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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
How to harness the data already in your company to solve your business problems
In today's fast-paced world, data is everywhere—but only actionable insights can drive real success. The Insight-Driven Leader offers a practical guide to transforming raw data into powerful workforce insights that solve critical business challenges. Through clear frameworks, compelling case studies, and proven strategies, Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider reveal how high-performing organizations combine business and workforce data to innovate, engage employees, delight customers, and exceed financial goals. Readers will also find:
- How to move beyond traditional rear-view HR metrics to actionable insights
- Real-life case studies from leading organizations, as well as cautionary tales
- Recommendations for becoming an insights-driven organization using workforce analytics
This book empowers leaders to align data with strategy, build a culture of insight-driven decision-making, and unlock the full potential of their HR and leadership teams.
Whether you're a CEO, CHRO, or first-time manager, The Insight-Driven Leader will elevate your leadership, equipping you to tackle perennial business challenges and deliver measurable impact in your organization.
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Seitenzahl: 355
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
Who This Book Is For
How It Came to Be
Why I'm Passionate About This Topic
What You'll Learn
A Call to Action
Introduction
Becoming Insight‐Driven
The Albatross
Are We Any Smarter?
It's (Mostly) Not HR's Fault
We've Seen This Movie Before
What's Ahead?
Invitation to Redemption
Note
Case Studies
SECTION 1: Change What You Measure, Transform What You Can Manage
1.1 Commit to Insights, Not Metrics
1.2 Embrace Workforce Insights
1.3 Let HR (Get Better at) Help(ing) You
1.4 Act on the Insights
1.5 Key Takeaways
SECTION 2: Enabling Workforce Analytics
2.1 Get with the (Workforce Data) Program
2.2 Support Data Integration
2.3 Fall on the Sword of Data Governance
2.4 Understand Workforce Analytics Capabilities
2.5 Key Takeaways
SECTION 3: Moving the Goalpost
3.1 Remember Yesterday's IT
3.2 Know and Demand Excellence
3.3 Take Your Preference
3.4 Accountability as a Two‐Way Street
3.5 Key Takeaways
Notes
SECTION 4: Become Truly Insight‐Driven
4.1 Why “Insight‐Driven” Matters
4.2 Making Culture Your #1 Strategic Asset
4.3 Upleveling HR
4.4 Creating Your Insight‐Driven Culture
4.5 Key Takeaways
Note
SECTION 5: Higher Math—Workforce Analytics at the C‐level
5.1 All About the CHRO
5.2 CEO: Be a True Partner, Get a True Partner
5.3 Evolve the Power Structure
5.4 Integrate HR into the Business
5.5 Key Takeaways
Notes
Conclusion
Notes
Foreword
Introduction
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
A Guide to Workforce Data
B CEO+CHRO Survey Results
CEO Survey Results
CHRO Survey Results
C Interviewees
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Figure I.1 The Impact of Systemic Business Analytics
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Four Stages of Analytics
Figure 1.2 Attrition Through Four Lenses
Figure 1.3 Balanced Scorecard (HR Example)
Figure 1.4 Recruitment Strategy Map
Figure 1.5 The Workforce Insights Equation
Figure 1.6 Human Capital Value Profiler (HCVP)
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Human Resources Ecosystem
Figure 2.2 Machine Data Privacy Concerns
Figure 2.3 Workforce Intelligence Maturity Model
Figure 2.4 Systemic Business Analytics Maturity Model
Figure 2.5 Workforce Analytics Maturity Model
Figure 2.6 Organizational Abilities Across People Analytics
Figure 2.7 The Systemic Business Analytics Maturity Model with Benchmarks...
Figure 2.8 Common Models for Workforce Analytics Functions
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Chief Information Officer
Figure 3.2 Evolution of the Chief Information Officer (CIO)/Chief Technology...
