Research Report: HR, Technology and Analytics – Threats and Opportunities

HR, Technology and Analytics – Threats and Opportunities DISCUSSION PAPER, MAY 2014

“Although technology and analytics are areas where HR has historically been weak, they now represent a golden opportunity for HR to achieve greater impact and value.“ Mike Taylor, Former Group HR Operations Director, Vodafone.

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Contents About the author and PARC

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Introduction

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Executive Summary

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1

The context

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HR systems

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Big data

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HR analytics

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Implications for people management

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Case examples

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Conclusions and recommendations

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Appendix 1: Data protection and privacy

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Appendix 2: Digital and data governance

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10 References and reading

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About the author

Andrew Lambert

About PARC PARC was founded in 2004 to provide a centre of excellence for the development and management of high-performing organisations.

Through the provision of informative and challenging research and briefings, PARC enables HR and Reward Directors to engage with leading thinkers, expert practitioners and each other on the key issues affecting today’s organisational performance, reward and governance agenda.

To find out how membership of PARC can benefit you and your organisation please contact info@parcentre.co.uk.

Acknowledgments The author thanks all research participants who include Sandy Begbie (Standard Life), Mark Sandham and Susan Myers (Thomson Reuters), Thomas Rasmussen (Shell), Kevin Jones, Mike Taylor, Vincent Belliveau (Cornerstone), Richard Drury, Andrew Thornton (Standard Chartered), courtesy of his presentation to a recent CIPD conference, and to Jane Mann and Joanne Owers of Fox Williams, together with others who preferred to remain anonymous.

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Andrew Lambert is a partner in Creelman Lambert, specialists in human capital and corporate governance, and has been a consultant in organisational change and development for 30 years. He was a director of several firms – People in Business, Smythe Dorward Lambert and Wolff Olins. He was a director of the Corporate Research Forum, and has covered many topics in research reports. His most recent report for PARC was Organisation Effectiveness and Top Executive Pay, 2013.

INTRODUCTION In a digital world, how organisations manage and exploit data is an increasingly important aspect of their • performance capability • ability to identify and take opportunities and manage risk • the ability to create value (particularly commercial companies).

Yet in the face of rapid, at times bewildering, change in information technology, many struggle with the disruptive effects on working practices, leadership philosophy, behaviour, and business models. Simultaneously, coping with deluges of data presents multiple challenges, opportunities and risks.

This study was commissioned to • shed light on developments in information systems, especially those in HR • explore the implications of big data for HR • identify the implications for HR processes, and for performance and reward in particular • reflect on the challenges for HR leaders and functions, and what they should do next.

While this has not used extensive original research, it has involved • an extensive review of written and visual material • participating in various conferences and debates about technology and analytics • interviews with selected companies, experts and suppliers who are at, or near the crest of, new developments.

The study covers a wide area, at a high level. It is intended to challenge and, thus, to spark thoughts and debate.

As usual in PARC, we hope the discussion it invites will surface further knowledge and insights, and help to advance policy and practices further.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Digital competence 1. Organisations must demonstrate technological competence to be able to operate and be trusted in the rapidly-evolving digital workplace. Those that survive and prosper will be those that ensure their human systems maintain pace and inter-relate with technological innovation.

• root-and-branch review and overhaul of people management processes

2. Adapting to the driving forces of the media revolution – principally mobile, social, democratised content, cloud and big data – is still ‘work-in-progress’ in many organisations. It raises fundamental questions about strategy and organisation mission, business models, culture, productivity, innovation capability, security and risk management, and more besides. There are regular examples of systems breakdowns, security breaches and mistakes, and costly failures in systems design, purchase and implementation.

• integrating people management practices – performance, learning, capability development, etc

3. Achieving organisational and personal mastery of this area is challenging for leaders; for governing boards that should steer leadership, strategy and future-preparedness; and for central functions that should be working together to support both leadership and the organisation at large.

4. In particular, to what extent is HR prepared and able to address the many organisation development, design and capabilities issues that arise, as well as tackle its own well-documented capability deficits as regards technology and analytics? We provide examples of where HR can claim to be on the front foot in leading improvements in systems and ways of working, and point to relevant leadership and organisation development steps.

Enterprise/HR systems and analytics 5. A significant step-change in management information systems is now available to organisations – self-service tools for managers and employees that are analytically powerful, easy to use and also easy and cheap to upgrade. But there is pain and cost before gain. Organisations must accept the rigours of shedding legacy systems, thorough self-examination and a rethinking of current practices.

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6. This scenario presents HR with both threats and opportunities.

Challenges include

• shifting from variegated and localised practices to agreement on standards and simplification

• undertaking rigorous data cleansing in collaboration with functions/businesses to build a sound, integrated metrics platform • shrinking the HR function as report preparation workloads evaporate • re-orienting and upskilling HRBPs, who need to move ‘upstream’ – thus helping managers be more selfsufficient and sharpening their insight to contribute to planning and decisions.

7. Integrated data systems/software are offered by vendors, but organisations typically have some way to go before achieving internal alignment and organisation effectiveness. OD-oriented HR leaders/functions should address commonplace gaps, such as developing • shared data culture, governance, standards, disciplines and capabilities • an enterprise-wide analytics function, as opposed to separate functional units • the capacity for, and quality of, integrated reporting to stakeholders.

While big data has much to offer HR functions, basic capabilities and data cleansing need most attention. HR functions need to be able to walk before they can run.

Big data, performance and reward

HR analytics and capabilities

8. The explosive growth of data offers multiple opportunities and threats to organisations. People and their behaviour provide rich intelligence for organisations to analyse and improve performance, and become more competitive. HR is being challenged both to help understand and address the organisational issues – including culture, security and data privacy – and provide more useful people data and insights.

11. While big data has much to offer HR functions, it is still early days in developing the more predictive capabilities that are so anticipated. In addition, addressing big data is only one aspect of the much-needed improvement in HR analytics.

Basic capabilities and data cleansing need most attention.

HR functions need to be able to walk before they can run.

12. HR’s capability challenges are well-documented, and include

9. We list many ways in which better application of data – and specifically big data – can add value to people and organisation performance. This includes better management of recruitment, on-boarding, engagement, people risk, workforce planning, health and safety, and more integrated management of talent, performance and learning. Developing leadership and managerial skills to use more powerful analytics to improve decision-making is a priority.

10. Sensing technology and more powerful, inter-connected observational data offer new dimensions to performance and reward management, through better understanding of cause and effect. There are many potential benefits, including better evidence to justify ‘pay for performance’ awards.

However, better data is a double-edged sword – it can enhance, and also undermine trust, depending on how fair management policy and behaviour is perceived to be. Many organisations are now ‘rethinking’ performance management.

• inherent low orientation to numeracy – reflected in small numbers of science graduates employed in HR • a track record of poor data management

• weaknesses in cause-and-effect and business case analysis to justify people investments • persistent criticism of HR and L&D as being insufficiently business-oriented • limited expertise in understanding and adapting new technologies, and in managing suppliers.

13. Progressive HR leaders take fundamental steps to re-orient their functions – reshaping job requirements, selecting to a different profile, development processes – developing consultancy skills, for example, and experience-building through projects. Personal example-setting underpins this re-orientation. These leaders also develop centres of expertise in HR/learning technology and analytics, through a blend of internal talent development and integrating non-HR technical expertise.

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1 THE CONTEXT

THE CONTEXT “We live in an age when information and data have become pervasive, global and integrated into the way we do everything. That means, suddenly, it’s a core capability, like using the phone, using a computer, reading.“ Sandy Gould, SVP Talent Acquisition, Yahoo.

Leaders and laggards The 2012 Harvard research report, Re-invention of Business – Operating Models for the Next Generation Enterprise, reported that the use of new technologies had caused both leading and limited users to make changes in these four areas of the operating model.

• Their approach to IT – 74% vs 13%.

• Business processes – 59% vs 11%.

• Relationships with employees, customers, trading partners – 50% vs 15%.

• Organisation structure – 34% vs 7%.

Of 28 factors, the most significant change was increasing support for collaboration across functional and geographic structures.

Notably, financial services firms appeared well below the norm.

Among leading users, the greatest impacts of technology use were increased innovation, reduced or optimised costs, faster time to market and increased productivity.

The purpose of this study is to review where the HR function stands in relation to developments in technology and data analytics. Here is the context.

1.1 Digital competence The digitisation of business and workplaces continues to deepen, driving multi-faceted change that is both organisational and personal. The data richness of the environment people live in – at home and at work – is growing explosively. Mobile, cloud, automation, artificial intelligence – these forces are rapidly re-defining how people and organisations operate.

Future business success will come from ensuring that human systems maintain pace and interrelate with technological innovation. Smart thinking must be paired with smart systems to stay on top of developments. The stratospheric growth of companies like Google has already exemplified this, while highlighting the relentless pace required to keep on winning.

Most work organisations would not hitherto have thought of themselves as 'technology companies' like Google. Yet they will struggle if they are not effective at buying, deploying and operating both hardware and software, and becoming highly proficient in handling data. The challenges include • learning how to specify, buy, implement and update systems and software wisely and cost-effectively • skilfully embracing social media as a core relationship medium, internally and externally, to engender trust and demonstrate capability • being alert to where big data can generate new competitive pressures and business models • ensuring security of data against a burgeoning array of threats • ...while at the same time taking advantage of new tools that facilitate internal/external collaboration, knowledge sharing, innovation and productivity • enabling 'four generations' in the workplace to align behaviours and capabilities in using systems • recognising the redundancy of hierarchical power structures when, in reality, work is performed and value created through networks and horizontal process flows facilitated by technology – this requires a different approach to governance • addressing the cultural and capability blockages that reduce the effective deployment of technology to improve performance.

Adapting to the driving forces of the media revolution – principally mobile, social, democratised content, cloud and big data – is still ‘work-in-progress’ for many organisations.

This raises fundamental questions about strategy and organisation mission, business models, organisation structure, culture, productivity, innovation capability, risk management, brand reputation and more besides.

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1 THE CONTEXT

“The need to collaborate is strongly linked to the need for improved business leadership ... you can no longer rely on managers who simply run organisational silos ... collaboration is the new meta-ability to enable networked business leadership, moving beyond traditional methods such as phone and email.“ Andy Williams, CIO, Save the Children.

1.2

Leaders, technology and youth

The overwhelmed employee Information overload has become a major issue. Management reports, meetings, social media, etc, all combine to drive 24/7, 365-day pressures on people at home or at work.

Whether and how ‘digital natives’ – people brought up during the age of digital technology who are familiar with computers and the internet from an early age – cope better, is widely discussed. The reality is that people have different orientations and ability to cope in such an environment. Pressures tend to accumulate at more senior levels, where the population does not generally comprise digital natives.

• Julian Birkenshaw and Jordan Cohen’s study of knowledge worker productivity found that people waste as much as 41% of their time on things that offer little personal satisfaction and do not help them get work done.

• In Deloitte’s 2014 Global Human Capital Survey 65% of respondents say this is an ‘urgent’ or an ‘important’ issue in their organisation, but 44% are ‘not ready’ to deal with it. Also, 72% of employees say they cannot find the information needed to perform effectively from within their company’s information system.

So far, the evidence is that neither HR nor IT functions have been particularly assiduous, let alone successful, in addressing this issue, despite its negative effects on productivity and decision-making. Yet, technology itself does provide some solutions, to support behavioural methods for coping, prioritising and simplifying.

1.3 The performance challenge for leaders The onus is primarily on leaders – including both executive and non-executive directors – not just to keep up-to-date, but to stay ahead of the technology curve. To drive digital competence, they must • be alert to the fundamental impact on business models that disruptive technology shifts can bring

In 2012, London Business School’s Future of Work initiative, which has 200 participating companies, highlighted these issues: • disconnects between business leaders and Gen Y, despite the latter becoming an increasing proportion of both the customer base and the workforce • just under 50% of surveyed companies saying their leadership programmes were not preparing leaders to leverage new technology.

Out-of-touch leaders not adept in using new media are less likely to be trusted.

However, as Gen Y start to take up CEO and other senior posts, changes in policy and culture can be expected.

• Younger C-suite executives are observed to be more open to risk and experimentation and tend to be more social and ambitious.

• They are also more open to, and comfortable with, technology.

Among other studies, the 2013 report, Upwardly Mobile, by Deloitte for EE, said that the ‘changing of the guard’ will bring a shift in organisation culture and business mobility with employees being able to choose how and when, rather than where, they work.

