2. DEFINING “BEST-IN-
CLASS” PERFORMERS
In the Aberdeen Group’s study, “The 2011 HR
Executive’s Agenda,“ companies that earned
the designation of best-in-class performers
relied significantly on the use of workforce
analytics and achieved the following:
OUTPERFORM WITH • 87% of employees rated themselves as
“highly engaged.”
WORKFORCE ANALYTICS • 78% of key positions have ready and willing
successors identified.
Overview • 12% year-over-year improvement in hiring
manager satisfaction.
According to industry research, companies using
workforce analytics outperform those that do not. It is
that simple.
In a 2010 report, “Analytics: The New Path to Value,”
researchers from MIT revealed that top-performing
companies are three times more likely to be advanced THE BIG SHIFT TO
users of workforce analytics than lower-performing
companies. As well, these top-producing companies STRATEGIC HR
are two times more likely to cite workforce analytics as
their competitive differentiator. With workforce analytics, HR professionals can play
a more pivotal role in their organizations to help
This is a definitive statement to the power of workforce direct senior management and hiring managers in
analytics as a core driver of an organization’s success. connecting the dots between their company’s overall
performance and their investment in their workforce.
Similarly, the Aberdeen Group’s recent 2011 study,
“The HR Executive’s Agenda,” clearly shows that Workforce analytics empower HR professionals to shift
organizations integrating workforce analytics with from being an operational function to becoming more
business performance analytics are nearly three times of a strategic role within their organization. Workforce
more likely to achieve best-in-class performance status analytics uncovers deep insights into workforce data
over those that do not. (See the callout, “Defining by drilling down into the data and highlighting both
‘Best-in-Class’ Performers.”) Aberdeen’s research also patterns of success to be repeated and patterns of
indicates that organizations using workforce analytics failure that could lead to risk and impact.
experienced a 14% year-over-year improvement in
revenue per employee, compared to just 5% for those Equipped with powerful workforce metrics, HR leaders
companies that do not. can clearly identify and communicate to the “powers
that be” precisely where their company’s investment
Clearly, for organizations that want to achieve best- in human capital is paying off and, more importantly,
in-class status and maximize their performance and where it is falling short and why.
profitability, workforce analytics have become a “must
have.” In such a competitive landscape, workforce Companies must align their people strategy with
analytics are no longer a “nice to have.” their business strategy in order to be successful and
profitable.
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3. “With the help of [analytics] tools, companies
can shift time and attention away from HR
administration to the more value-added aspects
of HR, such as talent strategy. For example,
in the financial services arena, savvy smaller
players have been recruiting top loan producers
from big banks, greatly increasing loan
volumes.”
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, “10 Minutes
Without deep insight into their workforce data, how on Transforming HR,” March 2010
can business leaders make informed and effective
business decisions for their organization as they relate
to human capital and talent management?
Indeed, the October 2010 Harvard Business Review
(HBR) article, “Competing on Talent Analytics,” makes it HR leaders must educate senior executives and line-
clear that high-performance companies use workforce managers as to the true value of workforce analytics to
analytics to align their business strategies with their help them succeed as an organization. By failing to get
human capital strategies. “These companies have company-wide support, a workforce analytics initiative
taken the guesswork out of employee management will fail, and HR will continue to fall short of being more
by leveraging analytics to improve their methods strategic players in their own organization.
of attracting and retaining talent, connecting their
employee data to business performance, differentiating
themselves from competitors, and more,” the article WHERE TO BEGIN:
states. HR is a critical partner in these strategic efforts,
providing the analytics these organizations need to THE KEY THREE
enhance the overall value delivered by their workforce,
and to earn a solid financial return on their human The obvious questions are, “What metrics should I be
capital investment. tracking?” and “Which KPI’s will provide me and my
organization with the greatest value?”
