Talent Analytics and Big Data

in partnership with
Research report
November 2013
Talent analytics and big data

the challenge for HR
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Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR
Contents
Executive summary
Introduction 3
1 Silos: whats getting in the way?
2 Skills: rocket scientists or aligned analysts?
10
3 Big data: a big ask for HR?
13
4 Suspicion and scepticism about data and evidence
16
5 Strategies and solutions
21
Conclusion 24
References 25
Acknowledgements
The CIPD wishes to thank all organisations that participated in our research, both indirectly through providing us
with data from our HR and L&D surveys and directly from the organisations we were able to profile. Those who
attended our engagement events including our July forum event and our Google hangout on September 20
also contributed, as did participants at the City HR forum. Thanks are due to Oracle especially Andy Campbell,
HCM Strategy Director, and his marketing colleague Saurabh Rastogi for sponsoring this key area of research.
Wed also like to thank the various thought leaders who have shared their insight.
1 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR
Executive summary
Talent analytics and big data are
now must-have capabilities in HR.
As the business world is transformed
by the sheer volume, speed and
availability of data, and as the search
for competitive advantage intensifies,
data about people and performance
becomes ever more critical. Much
has been written on the issue of
talent analytics, but most of this
debate has focused around three key
dimensions:
organisations embarking on the

talent analytics journey, we are
able to shed some light on this
question. Generally, the capacity
and engagement for analytics and
big data is affected by three key
dimensions:
Technology
What systems, processes and
infrastructure drive data and talent
analytics? What platforms are
being used and how can we use
systems such as Oracle, Hadoop
and the like to develop a coherent
data strategy?
Silos
Silos are the structural and systems
obstacles to timely and efficient
access to data and the ability to
use and share it. This is caused by
a combination of structural barriers
within both HR and the business
which impede the sharing of data.
The system silos are those pertaining
to infrastructure around data
analysis with issues such as systems
incompatibility, security and hosting
concerns, and IT skills issues.
Techniques
How should we develop an approach
to talent analytics? How should we
define, store and share data? How
should it be analysed? This aspect
covers everything from defining
employee turnover to predicting
patterns of employee behaviour.
Skills and smarts

This includes the essential capability
to define, analyse and model people
analytics essential to a data-driven
approach. This involves deciding
whether to make or buy capability,
what kinds of capability are required
and how it is developed.
Talent
Who should deliver our analytics
capability? Should we develop new
talent pools and, if so, what types?
How do we recruit the scarce
talent to resource this growing
capability need?
Suspicion and scepticism

These are the cultural and
professional obstacles to
integrating and embedding an
analytical approach within HR.
This includes the biases and beliefs
around intuition and expertise
within HR, and feeling that data
might reduce human beings to
units of measurement. Its also
bound up with the skills and
capability issue.
There seems to be less focus on

what is actually happening. What
is the appetite on the ground for
talent analytics and big data? What
are the barriers and enablers to
developing this capability and what
is happening within organisations?
Using our extensive research on
the state of practice in the HR
profession and key interviews with
In order to help HR develop a

coherent approach we develop
some strategies and solutions
around balancing the strategic and
tactical requirements of developing
a data-driven strategy.
Solutions
Strategic
Our survey research shows that
these are considerable challenges,
but practice we discovered among
organisations undertaking the
challenge shows that there are
solutions. These are based on
developing a strategic and tactical
mindset which:

develops analytics as a continuous

improvement strategy
puts people analytics at the
centre of business priorities
accelerates the requirement for
analytic bandwidth up the HR
capability agenda.
Tactical
Identify and promote the skills
necessary as part of the overall
HR talent and capability agenda.
Source more key talent from
subjects such as occupational
psychology, economics and other
social sciences to supplement
the normal reliance on natural
scientists and engineers.
Develop aligned analysts who
understand and connect with
the people agenda and are
capable of translating data into
actionable insight.
Finally, by looking at the emerging
state of practice, both through our
survey research and by interviewing
practitioners, the CIPD and Oracle
have put the analytics challenge
at the centre of HR, adding to the
excellent insight already developed
by leading consultancies, academics
and HR networks such as the City
HR Association. We recognise that
the challenge is to get value from
analytics. And we hope this report
will bring value to those seeking to
engage with this crucial agenda.
Introduction
You wont go far these days
without someone analysing your
data. Whether its a supermarket
using your passion for chocolate
or driving magazines to make
sure you pick one up on your
next order or a council wanting
to improve its understanding of
its citizen base through surveys,
everyone wants to analyse you.
Many of the organisations we work
in operate on the principles of
advanced analytics. For example,
banks generate a whole array of
data about where people live,
their credit history and spending
patterns, as well as lifestyle
decisions such as birth, marriage
and death. Similarly, companies
in the retail sector use predictive
analytics to estimate how to stock
up on sausages for a barbecue
weekend and how to upskill their
staff to sell the latest smartphone.
The idea of data as a business
prediction tool is not new or novel,
but the intensity and sophistication
with which its now being used is
quite new. Business departments
such as marketing and logistics
and specialised agencies operating
in many different sectors from
healthcare to education pore over
metrics and data trying to sort and

categorise what it shows. Data
is everywhere and its volume has
recently been supersized by the
rise of big data with its volume,
velocity and variety (McAfee and
Brynjolffson 2012).
We would add a further V that of
value. In other words, what is the
value of data to the organisation?
The evidence suggests that it is
potentially limitless. Mining the
data for insights and combing it for
connections is a critical opportunity
for HR and L&D (see Manyika et
al 2011). Big data is essential to
HR and L&D because it allows the
conversations and connections
which have tended to be in the
realm of the immeasurable to
be captured and leveraged. It
allows us to build a compelling
case of interventions, for example
when we are proposing change
and transformation. It gives us a
new set of insights, around the
deep and complex organisational
issues such as culture, change
and learning, and it helps us
to optimise the way in which
we deliver and monitor the
transactional elements of HR.
Big data is
essential to HR
and L&D because
it allows the
conversations
and connections
which have
tended to be in
the realm of the
immeasurable to
be captured and
leveraged.
Figure 1: Gartners three Vs of big data
Faster data at higher

speeds than ever before,
even in remote locations.
Real-time data.
Variety
Every second more data

crosses the Web than was
present across the whole
Internet in 1993. Cloud
offers massive increase in
storage.
Velocity
Volume
Clear and present challenge: big data

More data on more
aspects of life and work
on a greater range of
devices and channels,
from smartphones to
embedded chips.
...there is still a
significant gap
in our ability as
HR professionals
to be datadriven and
evidence-based
in our decisions.
However, the evidence suggests

that HR may be less ready than
it needs to be in order to take
advantage of that opportunity.
For example, there is still a
significant gap in our ability as HR
professionals to be data-driven and
evidence-based in our decisions
(for example, our HR Outlook
data for winter 201213 indicate
that while 63% of HR leaders
think they draw insight from data,
only about a fifth of their non-HR
business counterparts share that
confidence). For many reasons
our skill sets tend towards the
less analytical side of the skills
divide. We have both valued and
felt more comfortable with the
ability to interpret ambiguity and
context, interpreting the shifting
cultures of organisations and
the interactions of their people
(see Pfeffer and Sutton 2006).