Figure 3.3 Evolution of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Figure 3.4 Evolution of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Figure 3.5 Evolution of the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 GenAI in HR: Potential Cost Reductions by Industry
Figure 4.2 GenAI in HR: Potential Cost Reductions by HR Domain
Figure 4.3 T‐Shaped HR Competency Model
Figure 4.4 Barriers to Change for HR
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The Future‐Ready CHRO
Figure 5.2 Good to Great HR
Figure 5.3 CEO/CHRO Alignment: Welcome to the Matrix
Figure 5.4 CEO/CHRO Alignment: Common Characteristics
Figure 5.5 Boards Seek Higher Value Workforce Data
Figure 5.6 Companies' Investment in Upskilling Their HR to Be Data‐Driven...
A
Figure A.1 Compensation Data
Figure A.2 Employee Data
Figure A.3 Employee Engagement Data
Figure A.4 Performance Metrics
Figure A.5 Recruitment and Hiring Data
Figure A.6 Risk and Compliance Data
Figure A.7 Strategic Business Data
Figure A.8 Technology Use Data
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
The Insight‐Driven Leader
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Case Studies
Begin Reading
Conclusion
Notes
A Guide to Workforce Data
B CEO+CHRO Survey Results
C Interviewees
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
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JENNY DEARBORN KELLY RIDER
THE INSIGHT‐DRIVEN LEADER
How High‐Performing Companies Are Using Analytics to Unlock Business Value
Copyright © 2025 by Jenny Dearborn. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN: 978‐1‐394‐30888‐0 (cloth)
ISBN: 978‐1‐394‐30889‐7 (ePub)
ISBN: 978‐1‐394‐30890‐3 (ePDF)
Cover Design: Paul McCarthy
Cover Image: © Getty Images | Sergey Ryumin
For my parents, for their unconditional love and support. For my boys, who inspire me daily.
– Kelly
The best part about working hard is that it's so fun to be part of a great team. This is for everyone—across the world, in the past 30+ years, from different companies—that I've met at work and is now an indispensable part of my life. My friends, you are too many to list, I love you. Of course, I couldn't do this without the support of my husband and our kids. A thousand thanks. – Jenny
Acknowledgments
Thankful for the amazing team who supported this project:
Deb Arnold
—Project Manager. Jenny never saw a tangent she didn't like, but you kept us on task, gave us tough love, demanded excellence, and never gave up on us. Our undying gratitude, respect, and love. Need a content extractor and logic checker? Contact
www.debarnoldink.com
.
Hallie Bregman
—Technical Expert. Thank you for your clarity of purpose and No‐BS style.
Lori Fraser
—Case Study Re‐Writer. Thank you for taking our wonderfully long narratives and making them structured and succinct.
Joel Freedman
—Research Consultant. Thanks for dotting every I and crossing every T!
Cameron Hunt
—Research Intern. Thanks Cam, we appreciate all you did for us!
Filipe Muffoletto
—Graphics. The GGGOAT! Greatest Graphics Guy of all time!
This book was informed in part from conversations with more than 100 Workforce Analytics practitioners, senior HR professionals, business executives, consultants, academics, researchers, and thought leaders (please see Appendix). We are grateful for their wisdom, perspectives, stories, and the great gift of their time.
In addition, we are thankful for the hundreds of experts and leaders we interviewed unofficially, the executives globally who completed our research survey, and the many more HR practitioners and business leaders with whom we test‐drove some of the concepts and models for the book.
Deep thanks as well to Karie Willyerd, Steve Hunt, and David Swanson for reviewing our work and giving thoughtful feedback. Our book is better thanks to your wisdom (and thanks to all we learned from you long before this book was even an idea).
Finally, we are deeply indebted to a few individuals for their inspiration. John Boudreau, your wise scholarship on all things HR + People + Leadership has been instrumental in the success of our careers. Thank you. Max Blumberg, thank you for your generous contributions of time and thought leadership to our endeavors. Ram Charan, your work has been a constant north star of thought leadership. From Execution to The Leadership Pipeline to Blowing Up HR—thank you for challenging us.
Foreword
By John Boudreau
You've started reading The Insight‐Driven Leader. Congratulations!
If you had any doubt that the time is right for you, your leadership team, and your entire organization to start using Workforce Insights to make better decisions about your talent and organization, this book will dispel those doubts. It will motivate you to shift your thinking about your workforce, the partnership between HR and other leadership functions, and the role of leaders outside HR in improving your ability to harness the untapped potential of the workforce to better achieve your goals.