• be in tune with technology-savvy customers and employees – increasingly ‘Millennials’ • be sensitive to employee needs in adapting to the digital workplace and focus on simplifying the operating environment rather than exacerbating any ‘overwhelming’ factors • act as role models by using smart methods of working, learning and communication • be able personally to cope, psychologically, with the digital workplace pressures – fastmoving, ambiguous, complex and uncertain environments, and exposure 24/7 to internal and external audiences.

However, a clear pattern exists of employers' thinking and practice lagging behind significant technical advances, stretching back over a century. In recent years, it is striking how further advanced children are in their adoption of technology aids, compared to many corporate strategists, IT functions and leaders.

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1 THE CONTEXT

“Young employees enter your organisation with high expectations for online collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and top-to-bottom transparency. If you do not provide a good working environment, people will go elsewhere.“ Josh Bersin.

HR analytics – the current scorecard According to a 2013 survey by Bersin Associates • 78% of large companies with over 10k employees rate HR/talent analytics as important – making this a top three HR priority globally • 45% rate themselves ‘not ready’ on this dimension; only 7% feel they have ‘strong’ HR analytics • 60% have ‘disorganised’ HR systems, with no clear way to make data-driven HR decisions • 90% rate themselves ‘weak’ or ‘inadequate’ for current HR and talent analytics • by contrast, analytics capabilities in Finance, Operations, Sales and Marketing are far stronger.

It is also striking how regularly both public and private sector organisations experience systems breakdowns, security breaches and mistakes, and costly failures in systems design, purchase and implementation.

This raises significant questions about how well-prepared leaders are to enable effective change, and how well they are supported by corporate functions used to manage and develop their organisation capabilities.

1.4 The performance challenge for HR This study began by considering two widely-expressed observations about HR. Technology and measurement are areas where HR has been weak Studies of HR by CRF and many others over the past 20 years have sought to encourage a greater focus on metrics and the function becoming evidence-based. As cost pressures and the temptations to outsource have grown, the need to get to grips with technology and measurement has become ever more apparent. Yet formal and informal commentaries on HR report these to be areas of continuing weakness. It is a common view that HR is numbers-shy, attracts few hard science graduates, and is insufficiently business-focused – undermining its attempts to partner with business colleagues. In this context, it is no surprise to find the state of information systems in HR is frequently poor – see the column.

Technology and measurement are HR’s best opportunities to deliver greater value Advice and encouragement for HR to seize opportunities offered by developments in technology and analytics are currently rising to a crescendo. Accumulating reports, articles and conferences point to how more data-savvy HR could become the influential player in business decision-making that it constantly aspires to be. Professional associations like SHRM and CIPD have prominent initiatives to move HR analytics to the heart of HR consciousness rather than its periphery.

The new and old New systems also threaten HR leaders and those functions that can’t keep up, and don’t adapt to smarter ways of working.

• Switched-on functions will deepen the automation of HR processing and concentrate resources in higher value-added activities.

• More old-fashioned, slowly-adapting functions will be exposed as inefficient and costly, and come under pressure for drastic change and/or outsourcing. Note that cost-driven change has a relatively poor chance of being successful, as preserving value and core strengths may be of lesser importance.

In this context, leaders will want both better decision information and improved ways of working from HR, to increase competitiveness and resilience in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. To that end, 10

1 THE CONTEXT

• suppliers and consultants are working feverishly to provide HR functions with new ‘solutions' • the stakes are high in systems choices and implementation with false steps being costly in many areas • HR must become a savvy buyer – neither following fashion nor dithering due to inexperience – and an effective project manager able to embed people management systems.

So, HR functions must equip themselves and add value by deploying analytics, IT and new media to drive organisation performance, from culture to output to measurement. HR leaders have the twin challenge of overhauling their functions to become leaner and more efficient, and to build an HR team that can make the organisation more capable, and more effective.

That includes the HR leader and colleagues playing a core role in addressing the leadership and organisation challenges that technology and metrics bring, not just trying to resolve their own parochial issues. It means making the organisation more savvy about technology and data, not just HR. This raises important questions about responsibilities which are covered in 3.4.

1.5 Study scope Clearly, HR, technology and analytics is a huge topic with many angles. Our focus is on three interrelated aspects.

• Implementing new HR systems.

• Big data and its implications for HR. • How to move forward HR analytics.

To identify the main issues and future direction, we • interviewed a select group of well-placed HR practitioners, experts and suppliers • conducted an extensive review of literature and surveys in this field • participated in conferences and webinars • built on recent in-depth analysis of developments in HR and learning technology for CRF. This report does not go into extensive detail but, rather, highlights the main strategic and practical issues or options, and poses challenging questions where appropriate.

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2 HR SYSTEMS

HR SYSTEMS Something of a revolution is taking place in HR systems. Changes, in both systems and the marketplace, are summarised here.

2.1 Integration A decade ago, most organisations still had quite separate functional systems. Within HR, such IT systems as existed were also piecemeal – core records, payroll, recruitment, training etc.

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems developed in the 1990s were initially backoffice focused. In the 2000s, 'ERP 2' systems added front-office functionality, allowing more seamless process flows from backbone systems to customers.

Integration and e-business are thus quite recent phenomena and, though many organisations and managements are still just getting there, integration has accelerated because of • greater demand: leaders increasingly tackling the sprawling nature of their global organisations. For example, initiatives such as One Vodafone and One Ford have been underway for some time, requiring better-aligned structures, processes and behaviour • better supply: software advances that allow vendors to create more integrated and interconnectable systems • better value: the promise that smarter systems save money, improve productivity, and enhance both employee and customer experiences.

A significant gap is now evident between leading-edge and lagging organisations in adopting integrated systems, because of these factors.

• Costs in time, effort and money to adopt and implement 'common platforms' can be daunting – buying a new system is only the tip of the iceberg.

• Some leaders understand the business case for smarter systems better than others and make the investment.

• IT functions can be reluctant or fearful of dumping legacy systems.

• Suppliers may want to retain the ‘cash cow’ aspects of older system licenses and support contracts, until they can rely on their clients to meet the cost of a complete renewal.

That said, vendors are now pushing integration and connectivity messages hard to SMEs and medium-sized organisations as well as global companies.

2.2 Enterprise vs functional integration The concept of a common systems platform is attractive. It offers the promise of alignment and data coherence, in contrast to the silos and hotchpotch IT systems that insidiously inhibit effectiveness in so many organisations. Says Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer at Standard Life: “Going the single supplier route depends on your strategy and structure.

Conglomerates can choose to have varied systems, but it doesn't suit us. We need a common platform to support our growth across the world.“

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“Conglomerates can choose to have varied systems, but it doesn’t suit us. We need a common platform to support our growth.“ Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer, Standard Life.

As regards HR data, we were told about persistent differences in numbers and perspectives between Finance and HR, and how unsatisfactory the latter 'piggy-backing' off Finance systems tends to be. Conversely, a complete overhaul is a huge change for companies dependent on IT systems. In addition to cost, obstacles include

Vendor segmentation

• individual systems having different contract and license conditions – and lifespans

• ERP vendors with HR offerings – principally SAP and Oracle joined more recently by Workday. They provide comprehensive HR suites alongside systems for Finance and other processes. SAP and Oracle in particular now cater for SMEs as well as global companies.

• internal resistance to change, and to centralisation in some cultures • local differences, real or politically-driven.

There are advantages, therefore, for HR to have its own information system and create a common platform for people management without getting caught up in a wholeenterprise transformation.

An HRD’s experience An HRD who led a large SAP implementation for Finance, the supply chain and HR in a global telecoms company said the entire process had taken five years to roll out worldwide. The HR component on its own would have been far less complex, and could have been done in two years – a commonly cited timeframe for HRIS implementations.

In his view, there is no absolute right or wrong, but there are choices.

2.3 Moving to the cloud The move to the cloud as both a source of software and storage space has accelerated hugely in the past two years. Its advantages of flexibility and reduced costs are persuasive, along with the increasingly widespread adoption of mobile devices at work. The costliness of retaining legacy systems and the lower productivity these engender is ever more evident.

Overcoming fears about security has been a significant driver of growth. L&D and HR systems were generally seen as relatively low risk, and are now predominantly offered on a cloud basis. However, there has been greater caution in finance and some industries who still prefer their own data centres and proprietary firewalls. But here too the tipping point is being passed as CFOs become cloud advocates.

Revelations of the intrusive activities of security agencies, particularly the NSA and GCHQ, is an issue which has many, and ongoing, consequences, and has led to additional security measures. For example, Cornerstone has found it advantageous to locate its data centres in Europe not the US. Vendors now argue that their security is better than most clients can afford, and is kept up-to-date better, which is an appealing message, given the scale and speed of change in cyber-threats.

Here is a brief overview of a complex and shifting marketplace.

• HR suite providers, such as Ultimate Software and Midland HR, have packages which include core people information, payroll, and talent and performance modules.

• Talent, performance and learning suite providers – a leading example is Cornerstone.

• Specialist providers – some are expert in particular areas, such as performance management, assessment, staff surveying, learning, etc, and include IBM and SABA. • Analytics specialists offering software that improves the user-friendliness of ERP vendor technology and/or adds analytics packages, such as Visier and Evolv.

• Consultants and project management firms offering a range of services to facilitate systems selection, implementation and HR process change – including major players such as IBM, Deloitte, EY and PwC. Note that most product and analytics innovation occurs in what is referred to as the 'talent management' product area – in contrast to basic records and payroll which remain fairly constant.

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“HRDs can now go to their financial colleagues with some robust evidence that the money they spend on talent retention or improving engagement actually does make a meaningful difference.“ David Fairs, partner, KPMG.

Observations on vendors

2.4 Customisation vs configuration

• “No vendors yet have a winning allround system.“ • “The big ERP vendors like Oracle, SAP and others want to lock you in.“ • “Among the ERP vendors, there's no clear winner. Workday has stolen a march in recent times. But it hasn't the financial clout, and can't compete across the board with Oracle and SAP.“ • “How long will the big vendors support old systems?“ • “The Taleo acquisition has definitely made a difference to the Oracle offering – that's still work in progress.“ • “The jury is out on how far SAP's acquisition of Success Factors has resulted in genuine user-friendliness.“ • “We partner with them all, from IBM to Success Factors and PeopleSoft. They're all trying to play in the (predictive) space, but I don't know that any of them have figured it out.“

A particularly significant shift among vendors has been the move to configurable rather than customised systems.

• Relatively standardised packages can be configured to meet different customer requirements and the local requirements of different business units, functions, geographies and legal jurisdictions of large companies.

• Updates and new applications are now provided via the cloud, making improvements far cheaper and more flexible – and cloud apps are typically designed to integrate with other systems.

Hitherto, large organisations had installed customised systems which proved expensive upfront, and expensive to maintain. Indeed, the cost and complexity of updating in itself has inhibited making improvements as every change was laborious and incurred charges. Many organisations felt they could not afford customised systems.

Sandy Begbie identifies the difficult track record of customised systems as a central reason why most users have been unhappy with their HRIS set-up and, indeed, why some implementations have quite simply failed. Other interviewees concurred.

2.5 Self-service Along with more integrated, configurable platforms has been the development of easy-to-use software designed for managers and staff. Instead of HR compiling reports for managers using the relatively inflexible programmes provided by customised systems, managers can now easily review and create their own reports – and slice and dice data any number of ways.

Reports can cover any aspect of human capital, starting with basics such as • employee performance and development profiles, tracking, reviews, outcomes • salary and bonus data • job requisitions, candidate flow and information • engagement – data and follow-through • succession planning • people risk management • health and safety.

Employees in general can also view, analyse and enter data, as permitted.

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“An HR function could look very different in four years' time, with a large component of HR analytics professionals and supportive systems. You're trying to get to real-time HR, running data constantly, reacting and predicting. HR now isn't in real time, it's at best six months ago.“ Tim Payne, European HRD, KPMG.

HR-manager conflict However, reducing HR administration loads and encouraging managers to be more selfreliant has been a long-standing issue. Managers have been reluctant partly because the systems offered were time-consuming and inflexible in both input and output.

Meanwhile, front-line administrative staff have had years of battling with cumbersome IT systems. This is finally changing as user-friendly, intuitive and flexible software becomes more commonly available, leading to slimmer HR functions as work generating reports evaporates.

The focus for any data analysis is now on higher value-added work, which is discussed in Chapter 4.

However, the objective of self-service is not simply to improve the presentation of information. It is to foster better decision-making and drive business effectiveness through the way people are managed and invested in. Having robust, real-time information enables management, in principle, to be more agile and speedy – but they have to be skilled people managers in the first place. There typically remains plenty for HR to do on that front.