Professor John Boudreau, a leading
US-based advocate of a more
analytical HR function, sees HRs
inability to step out of service
delivery towards a decision science
approach as being about skills
and behaviours. Boudreau believes
that the flakiness and variety of
approaches to measurement in HR
can be contrasted with the rigorous
consistency of areas such as finance
and logistics and even marketing.
HR, he argues, does not adopt a
decision science framework, with
an absence of logical data and
evidence-based decision-making
across the profession (Boudreau
and Ramstad 2007).
Lets be clear there is real value
in these skills and the insights
around people and they are valued
Figure 2: HR draws insight from data to stimulate change and improvement in the
organisation (% agreeing)
HR leaders
63%
Business leaders
21%
Source: CIPD HR Outlook winter 201213, A variety

of leader perspectives. Appendix; survey results.
Base: HR Leaders: 107; Business leaders: 369
by leaders. However, without the

ability to have disciplined data and
consistent analysis, such insight
becomes marginalised.
HR has a long way to go to alter
these perceptions of a lack of
engagement and aptitude for
analytics. However, as we will
explain, this isnt necessarily
attributable to a lack of enthusiasm
and commitment. Significant
barriers exist to HRs ability to both
explore and exploit talent analytics
and big data for value-adding
people insight.
In addition to the absence of
consistent data, another argument
as to why HR do not adopt a
decision science and human capital
focus concerns a perceived lack
of skills within HR to analyse the
data. Many HR people are reluctant
to engage with numbers or are
passive towards them. Indeed,
developing the ability to use data
to inform organisational decisions
was identified by HR leaders as
a priority area for building HR
capability, according to the CIPD HR
Outlook survey cited above.
Where HR people do use metrics
they tend to rely on tried and
trusted metrics generally around
the workforce size, how it gets paid
and how it learns. These numbers
are often generated by HR and
are specific to HR. Boudreau and
Jesuthasan (2011) suggest that this
need for a home-grown specific
solution creates a lack of reliability
and inconsistency in data itself.
Separately, these HR-specific
measures tend to focus on past
performance. How many people
have we employed and how much
do they earn? What numbers have
been trained in the last year and
how much time did it take? How

many people left last year and
what are the associated ratios? This
kind of approach tends to build a
rear-view mirror mindset. It distracts
and constrains us, just as a driver
focusing on the rear-view is unable
to see an opportunity to overtake
and could be in danger from
oncoming traffic. Vance Kearney
of Oracle is clear on the danger of
being backward-focused:
Looking for talent market
intelligence is a big part of my job
and, I suggest, every capable HRD.
Yet we are still doing salary surveys
to drive those benchmarks. It is
the bluntest possible approach.
Do we ask: are the job matches
correct, do they capture the
emerging trends?
Many HR people
are reluctant
to engage with
numbers or are
passive towards
them.
Kearney certainly does not believe

that we do operate in this forwardfocused manner.
Figure 3: HR links its data to business
and financial data (%)
60
50
48
40
30
29
23
20
10
Agree
Neither
Disagree
Source: HR Outlook autumn 2013, Survey data.
The promise of
talent analytics
and big data
is that they
almost certainly
will move HR
forward in terms
of analysis and
insight.
A PWC survey (2012) shows how

CEOs and business unit leaders
value the people metrics around
talent, retention, succession,
productivity, and so on, at about
70% in terms of importance. But,
they believe these are delivered
consistently only about one-quarter
of the time.
The promise of talent analytics
and big data is that they almost
certainly will move HR forward
in terms of analysis and insight.
As Figure 3 shows, only half of
senior HR leaders actually think
they link their data to key business
and financial data. So there is a
long way to go. The possibilities
in linking different data sources
together to generate actionable
insights will be perhaps the biggest
challenge and opportunity for HR
in decades to come. This is why the
CIPD, in collaboration with Oracle,
is exploring in this current research
exactly how we can build our

capability within HR to be driven
by analytics and to exploit the full
potential of data to deliver insight
around people and performance.
Our research has included
interviews with individuals from ten
different organisations, survey data
from two time periods and a review
of the extensive literature. This
has confirmed that talent analytics
and the big data revolution have
the potential to propel HR into
the future. However, in reality the
ability to be forward-focused with a
data- and evidence-driven approach
is constrained by several issues.
In this report we address each of
these issues in depth, providing
suggestions and solutions where
appropriate. The issues are outlined
in Figure 4 below.
We begin by looking at silos.
Figure 4: The three Ss of talent analytics and big data in HR
Silos
Skills
Suspicion
Structural and system

obstacles to HRs and
others effective and
consistent use of data
which can enable or
impede a data-driven
HR strategy.
The extent of analytical

skills, smarts and talent
which helps support a
data-driven HR strategy.
Mindsets and cultures

around data and its role
in HR which can help or
hinder a data-driven HR
strategy.
1 Silos: whats getting in the way?

When organisations seek to
develop a talent analytics
perspective, they face a number
of issues. The first and foremost is
whether they can put their hands
on the data they need: data that
is systematic, reliable and defined.
This exercise needs involvement of
a number of different key players.
As a recent report by Bersin (2012)
highlights, this data generally falls
into three categories:
people data, such as
demographics, skills, reward,
engagement, and so on
programme data, such
as attendance, adoption,
participation in programmes
ranging from training and
development and leadership

programmes to talent
management and key projects
and assignments
performance data
performance ratings and data
captured from the use of
instruments such as 360, goal
attainment, talent, succession
programmes and talent and
assessment.
The problem is that this data is
often diffuse and difficult to access.
This is often because of what we
term silos. Figure 5 highlights the
two different types of silos that
exist: structures and systems.
Structural silos
The first of these silos are
structural: in other words,
Figure 5: HR, talent analytics and big data: silos
Structures
Systems
HR compartments
Incompatible technology
Business unit isolation
Permission problems
Projects and programmes
IT skills issues
Legacy systems
structural barriers between HR

functions and the relevant people
and performance operations.
Some examples of the ways to
break down these specific silos
are described by one analyst close
to the issue in a major energy
company.
Liam Bennett-Murray, HR analyst
from EDF Energy, explains:
At the moment our data is held
within different areas. The majority
of it is extracted from SAP into
Excel and we use basic charts and
tables to look at the summary
data. We do monthly reporting and
I am doing a lot bringing that back
into the central employee function
to look at that data. The issue with
this data is getting the most useful
information from it to provide the
business insight desired.
Within HR teams there is often
a solid separation between HR
functions and a lack of productive
collaboration. For example, learning
often operates in a silo of its own, as
does reward. In larger organisations,
areas such as performance
management and engagement act
as cross-cutting functions that can
erode the barriers. However, data
silos are common and often each
individual HR compartment will have
its own stock of data. Active sharing
is important and access to data is a
great reason for collaborating. The
opportunity for this is shown below
in data taken from our autumn 2013
HR Outlook survey. Senior HR leaders
surveyed in our panel said its not
clear that data produced in different
HR silos is being actively integrated.
Within HR teams
there is often a
solid separation
between HR
functions and a
lack of productive
collaboration.
This problem is amplified when

separate HR teams are operating
across business units. In a major retail
organisation or in large banking
and financial operations, data often
becomes the glue which bonds
together the wider mission and
purpose.
This problem can become even
more granular in programmes and
projects, which can be quite large
and which have their own reporting
requirements according to the
programme management criteria.
The solution is to share data and turn
it into usable insight as a decisionmaking/business improvement tool.
The question of dashboards and
scoreboards came up frequently in
this regard in our research:
Yes, we are using data more to get
insight; the analysts arent the only
people who can use that insight.
We have a talent dashboard and we
have a really good set of indicators
and get more out of that (an HR
manager at an asset management
firm).
So we can see at least three
levels of structural silo in terms
of the functional boundaries
within HR itself, especially in
larger organisations, the lack of
integrated people and performance
data approaches across business