For me, reading this book stimulated my thinking and recollection of some pivotal experiences in my career, and some principles that I'd like to highlight as you read the book.
For 40 years, I had the privilege to teach at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. I often introduced my classes on HR Analytics and Competitive Advantage Through People with this exercise: I would write the header, “Human Resources” over one column on the whiteboard, and then “Financial Resources” over a second column. I asked the students to call out the words associated with each column. Inevitably, the words beneath “Human Resources” were things like “compliance,” “administrative,” “cost center,” “soft,” “unpredictable,” etc.; and the words beneath “Financial Resources” were things like “strategic,” “analytical,” “rigorous,” etc. To be sure, in each class there were those who also paired “Human Resources” with words like “essential,” “impactful,” etc., but this was far rarer for “Human Resources” than “Financial Resources.”
Then, I would ask the students to recall the lessons from their courses in Competitive Strategy, about the characteristics of resources that are deemed “strategic” according to theories such as the Resource‐Based view of organizations. Students were quick to list the four standard characteristics of strategic resources:
VALUABLE
resources aid in improving the organization's effectiveness and efficiency while neutralizing the opportunities and threats of competitors.
RARE
resources are those held by few or no other competitors.
DIFFICULT‐TO‐IMITATE
resources often involve legally protected intellectual property such as trademarks, patents, or copyrights. Other difficult‐to‐imitate resources, such as brand names, usually need time to develop fully.
NONSUBSTITUTABLE
when the resource combinations of other firms cannot duplicate the strategy provided by the resource bundle of a particular firm.
With that in mind, I asked the students to consider how Financial and Human Resources would stack up against these characteristics. Students realized that while decisions about Financial Resources were certainly Valuable, the Financial Resources were less Rare, Difficult‐to‐Imitate, and Non‐substitutable. I would then ask the students, “If you look ahead to your career as a leader, do you think you will create more strategic value through your decisions about money or through your decisions about people, talent, teams, and how they are organized?” The students realized that the science of people decisions was obscure to most business leaders, the talent resources of the organization are often hard to understand—let alone to imitate—and the people in organizations often act in combinations that make their collective capability difficult to substitute with other assets. They felt that there was a great “mystery” about how to engage, develop, motivate, acquire, and retain people, and how to build collective organizational elements such as culture and teams. Indeed, it was precisely that “mystery” that made decisions about human resources so potentially valuable and strategic.
Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider will masterfully demonstrate through their many frameworks and examples how Workforce Analytics can provide Workforce Insights that pierce the veil of mystery about how talent decisions and their outcomes affect organizational success. This will motivate you to pursue better analytics and insights. That pursuit is important, but it must be in the context of two fundamental ideas that underlie the Dearborn and Rider book, and may be less obvious than the vivid examples of analytics and insights. I first wrote about these two principles with my colleague, Pete Ramstad, about 20 years ago, and featured them in our 2007 book, Beyond HR. They are fundamental to many subsequent books and articles with colleagues such as Ravin Jesuthasan, Wayne Cascio, Alexis Fink, Ian Ziskin, Alec Levenson, and Edward Lawler III.
The two principles are as follows.
First, the most important decisions for achieving value through talent and organization do not occur within the HR function, but with the organization leaders, employees, executives, Board, and investors that are outside the HR function. So, leaders outside the HR function must be held accountable for their decisions about talent and organization, just as they are for their decisions about resources such as money, technology, and customers. Line leaders should report the people outcomes (engagement, recruitment, turnover/retention, development, performance, etc.) of their units in the same way that they report their financial results, as a regular part of their quarterly or other regular unit reviews. Dearborn and Rider offer many examples of such reporting. Leaders are not permitted to say, “I don't know why I'm hemorrhaging cash, I just do what Finance tells me to do.” Yet, all too often, those same leaders are allowed to say, “I have no idea why my unit can't attract and retain people, I just do what HR tells me.” The talent‐related outcomes of the unit then become “HR's problem.”