2.6 HR systems implementation The new world of HR information management is alluring and, once fully implemented, few will want to go back to a pre-cloud, vendor-controlled environment. However, the transition is far from pain-free, with much to learn about getting things right.

Outsourcing • Buying from a vendor is not the only option.

• Various types of outsourcing are also on offer, and can be considered as an alternative.

• Companies such as Xerox and ADP can run part or almost the complete range of the HR portfolio: - talent management - recruitment

- reward and benefits administration - payroll, time and attendance management - etc.

• They also bring their own systems expertise to bear, offering self-service tools that are employer-branded and user-friendly.

• Other boutique firms can provide selective services.

Vendor selection Large global companies typically choose between Workday, Oracle and SAP who compete to provide configurable systems that enable local, legal and operational variations, though the costs can be high – several million pounds may be invested before the systems go live.

Simpler systems are available from various suppliers to suit less complex or geographically spread organisations.

All vendors have strengths and weaknesses. See the column on page 14 for some notes. The Oracle/SAP 'offer' of everything from one supplier was undermined in the past by poor user perceptions of parts of their HR systems offerings – compared with more focused 'talent management' specialists, for example – which they are offsetting through recent acquisitions.

Workday has gained favour quickly due to not being weighed down with pre-cloud product lines and from its founder Dave Duffield’s guru-like reputation.

Supply side competition will continue. At the top end, the market seems restricted with just three main players. However, commentators see continuing opportunities for innovative companies co-existing with backbone systems providers, although the latter will still improve their offerings.

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Common standards and simplicity Organisations must be tough with themselves to achieve internal agreement on common standards and simplicity for systems transformation.

• The more federated the organisation, the harder this can be politically.

• Custom and practice, rather than logic and good practice can dictate how things are done – reinventing the wheel is commonplace, and data comparability becomes progressively more difficult.

• Once complexity embeds into new processes, it is difficult to undo.

Companies such as Amazon and Apple have shown that simplicity enables scale, reliability and speed. Standard Life, Thomson Reuters and others described how they spent time persuading their organisations into more common practices. What helps?

• Evidence of simpler reports and procedures from vendors, advisers and other company examples.

• Stressing simplification in making the business case, and getting top executives to buy in to commonality.

• Head offices becoming trusted as facilitators of good practice by establishing shared perspectives from the outset – rather than being perceived to dictate or make simplistic, cost-driven assumptions.

• The hunger of managers and employees for straightforward processes. Behaviourally, it is specialists who are prone to adding unwanted layers of complexity.

Vendor partnering Larger systems purchasers such as several of our interviewees, can have considerable influence over vendors as product suites continue to develop rapidly, helping to shape the configurability and functionality in a mutual learning exercise. However, to do this, HR clients must know what they are talking about and be adept at supplier management.

Consultancy While in an ideal world, companies would have in-house expertise to project-manage HRIS changes, the reality is that they don’t, either in HR or in their IT functions. Like it or not, they need consultancy help for systems selection, implementation, HR process change and then ensuring everything integrates. HR can often do with an ally who can challenge their IT functions. More self-reliant HR functions may just need a ‘coach’, though others may need a full partner.

The choice is between using big names or boutiques. Some of the latter are run by experienced individuals who have left vendors or consultancies. Publishing papers is one way these companies, large or small, can convey their expertise. Some are then acquired, as Bersin was, by the larger players. As the choice of major vendors is so restricted, the rule is to seek truly independent advice together with real expertise without bias.

Testing Our interviewees invested in a considerable period of review, preparatory discussion and testing with vendors. This helps ensure a good fit between client and vendor – and to explore thoroughly what to do and what to avoid in a rapidly evolving field, often with big ticket expenditure. Consultancy help can play a part but, again, clients should invest in their own capability, as well as obtain good intelligence on other companies’ experiences.

Preparation Preparing for transformation As with any transformation exercise, the difference between success and failure is often determined by the rigour or otherwise of preparation. This includes • the quality of the business case – and then building-in strong and ongoing executive team support • examining and simplifying all relevant people processes • understanding varied business needs and stakeholder viewpoints • selecting and preparing HR and other project team members well – and also preparing the broader professional community for potential impacts • drilling down to the sources of data and re-defining standards where necessary – data 'cleanliness' needs serious attention, especially in variegated organisations .

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Communication and support Companies frequently learn the hard way that they need to invest heavily in both initial and ongoing communication – about objectives, benefits, progress, outcomes and continuing improvement.

• HRIS change is more about ways of working than it is about data – and touches on some very sensitive areas.

• Shifting from a simple portal to an array of talent management applications will backfire if managers don't know how to use them – motivation and education are pre-requisites.

• It makes a huge difference if managers and employees can see clearly how changes meet their needs and that they have been listened to.

• The HR community must exude enthusiasm and be confident in acting as guides and coaches. That can be a tall order given that both the slimming and re-orientation of HR are aspects of moving to a self-service model. Working on HR itself should start early.

Our interviewees addressed these points as project priorities, but learnt that even more could have been done.

2.7 Learning and performance For anyone seeking to understand the impact of technology on performance, the field of learning deserves a great deal of attention. Two-thirds of respondents to Deloitte’s 2014 Global Human Capital Survey said that it was ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ to make online learning accessible and a compelling tool for employees, but only 6% felt they had ‘mastered’ this.

Much is changing, and fast – and the distinction between learning and performance is becoming blurred as never before.

Historically, the conventional view was of a time-lapse and somewhat ill-defined relationship between learning and performance.

• People were trained, then put to work. They were trained some more, and should then be able to do more and better work. If they underperformed, they could be given remedial training.

• Compliance training works on the basis that once required training is completed, a box can be ticked and the employee is certified to proceed.

• The main ways of assessing whether training was effective were to consider input cost, and to check attendance and trainee satisfaction – rather than evaluate any end-result.

However, a better understanding of learning processes and what emerging technology can do is helping to change this outdated view of the world, and provide better measurement.

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“Only 49% of organisations have a senior executive leading L&D, and 45% have a written business plan for learning.“ Mallon, Clarey and Vickers, Bersin Associates, 2012.

Training and learning architecture The SCORM standard that drives conventional LMS is ill-equipped to handle non-traditional learning that is informal, social, and mobile. A replacement standard released in April 2013, officially named the ‘Experience API’ or ‘xAPI’ – application programming interface – enables • a wide variety of learning experiences and activities to be logged and calibrated • learning activities to be logged in a Learning Record Store for any individual.

Systems used in daily workflows will be able to interface with learning management systems to capture milestones and tasks performed by workers and track them within the context of learning.

This experience tracking is part of a fourdimensioned training and learning architecture being devised by Advanced Distributed Learning who led the development of both SCORM and xAPI. The other three dimensions under development are

• Developed in 1996, the 70/20/10 model has become accepted as a more realistic way of describing how learning happens, and emphasises the dominant importance of informal learning.

• Concepts such as ‘just-in-time’, ‘bitesize’ and ‘continuous’ learning have highlighted the importance of ready access to knowledge and learning materials, any time and in any place.

Thus learning is embedded into the work process, real-time.

• The potential of manager, expert and performance coaching to provide tailored boosts to performance is widely recognised – and, increasingly, has online dimensions.

• Simulation, gamification and blends of virtual and face-to-face learning offer a much richer learning experience, combined with a focus on experiential learning.

This is all underpinned by integrating approaches to knowledge sharing, collaboration and learning – using the power of social and peer learning to transform the way work and learning is managed and supported. Social media tools play a major part in facilitating progress – summarised by this diagram of how converging elements collectively drive performance and capability.

Convergence

Learning

Improving, innovating • Products & services • Processes • Organisation

• competency infrastructure Social Media

• content brokering • learner profiles. xAPI offers great potential for the convergence of work and learning, and an opportunity for L&D to demonstrate a more direct, measurable impact on organisation success.

However, L&D functions so far have done little to adopt xAPI – partly from ignorance but also because they are locked into earlier generation LMS technology.

Communication

Collaboration

Feedback

Loop

What has tended to hold back particularly traditional organisations is • limited understanding at the top, and by HR directors, of learning and learning technology • weakly-led L&D functions, lacking technical knowledge and a business focus, who can be trapped in ‘training administration’ practices • IT functions that see HR and L&D as a low priority, and are not up-to-speed with learning technology and social media developments • poor learning management systems.

See the 2012 CRF report, The Impact of Technology and Social Media on Learning. Note: the points about weaknesses in L&D leadership and planning have been corroborated by Bersin’s subsequent research.

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In this context, the learning component quality of an HRIS has particular significance. Key questions include • how much do senior and HR leadership know what good looks like?

• how well-equipped is the organisation with learning technology expertise, able to design a future-focused learning architecture, to buy well, orchestrate great content curation, and use learning technology to benefit all aspects of performance and capability enhancement?

• how well does the learning platform support the management and measurement of all the varied areas of learning activity and integrate with social media, knowledge and work systems?

• how well does data from the HRIS identify linkages between learning inputs and performance outputs?

A potential breakthrough is now available regarding the last point by using big data features described in Chapter 3. Tellingly, however, few HR and L&D professionals are even aware of this development. See the column on page 18.

2.8 In conclusion

• Dramatic changes are occurring in the systems used to support people management.

• The term ‘HR transformation’ has tended in the past to be coded language for HR systems vendors to sell their services. Arguably, the considerably improved functionality of the systems now available does genuinely offer the prospect of a performance-driving, integrated architecture.

• The real transformation actually depends on the rigour with which HR processes are overhauled, simplified and re-set to become fit for purpose. In most organisations, this is where the hardest work is required.

• Success depends considerably on whether the requisite business and HR leadership exists.

• This theme is reflected in the next chapter when one of the critical advantages of better systems – exploiting the potential of big data – is examined.

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BIG DATA “Big data is like knowledge management in the 1990s. There’s a danger of faddism. However, if you really focus on practicalities, it will certainly have an impact, and alter business models.“ Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer, Standard Life.

Description vs prediction vs prescription Dr Michael Wu of Lithium has helped clarify how big data analysis may be approached.

A distinction should be made between statistical hypothesis testing and exploratory data analysis (EDA) – where data examination can suggest patterns and hypotheses. He observes that rather than helping business answer a question, EDA often creates more questions for analysts, who can use three types of data reduction.

• Descriptive – comprises the vast bulk of data reduction , summarising volumes of events and actions.

• Predictive – using statistical modelling, data mining and machine learning techniques to study recent and historical data, allows forecasts about the future.

This remains probabilistic – no analytics can actually tell the future. “You basically take data you have, to predict data you don't have,“ Wu observes.

• Prescriptive – the emerging technology of prescriptive analytics goes beyond descriptive and predictive models by recommending one or more courses of action to show the likely outcome of each decision. It doesn't predict one possible future, but rather multiple futures based on a decision-maker's actions.

Prescriptive analytics requires a predictive model with two additional components – actionable data and a feedback system that tracks the outcome produced by the action taken.

Big data is a popular term that describes the exponential growth and availability of data which is of increasing importance to business, the internet and society.

Here we examine its implications for organisations, data policies and HR.

3.1 Understanding big data Although a 'hot' business topic, many people regard ‘big data’ as another technological buzzword, the meaning and significance of which is unclear. We have found that this applies to many in HR and L&D. Few know what the term means, let alone how it might affect them professionally – but there is a desire to be de-mystified.

Definition is simple. The generation and recording of data is exploding, due to the vast growth of social media traffic and accumulating information on the internet. The ‘internet of things’ will foster yet more data flows. This results in large, complex data sets that are beyond the capacity of databases, software and analytical tools previously in use. The information includes image, video and machine log data.

The three Vs Volume is only one factor that characterises big data. There are two other determinants.

• Velocity – rapid streaming of data in and out of a system.

• Variety – large differences in types of formats and sources of data.

New tools and approaches are developing rapidly to enable insights, correlations and casual linkages to emerge from the clouds of numbers. The increasing cheapness and ease of storage is relevant.

Many assume this data is external to an organisation, which is not necessarily true. There can be large and complex data issues inside organisations, and many of the big data possibilities come from analysing internal and external data in combination. Also, there is much talk about the capacity for big data to be predictive – with the focus now on advanced data analysis. Understanding the different ways big data can be applied is important, as the column notes show.

3.2 Some organisation implications There are potentially huge business benefits from organisations creating, obtaining and storing more transactional data in digital form.

• More accurate, detailed and segmented performance information on everything can be collected – from product inventories to sick days – exposing variability and uncovering performance drivers.

• Sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision-making, minimise risks, and unearth valuable insights that would otherwise remain hidden.