units, and the problem of a shared
data approach across projects and
programmes. This is compounded
by management structures,
organisation charts and reporting
lines, all of which disrupt the free
flow of data, spoiling an effective
analytics approach.
The particular problem of
learning data
Learning analytics should provide a
great deal of insight into how people
become more effective and more
productive. Presumably when people
learn new things they change and
adapt. It should be straightforward
to prove that impact. Yet learning
analytics are for the most part in
suspended animation, focused
as they are on proving internal
efficiency of delivery and seldom, if
ever, able to demonstrate business
value. Our 2013 Learning and Talent
Development survey canvassed the
view of L&D practitioners on how
they used data around learning,
with some interesting results. The
numbers vary according to the
different sizes of organisation,
as described below in Table 1.
Smaller organisations are much less
likely to agree that it is a problem
across a range of issues. However,
skills to analyse and manipulate
data are more common in larger
organisations.
Table 1: Difficulties encountered in analysing learning and development data (by organisation size) (%)
Small and medium
<50 and 50249
Medium/
large 250999
Large/very large
1,0004,999 and
>5,000
Managers and leaders dont prioritise.
45/61
68
67/69
Its difficult to access the data consistently in our organisation.
43/57
52
66/65
We dont really have the skill internally to develop these metrics.
46/53
45
37/37
Business information from other departments such as finance

and marketing isnt always easy to access.
23/27
28
37/44
There is no consistent standard we can aim for.
34/32
31
30/37
We have difficulty accessing timely data from our available

systems.
22/24
36
34/36
Source: CIPD Learning and Talent Development survey 2013 (sample size: 1,004; base: 742)
Systems silos
The other type of silo can be
described as systems silos in
other words, having systems
which are incompatible and poorly
integrated. Many organisations
operate with either hybrid data
systems or have linked systems
together inappropriately. This can
lead to systems which cant talk to
each other.
Separately, concerns about data
security can also cause silos.
Sometimes the smooth flow of
access is impeded by permission
problems which plague everything
from social media access to critical
information. Its understandable
in a business world nervous about
hacking and security concerns, but
sometimes these obstacles can stifle
the collaborative approaches needed.
Generally for talent analytics to take
off and for big data to be harvested,
the approach needs robust but
permissive security. Restricting access
to just a few limits insight. Solutions
already exist to help overcome these
problems in many of the integrated
human capital management
programmes available.
IT and database skills issues can
also get in the way, with the ability
to use database query languages
and an ability to programme often
prerequisite to run some fairly basic
data enquiries. This can provide
skills problems often requiring the
resourcing of extra capability. Linked
to this are the legacy systems issues
and the systems transition problems
evident when organisations
inherit older systems and need to
integrate and use them alongside
newer technology. Coupled with
that challenge is the transition
from one system to another, such
as the migration from SAS to
Oracle and vice versa. Many of our
organisations were going through
this difficult migration challenge as
we conducted our research.
For whatever reason the systems

silos arise, they need to be tackled.
Some examples of how this can be
done include:

having integrated HR and IT

systems which allow the data
to be stored consistently and
allow everyone who needs and
warrants access to the data to be
able to do so with appropriate
safeguards for integrity
choosing the appropriate
software and tools for analysis,
allocating permissions/access
for all who need them; these
tools should also be integrated
with wider systems for both
HR and general management
information systems.
There is evidence from our research
demonstrating that if these systematic
approaches are undertaken, silos
relating to sharing data and evidence
can be broken down.
Our research emphasises the
importance of having a level
of senior sponsorship and a
commitment to drive the talent
analytics and big data initiative with
a systematic programme-managed
focus which helps to address the
issue of silos. This sounds selfevident but is something many of
our case studies reflected they could
have done better and/or sooner.
link people data to business data.

When we do that we can bring in a
real analytics approach.
Similarly, an HR manager at an asset
management firm explains:
You cant just introduce talent
analytics like a normal project
because you are messing about
with data which everyone relies
upon so you have to make sure
everyone is on the same page
before you can move forward.
So within systems silos are a
whole range of issues. These can
sap the will of HR practitioners
and others to persist with the
analytical transformation required.
Overcoming such obstacles requires
both focus and persistence, in
particular high-level ownership
of the problem and a systematic
approach to it.
Having looked at silos, we now
move on to consider the second
challenge area weve identified:
skills. Arguably, having the right
skills at the right time and ensuring
that the capability exists to service
an analytical approach is within
HRs zone of expertise. We will find
out exactly how HR is tackling this
challenge in the next section.
Peter Turner of Ricoh considers how

he sought to build a talent analytics
approach. Reflecting on how
systems silos deflect Ricoh from
analysing big data, he explains:
In fact we have a big data
approach but dont use it in the
people analytics. We are not really
employing it; we dont have an
HCM [human capital management]
model and thats even before we
talk about analytics. We need to
get this data platform in place and
get that into a common format and
2 Skills: rocket scientists or aligned

analysts?
...there is a
long-standing
perception
both within
and outside of
HR that people
within the
function do not
have enough of
the analytical
skills needed
to develop
a coherent
and credible
approach to
analytics.
The skills to take full advantage

of the talent analytics and big
data opportunity are a hot issue
currently. As we discussed earlier
in respect of the work of Pfeffer
and Boudreau, and in our HR
Outlook data, there is a longstanding perception both within
and outside of HR that people
within the function do not have
enough of the analytical skills
needed to develop a coherent and
credible approach to analytics. This
is attributed to the fact that many
HR professionals lack a consistent
training in data and analytics, feel
less comfortable with numbers and
data and have a bias towards more
qualitative approaches. There is
also a continuing tension between
leaders seeking richer insight about
people and culture (something

which, as we shall see, is resolvable
through analytic approaches) versus
solving business challenges. Talent
analytics is more usually associated
with solving business challenges,
whereas HR can rely on their
intuition and inductive reasoning
skills to address the former, without
the need to use analytics.
Peter Turner of Ricoh explains it as
follows:
The challenge for HR is that
analytical people dont live in HR.
HR people are better at managing
ambiguity than analysis. The
challenge is to bring in more
business-like people who have that
approach.
Figure 6: Skills and smarts in talent analytics and big data for HR
Make and migrate
Buy in and build
Tap existing analytical

capability across the
organisation.
Hire analyst talent and

encourage early involvement
in key programmes.
Build out skills from initial

talent pool.
Integrate and align

capability to business
objectives and align with HR
team.
Develop centres of expertise

with direct engagement in
HR teams.
Source integrated platforms

and technological solutions
to help translate and
transform.
The key issue for HR is how to

develop these skills within the HR
function. Figure 6 shows that there
are two principal strategies that
can be adopted for this. We outline
each of these below.
Make and migrate
Make and migrate is the
improvisational early-stage
approach where organisations seek
to find a few analytical individuals
within the existing HR team or
wider business. For example,
these individuals are most likely
to come from a reward or
workforce planning background,
or might be business analysts
tasked with tracking sales and
market opportunities in, say, the
marketing function. They tend to
be analytical and used to dealing
with numbers, and some have
advanced skills, for example using
spreadsheets and databases and
possibly writing queries and coding
programmes.
Building out capability from this
initial talent pool is a feasible next
step as the demand for goodquality data analysis and actionable
insights will grow. This is an
opportunity to exploit and explore
talent, to ensure that recruitment
and talent planning are aligned
to the need, to build links and
connections with key players and
for lead analysts to tap expert