Second, HR must shift its concept of its value from a sole focus on how the HR organization functions, delivers its services, and insures compliance, to embrace the value proposition of teaching key decision‐makers how to use rigorous mental models and logical frameworks in their decisions about talent and organization. Too often, leaders rely upon naïve and simplistic mental models about things like motivation, development, attraction, retention, culture, and teams. We can't hold leaders accountable for good decisions unless those leaders hold HR accountable for teaching them the frameworks needed for great people decisions. As you read Dearborn and Rider's vivid comparisons between HR and Finance that illustrate how Workforce Analytics can aspire to the power of financial analytics, keep in mind how these comparisons also offer templates for enhancing non‐HR leader decisions about talent.
I know you will enjoy and be deeply moved by this book!
Preface
Who This Book Is For
This book is for CEOs, business leaders, and those who aspire to unlock the full potential of their workforce data and HR organization. If you're a leader who has dismissed HR as “soft” or overlooked its strategic importance, this book will challenge your assumptions. For CHROs, it's a call to action to embrace business‐first thinking, build stronger relationships with CEOs, and use data‐driven storytelling to lead change.
How It Came to Be
In 2015, I published Data Driven, a fictionalized account of my experience at SuccessFactors, where we achieved remarkable improvements in sales productivity through the power of data. Later, I co‐wrote The Data Driven Leader with David Swanson in 2017, capturing our journey to apply those same principles to leadership productivity at SAP. The lessons we learned were clear: data‐driven insights can unlock untapped potential across an organization. But something was missing.
As I moved deeper into the world of HR leadership, I noticed a troubling pattern: business leaders often dismissed or overlooked the potential of HR. While every other function—sales, marketing, operations—was held accountable to metrics and outcomes, HR was largely exempt from this scrutiny. This indifference was both bewildering and infuriating. Why didn't leaders demand more from HR, the function responsible for hiring, developing, and retaining the very people who drive every aspect of the business?
Why I'm Passionate About This Topic
I know in my bones that people are the most important asset in any company, and HR—when done well—is the most foundational function supporting them. But here's the problem: too many CEOs don't understand HR's value, don't know what great HR looks like, and inadvertently undermine their CHROs. When this misalignment happens, even the most talented CHROs are driven away, leaving organizations with a critical leadership void.
The HR function at many companies is broken—but it's fixable. I've seen it done. With the right leadership, a growth mindset, and a commitment to first principles thinking, HR can become a driving force for business success. This book aims to demystify that process and provide a road map for CEOs and CHROs to build a strategic partnership that delivers results.
A huge THANK YOU to Kelly Rider who accepted my challenge to work with me on this research and book process. Kelly is the perfect balance of amazing strategic thinker and practical doer, she's a natural researcher, writer, deeply curious, and an execution machine. I'm grateful she agreed to be my co‐author. [Note from Kelly: Thank you, Jenny, for inviting me on this journey. It was an honor to be part of this experience.]
What You'll Learn
There are countless resources on Workforce Analytics (sometimes called people analytics), but most are written for HR professionals who are already believers. This book takes a different approach. It's written specifically for business leaders—especially CEOs—who may not yet understand the transformative power of HR data to help uncover Workforce Insights (WFI). Through real‐world insights and practical strategies, you'll discover how aligning with your CHRO and leveraging WFA can unlock not only WFI but also growth, innovation, and a thriving workforce.
A Call to Action
The insights in this book come from years of experience as a business‐first, HR‐second leader who has seen what works—and what doesn't—in organizations big and small. If you're ready to break down silos, rethink old assumptions, and build a data‐driven, people‐first culture, then let's get started. Together, we can transform HR from a misunderstood function into the strategic engine it's meant to be.
Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider
Introduction
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.1
The thirsty sailors stranded on a windless sea in this 1834 poem by Samuel Tayler Coleridge bemoan their fate, surrounded by an ocean of salty water. If you're a business leader, you are undoubtedly in a predicament akin to “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (hopefully minus the fever dream‐like magical realism): surrounded by data—data everywhere.
Operational data, sales data, customer data, employee data, and on and on. But at most companies, that data is as useless as vast sea water to beleaguered sailors, unless you can extract insights from it.
It's no easy task. For years, companies have declared themselves “data‐driven” with much fanfare but little to show for it. So, insight‐driven? All the harder. But can you really afford not to try?