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“HR just isn’t grabbing big data as yet, and so case studies of good practice are hard to find.

There’s a need for more enlightened HR leaders, especially as CIOs are not really leading thinking.

Organisation design and focus is the real issue, not technology.“ Kevin Jones, former Director, Global Human Capital Transformation, PwC. • Questions can be asked and answered that have previously been beyond reach or unimagined.

Big data – a double-edged sword?

• Big data can fuel innovation with new capabilities in prediction, ideation and concept development, and testing.

• It can bring huge benefits. It allows organisations to personalise their products and services on a massive scale; it fuels new services, and can help mitigate business risks.

There are also important challenges.

• Turning the deluge of data into actionable intelligence and strategic insight – or running the risk of drowning in the flood.

• Curating, managing and leveraging higher volumes, velocities and varieties of data demands not only new forms of information processing but new skills, roles and responsibilities.

• One of the most pressing challenges is a significant shortage of people with the skills to analyse big data.

There can be a tension between what is valuable to business, as opposed to what is merely 'interesting'. Some management philosophies will be concerned about time and attention being used for fishing around in data pools. By contrast, innovation enthusiasts favour experimentation and left-field discovery. For those seeking a balanced approach, the disciplines of focus and challenge can avoid going down blind alleys.

Like most innovations, big data can be a double-edged sword, as the column notes.

'Trust' is a growing implication in organisations under pressure – see the 2014 CRF report, Trust – and big data adds new angles. Questions arise about organisations' ability to manage data safely, securely and well. Month after month there are instances of significant data loss, theft or abuse, and of systems breakdown.

• New businesses and business models are emerging, exposing conventional business thinking to competitive challenges. Some of the emerging businesses are on the edge of, or beyond, legal and ethical legitimacy.

• There are many risks of individuals and organisations revealing more than they would wish. Some may be naive or careless, but it is hard to keep up with technical developments even if you are attuned to this. Many are not.

• GPS tracking on mobile phones and tablets built into many products and services adds further powerful surveillance capabilities.

• Even anonymised data can be unpicked by new analytical tools.

In addition, organisations exploiting big data need to understand the potential for ethical challenges, and develop precautionary policies – put simply, “just because we can, it doesn't mean we should.“ This is a major issue in government agencies – with increasing impacts on business. Some large corporation reputations have been compromised.

Consultants Gartner have predicted that, by 2016, 25% of organisations using consumer data will face reputational damage due to inadequate understanding of ‘information trust’ issues – and that 20% of CIOs in regulated industries will lose their jobs for failing to implement successfully the discipline of information governance. Gartner also highlight the subtle balance between improvements in operational risk and strategic risk by using big data techniques and increased reputational risk if, even inadvertently, overstepping certain legal or social boundaries.

3.3 Policy questions In time, perhaps soon, the term ‘big data’ will fade as people, organisations and their leaders get used to the new normal. Meanwhile, there are pertinent questions, particularly for those not having a technology heritage.

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“HR analytics functions are quite embryonic. This is just starting to emerge as a career path. HR is about five years behind Marketing in this respect.“ Vincent Belliveau, SVP and General Manager, EMEA, Cornerstone.

Information as an asset

• How much do the CEO and executive team understand about both the potential and risks associated with big data? How clued up are they about technology in general?

• Infonomics is the emerging economic theory of information as a new asset class – and the discipline of accounting for, managing and deploying information just as any other enterprise asset.

• How knowledgeable in this field are supervisory boards to ask the right questions?

• Executives who accept information as critical, yet continue to eschew measuring and managing it, will have an underperforming asset.

• That is a major risk when it comes to big data innovation, as it may mean underperforming businesses as well. Clearly this has a relationship with the management of intellectual property.

• How has assessment of big data possibilities and risks been built into corporate strategy?

• How well is the IT infrastructure being developed to help exploit big data internally and externally?

• How well-equipped is the organisation with appropriate capabilities and skills?

• To what extent has the organisation put an economic value on its abilities to manage and exploit information? See 'Infonomics' in the column.

3.4 Responsibilities In a 2006 CRF report on employee surveying, the author posed the questions, ‘What is your overall organisation philosophy on measurement, and who takes responsibility for it?’ – and proposed the concept of an organisation analytics function. There was little understanding of these points, such has been the silo-based approach with different metrics.

• Finance and accounting.

• Marketing.

• Operations.

• HR – and, within HR, many subs-sets.

Even in 2014, few organisations have thought about this area, though these factors are pushing them towards doing so.

• The logic of having an ERP system is to create a common platform for different functions.

• The point of big data is to correlate different data sets – including those in organisation silos – to reveal unrealised cause and effect relationships.

• The current drive towards integrated reporting – a purely finance-flavoured account of organisation performance is insufficient.

• A first step towards ‘clean’ people data requires HR, Finance and business areas to agree common definitions, language and parameters for numbers – as will be discussed in the next chapter.

All functions have, or should have, a strong interest in data/intelligence, social media, relationship and project management technology – for example, Marketing, Legal, HR, Finance, Corporate Communications, Strategy, Research and Operations. But, a broader and related question is, who takes functional responsibility for optimising investments and capabilities in both technology and data?

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“CIOs need to make sure they understand more of the business context. The CIO needs to become the chief insight officer. If they are not providing insight for the business, they become just a utility.“ Tim Cook, Russell Reynolds.

Tensions and perceptions The obvious candidate could be the Head of IT or CIO, though there has long been debate about how many CIOs have the strategic ability, human systems knowledge and political clout to drive a sufficiently forward-looking agenda.

• There have also been tensions with functions such as Marketing and HR about below par technology, with IT being seen as holding onto legacy systems, slow to wake up to social media, and reluctant to embrace the cloud.

• Surveys indicate poor perceptions of IT heads as technology and workplace innovators.

• HR functions serially comment that they feel they are ‘bottom of the pile’ in IT priorities, which has often led to HR avoiding IT to get things done – talking directly with systems providers, and creating Facebook and LinkedIn pages, for example, because nothing else is available.

Emerging roles?

In late 2013, Gartner suggested that roles such as ‘chief digital officer’ and ‘chief data officer’ will emerge to get a more holistic grip on the pan-business and strategic issues that technology needs to address. This concept raises as many questions as it answers, including • finding people with the necessary all-round knowledge and skills • does another C-suite position actually reduce potential for in-fighting?

• managing the inter-relationship with the CIO. We would argue that these are significant organisation development and design considerations that any truly OD-oriented HR leader should be able to address.

HROs can help CIOs Eddie Kilkelly, managing director at Insynergi, offers this advice to HR leaders tackling the issue that 65%-80% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives, significantly over-running time or cost targets – hitting both corporate reputations and the bottom line.

“HR can help to bridge skills gaps and deliver IT project success by • developing a technical specialism within HR to understand evolving technologies • performing regular competence assessments to determine current skill-sets prior to project allocation • compiling a central register of competencies and technical skills • sharing portfolio plans between CIO and HR to give early visibility and advance warning of peak demand • maintaining clear visibility of resource allocation, both technical staff and project expertise • ensuring project reviews include a section on resource allocation to ascertain whether staffing can be improved for future projects.“ HR Magazine, 8 February 2014.

While our interviewees included senior HR figures with good strategic understanding of technology, we must report that many HR functions do not have this orientation. As regards big data specifically, there is little sign of any systematic approach within HR, let alone for the organisation as a whole.

Yet if CIOs and IT functions are struggling to adapt to changing business and people needs, we would argue that this is a matter of direct concern for HR leaders, who should have responsibility for • organisation design issues – roles and responsibilities • teamwork – how well head office functions work together • organisation capability – if re-orientation is required, this is a core L&D challenge.

The question is, does HR act sufficiently in an OD capacity on such issues, or does it regard these as political difficulties it would rather avoid?

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Evolv has used big data to prove that the biggest determinant of employee performance and tenure is their line manager. We might already believe that, but data helps to drive action and identify critical behaviours.

Bridging the CIO-business disconnect

3.5 Applying big data in HR

Forrester and the Technology Business Management Council in The Business Technology Value Scorecard, 2013, reported that half of business leaders felt IT was holding back their business.

Big data is largely about what people do. It is inherently significant for HR practice and functions which generate large amounts of information. As in society generally, the amount and complexity of people data are expanding rapidly – in turn, creating challenges about storage, analysis and use.

• CIOs communicated in operational and transactional metrics, while business leaders want to measure the impact of technology on their strategic objectives for finances, agility, and customer satisfaction.

Currently, most HR suppliers and consultants with any connection to data management now offer services or advice on how to handle data complexity.

• Not one CIO measured organisation agility, partly because this is a long-term measure and they mostly think in the short-term.

• where diverse, disparate and fast-moving types of data are available

• While CIOs have long complained that business colleagues understand too little about IT, the report concludes they have not ‘educated’ business leaders to ask the right questions.

• They have also allowed their technologycentric view to create silos, instead of focusing on the customer life-cycle to create a more cohesive systems architecture across their organisations.

• In future, they should evaluate how they contribute across technology, people and process, along with their preparedness for disasters and flexibility to change platforms.

These are classic OD issues towards which HR and L&D colleagues should be oriented, although we found no evidence of this happening systematically.

Where might big data be relevant to HR? In short, • where large numbers are involved

• where there are important questions that go beyond the capacity of conventional data techniques.

Recruitment This is naturally a fertile area. Agencies are keen to exploit the potential of data mining to help them provide better services and add more value. There can be large numbers of applicants to sift, especially in a recession. Clients want processing costs minimised and better targeting.

An important link to learning is reducing the time and investment in getting new recruits up to full productivity as fast as possible. This requires aligning recruitment and induction, underpinned by better information. Greater insight is partly about using multiple data sources – not just Facebook and LinkedIn! – and partly about better analysis of how to ensure greater employee fit.

Talent and succession This is another area where suppliers try to present better data-informed services. The numbers of people may not be large, but the sources of information are varied. Talent management interlinks with recruitment and selection, and workforce planning – as well as learning and performance management.

Engagement This and other forms of staff surveying have belatedly gained more significance in leadership priorities, and in performance and risk management – given ethical and reputational challenges. Motivating employees involves a number of variables, and the key is to understand, quantify, and communicate those variables.

Social media sentiment analysis is adding to and sometimes supplanting conventional survey and pulse techniques. Correlations between engagement data and various aspects of performance offer new insights into performance behaviour.

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“Consumerisation of IT, especially learning technology, is driving change far more than HR and L&D strategies – it’s interesting that we are increasingly talking directly with business heads, who are close to the action.“ Vincent Belliveau, SVP and General Manager, EMEA, Cornerstone,

Learning Learning has been adapting to a digital environment, with a greater variety of learning inputs and expanding use of virtual and digital delivery. This both increases the availability of metrics and the demand for better understanding of effectiveness, from informal to formal learning.

Increasingly pervasive compliance requirements in many sectors have led to a significant demand for better evidence.

Workforce planning This involves pulling together diverse sources of internal and external information, including data from competitors, industry or other benchmarks. Big data software offers quicker and better research of possibilities, and analysis of issues. Understanding, anticipating and resolving skills gaps – addressing both risks and opportunities – can be a competitive differentiator. In tight talent markets, workforce planning capabilities need to be combined with savvy recruitment and employer brand management.

Retention Data allows users to build a model of the organisation and track elements such as salary, career progression, turnover, absenteeism and variable compensation – and use this information to build a predictive model of why people leave. It would indicate how much impact individual levers, such as compensation, have on retention to make better decisions about how to improve retention practice.

Health and safety A particularly fertile area for varied data collection through sensors and tracking devices.

Having listed this range of ways for HR, potentially, to exploit big data, two significant caveats will be examined in the next chapter.

• Is the core data that HR holds sufficiently robust to provide a basis for sophisticated analysis?

• Does HR as a function have the capability and the systems to make good use of big data?

Big data and HR – performance management and reward Performance management • For some jobs there is a valuable range of information sources to allow comparison, and to understand what shapes top and poor performers. That could be aggregated or related to individuals and groups.

• Regarding the latter, tracking methods can be deployed, and a detailed picture of activities and outputs maintained.

• There are important privacy issues to be considered, however – see 3.6.

Reward • Using big data enables fact-based decisions to be made, rather than throwing money at issues. This includes continually examining internal data from turnover rates, promotions, performance reviews and salaries, employee satisfaction surveys, turnover rates and productivity information – as well as external factors such as industry changes, pay scales, geographic factors and so on.

• Accessing new and fresh data, instead of historical data, provides a better picture of the current state of employee populations, and can indicate turnover trends.