knowledge and insight.
This can then lead to a small
centre of expertise which can help
build the skills elsewhere. Skills,
however, require smarts on behalf
of the users of data, whether
or not they generate it. So the
ability to understand key issues
around how data links to business
improvement and a readiness with
questions and queries can help the
in-house team go further. Being
passive recipients of data isnt a
viable approach even at this level
for HR professionals.
For a smaller organisation or
business unit, make and migrate
is an adequate response to building
the core analytics capability. Initially,
such individuals can be working
part-time on the analytics issues
while still providing the reward
or business analysis, but there
comes a tipping point where the
organisation notices the growing
value and migrates the individuals
over into a dedicated analytics team.
This then becomes the core around
which capability is shaped. Peter
Turner of Ricoh reflects on how his
organisation is building its capability:
Building from where we are at the
moment from having an integrated
HR information systems approach
(HRIS) and then employing an

analyst and eventually employing
heavy-hitting analysts who are
using mathematical and modelling
approaches with patterns in space
as their focus. Looking at how
we can link the HR info and the
pattern, seeking and identifying
patterns between customer people
and competitor data, thats where
we want to get to.
It may well be the case that, as
in Ricoh, the capability has to be
grown from within, usually with the
appointment of a senior analytics
adviser/consultant, who then
develops the capability required.
Buy in and build
In some organisations analytics
capability needs to be launched
fast. This may be because the
business drivers for people and
performance data have become
more acute or because a senior
executive puts a renewed priority
on the issue. It could simply
be because existing capability
has not been able to fulfil the
need. Sometimes its due to an
organisational shock, where
exposure of inadequate data
insight has been identified as an
issue in competitive disadvantage,
or in local authority and NHS
reorganisations, where failings
in the central operation of the
Patient and employees in the NHS: The critical care link

To really access the insight,
however, HR has to be prepared
to look beyond internal resource
and collaborate with external
experts whose high-level research
can provide real insight. An
example of the compelling (and
sobering) impact of big data and
how it adds new light to the
indispensable nature of good
people management is the work
of Michael West and his team
at Lancaster University. Extensive
analysis of the data over ten years

shows that employee experience
of the workplace is a strong
predictor of better patient care
and lower mortality.
West has been charting the link
between staff engagement and
performance and patient mortality
in a wide range of NHS hospitals.
Patient perceptions of being poorly
and insensitively treated rise in
tandem with survey evidence that
staff feel harried, undermined

and disengaged. His work also
reveals a fascinating insight into
the functioning of teams with
wider insights for people and
performance. Teams which operate
as pseudo teams are inefficient
in a patient care context. Only
properly coherent teams where
members really connect and
collaborate have a positive impact
on patient care, resulting in lower
rates of clinical error and injury.
organisation have been attributed

partly to poor data and evidence
on people and performance. This
can start off with the appointment
of highly qualified analysts/
modellers, or the use of external
consultants with these skills. That
can mean a more tactical approach
to capability which may fit with the
urgent business need. Generally,
these individuals are from natural
science backgrounds and are known
as data scientists. As HR starts to
get access to good data that can
be used to develop real insight
to support the organisation, this
can be the catalyst to establish a
dedicated team.
As the capability starts to build,
the organisation will need
to think about developing a
coherent strategy to consolidate
the approach, although our case
studies suggest this often happens
in an emergent way. Sometimes for
good reasons people insight has
been integrated with marketing
and finance data simply because
these areas are where the analytical
skills reside. However, as the scale
and the possibilities of people
analytics become apparent, there

is a move towards alignment and
integration with HR.
Julian Alzueta from Telefonica
describes their approach:
We have a centralised analytics
team that works exclusively on
analytics and BI reporting for
Telefonica Europe. We work closely
with the operating businesses and
with the business to understand
their needs and requirements. We
are very approachable and projects
can be started very quickly.
This focus on building capability for
analytics can mean that inevitably
the demand goes up, as managers
seek new data and insight. The
analytical teams need to be
organised in how they respond as
they can end up being drawn into
tactical fire-fighting solutions and
taking less of the long-term view
that Telefonica and Ricoh have
taken, for example.
and other data solutions. The move

towards a specific HR approach can
mean migrating technology skills as
well. Then the ability to resource key
talent with ability to programme and
code systems and to support them
is another key consideration of the
skills and smarts dimension.
Many leading consultancies
are recognising this tension
between the strategic and tactical
development of analytics capability
within HR and are providing
guidance and insight on how to
develop that. The Bersin by Deloitte
approach is typical.
Having looked in Part 1 at the silos
and at how HR develops the key
skills and smarts of analysis and
insight, in Part 2 this has been very
much around the current ground
of metrics and analytics. Big data
has become a buzzword around HR
and other business functions; this is
another challenge which HR faces.
We discuss why in Part 3.
This can mean a need for better

technology or for a new approach
to HR information systems (HRIS)
The Bersin approach to building skills

This gradual build-up of analytical
capability is in line with the advice
from the Bersin research report.
They suggest developing a fourlevel approach, with the first level
devoted to developing junior
analysts capability focused on
defining metrics and ensuring
that the key data is cleaned and
collated. That also requires the
development of a data dictionary.
This is the reactive stage or

operational reporting element.
Second is the advanced reporting
function, where key HR information
is linked to business objectives and
comparative data with competitors,
trends and visualisation through
dashboards and presentations. The
ability to persuade and convince
senior levels is key here. The next
level is the strategic analytics
working on understanding
issues such as segmentation and
optimisation of talent. This requires
deep modelling and statistical tools.
Finally, the pinnacle of capability is
defined as the advanced analytics
and predictive skills the ability
to model scenarios, account for
and forecast risks and design
predictive programmes and models
such as algorithms.
3 Big data: a big ask for HR?

Big data
The issue of big data and HR has
caught fire recently with a welter
of reports, books and commentary.
Generally it is felt that HR data will
be revolutionised by big data. A
report by information consultants
Gartner (Laney 2001) published a
decade ago described the challenge
of big data in terms of three Vs.
A recent Harvard Business Review
article (McAfee and Brynjolffson
2012) revisited them. The Vs of
volume, velocity and variety are
indicated below in Figure 7. These
dimensions can be put very simply
as:

crossed the entire Internet just

two decades ago, for example,
and 2.5 of these monster data
streams are created every day.
Cloud computing a fairly recent
phenomenon allied with smart
devices means that if data can be
collected, it can be analysed and,
more importantly, visualised and
storified.
There is much more data around

and its volume is expanding.
Its getting faster and spreading
everywhere.
Its available through more
channels and on more devices
than ever before.
Volume is the sheer size of data
transiting across systems taken
from every conceivable channel
and waiting to be analysed. The
unit of measurement has become
mind-boggling. Just 1 petabyte
accounts for more data than
HRs use of big data, however, is

very much in its infancy. Less than
a third of HR leaders use big data
to look at key trends. Nearly half
do not use big data, and about
a fifth are neutral about it. We
can assume that about two-thirds
either dont have a strategy on big
data or are not thinking seriously
about it.
The issue of
big data and
HR has caught
fire recently
with a welter of
reports, books and
commentary.
Its quite clear that HR is still in