Businesses worldwide face storms of increased competition, economic uncertainty, rapid technological developments, severe talent shortages, global instability, cybersecurity threats, and complexities from social and political shifts. And a “workforce” doesn't even mean what it used to: now employees, gig workers, outsourced labor, robots, and AI bots, with all the attendant potential for extraordinary advancement by getting it right or crushing value destruction from getting it wrong. You need every possible tool at your disposal to understand how your organization functions—and more importantly, where, when, and why it fails to function. And you need it RIGHT NOW.
Fortunately, a mere 200 years after Coleridge penned his magnum opus, technology is poised to make transforming data into insights a daily reality. Artificial intelligence, especially Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), is transforming not just work but also data and analytics, making it easier (even for those with little data science training), more affordable, and more realistic than ever to generate Workforce Insights (WFI), the powerful revelations that come from Workforce Analytics (WFA): combining, studying, and maximizing the value of data about your workforce (human+machine) and data about your business.
Becoming Insight‐Driven
Workforce Analytics is like having the cheat codes to understand what makes your business tick. Imagine spotting exactly why some teams are firing on all cylinders while others lag. Or uncovering which behaviors lead to high sales, customer loyalty, or top‐notch service. Businesses are using Workforce Insights right now to solve real problems—from slumping sales to digital transformations.
In fact, research published in November 2024 by The Josh Bersin Company, a highly respected source of human capital management insights, found that companies excelling at Workforce Analyticsi are more likely to experience a range of benefits (seeFigure I.1). These include exceeding financial targets (3 times), delighting customers (3 times), and effectively adapting to change (9 times).
Figure I.1 The Impact of Systemic Business Analytics
Source: Josh Bersin, Stella Ioannidou, and Kathi Enderes, “The Definitive Guide to People Analytics: The Journey to Systemic Business Analytics,” 2024, 5, https://joshbersin.com/definitive-guide-to-people-analytics/. Reproduced with permission from Josh Bersin Company.
The Albatross
Yes, we're going to carry the metaphor a bit further, because honestly, it's pretty perfect. In Coleridge's tale, the eponymous Mariner is burdened by an enormous white bird he's carrying around his neck, having shot it for no good reason (only the start of his troubles). While it's unlikely that you've shot an albatross recently, the imagery is useful. Think of that fetid fowl as the untapped potential of your data becoming a drag on your productivity, innovation, highest‐visibility project, and competitive advantage. Or your own inability to make sense of the staggering quantities of data within your remit (you'd be in good company on that front). Whatever the case, Workforce Insights is powerful enough to free you from those burdens.
There's just one catch. Workforce Analytics requires workforce data from, and deep partnership with, Human Resources. Yes, HR—the function so many love to hate.
Are We Any Smarter?
In July 2015, Harvard Business Review's cover boldly declared, “It's Time to Blow Up HR and Build Something New.” The articles inside laid out a revolutionary vision for HR, courtesy of thought leaders like Ram Charan, John Boudreau, and Peter Cappelli. They presented clear, brilliant ideas on how to evolve HR from process‐focused to driving measurable business outcomes.2
Yet here we are, exactly 10 years later, still grappling with many of the same issues. The problem wasn't the vision; it was the follow‐through on the part of business leaders. That's what we hope to change with this modest volume. Because an evolved, insight‐driven HR function isn't a nice‐to‐have anymore. If you want the competitive advantages of Workforce Analytics and AI, the time for hesitation has passed.
It's (Mostly) Not HR's Fault
If you're a business leader—especially a CEO—and something that's not working optimally at your company never gets fixed, wouldn't that be … on you?
Sure, some of HR's bad rap is merited. HR can be slow and out of touch, too focused on operations and rules. That's not good for business—yours. But some of HR's baggage just comes with the territory. The function has many unenviable roles—interpersonal relations referee and policy enforcer are just two. And HR impacts every employee in ways that no other function does, including extremely sensitive issues like hiring, firing, and pay. It's messy. And often really not fun.
And yet, is an entire field truly doomed to never grow into its potential? With business leaders paying the ultimate price in the form of problems that go unsolved, productivity that remains weak, workers that are un‐engaged, paying sky‐high costs to rehire and retrain employees headed for greener pastures, and lost opportunities to innovate and gain (or keep) a competitive edge?