The general conclusion is that many HR functions need to walk before they can run, and that their primary challenge is to improve HR analytics.

3.6 Observing performance behaviour As noted above, various methods can be easily used to track where people are and what they do as they learn and work – from the front line to the CEO. Wearable technology and the ‘internet of things’ represent the next major socio-technical development – and what they offer is performance data. In a work context, this can provide rich data that informs performance evaluation for automated systems and also for human behaviour – at both aggregated and individual/team levels. However, such a scenario is not to everyone’s taste.

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“Sensing technology and big data ... can have massive effects on the way companies are organised.

From changing the organisation chart to changing coffee areas, no aspect of organisations will be untouched by the widespread application of this data.“ Ben Waber, author of People Analytics.

Data protection issues

• It is natural to dislike being ‘spied on’, and to desire some privacy.

• There can be nervousness about being constantly judged, and a sense one is not trusted.

• It varies considerably across the world.

• Most individuals know little of their rights, although they can have a strong sense of what they feel is right.

• Lawyers draw attention to a lack of communication and co-ordination between different functions – most commonly legal/compliance, HR and IT – being at the heart of the most damaging data losses and breaches.

• We have identified significant gaps in knowledge in HR specifically, about data protection and privacy in general, and how it is affected by big data, mobile and the cloud – see Appendix 1.

• Tussles about the potential and limits of wearable technology have already begun.

Contrast this with a high performance athlete or team, where close observation is critical in learning how to achieve ‘edge’ and sustained achievement – just as the operation of expensive machinery is monitored continuously.

Low-performing organisations typically suffer from trust deficits, and have management that understands or cares little about how value is generated. For example, they may believe the hierarchy is how things get done, as opposed to the informal networks which characterise the reality of what happens. They are not observing the real organisation, resulting in performance and reward being deeply flawed.

The critical determinant of whether continuous assessment feels right is ‘trust’ – and the mutual interest this entails.

• Those who want to perform and learn should be hungry for information that helps them do so.

• Visibility and transparency are not threats in a supportive environment – they are opportunities.

• Achieving recognition for good performance, effort and improved capabilities, demands thorough and accurate observation.

Where the relationship feels more like genuine partnership, people should be happy to provide information and to feel they benefit from it, directly or indirectly. However, big data can be threatening when there is power imbalance, conflict of interest and a poor quality of employment relationship. See, for example, Is your boss spying on you?, one of a number of recent press articles drawing attention to the potential dangers of misuse of sensing technology and the data that companies such as Evolv can provide for managers.

Data protection is also an important debating point, as the column shows.

3.7 In conclusion

• Big data represents an important step forward in the evolution of organisational metrics.

• Although it will soon be part of the new normal, there are currently questions about how switched on many management and HR teams are.

• A strong case is emerging for a common philosophy, discipline, and approach to numbers. But who should take a lead?

• If HR takes OD seriously, it will ensure that those functions with a professional stake in big data – which should include HR – are aligning their efforts.

• While there are extensive applications of big data in HR, we have noted that HR needs to attend to some basics first.

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HR ANALYTICS “HR has been poor at metrics to date, but lousy systems are no longer an excuse. We have access to a richness of data we’ve never had before.“ Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer, Standard Life.

In this chapter, we examine the specific analytics dimension of the HRIS implementation issues described in Chapter 2.

4.1 Expectations of HR Organisations have no shortage of people metrics. The issue is whether they help take useful business decisions. There are three core questions HR typically has to consider.

Are the numbers accurate?

• Unfortunately, no. Even with basic headcount, there can be discrepancies due to different definitions. With FTEs, for example, between Finance and HR, and between different geographies.

• Many HR functions talk of the time wasted trying to get ‘cobbled together’ systems to arrive at a single version of the truth.

Are the numbers about important issues?

• Again, the answer is ‘not always’. HR does not necessarily use the two key starting points – what the business needs, and what employees value.

Will the numbers help take good decisions?

• Not if they are just numbers without evidence of cause and effect relationships, and which do not link to strategies and actions.

• Analytics are particularly relevant to the latter in aiding decision-taking rather than just presenting numbers on a scorecard.

Organisations, particularly large US ones, started forming HR analytics functions some ten years ago, partly to address HR’s long-observed weaknesses in measurement. This coincided with an increasing focus on ‘talent analytics’ by John Boudreau and colleagues at USC Marshall School of Business. Noticeably, these new units tended to be quite tactical, rather than being linked to business agendas. They also focused on improving the basic validity of numbers by importing accountants into HR. Little appears to have happened since. Deloitte’s 2014 Global Human Capital Trends report found that 86% of companies had no analytics capabilities in the HR function, and 67% rate themselves as weak at using HR data to predict workforce performance and improvement.

Only 8% said they have strong HR analytics capabilities.

Some strongly measurement-oriented sectors, like retail and organisations such as GE, have developed HR functions that share this orientation and capability. The data indicate that the majority have not.

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“It was a cobbled-together thing. People spent 90% of their time figuring out where the data was and 10% on analysing it.“ Kevin Ledford, CIO, Chiquita.

Early days for predictive analysis in HR

4.2 Moving up the maturity model

• A challenge for vendors is to accumulate a critical mass of information that provides a sound basis for predictive calculation.

• In practice, this means enough clients submitting enough data of a consistent quality – and with the same meanings – to form reliable data sets. Essentially, this is what employee survey companies have done for many years to provide clients with benchmarking services.

Josh Bersin, whose eponymous consultancy was acquired by Deloitte in 2013, writes prolifically on HR analytics, and has produced this widely circulated maturity model. The numbers indicate the proportion of organisations in a Bersin 2012 survey that have achieved these relative stages of maturity.

Talent Analytics Maturity Model®

Level 4: Predictive Analytics

• However, the promise is that software can perform much deeper and wider correlations to identify potential causal relationships.

Development of predictive models, scenario planning Risk analysis and mitigation, integration with strategic planning

• As regards HR analytics, it is still early days. Workday, Cornerstone and others are all at the development stage.

Segmentation, statistical analysis, development of ‘people models’ Analysis of dimensions to understand cause and delivery of actionable solutions

Level 3: Strategic Analytics

Level 2: Proactive–Advanced Reporting

• Clients do not primarily use these suppliers with a view to sharing their data with others. Over time, they may be persuaded to do so.

Operational reporting for benchmarking and decision making Multi-dimensional analysis and dashboards

Level 1: Reactive–Operational Reporting Ad-hoc Operational Reporting Reactive to business demands, data in isolation and difficult to analyse

4%

10%

30%

56%

For understandable reasons, there is much talk about striving for predictive capacity.

However, the reality is that many HR functions have difficulty in tackling basic first steps such as generating ‘clean’ data – and vendors are still mostly working on higher-end analysis offerings. See the column.

4.3 Who wants better HR insight?

Andrew Thornton, Head of HR Reporting and Analytics at Standard Chartered, drew attention to these questions in discussing his bank’s HR analytics journey to date.

• Are we going to provide just data or real insight?

• How far up the insight value chain do we want to be? Are we aiming for predictive capacity?

• Are business stakeholders demanding people analytics? If so, what? If not, how do we build the business case?

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“I want to be able to present people data to the board with the same authority as Finance – that’s HR’s challenge.“ Sonia Astill, HR Director, Argos.

It may seem obvious that everyone wants better insight into people and behaviour. But is it?

• The results can reveal uncomfortable information about management style and decisions.

• If the information connects with performance assessment and reward, issues may emerge about how and what information is used.

• HR functions themselves can also feel uncomfortable when hard statistics begin to make HR decision-making more transparent.

“People don’t necessarily know what good looks like. We can be raising questions that haven’t been asked before,“ Thornton points out. “In banks, the dominant tendency is to focus on data about control and compliance, rather than thinking about insights on productivity, improvement and innovation.“ External stakeholders What about external stakeholders? As integrated reporting gathers pace, the challenge for organisations is to provide better information on human and social capital – and to show how this combines with other factors to create value. Yet research into integrated reporting to date

by Bassi, Creelman and Lambert, yet to be published, indicates • little commonality in people data being presented • little dialogue with stakeholders about what they find useful • and little sign, so far, that HR leaders are keen to play a major role in shaping corporate reporting.

While a few organisations commented candidly on people-related matters – accidental deaths, for example – genuinely open dialogue with stakeholders, as IIRC guidelines encourage, about information they want is still rare.

Need for debate • For several reasons, before initiating major HR analytics improvement, attention should first focus on a high level debate about the kind of data wanted, now and in the future, and by whom.

• Both our case examples, Standard Life and Thomson Reuters, undertook this kind of educative exercise as part of an extensive vendor testing period, providing simulations to the top team as well as consultation across businesses and functions.

• Pilots, using software in certain parts of the business, can also be undertaken to demonstrate what a user-friendly, self-service, people data environment feels like.

The outcome should reflect a clear and shared sense of purpose from senior leadership, and not just the HR function. The data generated must address business priorities, as well as meeting legal ‘license-to-operate’ obligations.

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4.4 Starting the journey Both Andrew Thornton of Standard Chartered and Mike Taylor, formerly at Vodafone, HP and BMW, stressed the foundation work required to produce clean data. And, particularly in large and complex organisations that have grown by acquisition, a surprising degree of variation is commonplace in internal metrics, especially people metrics.

“The key to success is the amount of planning and preparation, and to concentrate on data definitions,“ said Taylor. “If variations emerge, you must go back and sort them out, and not compromise once they are fixed. I know of companies where SAP implementations have had to be re-visited three or four times. That lowers confidence and wears you out.“ Similarly, Thornton spoke of identifying the ‘golden source’ of data, and creating an ownership structure for different types. “If there’s a problem, you have responsibilities allocated for sorting it out – and for ongoing quality, security and privacy issues.“ This applies to the organisation in general, not just HR. Interviewees also spoke of the significance of forging a better understanding and working relationship between HR and Finance. This diagram shows the different elements in Standard Chartered’s data governance structure that Thornton’s team created.

Consistent, reliable data which can be manipulated for analysis

Reporting Frameworks A consistent organisational hierarchy, role-based

Facts, Dimensions & Reference Tables

Enterprise data glossary (common terminology)

Analysts who understand the end-to-end cycle

H&S

Payroll

Recruitment

Reward

Fields correctly defined, linked & date time stamped

Performance

Talent

Clear owners & unique identifiers

Learning

Data Sets (examples)

Golden source of information Data Assurance

4.5 Addressing HR's capabilities Developing a more data-rich, self-service, work environment will need a renewed HR focus as those HR administrative staff become largely redundant, and functions themselves become slimmer. HR business partners also are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate they can add value to data analysis, given that managers can do so much more themselves.

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“What's happening is a shift in HR from an art to a science. A lot of HR teams are trying to figure out how to make that shift quickly so it's no longer HR sitting around waiting to be pulled in, but HR coming to the table with nuggets of wisdom.“ David Crumley, Vice President, HRIS and Continuous Improvement, Coca-Cola.

To bring a strategic perspective to debates and decisions, HR can add value by looking across the organisation, across time, and across other organisations. Managers, by contrast, may adopt tactical and parochial viewpoints.

It is widely-recognised that HR managers need to be upskilled to interpret data, resolve business issues, and adapt to big data and the analytical tools it brings – and that the HR focus should be on helping managers make better use of self-service facilities. It is incumbent on HR leaders to recruit for and develop their functions in this direction.

4.6 Specialist analytics and technology functions As noted earlier, analytics functions are scarcely new in HR, though the trend now is to develop functional capacities in both analytics and HR technology.

• HR technologists – responsibilities may include building systems and software capability to meet organisation needs, understanding the supplier market, potentially managing supplier contracts, and developing internal content.

• HR analytics – units that can undertake sophisticated analysis to support decision-making, within HR and/or in support of the executive team.

These are quite different roles and pose challenges in finding and developing capable people within HR, through training, from other parts of the organisation, or externally. See the column for an example.

Data scientist skills and qualities What qualities should business analysts to be recruited into HR analytics teams possess?

• The most important skill is knowledge of the business model and processes of the domain in question, along with an understanding of the data and how to analyse it.

• They will have a business background combined with statistical mathematics.

• Also useful are those with experience in data governance and data modelling.

• If implementing new technologies or open source systems, people with skills to evaluate the technology will be needed – to install, configure, operate, and run the systems, and to write applications.

• In particularly short supply are people skilled with Hadoop – the open-source software framework for storage and largescale processing of data sets.