many cases grappling with the
need to provide analytics from
the raw data that is often held
within HR departments but within
structural and system silos. This
capability takes a lot of time
to develop and we found that
many of the leading analytical
thinkers we talked to in our
research are clear that it is a
Faster data at higher

speeds than ever before,
even in remote locations.
Real-time data.
Variety
Every second more data

crosses the Web than was
present across the whole
Internet in 1993. Cloud
offers massive increase in
storage.
Velocity
Volume
Figure 7: Gartners three Vs of big data derived from McAfee and Brynjolffson
More data on more

aspects of life and work
on a greater range of
devices and channels,
from smartphones to
embedded chips.
stretch capability. Even the most

enthused analysts, such as Julian
Alzueta from Telefonica and Peter
Turner from Ricoh, are sceptical
about the extent to which HR is
grappling with big data. Even the
largest organisations are cagey
about their capacity to make
big data work in an HR context.
Data-driven companies, which
use reams of customer data to
run their businesses, are clear HR
is not yet developing a big data
mindset. Most of our informants
focus on the need to deliver trusted
and robust metrics rather than
playing with the possibilities of
big data. This is the case whether
the respondents are analysts or HR
business partners.
We detected debate amongst
the analyst community around
whether HR is generating big
enough streams of data to use
big data and predictive analytics.
Some think that the challenge is
around the nature of HR data.
With the exception of reward
data, few sources are composed
of the type of numbers which can
be crunched and mined without
extensive coding and tweaking. The
opportunity to do that is limited
by the availability of skills and
the nature of the structural and
system silos. Much more promising
is the use of unstructured data.
The massive amount of data
piping in from smart devices and
from social networking can all be
tracked, tagged and explored. The
exploration of this data is often
made easier by proprietary analytics
from major web service providers
such as Google and Facebook,
who make reports available. With
skilled manipulation, these provide
a whole new area of employee
insight. With the advancement of
textual analysis software it is now

possible to measure static data
and provide insight, but with an
additional flow of communications
the potential is huge.
Big data also promises to unleash
new insight around learning.
Learning and development has
traditionally relied upon legacy
measurement approaches such as
the Kirkpatrick evaluation method.
However, with big data and
smart technology, the potential
for a learning value chain, with
interactive assessment from
training or delivery, through
smart devices capturing interactive
learning such as conversations,
reading material, webinars, and so
on, it will be possible to measure
right down to the point of impact
and use.
There is a healthy debate about
the potential of big data in HR.
Some make big claims: Thomas
Davenport, Harvard analytics
guru, suggests that data
driven organisations are 6%
more productive and 5% more
profitable (Davenport et al 2012).
These are very big numbers if set
against revenues. An airline which
delivered increased utilisation and
therefore productivity from using
a big data solution to early arrival
is cited. Retailers who use big data
to customise offers to consumers
are also discussed. The potential is
enormous.
However, there is some scepticism
about big data among key
analytical thinkers within HR.
An HR director at a large financial
services firm is sceptical about big
data:
For me its just a buzzword

that people are using to make
themselves feel clever. Everyone
else is just wanting to get on the
bandwagon. The issue is what
kind of stuff? You dont always
need to push the envelope and
be ahead of the curve. People
misunderstand the challenge:
whats the operational talent
data? For a start you need a
clean definition of talent which
is clear. The unstructured [data]
issue is promising, but whats the
incremental value? How is it going
to drive my business in a leadingedge way? Not sure it [big data]
can add real value
One analyst at a major FMCG
has described how his team
helped to analyse a socially
networked conversation (a
company-specific form of
micro-blogging). Using analytics
and text identification software,
they were able to gauge the
mood and disposition of a key
team towards ongoing change.
They also identified leader
interaction and engagement
as absolutely critical to the
involvement of others.
For our FMCG analytics director, the
issue with what is called big data is
that its commonplace for scientists
like him:
HR data is unstructured data; the fact
that you can code people and crude
structured data is a fact. HR surveys
have some structure if you consider
the variety of the information you
could have about an employee; if
you really want a holistic view of
the employee its immense. You will
need to blend data. The data we are
using is being used in the marketing
context nothing specifically. The

data is out there. For me data exists
somewhere. The purpose of analytics
is to close the gap between data and
business needs. The most successful
data analysts are business-focused.
Its about delivering the objective.
This question of value is central
to both talent analytics and big
data. Its easy to be overwhelmed
by the hype around big data and
it is certainly a growing feature of
our lives. But the real challenge
is for HR to get value from it.
Figure 8 adapts the Gartner model
to develop some HR issues and
extends to the question of value.
The often astounding insight which
can be gained is exemplified in
global IT company Oracle, who also
sponsored this research. HR Director
Vance Kearney takes up the story
of measuring sales effectiveness
with an analytical lens:
We did an experiment with top

sales management. We asked
top leaders tell us who are your
top performers. Just tell us who
they are... if you left this business
tomorrow who would you take
with you? They came up with a
list of between 10 and 20% of
the overall sales leaders. We then
took and compared against actual
results over the last three years in
terms of meeting and exceeding
targets. The two did not correlate.
Why are they different, we asked?
We got into a lot of interesting
discussions and the data helped
us see it. People who might win
a mega sale in one year but not
the year after were seen as more
effective. On the other hand,
the sales people meeting and
exceeding the targets were ones
with smaller targets.
To gain value from HR meeting

business objectives, we need to:

tackle systems and structures

and understand that they
are a central obstacle to the
development of a data- and
evidence-driven approach to HR
develop the skills, smarts and
talent pools which help HR
exploit the promise of talent
analytics and big data
encourage collaboration and
connectedness with the idea of
data and information as a key
part of the transformational
toolkit of HR.
The third aspect has not yet been
discussed but arguably its the biggest
challenge. Its the need to overcome
some of the suspicion and scepticism
which characterises HRs approach
to analytical issues. Sometimes this
is down to skills but often it goes
deeper. We look next at these cultural
and behavioural obstacles.
More HR business
by volume and value
being done on the
Internet.
Information available
everywhere and
anywhere, and
increasingly to
everyone.
Fast, efficient, cheap
and multi-channel
means more HR can
be generated and
captured.
Greater range
of devices and
platforms.
Social media
capturing and
transmitting data.
More aspects of
life, networked
smartphones to
embedded chips,
can be used in
workplace settings.
Value
Increasing speed,
scale and scope of HR
information.
Variety
More data, both

retrospective and
real-time, is available
and can be used.
Velocity
Volume
Figure 8: The four Vs for HR
Integrate systems
and structures.
Build skills and
smarts for analysis.
Encourage
collaboration and
connectivity around
data and information.
Use data as a
transformational tool.
4 Suspicion and scepticism about data

and evidence
...no amount
of planned and
careful silosmashing or
strategic skills
development on
people analytics
will suffice if we
cannot resolve
the problem of
suspicion and
scepticism.
If, as an oft-repeated management

mantra states, culture eats strategy
for breakfast, no amount of
planned and careful silo-smashing
or strategic skills development
on people analytics will suffice if
we cannot resolve the problem
of suspicion and scepticism.
This cultural issue is a significant
impediment to HR becoming a
data-driven and analytical function.
In our Business Savvy research
(CIPD 2012) we identified four
quadrants of capability which HR
people should work on based upon
survey evidence and deep case
studies. The top two quadrants
of understanding the business
model at depth and generating