We've Seen This Movie Before
So, what if your HR department was … great? What if it was staffed with strategic, efficient, business‐minded, analytical problem‐solvers? Professionals who reliably helped you maximize productivity and create the conditions (operational and cultural) where employees would go the extra mile to achieve your most important goals?
It's not so crazy a notion, even if many business leaders have never seen great HR in action. Once upon a time, Finance was a bunch of paper‐pushers focused on bookkeeping. IT was the nerds who kept the computers running. Marketing printed ads and threw parties. These functions all grew into strategic powerhouses because shifting realities meant companies couldn't stay competitive otherwise. And they became high‐performing when leaders saw it was in their own best interest to make it happen: they raised expectations and accountability, elevated those functions' leaders to the C‐suite and made them active participants in Board of Directors meetings, aligned their strategies, drove cross‐functional collaboration, and invested in the right people and technology.
HR is on the brink of that same transformation, especially now that automation is removing so much of the function's administrative load. We wrote this book to show how you can help HR evolve into an essential value creator, too. This isn't about doing HR a favor—it's about making sure you have the strategic support you need. If you want HR to deliver insights that align with your goals, you've got to let them do more than process paperwork. The highest performing companies already have top‐notch HR functions (you'll read about them in case studies and through descriptions of “next‐generation” HR teams). So why not you, too?
And the time is RIGHT NOW: as AI and automation free HR professionals from operational tasks and enable them to embrace advanced analytics, they can become the strategic partners you need them to be. But they can't do it alone.
Like it or not, if you want to become an insight‐driven leader imbued with superpowers by Workforce Insights, we know a two‐way street you can take to get there. HR transformation happens when leaders like you see HR as an asset, not an afterthought. The companies that get this are miles ahead. This book will show you how to unleash HR's potential and leverage it as the strategic asset it truly can be.
What's Ahead?
This book is designed to inform, inspire, and motivate you to become a true insight‐driven leader (who also happens to make HR history). Each of the five sections concludes with key takeaways:
Section 1 – Change What You Measure, Transform What You Can Manage:
Changing how you think about metrics, analytics, and insights to transform what you can manage, and gain guidance on exactly how to start expecting more from HR.
Section 2 – Enabling Workforce Analytics:
Start positioning WFA to take hold at your company by understanding its components and the coordination, governance, and professionalization required to make it a reality. And if you ever wondered how human‐machine collaboration gets measured, you'll have your answers.
Section 3 – Moving the Goalpost:
Increase your expectations of HR by appreciating how other functions have made the journey to a high performing strategic partner, and by reading about what good HR (outstanding, actually) can look like. Plus, some sojourning down that two‐way street with KPIs in tow.
Section 4 – Become Truly Insight‐Driven:
Did we mention that to make WFI your new BFF, you'll also want to help your entire company become insight‐driven? You will. It includes upleveling HR. And it's hard. You'll need to have guts and patience. But the payoff is astonishing.
Section 5 – Higher Math—Workforce Analytics at the C‐level:
Truly evolving HR will require executive authority and commitment, including ensuring alignment between the CEO and the head of HR and giving that leader a seat at the elusive strategic table. If you're not a CEO but don't want to remain a downcast sailor staring across the horizon at an ocean of water you can't drink, this section will show you how you can help things along.
Along the way, you'll read plenty of case studies and cautionary tales, and gain wisdom and insights from our more than 100 interviewees and the results of our CEO/CHRO survey. Also awaiting you is a boatload of secondary research, revealing statistics, pithy quotes, and hopefully enough humor and gentle poking to make you forget you're reading a business book about data and HR.
Invitation to Redemption
Back to our poem. The Mariner's redemption begins when he acknowledges the beauty and value of the natural world. Realizing the strategic value of your workforce and business data and HR's potential to drive your success can be your turning point, when you deftly shift from being burdened by data, data everywhere to thriving because of it.
Note
i
The study's term is “systemic business analytics,” a different name for the same game‐changing approach.
