just about anything.
For your business to thrive long-term in a highly competitive landscape, you must adapt to the changing demands of the environment.
The pandemic has shown how crucial it is to be agile, willing, and able to identify what no longer works for your organization so it can be replaced or updated. Business continuity depends on it.
Regardless of the magnitude of the change, the secret sauce lies in the implementation. You are not only introducing new technology and processes. You are also creating a data-driven culture.
This transition should begin with preparing employees.
The next step is to provide continuous support and consultation for employees so the transition becomes a team effort, instead of a change that is imposed upon them.
Regular communication is vital to remind employees of the value data-informed decision-making adds to their individual and team performance (and the business as a whole).
Regular updates on milestones also promote inclusion. Done right, change management does not have to be a pain. On the contrary, it can win you market share in the long term.
More than anything, the success of your data strategy relies on the support and sponsorship of your leaders to see the greatest ROI possible. Someone at the highest level must drive the adoption and evangelization of this strategy.
This effort should also cast as wide a net as possible to get all employees on board with actively using data to enhance their work, performance, and decision-making.
Finally, if yours is a smaller company, you may be concerned that you lack the bandwidth for an analytics program.
No problem! Cloud-based SaaS solutions are the go-to for SMBs that lack the time, in-house expertise, and infrastructure to analyze their own data. This is also the most affordable way to go since there are no maintenance or installation fees with the subscription-based service. Best of all, your upgradeable package is customized to suit the specific needs and challenges of your business.
Choosing the right vendor partner can make all the difference in making the process smooth and comprehensible.
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