insight from data and evidence
are the two most analytical and
business-focused skills. The lower
quadrants are about understanding
organisational development, design
and politics as well as culture,
leadership, conflict and ethics. We
believe that a focus on the top
two quadrants, especially the data
and evidence aspect, should be the
most important focus. HR has to
overcome in the majority of cases
an in-built reluctance to be driven
by data.
Generally, measurement in HR has
tended to be around fairly routine
aspects. The collation of single-
Figure 9: Suspicion and scepticism in HRs approach to talent analytics and big data
Biases, beliefs,
behaviours
H
R data has been
backward-looking and
insular.
M
any have preference for
big picture and ambiguity
over analysis.
C
onflicting demands
and expectations of
organisations.
Fears
D
ata reduces and
dehumanises people to
units of analysis.
Expectations treadmill.
D
ependency on external
capability means HR could
be left behind in the skills
race.
point numbers such as turnover

and retention, the collection of
course feedback or the routine
processing of payroll are of course
necessary but have tended to be
backward-looking indicators. One
global analytics leader tells us:
We are looking to bring HR
leadership talent, learning
performance and recruitment into a
platform which we can compare. We
are also including revenue, customer
information and sales, etc. This needs
to be about solving the business
problem and not the HR problem.
We think that is not happening at
the moment. HR generally should
be forward-looking. Helping the
business find solutions to talent and
performance, strategy, learning and
reward, etc, to drive revenue and
value, right? But most of the data
we collect is backward-looking. We
can do some trending, etc, but that
doesnt take us forward. We need
information which helps do things
which add value in the future.
(Key HRD at a leading financial
services company)
HR data is generally messy, difficult

and not easy to collect. Contrast
this with the marketing professions
insight boost from customer data
allowing segmentation, targeting
and optimisation. By contrast, HR
data tends to be diffuse and, as we
explained in Part 1, much of the
data is still stored in silos.
One business partner working for
a major utility reflects on both the
pitfalls and promise of HR data:
Culturally within HR we produce
and publish metrics which arent
necessarily on the right issues.
When we get that delivered we
feel a sense of achievement, but
we dont know if the businesses
even use it. When you get some
predictive analytics and put them
out there, well, they are literally
bashing your doors down.
HR people generally prefer solving
big picture problems and working
on relationships and context. They
are comfortable with ambiguity
but less comfortable with analysis.
Quantification always has

consequence for old and trusted
ways of doing things. Leading
analyst Julian Alzueta explains the
challenge:
HR is a function that has
traditionally functioned through
intuition and, I feel, a people
analytics team brings the possibility
to communicate trends and results
with an objective approach. In
Telefonica, HR is welcoming
more and more the data-based
recommendations we provide and
the demand for these analyses is
growing. The fact that HR wants to
move into the space is good as it
complements and balances the gutfeel approach.
An analogy can be seen with
football and other professional
sports, where coaches and scouts
were trusted as the keepers of
knowledge and wisdom until
data-driven approaches began to
undermine that wisdom.
Thinking outside the penalty box

The Moneyball phenomenon
(Lewis 2004), which showed
how statistics and predictive
analytics could make a better
job of judging talent than the
expert intuition and gut feel of
coaches and scouts, is relevant
here. This is mirrored in the latest
analysis on football by Anderson
and Sally (2013). For example, in
football the focus is on strikers
and goals, but the biggest
performance boost comes when
teams address their weakest links,
normally in defensive positions.
Not conceding goals is more
performance-enhancing than
scoring goals. That effectively
inverts much of the previous

logic around the sport. Already
analytical HR professionals in
football, such as Robert Ordered
at Fulham and Mike Forde
at Chelsea, are making the
connection between the players
on the pitch and the employees
who support them. A whole range
of areas of HR from learning
and development, employee
relations and engagement, as
well as team interaction and
organisational development, will
be severely challenged by the
analytical approach. This is only
really starting to take place and
its impact will be massive. For
example, learning professionals

are already seeking data coming
from learning management
systems to give more insight than
could be delivered by traditional
forms of learning evaluation.
E-learning programmes are replete
with data around completion,
duration and aptitude.
Psychometrics and engagement
data exist in huge pools and can
be linked to the key HR metrics
such as those on turnover and
retention to provide real insight.
The point is, will HR people use it
or will they rail against it?
Even in cases
where business
leaders havent
required HR to
be analytical and
evidence-based,
that will certainly
change.
Even the most data-driven and

analytical HR leaders know that
the real value will come from
identifying patterns in data around
how people feel and behave. The
availability of data on these areas
is already quite abundant through
psychometrics normally designed
for recruitment purposes and in
learning and development settings.
A key HR director at a large
financial services firm reflects:
What about resilience and what
about the people who have
characteristics which make those
people successful and able to
help others through change? The
behaviours of that type of person
are key. You need to capture what
the issues are and what drives that
behaviour.
Even in cases where business
leaders havent required HR to
be analytical and evidence-based,
that will certainly change. When
data is at the centre of practice,
it creates a demand for more and
better information; this exposes
HR to continual challenge to be on
the ball and up to speed. Aware
and insightful HR professionals
will seek to solve these problems
before they are asked. An LDP
programme manager at an online
retailer reflects on their leadership
development programme:
The thing is we need to start
reporting out to our stakeholders
and talent managers. We have
done everything around that. The
business isnt demanding that at
the moment and we need to be
proactive. We need to do what
we can and look at the learning
interventions and, while the growth
is there and we are not going to
get the challenge, we need to start
spending some time looking at the
issue of value.
This data-driven company, whose

entire business model is driven by
an analytical mindset, is a case in
point. Such organisations, including
those in areas such as retail and
banking and finance, have a big
data focus in their product and are
operationally governed by data and
evidence; however, the approach
may not be fully integrated with HR
and other support areas. So, even
in a numbers-driven business, HR
might not be on the grid and needs
to make sure that it is.
Many in HR see the business partner
as the essential conduit in the
data revolution. Business partners,
although they can be aligned to an
area such as learning or reward,
tend to be impatient with silos, are
thirsty for genuine insight to engage
with managers and employees, and
are generally business savvy and
amenable to data.
Fear
While its clear that HR is engaging
with the challenge of big data,
its also clear that this is not in
the comfort zone of many. Some
feel that the advent of analytics
compromises a more thoughtful
and grounded HR practice. Few
articulate this openly, but there
is unease. The term big data is
sometimes associated with big
brother surveillance, control and
an ICT and technology focus.
The idea that this approach
dehumanises and disempowers
people is one strand of thinking
commonly encountered in the
learning and coaching space.
One problem with this unease is
that it can impede engagement
with the talent analytics challenge.
According to one leading human
capital thinker, HR professionals
are more comfortable building
relationships and working on
people-centred issues (Pease et al
2012). This can be seen in the top

priority objectives for HR leaders
(figure 10 on page 20) outlined
in our autumn 2013 HR Outlook
survey. The biggest priority is
identified as building relationships
with colleagues and understanding
their priorities. This is a sign of
an open and collaborative HR
function, but it is also a sign that
HR is still operating in that area
of relationships and organisationbuilding. Developing the ability to
use data to inform decisions comes
fifth. A recent Deloitte report on
HR identified a similar focus (Bersin
by Deloitte 2013).
In our Business Savvy research
we identified relative strengths
in the bottom two quadrants of
connecting with curiosity and
leading with integrity but the
top quadrants for business savvy
of understanding the business
model at depth and generating
insight from data and evidence
remain lower priority. Both our
Business Savvy and people analytics
research suggest this is not because
the capability to analyse data is
a lower priority, because its now
widespread, but rather its because
there is a certain comfort in sticking
to our strengths. Reaching for the
stretch capabilities is a less common
behaviour amongst all business
professionals, and for HR the
analytical skills are the stretch skills.
Many will already be taking an
analytical view of talent, leadership,
learning and performance, but for
many its simpler to stick to what
they know. Peter Turner of Ricoh
explains:
Huge amounts of suspicion [within