For HR systems roll-out, the shape and size of teams varies considerably. The Standard Chartered HR analytics team is over 100 people after three years – whereas even the project teams for Standard Life and Thomson Reuters are a fraction of that size. As regards ongoing work, Sandy Begbie’s view at Standard Life is that he just needs a few business analysts to work on ‘clever stuff’ – while they do not need to be expert in HR, they do in analytics. At Thomson Reuters, the role primarily supports the work of the executive team and Board and in planning for strategic initiatives. Such units can also serve as a specialist resource for HRBPs. However, a note of caution. There are limits to what numerical data can do, and HR management should always retain the need for qualitative assessment and judgement, as David Crumley, Head of HRIS and Continuous Improvement at Coca-Cola, points out.

“Analytics are all about probability, and there's just so far you can go with that. If you want to know how many employees you would need to launch a new product, probability can get you in the right ballpark. When it comes to predicting turnover, it's not an exact science. People are people.“ Dr Michael Arena, Head of Global Talent and Organizational Capability at General Motors, adds that talent analytics will never be fully automated. “Sometimes we get projections wrong for all kinds of reasons. It can take several iterations.“

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“When we move beyond the current phase of big data discovery to Analytics 3.0, analytics will be integral to the business and everyone’s job. It’s not just about decisions but about analytics-driven products and services.” Tom Davenport, Professor, Management and Information Technology, Babson College.

As to the longer term evolution of HR analytics, such teams may well be part of a core organisation analytics team – and Thomas Rasmussen of Shell sees this as a specific long-term objective. However, he is realistic about how long it will take – at least five years, even in a measurement environment such as Shell. In some organisations, it is not yet even a conscious thought, itself a measure of how far HR capabilities and metrics orientation have to go.

4.7 In conclusion

• From the literature and current conferences on HR analytics, it emerges that there is a burgeoning interest in the subject though, at the same time, most organisations are at an early stage in developing their approach, systems and capabilities – as indicated in the Bersin diagram in 4.2 above.

• There is a need for sound leadership within HR to steer these efforts productively, in the interests of HR reputation, performance and cost-effectiveness.

• Timescales for improvement are long, and this will require expectations to be managed.

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5 IMPLICATIONS FOR PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

IMPLICATIONS FOR PEOPLE MANAGEMENT This chapter highlights specific implications from developments in technology and metrics for performance, reward, and other important aspects of people and organisation management.

5.1 Performance management

Performance management – a ‘broken’ process?

Common complaints centre around issues such as • overly-complex, bureaucratic processes • de-motivating review practices

Dissatisfaction with performance management systems has been building for many years. Few performance appraisal processes can be said to help talent attraction and retention, capability development, performance improvement and engagement. HR itself attracts little credit from managers and employees for tackling this successfully. See the column.

What changes can be made?

Guiding principles for performance management should, in very many organisations, better align with attracting and retaining and service-oriented workforce.

• Attitudes and behaviour matter, not just getting tasks done.

• Assessment should be continuous and not just at particular junctures.

• forced rankings, leaving many feeling unfairly treated, including good performers • poor assessor/manager rating practices – skew factors range from poor observation to internal politics • frequency issues – the ‘annual review’ often bears little relationship to the events and realities of people’s work • behaviour being negatively influenced by the nature of bonus schemes

• Work is increasingly self-driven, being guided by motivation, personal responsibility and accountability – not just following hierarchical instruction.

• insufficient attention to aspirations and supportive development – especially if reward becomes a behavioural influencer.

• Collaboration, knowledge-sharing and mutual help are recognised as more value-generating than individualistic, competitive behaviour.

Deloitte’s 2014 Global Human Capital Survey reports that

Expectations of managers are shifting, requiring skills in coaching and being able to create the context for performance through engagement and support, rather than command-and-control.

• only 8% of respondents say their performance management process drives value

Where can technology and data help performance management?

• 58% feel it is not a good use of time

• Generating more accurate and rounded performance data which is integrated with development information.

• over 70% are currently, or have recently, reviewed their process.

• Providing better profiles of individuals and teams.

• Producing real-time performance information.

• Using analytical tools to identify cause and effect for how good performance is achieved – and enabling the sharing of examples.

• Support systems for improvement advice and peer coaching to help lower performers.

Questions and caveats • Once the HRIS has been converted into a self-service model, will the better overview and analytical tools for managers lead to a better understanding of individuals and teams?

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“There are many things besides compensation that motivate employees and few companies are good at understanding and managing them. However, I expect we’ll see a change in this as management consultants figure out how to monetise big data.“ Laura Schroeder, Workday.

De-coupling reward and performance reviews Some organisations have always kept performance and reward reviews separate, thus • making performance discussions developmental and supportive • seeking to avoid behaviours that are driven purely by financial incentives

• Managers themselves – specifically their people management orientation and skills – represent the biggest variable as it is they who either create or undermine the development of a supportive performance culture.

• That remains a challenge for many organisations, requiring continued improvement in selection and development processes – the HRIS itself can identify who does this well and who needs help.

• keeping reward discussions as objective as possible.

• Note also the dangers if sensing technology, used for improved performance transparency, becomes overly intrusive to the point where employees are unlikely to consent willingly to such monitoring and analysis.

Many also feel that bonus systems focused on individual performance can do more harm than good. They point to many other factors that determine the worth of an employee at any level, such as

• If managerial behaviour is seen to be supportive and employees feel they own their performance – and it is in their interest to be assessed fully, for both evaluation and development purposes – then this will be seen positively rather than negatively.

• skill level attainment • cost of replacement • value to the organisation, including customer ratings • external labour market data.

They may also base any bonus primarily on collective effort – whole organisation and/or team performance. The philosophy is one of sharing in the good times, rather than inducing people to perform. However, there needs to be acceptance that things may not always go well.

Note that developments in neuro-scientific research are providing behavioural evidence that generally weakens the case for continuing with traditional control and mercenary-based reward systems.

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• Being able to slice and manipulate data does not in itself guarantee greater insight – the quality of performance data gathered or entered is a significant factor.

5.2 Reward While we summarised in 3.2 how reward decisions can be improved by better data, we discuss wider issues here. As regards the thinking behind reward, there is considerable debate about the merits of moving away from conventional bonus systems and the inducement-led logic they represent, which raises fundamental differences of philosophy.

• The ‘mercenary’ philosophy, shaped by agency theory, is being blamed for encouraging risky behaviour, especially in financial services, and profiting from imperfect markets. In addition, this can create a ‘them and us’ culture inside organisations and, more widely, in society.

• The opposing view is to attract, develop and retain people by creating a motivating environment, rewarding collaboration, emphasising recognition more than financial reward, encouraging self-management and devolving accountability – as opposed to centrally-directed targeting and objective-setting from above. See the column.

These are not black and white choices. What counts most is the objectivity of the information used to determine reward – which is where data is important.

5 IMPLICATIONS FOR PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

“Workers don’t want to be captives of their IT department. They want to work the way they live and use the devices they are familiar and comfortable with.“ Thomas Davies, European Director, Google.

Clearly there is still a place for qualitative judgement. However, better evidence can address the reality that managerial ratings are prone to imperfection. No system is perfect, but what counts is that reward decisions are seen as fair.

Better evidence would be particularly helpful to address the ‘pay for performance’ debate about senior level rewards.

• For example, it would help meet the UK’s new reporting requirements that came into force in September 2013.

• Analytics can yield data that indicates where action taken has enhanced value and driven improvement that both investors and others would recognise as justifying meritbased reward.

• Desirable evidence is that which points to lasting improvements in organisation effectiveness, rather than short-term asset value manipulation, as discussed in the 2013 PARC report, Organisation Effectiveness and Top Executive Pay. Of course, CEOs and other C-suite executives have to be willing to submit to more thorough observation which, frankly, some would prefer not to do. This is why private equity and ownership is attractive to those for whom transparency is uncomfortable, and who also may not be interested in the development feedback that better performance data can support.

Value of data and evidence If the way data is collected and analysed improves the quality of evidence, it can be beneficial, especially if it • provides better insight into cause and effect of performance • can clarify whether performance derives from team/collective effort or individual achievement – thus assisting recognition and reward for teams, not just individuals • genuinely reveals who the top performers are, and why • is used to help those performing less well and who could improve, rather than punishing them • does not become seen as surveillance for surveillance’s sake.

5.3 Culture In adapting to the digital world and what is needed from information systems, these aspects of culture should be considered.

Performance culture The 2013 CRF report, Trust, described increased activity among major corporations to rethink their purpose and re-imagine themselves – classic vision and values work.

Unilever’s refocusing on being a sustainable company is one high profile example.

As noted above, leaders and the HR functions advising them, should clarify the kind of organisation they seek to be – what is valued and rewarded, along with the skills and orientation that need developing.

Data systems should underpin this. A frequent complaint from employees when leaders espouse new values is that little actually changes in how they are managed and measured.

So, how information systems are reconfigured is critical.

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Secrecy and transparency • Information security is a major debating point.

• Over-secrecy creates its own risks, driving the need for whistle-blowing, while slackness with internal and customer information also needs to be overcome. As noted earlier, this is a critical area for resolution and informed debate with employees.

• The greater traceability of people and events through digital information – and the pressure for transparency it creates – is something that people and organisations are still becoming used to.

• After-the-event investigations are aided by technical advances in diagnostics. The reality of the digital world is that compromising information can be recovered as never before.

Innovation culture • Much of what new communication, knowledge and project management systems have to offer aims at facilitating improvement-oriented and innovative working – though the leadership and people management culture will determine whether these tools can be put to good effect.

• A critical step is to recognise that successful innovation requires devolving responsibility and building trust. It means, as IBM has found for example, realising and celebrating the fact that some of the most influential and valuable people are not necessarily those at the top.

• Network analysis is useful for understanding what works and what doesn’t in organic productivity and idea flows.

Note that data support systems concerned with control will hinder innovation, whereas those with self-help pathways will do the opposite. People have often resorted to external systems because their internal ones are siloed and restrictive. This discourages even incremental improvement, let alone breakthrough ideation. Alternatively, skunkworks stimulate positive experimentation that would otherwise not take place because of risk aversion and compliance.

Data culture The potential power of emerging analytical tools, and the big data to fuel them, needs to be managed. Unchecked, a numbers orientation can be destructive and, where the extent of automation is spreading and deepening, there are dangers. Financial market volatility is a prominent example, as are concerns about secrecy and transparency – see the column.

Organisations must think deeply about the part they want data to play in determining how it operates and will develop in the future – and this needs communicating to all employees so they understand and are clear about the environment in which they work.

People need to know where they can and should exercise judgement, and the extent to which that judgement is or is not dependent on machine-driven data. This requires ethical considerations across several dimensions such as codes of conduct and anti-corruption requirements – and developing a shared philosophy and approach to managing digital information. An OD-oriented HR function should be alert to these issues.

5.4 Leadership development A key issue is how the challenges posed by technology and metrics management are reflected in approaches to leadership development, along with what HR/L&D’s work is in this area.

Most large organisations are more active in preparing leaders to lead in a VUCA world – but to a lesser extent prepare them for the multi-faceted issues alluded to in this report. For that, leadership development may have to be re-imagined.

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“For the last 30-40 years, how people did HR was to treat everyone the same to avoid employment litigation. But it took the ability to manage people out of managers' hands. These are people who make million-dollar decisions every day. We can trust them to make decisions on how to manage their employees.“ Shelly Carlin, CHRO, Motorola Solutions.

Re-imagining leadership development

Re-imagining the leadership syllabus

This involves • a re-appraisal of what good leadership is – at the top but also throughout the organisation • re-designing the syllabus accordingly – see the column • smart assessment using advancing technology to enable better tailored development • blending face-to-face and digital methods of learning provision, with a deep focus on the experiential and relevant – supported with more imaginative and multi-faceted coaching • stretching participants beyond their comfort zone to help build resilience to cope with future challenges • starting the leadership development journey early by creating diverse talent pools, enabling different generations to learn from each other, and using insights from emerging leaders to guide future leadership thinking and development.

Technology will play a prominent part – simulations and gaming, for example. HR and L&D learning designers need to be proficient in this, and also think less in terms of programmes and more about continuous learning experiences closely related to performance support, management and metrics.

Here are corporate examples of where positive action is underway.

• Tesco – since his arrival as CEO, Philip Clarke has demonstrated awareness of the power of social media to determine the fate of companies. It is no surprise that there is upward mentoring of senior executives by ‘digital natives’.

• Direct Line – like many before him, CEO Paul Geddes returned from a Silicon Valley visit with a fresh perspective on the priorities that needed addressing. For example, there are now plans to sort out the hodgepodge of HR systems inherited from RBS ownership, when various insurance companies were brought together. Additionally, ‘digital’ is one of three leadership development priorities – the others being commerciality and culture.