Of course, accessing and measuring workforce
analytics is only part of an HR professional’s equation When getting started with workforce analytics, HR
when looking to implement workforce analytics. To professionals must be clear on what the top driving
be truly successful, HR leaders must generate the initiatives are from a corporate perspective—what
appropriate organizational support among critical are the overall business objectives? HR must identify
stakeholders, from the top down. In fact, a company’s and measure those workforce metrics that are most
workforce analytics initiative should be looked upon impactful to your organization. As your organization
as a corporate initiative (not just an HR initiative) matures and evolves, metrics too will evolve, adapt and
and include critical input and buy-in from various change but you need to identify a baseline of metrics
departments. Sales, finance, operations, and IT, as as they relate to your initial workforce strategies and
well as front-line managers, all can provide HR with requirements.
critical feedback regarding their unique workforce
requirements and how decisions about the workforce HBR’s “Competing on Talent Analytics” article shows
impact the business strategy. that high-performance companies track a wide
range of metrics from basic human capital facts
Business leaders need people to do the work and they (headcount, cost-per-hire, etc.) to more sophisticated
need HR to supply real-time accurate data to help them performance data (how workers are impacting actual
make smarter decisions about their workforce. business results). Global food-service giant, Sysco,
for example, began its workforce analysis with three
HR leaders must communicate with senior-level gross measures for each operating unit: work climate/
executives and front-line managers to determine the employee satisfaction, productivity and retention.
company’s future strategies and focus their efforts to The article’s authors note that Sysco “has drilled
fill these roles with the right talent to achieve those deeper to understand, measure, and manage seven
objectives.
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4. other dimensions of the work environment, including Focusing initially on these fundamental workforce
frontline supervisor effectiveness, diversity, and quality areas will not only help you position HR as a true
of life.” strategic partner but also to deliver a variety of
bottom-line advantages to your colleagues such as
Whether your organization is just starting out with providing unprecedented insights into productivity and
workforce analytics or using some form of workforce performance levels of their direct reports, highlighting
analytics but looking to expand the maturity of your functions and roles that may require special attention,
metrics, it is strongly recommended that you focus on and enabling greater profitability through better
three fundamental HR areas—Turnover, Recruiting and workforce cost control for their departments.
Employee Performance—before moving onto more
advanced workforce metrics.
WORKFORCE ANALYTICS —
1. Turnover—Identify who is leaving the
organization voluntarily and why. Is it related to TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
onboarding, training or management issues? Do
particular functions or locations account for a It wasn’t all that long ago when employers were forced
significant portion of your overall turnover rate? to make human capital decisions without solutions
designed exclusively for accessing, measuring,
Use your findings to address performance or and reporting workforce analytics. Many leading
training gaps and improve your investment in organizations today still do not use a formal workforce
human capital. analytics solution to help manage their HR metrics.
According to a 2012 Visier Inc.-sponsored survey of
2. Recruiting—Identify the top talent common over 150 U.S.-based employers, a growing number of
characteristic traits for each position in your organizations are in fact using some type of solution
organization—especially those that drive to manage their workforce data. 78% of the survey’s
business performance—and map them to your participants state they employ some type of method
internal and external recruiting strategies. to manage their workforce analytics. (See the callout,
“Tools Companies Use To Manage & Report Workforce
Use the data to determine the types of skills and Analytics.”) However, 32% are dissatisfied with how
abilities that you need to actively recruit for both they are using workforce analytics, and 36% plan to
immediate and long-term success. increase their workforce analytics investment in the
next 6 to 12 months.
3. Performance—Identify who are the under-
performers and why. Understand when and These findings indicate that a majority of employers
where productivity fluctuates and why. Align believe in the power and importance of managing
compensation and incentive programs with and reporting workforce analytics but a significant
performance. portion of respondents are still figuring out how best
to access and measure the data more effectively. One
Use this information to improve performance problem that often stands in their way—especially
by deploying better management, training, when organizations use multiple, disparate HR systems
incentives, etc. to track HR data—is that they cannot get a unified
and comprehensive 360 degree view of their true
workforce data—and delivering the true ROI of their
human capital management.
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5. THE TOOLS COMPANIES
ARE USING TO MANAGE
& REPORT WORKFORCE
ANALYTICS
Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62%
More companies today are waking up to the fact
Integrated analytics from HRMS/HRIS . . . 39%
that people are the most expensive asset to their
organization. Executive leaders and HR professional
are seeking alternative ways to help their organizations Analytics from financial
answer and address critical workforce questions and be solution (e.g., ERP) . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
more pro-active in their HR approach.