HR]. The instant reaction is to try
and disprove the number rather
than working with it. We did work
with HR ratios and created a huge
amount of debate but some of the
ways in which HR systems have
been implemented with errors
and with too much customisation
doesnt help.
Its also clear that once we start
pursuing a data-driven approach
we build expectations and
increased demands. Managers and
employees like to see data and get
real value from it. That can put HR
on an expectations treadmill, which
some think might lead to too
much focus on delivering data and
reporting rather than advising,
consulting and reflecting.
Its also clear

that once we
start pursuing
a data-driven
approach we
build expectations
and increased
demands.
There is also a fear outlined in

our skills and smarts section that,
since the capability to do this is
not within HR, external specialists
without the insight and nuance
of HR will drive the approach. HR
might be sidelined and kept out of
the loop. There is also a perception
that the insight generated might
be less nuanced and more focused
upon performance and productivity,
with questions about the
sustainability of such an approach.
These concerns will need to be
addressed along with the other
issues of silos and skills if HR is to
engage fully with this compelling
opportunity. This is the focus of our
final section on solutions.
Figure 10: Priority objectives for HR leaders with their teams (%)
Building relationships with colleagues throughout

the organisation and understanding their priorities
59
Developing the ability to clearly demonstrate HRs

contribution to the business
55
Developing influencing skills to gain stakeholder

support and commitment
52
Developing HR leaders for the future
51
Developing the ability to use data to inform

organisational decisions
49
Developing understanding of what drives

competitive advantage for the organisation
49
Building courage and confidence to debate and

challenge issues for the benefit of the organisation
45
Improving ability to communicate effectively with

all stakeholders in the language of the organisation
41
Building specialist HR expertise, for example

reward, learning and development
40
Building organisational development and change

management skills
40
Building HRs capability to coach line managers on

people management issues
39
Building understanding of the wider business

context your organisation operates in
36
Reorganising HR work, for example through

centralising or outsourcing activities
35
Dont know
Not applicable no identified key priority areas for
building HR capability
3
2
Other 1
Source: CIPD HR Outlook, autumn 2013: a variety of leader perspectives.
5 Strategies and solutions

Having addressed some of the key
issues driving the emerging state
of practice in HR, namely the silos,
skills, suspicion and scepticism
around data and analytics, we
are now ready to look at some of
the solutions. Our organisations
present some rich and varied
approaches to the people analytics
challenge and they have expertise
to share. The first and foremost
lesson of successful people
analytics is to get the balance right
between being transformational
and tactical. Figure 11 indicates
how this can be envisaged.
Transformational approaches
Make analytics a continuous
transformational project
If people analytics and datadriven approaches are to take
off, they should be driven as
transformational projects with full
executive team ownership and
enthusiastic and driven day-to-day
management. The transformation
is likely to be incremental and
celebrated by the victory of small
wins and continuous review. Where
were we? Where have we got
to? Where do we go next? The
If people analytics
and data-driven
approaches are
to take off, they
should be driven as
transformational
projects with full
executive team
ownership.
Figure 11: Strategies and solutions for managing talent analytics and big data in HR
Tactical
Transformational
Make analytics
a continuous
transformation project.
Focus it on key business
priorities.
Move it up the HR
capability agenda.
Collaborate
and connect
through data.
Map and tap the skills

necessary. Develop
aligned analysts.
Attract more capability
from HR/OD-cognate
areas such as
psychology, economics
and anthropology.
Make stories from the
stats.
transformational effort should have

a focus on the various blockers:
namely silos, skills and suspicion.
How is this being addressed and
whos doing it? Julian Alzueta from
Telefonica explains:
The ability to ask

better questions
and harness more
data to their own
rich and deep
insights should
benefit all HR
professionals.
In one of the projects we have

worked on, because of the
fragmented approach to reporting
in Europe, the European HR
Leadership Team had asked for one
report that could provide a single
vision of the most relevant metrics.
After building a virtual European
team of HR analysts from each
operating business and in the space
of three months, we established a
report that focuses on Telefnica
key HR strategic drivers. These
strategic drivers change over time,
and we make sure to review the
measures included regularly and
keep them up to date.
Focus on key business projects
It seems that there are a few
key business projects in every
organisation which focus the
attention and enthusiasm of
leaders, employees and customers.
These are precisely the projects
which should be the focus of
people analytics efforts. The
support and sponsorship will be
obvious, and a smart alignment
with these projects will pay
dividends for HR.
One major utility uses talent
analytics to help the organisation
address some key technical
talent headaches as the business
environment shifts:
The whole industry has come to a
realisation that retirement of skilled
technical talent is our biggest
challenge. Yet the whole industry
makes an assumption about cliffedge retirement. But increasingly as
we survey staff people are choosing
to retire and when to shift down
in hours so there is an opportunity

for mentoring, etc, on energy
networks resourcing programme.
Thats going to help us keep talent
in that business. Putting together
various bits of data and having
lots of conversations across the
business helped us to get there.
Move analytics up the capability
agenda
Its clear that analytics is a capability
challenge for HR. We have many
conflicting priorities, but a focus
on ensuring that people can
productively engage with numbers
and metrics must be a key one. The
ability to ask better questions and
harness more data to their own rich
and deep insights should benefit all
HR professionals. Allowing analytics
to become a skills silo will mean we
cannot benefit. The drivers to this
capability will differ, for example,
in retail, banking and finance and
the airline industry, where data
is a central part of the culture,
but as the City HR Forum shows,
capability cannot be taken for
granted; it has to be developed.
Tactical approaches
Map and tap the skills
Whether your skills strategy is
make and migrate or buy in and
build, the analytics capability you
work with needs to be integrated
and understood. We have seen a
few examples of isolated analysts
who spend time generating output
but not necessarily getting out and
putting forward the case for the
data. One HR leader in a global
business services firm put it bluntly:
No matter how brilliant people are,
if they dont build capability they
will not strengthen your analytics
effort. Playing with what interests
them and failing to generate
usable value for the business
was a challenge for me when I
encountered one leading analyst.