Making ‘digital’ a priority for corporate strategy should require HR/L&D to focus on what this means for organisation development. Not everyone does this – the UK Civil Service is following the political decree of ‘digital by default’, but it is clear that the will to tackle the human systems implications lag behind the desire to make economies.

Content of leadership development needs rethinking. For example • organisation design – fluid and agile models, how to exercise governance in a non-hierarchical world, how to manage different cycles of innovation within one organisation, and how to make large organisations feel small and vice versa • management style – how to manage through influence rather than control, how to foster cultures of continuous improvement and innovation, transparency, managers as coach and developer, giving and receiving feedback, communicating across cultures – with and without technology aids • commercial acumen and judgement, risk management – how this translates into the VUCA and fast-moving world of technological advance • talent management – leadership’s pivotal role in developing people assets with distinctive qualities to sustain it in the future, along with the data required to support that • role-modelling – what this means personally and to others, and areas where it must have an impact – such as how people behave, communicate, learn, collaborate and achieve results.

Role-modelling is important.

• How smart leaders are in using visual and other communication media channels to connect with both their teams and wider populations they need to influence.

• Similarly, how HR people demonstrate their organisation development credentials through the use of technology. How can they lead thinking in this area unless they are experienced users?

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“The newest and best (technology) is now available earlier to consumers, and CIOs have to face the fact that people will most likely be using faster and better technologies outside the office.“ Robert Kuppens, CIO EMEA, Cisco.

Recruitment shows the way

5.5 Digital relationships

In many organisations, the need to face the reality of recruiting Millenials has pushed functions like HR to become digitally aware, and encouraged greater competence.

• Nearly 50% of recruits now apply for jobs on mobile devices.

• Many HR functions actively use Facebook to connect with their future talent.

• They have moved on to create internal group networking facilities to aid induction and further development.

• LinkedIn is a major feature of the recruitment market.

• Glassdoor and similar websites are important arenas for employer brands.

The reality of the digital world is that almost everyone can be inter-connected and can influence each other. In this context, how well does your organisation orchestrate its relationships with its disparate audiences, and build trust?

• Does the organisation focus on relationship management as a core organisation competence? If so, what does that mean for the responsibilities and expectations of individuals? How is ‘good’ defined and supported? If it is not an organisation priority or competence, what are the consequences?

• How have relationships been re-imagined in the context of the digital world? How does this apply to direct stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, investors and local communities? What does it mean for other important audiences such as regulators, legislators, competitors, potential customers/recruits/suppliers, etc?

Organisations now have to manage a digital relationship with employees from before they join, right through their period of employment and, ideally then, as an alumnus – working on the basis that employees and alumni who are enthusiastic advocates are an important asset.

How well do organisations ensure they achieve this, and maintain this focus as technology and the operating context continues to change?

5.6 In conclusion

• This chapter has sought to show some of the ways in which emerging technology impacts governance of organisations and people, and how thinking about this should continue to evolve.

• Our aim is to provide sufficient pointers to stimulate reflection about what else could and should be done.

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CASE EXAMPLES “Initially, some of our HR managers debated restricting access to My Portrait. I said ‘what’s on there that isn’t already on LinkedIn?!’ Historically, organisations used to think they could control data – they have to come to terms with the reality that it’s all out there.“ Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer, Standard Life.

6.1

People Change Programme principles

Standard Life When Sandy Begbie, Group Operations Officer, joined Standard Life in May 2010, he discovered “one of the worst Peoplesoft implementations anywhere.“ There were numerous reasons, much of which stemmed from failures in customisation. “I had to throw it all out and start again, and move to cloud-based applications.“ It was decided to stay with Oracle, owners of Peoplesoft, as the core software provider, and deploy elements of their new Fusion system. “When we went live in March 2011, we were their first big customer“. Begbie felt there were not many options.

Among these principles, not all follow conventional thinking.

• Processes should be kept simple and apply across all business areas.

• The system should not be built around business processes but business processes designed around the system.

• Do not enshrine the practices of the past.

• Workday were quite embryonic at the time, and had not yet incorporated payroll.

• Given Cornerstone’s focus on talent management and learning, their system does not include payroll capability.

• Oracle was preferred to SAP.

• No customisations to the system (configuration work only). We are implementing a best fit, not a perfect fit system.

• Data is touched once.

• “The purchase of Taleo by Oracle distinctly improved their offering in the talent management area,“ he says.

• The new system will become the single source of the truth.

People change programme

• Customer benefits must drive what we do.

A People Change Programme was devised for six groups of HR process – core HRIS and payroll, goals and performance, salary and bonus planning, resourcing, talent and succession planning, and learning.

• The customer experience must be consistent and good through our transactional processes.

Working alongside Oracle and implementation partner IBM, there was a core programme team of six people, augmented by four implementation managers and 'process leads' covering the six areas above and Canada integration. The process was overseen by a Programme Board. IT reports to Begbie, so the inter-functional tension apparent in other companies was not an issue.

See the column for programme principles.

There were three programme phases, lasting over 27 months, starting in the UK and extending globally.

• Treat customers fairly.

• Costs must be kept within budget and project timescales met.

• Once the scope of the project is agreed, any changes must be signed off as part of the change process.

• Phase 1 focused on key preparation and relatively 'below the surface' systems changes.

• Phase 2 included implementing the Fusion Compensation, Goals and Talent modules.

• Phase 3 moved on to the Resourcing and Learning modules, with Succession to follow.

However, the full list of programme components was far more extensive and incorporated an across-the-board overhaul of HR processes.

Security has been taken very seriously – there are constant tests of the firewall and simulations of cyber-attack.

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“Thanks to the new data system, we have far better debate at top team and Board levels than six months ago. The Board are thirsty for better metrics and analysis.” Mark Sandham, SVP, Organizational Effectiveness and Operations, Thomson Reuters.

Communication and training priorities • Communication and training were major priorities from the outset.

• A wide range of methods were used to alert, persuade and support managers, employees and the people function about People Online – blogs, face-to- face sessions, guidance materials – and ensuring that messaging was segmented, concise and in plain English.

• The plan emphasised the need to appeal to the 'head'/know/ intellect; the 'heart'/ feel/emotion; and the 'hands'/do/behaviour.

• Communicating benefits and progress would be as important as explaining features.

Outcomes The change programme has delivered • cash savings of £7.7 million, plus additional efficiency savings • a return-on-investment of 32% • an initial head count reduction in the people function of 17%, which is anticipated to be 30% in due course.

The latter will include the reduction of HR generalist positions and the work involved in generating reports. "We have had to re-educate HR BPs and others that it's not their job to control information. But they should work with managers to help them understand the data and take good decisions."

There is a small team of business analysts recruited into HR to mine and analyse the data further. Business areas now have concise and accurate summaries of HR data they have never had before, with the facility to drill down. Managers can see performance ratings and much more besides, cut by area and level, in real time. Every employee has a My Portrait page.

The employer brand among younger talent has also benefited from investment in smarter systems, Begbie observed. "When we advertised positions about 20 months ago we had less than 30 applicants. They were put off by our image. We then let that cohort communicate about working here on Facebook and Twitter. The next time we had 250 applications."

6.2 Thomson Reuters At the time of the merger in 2008, the two companies used a mixture of systems. Within nine months, the combined operation had been migrated to a common Peoplesoft HR platform.

In 2011, consideration was given to moving to a cloud-based, self-service platform, which would be a configurable rather than customised model, where every upgrade or release was laborious and expensive. The objective was to reduce complexity – in line with an internal re-structuring with the same objective.

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Options and decisions Options were checked – the latest incarnation of Peoplesoft or something else. SAP, Oracle and Workday were the main alternatives.

• The decision was made to adopt Workday.

• It was a two-year journey, including a year of evaluation. The system went live in June 2013, and was released to 60,000 people worldwide.

• At that time, this was the largest Workday implementation in scope.

• Specific criteria had to be met – including enhancing capabilities and providing the best user experience possible.

Commented Susan Myers, SVP Global HR Solutions and Service Delivery, “Workday shined.

They committed to building certain functionalities we wanted. They listened.” See the column.

Better capability is a selling point The increased analytical capability detailed in the column has been a key selling point internally.

• The Board and management teams are now better-equipped to take strategic workforce planning decisions, and think about skills over the next three-to-five years.

• The Board in particular is thirsty for the better metrics that are now available.

• Managers around the globe are better enabled to manage their teams, enhancing their span of control.

• Talent, compensation and other HR decisions can be made in a more integrated, realtime, way.

Project management • A steering committee was established including Finance and IT, which was fully involved in the due diligence work.

A major step forward with Workday Workday Analytics has changed entirely how reports are generated and information accessed. But the change process also involved significant shifts in approach, and in HR processes.

• 140 new business processes were inaugurated as part of the simplification process.

• Simple global standards have been adopted – only if there is a genuine regulatory requirement is anything different.

• Self-service replaces over 1,000 preconfigured reports – saving time, effort, cost, and is altogether more satisfactory.

• Adoption has been encouragingly swift – in the first six months some 360,000 transactions were processed by managers and employees.

• The proportion no longer using manual processing is the best indicator. For example, it was not long before 90% of all hires were made using the automated facility.

• The combination of assured financial and workforce metrics has generated far better debate than previously.

• The challenge to achieve both a return on investment and better customer satisfaction has been met.

• The chief finance, IT and HR officers sign off major proposals before they are put to the CEO. • 430 focus groups with managers and HR took place. There were some doubters initially, but they could see the benefits; others said 'about time'!

• Thirty-to-forty managers acted as global champions – they gave advice and ideas on process design and training support.

Having changed every process, an early priority was to stabilise systems and data. Then the educative process swung into action.

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HR and analytics While HR data can now be better analysed on many levels, educating the HR function to be smarter in interpreting data is still work-in-progress. HRBPs need to upskill to have better conversations with managers to improve self-service. There is still a role for HR in • standing back, and seeing across the organisation • examining patterns • addressing issues managers do not have time or perspective for.

A small executive analytics function takes analysis to another level. This combines two good HR individuals and several external hires with deep experience of analytics and in building tools.

However, the software is not yet predictive – Workday is still attempting this. Analytics enhancement is a big focus for them, with better correlations between different streams of performance data. And, it is early days in exploiting big data.

Reflections Years ago, an HRIS implementation would have been quite mechanistic. Now it's all about • better customer experience • meaningful self-service • more accountability for managers • adding value to the business.

Far from hurting the business, adopting shared global standards has made things simpler and better. And, the cloud has been fully embraced – the company has stringent security standards and these have all been met.

HR may be working on its own skills but, at the same time, it is driving technology and analytics capabilities in the organisation.

6.3 Shell, big data and analytics We spoke to Thomas Rasmussen, author of HR Analytics – A Practical Guide for Leaders and HR Professionals, and head of Shell's HR Data and Analytics department since 2013.

Shell and big data “As an engineering organisation, we know that data can help us address many questions.

The Board understands this. We have plenty of data and we’re getting better at understanding it.

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“In the long-term, my goal is to graduate the analytics function out of HR, into an integrated corporate analytics function. But this will probably take many years.”

“We are taking a strategic view on big data, but it is early days. Eighty per cent of the work is about getting basic MI right and using it well before getting to the strategic issues – the remaining 20%.

“We target our efforts in big data, rather than fish for patterns. In five-to-eight years, we may have a cross-functional unit looking at analytics but we are not at this stage yet. No, we don't yet articulate an overall philosophy on data management.

“No one person takes the lead, but the most logical choice would be the head of group strategy as that function is responsible for combining inputs.

“We do have a common SAP platform to build on.”

HR analytics “HR needs stronger capabilities in analytics to obtain a better return from its IT investment, and to make better business cases for its proposals.

“Data isn’t everything – leaders still need to exercise judgement. However, good evidence clearly enhances decisions and investment choices.

“The very best data may give us a competitive advantage. For example, we think we’re ahead of the curve in modelling workforce needs.

“Generally speaking, HR and learning people are not deeply familiar with numbers. L&D is supporting things but isn’t ahead of the game.

“My team is now providing some focus – developing a two-day course to promote analytics, for example.

“Courses and workshops can take us part of the way but it’s also about getting the right people. You can have lots of nurses but sometimes you need a doctor. And you can’t always change a nurse into a doctor.

“In the long-term, my goal is to graduate the analytics function out of HR, into an integrated corporate analytics function. But this will probably take many years.”