Case Studies
Throughout the book, we have provided stories to help inspire you to meaningful action and avoid serious pitfalls. Most have Workforce Insights at their core. They come from our interviews as well as secondary research. We hope you find them enlightening and memorable, but most of all we hope they spur you to act.
Title
Industry
Challenge
Location
Forecasting Retention: How Experian Data Secured Its Talent
Information Services
Retention
Section 1, Commit to Insights, Not Metrics (p. 14)
No More Guesswork: Forecasting a Future of Workforce Stability
Healthcare
Profitability
Section 1, Embrace Workforce Insights (p. 22)
Revving Up Sales: How Workforce Analytics Drove the 24‐Hour Follow‐Up Advantage
Automotive
Sales
Section 1, Embrace Workforce Insights (p. 27)
Bridging the Experience Gap to Deliver on a High‐Stakes Project
Technology
Product Development
Section 1, Embrace Workforce Insights (p. 29)
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: Save Money by Asking HR
Financial Services
Restructuring
Section 1, Let HR (Get Better) at Help(ing) You (p. 40)
Acting on Insights: One Sales Executive's Insistence on Success
Shipping and Mailing
Business Transformation
Section 1, Act on the Insights (p. 44)
The High Price of Data Privacy without Partnership
Technology
Digital Transformation
Section 2, Support Data Integration (p. 56)
Integrating for Impact: How Data‐Driven Insights Transformed Sales Success
Technology
Sales
Section 2, Support Data Integration (p. 57)
Unpacking the Guest Experience: How Software and Regulations Undermined Loyalty
Hospitality
Customer Loyalty
Section 3, Take Your Preference (p. 107)
The Innovation Illusion: A CEO's Pricey Pitfall
Hospitality
Leadership
Section 3, Take Your Preference (p. 107)
Engineering Alone Can't Steer the Ship: The Human Solution to Maritime Risks
Maritime Shipping
Safety
Section 3, Take Your Preference (p. 110)
Data vs. Preference: A Location Strategy Gone Wrong
Technology
Office Expansion
Section 3, Take Your Preference (p. 111)
Overcoming a Resistant Culture to Achieve Business Transformation
Technology
Business Transformation
Section 4, Making Culture Your #1 Strategic Asset (p. 126)
IBM: Achieve More with AI‐Driven Talent Strategies
Technology
Retention
Section 4, Upleveling HR (p. 135)
Striking Oil: How Digging into Data Uncovered the Real Safety Issue
Oil and Gas
Safety
Section 4, Upleveling HR (p. 142)
Salesforce: Embedding a Culture of Security and Trust
Technology
Cybersecurity
Section 4, Creating Your Insight‐Driven Culture (p. 147)
Beyond the Dashboard at Protective Life: A CEO's Data‐Driven Moment
Insurance
Insight‐Driven Culture
Section 4, Creating Your Insight‐Driven Culture (p. 149)
Lloyds Banking Group: Modeling Data Culture Change
Financial Services
Insight‐Driven Culture
Section 4, Creating Your Insight‐Driven Culture (p. 159)
Vision vs. Reality: Lessons from a Stalled Transformation
Technology
CEO/CHRO Alignment
Section 5, CEO: Be a True Partner, Get a True Partner (p. 180)
The Powerful CEO/CHRO Partnership That Helped Transform Microsoft
Technology
CEO/CHRO Alignment
Section 5, CEO: Be a True Partner, Get a True Partner (p. 181)
SECTION 1Change What You Measure, Transform What You Can Manage
As the saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure. There's no better sentiment to accompany you as you launch into the book. After all, like charity, change begins at home (or perhaps your home office).
So much of what you'll read in these pages is about mindset shifts: for you, other business leaders, HR professionals. Evolving one's thinking is the key first step to transforming one's actions. We're starting with our attitudes toward numbers.
Numbers on their own have little meaning. Or value. That's true whether it's one number on a page, tens of thousands on a massive spreadsheet, or gigs of data in the cloud.
The meaning comes from the stories those numbers tell. The mysteries one can unravel with them. The incredible satisfaction of figuring out WHAT in the devil is going on with your most important project. That's what we're after: combining data about your workforce with data about your business and deeply exploring them through the mechanics of Workforce Analytics (WFA) to yield Workforce Insights (WFI).