Its a difficult challenge for a leader.
Like any other organisational
learning or design development
issue, we should be able to
develop structures which increase
the chance of collaboration and
knowledge-sharing.
Work with social scientists as well
as rocket scientists
That said, on this project and in
our interactions with seniors, its
clear that many organisations
overlook HRs biggest source of
informed analytical insight, namely
behavioural scientists. Psychologists
with occupational and business
backgrounds, as well as those
coming from an experimental
background, have an affinity with
measurement statistics and data.
Some are skilled in designing
and analysing psychometric tests,
analysing surveys and developing
workforce planning forecasts. In
some ways they are more aligned
to HR than other data scientists.
Many of these are motivated to
analyse people and performance,
but psychologists, economists with
labour market backgrounds and
quantitatively trained sociologists
and anthropologists can also add
depth to analysis. In particular,
anthropologists can provide new
insights into team interaction and
dynamics, as well as being able to
understand customer affiliation and
behaviour. When it comes to really
high-level skills such as the ability
to develop algorithms and conduct
more mathematically orientated
modelling, the natural scientists
have an advantage, but we need a
mix of analytical capability.
Collaborate and connect through

data
Data makes a great nexus for
collaboration and connection. By
building meetings, events and
reporting cycles around key data,
and making the data a feature,
with explanation from resident
analysts and both questions and
interpretation from the HR team,
we can really break down the silos.
Demonstrations of systems and
explanation of features and reports
help end-users understand the
infrastructure used to support data.
Key learning events around, for
example, understanding statistics
and probability or building a data
dictionary can all practically embed
the data awareness required.
Sometimes even asking people
to bring the data they have
can encourage a focus on data
and metrics. Senior buy-in and
involvement ensures that people will
get involved and be incentivised.
An HR manager at an asset
management firm explains the
value of being aligned to these key
business priorities:
Tell stories from the stats

Nobody likes dry statistics,
especially when they are stripped
of context and their results or
significance are not explained.
One of the ways in which we
can overcome this is to develop
stories from the stats or, to put it
another way, generate a narrative
around the numbers. Advanced
visualisation tools exist to create
information graphics. Dashboards
and scoreboards help to keep data
in tune. Simple stories illustrated by
key numbers can help to build an
approach where analytics become
part of the weft and weave of the
workplace. When numbers are,
for example, used by a leading
train operator around performance
and targets with informative and
sometimes humorous graphics,
employees engage. They actually
begin to look for the numbers and
they get disappointed when these
numbers fail to appear. This can be
achieved around every dimension
of people performance and
productivity. When we get to that
stage, what can be called addictive
analytics, we will know we have
made a step-change.
It drives the activity and helps you

in a way to show your impact
and to provide the ROI. We are
a collaborative company. We can
show that the people are working.
We also have a high talent need
and data can help us help leaders
to understand the challenge. For
example, we tend to have lengthy
recruitment cycles, yet there is
a correlation between a short
acceptance period and retention of
talent. It helps you as an HR team
to understand that.
Conclusion
When we started this research
we scoped our research questions
to take in the emerging agenda
for HR of engaging with talent
analytics and big data. What we
found is that the pursuit of HR
capability in both of these areas is
at a fairly basic stage. We asked
practitioners to identify themselves
as aspiring-edge or leading-edge
in their approach towards people
analytics issues. We wanted to
deliberately sense-check where
practitioners place themselves on
the analytics spectrum. Most are
happy to be seen as aspiring, but
the surprise is that even those that
we consider to be at an advanced
level of capability are reluctant
to say they are pushing the
boundaries.
Most are very much defining an
approach towards data or, to be
more precise, metrics. They are
ensuring that the numbers add
up and have credibility. They want
their key HR data to be reliable and
consistent on key business driver/
cost issues such as recruitment,
turnover and engagement.
This issue of data reliability is the
driving concern for many at the
aspiring level.
At the more advanced level
where data reliability is, if not
established, at least a major priority
the focus is on credibility. How
can the data they are collecting
help to inform business decisions
by demonstrating the impact of
people and performance? How
does this data fit with other key
business data streams? Is this data
reliable enough to be mined for
predictive insight?
Many are addressing the issues

around talent analytics in terms of
the three broad themes we have
outlined:
Silos
These are the structural and
systems obstacles and excuses for
not getting access to sharing or
refreshing key data on time and on
track.
Skills
The need to power up the
analytical capability is shared by
all we spoke to, with some going
for an incremental build on skills
and others going for the buy-in
approach. All options have their
benefits and pitfalls, but generally
the development of pockets of
capability could unwittingly lead
to groups of rocket scientists or
highly advanced analysts working
perhaps in a fragmented and noncollaborative way.
Suspicion and scepticism
Suspicion and scepticism is hard
to identify, but behaviour and
priorities can sometimes give us
more insight than what people tell
us in surveys or interviews. This
is because there is anxiety and
concern that HR is being asked
effectively to jump the talent
analytics and big data hoop when
the issues of silos and skills are
working against the ability to do
that. Scepticism about whether
a data-driven world would be
better than the one we are in also
abounds. The fact that a number
of organisations we talked to for
this project refused to be quoted is
instructive. We believe and could
see they are making real progress;
however, they were concerned
that their approach might not

be that interesting or cuttingedge enough. We also saw some
tensions between the HR leaders
and business partners and the
analysts charged with the main
role. Some feel that analysts are
not sharing enough insight or data;
some analysts feel that HR people
are not asking enough questions
or are fixated on big novel issues
when the housekeeping issues
around reliability should be their
main concern. The highly skilled
data analysts are perhaps working
with less of a steer on the purpose
of analysing HR data and with
less clarity on how HR data differs
from any other data except that
it relates to people. Some people
management professionals imply
that the measurement of people is
being treated like the counting of
widgets.
This is a healthy tension and one
which will be resolved only slowly
because the capability is growing.
The insight about people is
important, which is why we think
aligned analysts are a better bet
than rocket scientists.
The ability to grow capability helps
organisations make the transitions
and gauge the capability curve as
they progress. Sometimes buying in
capability and capacity means people
skip these stages or outsource them.
We think that HR professionals
need to fully embrace the challenge
of talent analytics and meet the
impending challenge of big data.
Thats because this is already a key
part of the business conversation
and, as with any conversations, we
dont wish to be hovering awkwardly
around the edges.
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Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

151 The Broadway London SW19 1JQ UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 8612 6200 Fax: +44 (0)20 8612 6201
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Incorporated by Royal Charter Registered charity no.1079797
Issued: November 2013 Reference: 6368 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2013

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in partnership with

Talent analytics and big data

Championing better work and working lives

Our focus on work includes what

Our focus on the workforce includes

Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

2 Skills: rocket scientists or aligned analysts?

3 Big data: a big ask for HR?

4 Suspicion and scepticism about data and evidence

5 Strategies and solutions

1 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

organisations embarking on the

Skills and smarts

Suspicion and scepticism

There seems to be less focus on

In order to help HR develop a

develops analytics as a continuous

2 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

metrics and data trying to sort and

Figure 1: Gartners three Vs of big data

Faster data at higher

Every second more data

Clear and present challenge: big data

3 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

However, the evidence suggests

(see Pfeffer and Sutton 2006).

Source: CIPD HR Outlook winter 201213, A variety

4 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

by leaders. However, without the

how much time did it take? How

Kearney certainly does not believe

Source: HR Outlook autumn 2013, Survey data.

5 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

A PWC survey (2012) shows how

exactly how we can build our

Figure 4: The three Ss of talent analytics and big data in HR

Structural and system

The extent of analytical

Mindsets and cultures

6 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

1 Silos: whats getting in the way?

Figure 5: HR, talent analytics and big data: silos

Business unit isolation

Projects and programmes

structural barriers between HR

7 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

This problem is amplified when

data approaches across business

Managers and leaders dont prioritise.

Its difficult to access the data consistently in our organisation.

We dont really have the skill internally to develop these metrics.

Business information from other departments such as finance

There is no consistent standard we can aim for.

We have difficulty accessing timely data from our available

8 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

For whatever reason the systems

having integrated HR and IT

link people data to business data.

Peter Turner of Ricoh considers how

9 Talent analytics and big data the challenge for HR

Tap existing analytical

Hire analyst talent and

Build out skills from initial

Integrate and align

Develop centres of expertise

Source integrated platforms