6.4 A more typical company?

We spoke to a recently-appointed HR director of a 20,000-employee, global company, who revealed a very different picture to that of Standard Life and Thomson Reuters. It sells technology products and has grown by acquisition, with management used to working entrepreneurially in a devolved way. There has been little appetite for integrated ways of doing things, and the workforce is quite diverse.

“We are not a globally integrated business, and the management mentality is not oriented to integration. The perception is that we don’t have a significant talent issue, and we are only just starting to think about things like employer brand and EVP.”

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6 CASE EXAMPLES

“I’ve found it difficult to make a business case for better HR systems. It’s too much of a leap of faith.

The business benefit doesn’t stack up to them. And it’s not just HR – business process integration is in its infancy here.”

Systems “When it comes to systems, we have to make do with disparate, heritage systems. The payroll systems are all different – and at group level we have to draw data from Finance.

We struggle with inconsistent data and definitions. We don't get read across, and are continually dealing with data that's not up-to-date.”

Suppliers are providing more modular products but, without a connecting architecture, the advantages of upgrading are constricted.

HRBPs The orientation of HR business partners is not particularly analytical. “But our issue is less about HR's ability to talk data, than business recognising people as a business-critical factor.

Resource availability and skills are not seen as important business issues.”

Given the multi-million price tag of a global ERP or HRIS system, the HR director sees little likelihood of progress at present.

“I’ve found it difficult to make a business case for better HR systems. It’s too much of a leap of faith. The business benefit doesn’t stack up to them. And it’s not just HR – business process integration is in its infancy here.”

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7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 7.1 Conclusions • We are in an era where the ability of an organisation is judged, like it or not, on the way it deploys technology. The patience of customers, regulators and employees is tested by poor systems as never before, particularly if what people can use at home is smarter than what is in use at work.

• At the same time, software advances mean that systems are getting easier to use, more intuitive to learn, and more integrated in function. Organisations still using legacy systems need to calculate the advantage, in both effectiveness and reputational terms, of transforming the way they do things.

• For organisations that manage their systems investment well, huge advantages may accrue in organisation effectiveness, customer and employee motivation, and in continuing revenue streams and innovation.

• The health of the external and internal aspects of brands is increasingly governed by the way organisations act through digital communications – whether attracting and retaining customers or talent. From leader to front line employee, managing relationships across different channels and interfaces is intrinsic to cohesion – and to both personal and collective reputation.

• This is a pivotal time in HR systems specifically. The advent of cloud-based software opens the door to greatly improved systems support for both people managers and HR. • Critical factors undermining many organisations’ digital capabilities include how illprepared their leaders are to orchestrate technological advance, and how poorly-organised and equipped are key support functions such as HR and IT. • However, there are also organisations and HR leaders demonstrating a strong focus on systemic abilities to deploy and use technology, whose example may be emulated.

• An HR function with OD orientation and skills should recognise the major role it has in helping leaders, other functions and employees to adapt continuously to evolving technology in skills, culture and governance to drive organisation effectiveness. The utility of an HR function that does not do this is questionable.

• While big data has much to offer HR functions, it is still early days in developing the more predictive capabilities that are much talked about. Addressing big data is only one aspect of much needed improvements in HR analytics. Basic capabilities and data cleansing need most attention.

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7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

“CHROs are part chief HR officer, chief people officer, chief culture officer, and chief change officer... they must act boldly, drive innovative new programmes, and collaborate directly with the CEO and other top leaders. Companies are now promoting business leaders into the CHRO role – attempting to drive bold and innovative thinking into the people part of the organisation.” Josh Bersin.

7.2 Recommendations The table that follows summarises and re-articulates advice indicated earlier in the report.

Who

What

HR role/activity

Corporate leaders

• In-depth understanding of how technology impacts ways of working and performance, in general and relevant to the sector

• Leadership development • Working with IT on human and technology systems strategy

• Personal role-modelling of communication media and learning methods, championing collaboration and improvement • Digital and data governance – disciplines about reporting and enquiry to ensure the organisation’s capability and security are constantly addressed. See Appendix 2

Governing boards

• Keeping abreast of technology developments that should shape decisions about strategy, structure, culture and change

• Ensure regular feed of high quality internal and external briefing

• Ensure leadership is well prepared to future-proof the organisation

• Select business and function heads with the right orientation and experience, and monitor their performance

• Actually experience and use technology tools, and talk to employees – specialist and non-specialist

• Ask penetrating questions that keep management alert – see Appendix 2

CIOs/IT leaders

• Design systems around business strategy needs and the ability to flex as circumstances change • Ensure as much attention is paid to human systems as to technology • Proactive in leading education and debate about future systems development, in order to equip management with technology understanding • Provide the technical solutions that support productive and secure ways of working – and resolve any tensions

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• Partner with IT in analysing and presenting organisation development issues relating to technology • Skills development within IT to enhance project management and collaboration with other functions

7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Who

What

HR role/activity

HR leaders

• HRIS and HR transformation to shift to self-service

• Fundamental work on data definitions and overhaul of all HR processes • Restructuring of HR • Preparation and re-education of management population, from Board to front-line supervisors

• Grasp the long-standing issue of HR analytics capability

• Redefining people requirements – HRBPs, for example • Recruiting and blending hard and soft skills • Skills and talent development within HR

• Actively develop integrated reporting to demonstrate how the investments in human capital enhance value and sustainable performance

• Develop the partnership with Finance and Communications • Achieve clear agreement on the metrics stakeholders value • Align HR information and people risk metrics to feed into integrated reporting

• Developing HR analytics functions to enhance decision support to management teams and Board, and conduct deep research – in workforce planning and change management, for example

• Blending HR and business analysts into a high calibre decision-support team

• Developing HR technology function to enhance and unify infrastructure; develop content curation; integrate learning with support for performance, collaboration and innovation; and ensure continuing future focus on systems and ways of working

• Blending HR, L&D, and technologists

• Address digital and data competence across the organisation, enabling it to develop shared disciplines and standards

• Ensure this is in leadership and employee development at every level

• Build a culture of attention to data quality and security throughout the organisation

• Investing in big data predictive and prescriptive capabilities

• Actively researching systems advances, understanding supplier markets and product development

• Develop clear, shared policy and practices governing data management • Build appreciation that it is in everyone’s interests to manage data well • Actively work with other central functions to develop teamwork and a shared approach to supporting the rest of the organisation including all aspects of corporate reporting • Ensure specialists and subject matter experts are recruited, enabled and retained to facilitate organisation performance • Develop an organisation analytics function

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7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Who

What

HR role/activity

HR leaders/ reward heads

• Performance and development review processes

• Re-engineer to ensure that review processes motivate good performance • Ensure top performers are recognised and valued; that the best is achieved from other employees – and, in particular, that poor performers are sensitively but firmly re-directed and supported • Objective data is generated to underpin fairer and more motivating performance reviews

• Performance and reward metrics

• Using enhanced analytics to develop more tailored performance measures, to determine a full range of reward/bonus schemes, and provide better ‘pay for performance’ evidence • Linking learning and performance measurement and analysis

HR business partners

• Decision support for management teams

• Sharpening analysis of people performance factors • Proactive research of business enhancement ideas • Using behavioural analysis for both problem and opportunity spotting

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8 APPENDIX 1

APPENDIX 1 Data protection and privacy It is important to understand how data protection works in an era of big data, mobile devices and cloud computing. Our research, including discussions with employment lawyers, produced these headlines.

• Legal principles need to catch up with new technology. Court cases now abound illustrating this point across many different aspects of employment. Judges face difficulties in working with ‘old’ law.

• HR functions have low awareness even of current legal requirements, such as the UK’s Employment Practices Code, let alone how to adapt them to new operating conditions. The Code is due to be updated, although how and when is not yet clear.

• Meanwhile, employers should urgently review whether their policies, practices, guidance and capabilities are fit-for-purpose and able to be adapted continuously as technology develops.

Here are some dos and don’ts.

Regarding big data • In the context of the potential to gather large quantities of data on performance, employers also need to consider what is relevant and proportionate. And even where permission has been given, as with customer data, organisations must ensure that people understand what they are acceding to. Subject access requests may now cover a much wider range of data.

• Part of the attraction of big data is seeing where the data leads and being able to answer as yet unknown questions. However, that innovative outlook can clash with principles about being clear from the outset why data is being held.

• Data transparency and unintended consequences – big data may reveal embarrassing facts and situations.

Information flows and devices – dos and don’ts • Information that crosses communication devices used by employees for their work – whether company-supplied or their own – is subject to the legal requirement for organisations to preserve and produce electronic information.

• In the context of BYOD policies, it must be understood by employees and employer that such devices are subject to company responsibilities to find, preserve, produce and – ultimately – own information.

• Any information processing that is outsourced in any way has to be monitored and measured. Companies keen to shed costs need to appreciate the whole picture of potential expenses.

• Employees can lose devices and import malware. Due precautions, encryption and training need to be deployed to avoid these and similar security issues associated with using home, remote and mobile devices.

• Organisations should have clear processes covering employee-held data when employees leave.

• It is likely that future data protection law will no longer recognise that data anonymity can be guaranteed, which will lead to restrictions on the use of data previously seen as anonymised.

Social media • Social media policy needs to cater for use by employees on behalf of the company, as well as allowing for what they do privately. The clearest distinction possible should be made between these uses. Simply banning private use on company time and devices is one tactic, but scarcely the most sensitive in terms of employee relations, nor practical given evolving norms.

• Organisations should ensure everyone understands how to use social media sensibly, and what information can be shared or kept confidential. Once agreed, monitoring to enforce this will be legitimised.

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8 APPENDIX 1

• Privacy compliance should be embedded in the organisation culture. This is about both respecting personal privacy and preserving the confidentiality of important company information.

• Caution should be exercised when seeking, using and storing personal information from social media sources when recruiting. Organisations should avoid information on candidates that has been communicated in a personal capacity with friends and family – on Facebook, for example. Applicants should be notified if online information will be used to collect information about them.

In summary, organisations need to • ensure they have a person or persons with clear responsibilities for, and expertise in, data privacy and protection who can see through and across the organisation • have policies and precautions in place to protect both the organisation and its people • focus with all stakeholders on education and communication about data management • stay up-to-date.

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9 APPENDIX 2

APPENDIX 2 Digital and data governance The following questions are examples of what should be considered by executive teams, as well as by Boards, in their oversight of executive management.

• How technologically-savvy is the organisation? How does that influence future capability and innovation?

Systems and data • How does our effectiveness in managing systems compare with other organisations, and translate into organisation effectiveness? What could we do better?

• What value do we ascribe to the organisation’s ability to acquire and deploy knowledge and data? Do we know how to do this?

• How effective are our management information systems in supporting decision-making?

• How effective is the leadership team in encouraging technological competence?

• How well do our data systems support integrated reporting and performance analysis?

• How knowledgeable is the Board about how technologies improve organisation effectiveness and innovation?

• How integrated across the organisation is our philosophy and approach to measurement and analysis?

• How well do we ensure that people of different backgrounds and orientation to technology are effective in using core work and communication systems – in the interests of knowledge flow, collaboration and information security?

• How well does the organisation learn from success and mistakes, and convert learning into business improvement? What helps and hinders its learning ability?

• How well-positioned are we to take advantage of ongoing developments in big data?

• How robust are our systems to resist accidental or purposeful damage?

• How well do we ensure that we manage data responsibly, and avoid the danger of reputational risk?

• How collaborative is the organisation? What steps are necessary to achieve or maintain desired levels?

• What investments can enhance learning and collaboration?

• How well do we ensure that the way we use social media serves to enhance our reputation as a reputable and stakeholder-oriented organisation?

• Does the organisation have expertise in future-proofing, as far as is feasible? Who works on this, and on driving transformation, innovation and the ability to execute strategy?

• What mechanism exists to integrate thinking and exercise good governance of initiatives regarding the digital workplace?

• Does the organisation’s change strategy enhance both learning and employee commitment by being a developmental process? How does technology help?

• How do our IT, HR and learning functions perform and compare with others, in general and in how they deploy technology? Are they doing the right things? Can they be improved?

Note: this list incorporates some questions previously listed in Chapter 4.9 of CRF’s 2012 report, The Impact of Technology and Social Media on Learning.

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10 REFERENCES AND READING

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Bersin. J, O’Leonard, K, Wang-Audia, W, High-impact talent analytics: Building a world-class HR measurement and analytics function, Bersin by Deloitte, October 2013, www.bersin.com/library.

Performance & Reward Centre One Heddon Street Mayfair London W1B 4BD United Kingdom T + 44 (0) 20 7432 4565 F + 44 (0) 20 7470 7112 www.parcentre.co.uk info@parcentre.co.uk