HR data analysis is not a topic for experts only: with the right training, the HR team can tackle it successfully and bring value to the entire organization.
Making decisions based on information and insights derived from data is no longer an option but a necessity that cuts across all organizations.
Typically, people in the human resources department have mostly humanities or psychology backgrounds, at most economics with minimal statistics and mathematics.
How to give them the conceptual and practical tools to deal with a topic like statistical analysis of HR data?
First, traditional HR skills are not replaced but enriched and enhanced by mathematical and statistical tools.
These complementary skills strengthen each other because, at the centre, let us not forget that there are always our people.
HRI has developed an educational path for Data-Driven HR (data-driven HR decisions) that has already been successfully followed by several clients.
The path
The learning path should focus on application and be built together with the company. The topics covered must be meaningful to the organization as a whole and to the HR department.
If possible, a real data set should be used to provide examples and exercise material. In this way, the course can offer more than just the transfer of skills by also offering answers sought by the company.
Let’s have a prior assessment of the degree of knowledge and preparedness on the main tools you are going to use. It may sound strange, but Excel is a sufficient tool for a wide swath of data analysis and representation. More powerful tools (Matlab, Mathematica, R, etc.) can be introduced in an advanced course.
The course is divided into 3 different sections:
- A general overview of the topic of data analysis and research to business questions;
- A roundup of the main methods of analysis with examples and practical tools;
- An in-depth look at how to effectively present insights.
From data tu insight: the art of asking the right questions
The Data Driven HR approach aims to return the value of data held by the HR function by transforming it into information and insight. These insights can enable us to, among other things:
- Improve our decisions;
- Optimize processes and activities;
- Improve EX (Employee Experience).
This first section, therefore addresses:
- Productive Thinking to ask the right questions and process data in an informed and purposeful way;
- The main cognitive biases and how to avoid or mitigate them;
- The main types of data, external and internal to the company, along with their limitations and potential;
- What an insight is and the historical and scientific origins of the concept of insight in Gestalt psychology are described .
Data Analysis Metholodologies
Science and technology have addressed the need to analyze data from physical and social systems countless times, so the methodologies and tools available are virtually infinite.
This section describes:
- The methods for “cleaning,” integrating, and normalizing databases for analysis;
- The main methods of data analysis on a wide variety of case histories: principles of descriptive statistics, clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, etc. ;
- Examples of specific cases, such as: creating an optimal team against some benchmarks, analyzing the career path comparatively among several people, etc. ; .
The representation of insights
The effective representation of what has been found through data analysis is as fundamental as the analysis itself. In an organization, one must be able to communicate and guide choices based on what is understood by involving other people and functions.
In this section:
- A model developed by HRI called Data-to-Action is proposed that gives a general framework from business questions to actions via data analysis;
- Countless examples of effective representation of data and the insights it can bring are given.
From theory to practice
The entire course is geared toward training immediately usable skills and tools within everyone’s reach.
To our great satisfaction, clients who have taken our training have been able to start processing and analyzing large amounts of data independently and have begun to provide answers to questions that are fundamental to both the HR department and the entire company.