You'll learn things you never could before: why things are happening, or not happening, in your business and what you can do about it. You will, quite literally, transform what you can manage.
It begins with thinking differently about every number you see. Soon enough, you'll do it automatically. And then the magic will really begin. Let's dive in.
A Note on Language: We're taking a bit of a different approach to concepts you may read about. Instead of the more common People Analytics, we've chosen Workforce Analytics, as today's workforce, which encompasses human‐machine collaboration (HMC), is broader than just people. We know, though, that in general, the intent of the term is the same. Also, we use “insight‐driven” as we feel it emphasizes, advances, and makes explicit the aspiration behind the customary term, “data‐driven”: seeking out information to broaden understanding and make better decisions. Research and stories we cite mentioning People Analytics and data‐driven initiatives and concepts, therefore, align with our definitions and meaning.
1.1 Commit to Insights, Not Metrics
As a business leader, a key item on your WFA transformation to‐do list is moving your focus away from just numbers and toward insights. Not only you, of course. HR, too.
HR has traditionally been asked to report operational data versus evaluate business outcomes. And many (if not most) stakeholders, maybe even you, have typically nodded and gone on with their day. These same executives also tend to accept standalone numbers on critical metrics like engagement and retention, not expecting context or explanation as they would from Finance, Operations or, frankly, any other business unit. When it comes to HR data, leaders somehow do not ask colleagues to reveal trends, flag risks, or offer a deeper understanding of the factors impacting the workforce.
These often deeply engrained habits—both among the givers and receivers of HR data—can and must be unlearned, with your support. To help you achieve your goals, HR must change what it measures and why, and how it uses data to reveal the general and specific health markers of the corporate organism. To do so, they will need to integrate HR data with operational and financial data from across the company to create a holistic view of organizational performance (discussed further in the pages ahead). You can and must help create the conditions for that to happen, starting with your own metrics mindset.
Stop Looking Only in the Rear‐View Mirror
Basic operational data tells simple stories: what happened. It looks in the rear‐view mirror and reports the facts. Yet looking only at WHAT happened and not WHY? or NOW WHAT? will do very little to help you analyze or accomplish your goals. Without ALSO keeping your eyes on the road to navigate to where you want to go, you won't get far.
All too common in HR, rear‐view mirror metrics wouldn't be allowed from any other function. This is just one way that business leaders hold HR back: they simply don't ask for much, especially when it comes to data. As a result, HR professionals remain in reactive mode, versus proactively seeking to measure efficiency, effectiveness, and impact—and to find ways to improve them all.
As Jenny shared in her book The Data Driven Leader: A Powerful Approach to Delivering Measurable Business Impact Through People Analytics (seeFigure 1.1):
Too much HR reporting uses only descriptive analytics, which capture what has happened: number of people hired, time to fill requisitions, and employee engagement scores are all examples of these “rear view mirror” metrics. We need to move toward diagnosing the “why” behind these metrics, using diagnostic analytics, or, in the case of predictive analytics, what might happen. Once we quantify these metrics, we can act, guided by prescriptive analytics.
Moving from simple reports to predicting the future is a crucial journey we all must take, and the time to start is now.”1
Figure 1.1 Four Stages of Analytics
Source: Jenny Dearborn and David Swanson, The Data Driven Leader: A Powerful Approach to Delivering Measurable Business Impact Through People Analytics (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2018), 75. Reproduced with permission.
That book was published in 2017. Years after, the time to start is somehow still now.
To briefly link Figure 1.1 with what you care about as a business leader, predictive analytics can, for example, help you identify the job candidates most likely to succeed in their role. Wouldn't THAT be nice?
The best example of predictive work I've seen was at Teach For America, where they developed a predictive model to assess candidates for their teacher corps. They measured academic achievement and persistence, among other factors, to predict success in the classroom.
—Brandon Sammut, Chief People Officer, Zapier
Business leaders and especially CEOs: ask for more. Convey that HR must separate quantifying administrative tasks from capturing insights about strategic impact.
And while we're on the subject of stages of analytics, a fifth level is coming into play. Cognitive analytics