Corporate/IT-delivered
Data doesn’t lie. By implementing a complete, end-to- business intelligence system . . . . . . 12%
end workforce analytics solution, organizations can
get an accurate birds-eye view of their workforce and Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
use the data to guide them in fact-based human capital
decisions and strategies. Dedicated business intelligence for HR . . . 8%
In considering a workforce analytics solution, here are Dedicated workforce analytics solution . . 7%
four key recommendations to look for:
Source: Visier Inc. 2012 Survey of U.S.-Based
1. Make sure it easily integrates HR data across Employers; conducted by Fisher Vista
all HR systems. Streamline reporting efforts
for your HR professionals to extract, analyze,
understand and report on large amounts of
complex data from disparate HR systems.
Eliminate the need to “piece together” 2. Look for solutions that help predict trends
workforce data housed in multiple, expensive and outcomes. Organizations that use basic
and complex HR systems and provide a true and reporting methods such as Excel spreadsheets
accurate representation of workforce insights to are at a huge disadvantage with the opportunity
stakeholders and decision-makers—saving your to use automated solutions that identify
organization both valuable time and money. patterns of behavior and characters to help
determine failure or success. It is essential that
employers create recruiting and development
plans that ensure they have the “right” talent
required to achieve business goals. This means
they need solutions that offer predictive
and modeling capabilities. Using advanced
clustering techniques empowers you to uncover
hidden patterns of behavior or common
characteristics, help predict future plans and
outcomes and make better, more informed
decisions—based on past and present data.
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6. 3. That it offers an intuitive user experience. As a growing body of industry research continues to
Workforce analytics must actually be put to use highlight, workforce analytics tools—and the array
to be of real value. The broader the adoption of insights they provide—are essential to companies
of the workforce analytics solution, the seeking to outperform their competitors and maximize
broader the adoption of fact-based decisions their profitability. By integrating workforce analytics
to improve your workforce. User-adoption with business analytics, you will not only improve your
in an organization is the key to success or human capital ROI but you will also increase the value
failure for your workforce analytics initiative. that your workforce delivers to your organization’s
Therefore, it is imperative that the solution be performance. HR leaders have always understood that
user-friendly and intuitive. This not only ensures people are the most critical and important element to
higher adoption rates but it also reduces a company’s success. With workforce analytics, those
implementation and training costs, with a leaders finally have the tools necessary to turn that
solution that is simple to use. knowledge to action.
4. It enables analytics to be reported easily and
compellingly. As a true strategic partner in
your organization, HR must share their data
in a way that influences decision-makers into
action (e.g., to recruit specific types of talent, to
reduce headcount tactically, to develop certain
individuals within the organization). The most
powerful analytics solution should present
information with clarity and visual appeal. Using
PowerPoint to re-create visual representations
and reporting of your HR data can often be
time-consuming. Solutions that can easily
and seamlessly export data and create
visual representations in one easy step are
advantageous, especially if you are reporting
monthly or quarterly with extensive data and
must refresh data on an on-going basis. Sharing
findings in a collaborative, easy way with
stakeholders can reduce costs, shorten decision
times and achieve greater alignment.
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7. About Visier
Workforce Analytics
Visier Workforce Analytics is an end-to-end, cloud-
based application designed for HR professionals
to easily identify and improve the ROI of their
organization’s human capital. Reduce costs,
improve productivity, attract and retain top talent
and implement a workforce strategy that supports
the business strategy. Visier Workforce Analytics
is a powerful, intuitive and interactive solution
that uncovers deep insight into the core metrics of
your workforce, by answering the most critical and
fundamental questions facing HR professionals about
their workforce, and more importantly, with predictive
what-if analysis helps to predict and plan for their
future needs.
Founded in 2010 by business intelligence veterans,
including former Business Objects CEO, John Schwarz,
the leadership team has a proven track record of
technical, operational and strategic management
success with companies including Business Objects,
Crystal Decisions, SAP, IBM and Symantec.
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