The most useful analytics begin with a clear question that is relevant to the business. For example, does it pay to continue to recruit at small universities or should we stick with the big ones? This gives the analytics team…
Data, Metrics, & Analytics Archives
How Ready Are You For Europe’s Tough New Privacy Rules Coming This Month?
With Europe’s new rules on privacy scheduled to take effect May 25, companies have only a few weeks left to comply with the sweeping requirements regulating customer and employee information. The application of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation…
How We Used Analytics to Hire More A-Talent
Top performers drive a tremendous percentage of an organization’s revenue, yet finding these talented candidates proves a challenge to traditional hiring processes. But organizations using a data-driven recruitment approach find higher performing candidates and, as a bonus, get lower attrition….
Make Workforce Planning Real by Dumping Position Management
Given that people costs make up the largest chunk of the operating expenses for a typical organization, getting the workforce plan right is fundamental to good corporate fiscal health. Yet most finance departments still develop budgets for people the same…
Is Your Data Digging Turning Up Fake News?
I was reading a description of different advanced analytics methods and I felt there was something quite wrong. I had hard time putting my finger on it. Technically the descriptions were accurate, but at a more subtle level there was…
AI Is Beginning to Take On the Quality of Hire Challenge
One thing people often observe about technology is that the initial hype seems overblown, then one day the wave breaks upon us and things are moving faster than expected. Last year, when I first mentioned Ideal, a Toronto-based company offering…
Three Practices Every HR Team Needs to Adopt
An HR team can make all the difference in the internal success and versatility of a business. From hiring the most qualified talent to maintaining a strong and healthy company culture, HR reps play an integral part in thriving organizations….
How to Use Data to Improve Customer Service Performance
The relationship between increased employee engagement and a company’s revenues are strong. Multiple studies, including research from Gallup, have found that the odds of success were nearly double for those workers in the “engaged” group versus the “disengaged” and the…
Everyone’s Got HR Metrics. It’s What You Do With Them That Matters
When Google Analytics debuted in 2005, the ability to look under the hood, and see who was viewing your website (and for how long), was all at once foreign and exciting. In fact, it was so exciting there was a…
Need C-Suite Buy In? Here’s How to Get It
Imagine a world where every great HR initiative gets properly funded: Retention programs are fully backed by the C-suite, recruitment snafus are nipped in the bud before they become big problems, and even the CFO meets employee engagement initiatives with near-giddy enthusiasm. Sound like…
Does Intuition Have a Place In Analytics?
When you walk into a meeting and immediately think “this is going to be trouble” that feeling is not based on objective, measurable factors; it’s intuition. As analysts who are trying to shift from a world of opinion to a…
6 Steps for Making Smart Decisions With Wearables Data
Several years ago, data gathered from sociometric badges (wearable devices equipped with sensors) revealed something interesting about the Bank of America’s call center employees: Those with the fastest “average call handling time” were also the most social. The company then…
Make Sure There’s a Business Purpose Before You Jump
It may be true that the average line manager is more data-savvy than the average HR manager, but that doesn’t mean they have a clue about how to approach people analytics. The fact that they may think they do only…
Which Comes First: Management or Analytics Software?
Since time immemorial, human beings have puzzled over, and been fascinated by dualities: yin and yang, thought and action, strategy and execution. As CEO of Visier, a company that helps business leaders use data to answer critical questions, the dynamic that…
Are You Doing Analytics Or Just Reporting Data?
Many HR software packages include built-in analytics. This is a good thing, some data is better than no data. However, as HR gets more sophisticated, we need to move beyond accepting a vendor’s claim about built-in analytics and understand exactly…
Diversity, Interviewing, Analytics and AI are the Top Global Recruiting Trends
Each year, over the past few years, I look forward to reviewing LinkedIn’s annual recruiting trends report. The 2018 version is no different! It’s 60 pages of insight and case studies, and really digs into the hottest trends in recruiting…
How Analytics Are Like Windshield Wipers
Imagine you’re driving a Ferrari. You’re going really fast, cruising up and down mountain passes, with nothing in your way. Then it starts to rain. The only problem with your Ferrari is that you don’t have windshield wipers, so you…
Don’t Let Analytics Replace Good Judgement
When a sports writer asked hockey coach Mike Babcock about a particular hockey analytic, Babcock responded, “We don’t know if any of it’s true.” What did he mean by that? The analytic in question was the Corsi statistic, and it…
Hiring Insights From a CEO Who Places Non-Traditional Workers
Parallel Travel is a rapidly-growing San Francisco Bay Area startup that works with talented local artists across the U.S. to design unique experiences at vacation rentals. It’s an exciting place to work, with the frenzied nature of startup life and…
5 Steps for Linking Employee Engagement to Business Outcomes
When it comes to employee engagement surveys, you don’t always get what you pay for. Consider this: Many years ago, a municipal organization I worked with in a previous role spent $150,000 on an employee engagement survey. The results were…