The film Moneyball tells the story of an underdog baseball team that stood against the odds and completely changed their game forever. Even if you have zero knowledge of baseball, you can still appreciate when a team with a budget of only $44M takes on the world-champion New York Yankees who had a whopping $126M budget.
That team was the Oakland A’s, and the way they made it to the playoffs was by using people analytics.
The Goal of People Analytics
In his consulting work, Josh Bersin, global industry analyst, has met many HR leaders and talent developers who struggle with getting executive buy-in for their learning programs. In most of these cases, Bersin says that the best way to secure executive buy-in is being as data-driven as possible.
That’s why Bersin’s first course exclusively on LinkedIn Learning, is on people analytics because he believes that it’s the foundation of all successful HR programs. Here is a preview.
3 Tips from Josh Bersin’s Course on People Analytics
1. Start by solving problems for managers
If you’re starting to introduce people analytics into your organization, then Bersin recommends starting with existing projects rather than creating new ones. Specifically, he suggests meeting with managers and asking them what their biggest problems are at the moment.
You can then apply people analytics to help solve that problem. This allows you to solve the most current problems, rather than looking for new ones to tackle. It also helps you to make a stronger case to the executive team because you are already allied with the manager.
2. Connect the data
Most companies have people data in multiple systems that are rarely connected. Bersin says that a common issue HR leaders face is working with incomplete data.
He recommends investing time to connect disparate data silos to avoid this problem. If you’re having trouble making the case for this initiative, then meet with the right decision-makers to discuss the risk of potentially making the wrong talent decisions based on incomplete or conflicting data sets.
3. Use the tools you have
Bersin recommends four must-have tools—that you probably already have—and activities to begin your people analytics program:
Gather all of the people data from your existing HR systems such as your HRIS, recruiting platform, and LinkedIn Learning.
Choose a statistics tool, such as Excel or SPSS, to analyze that data.
Select a data visualization tool to present your data in a compelling way.
Use your Employee Voice Survey platform, such as Glint, to collect feedback and sentiment data that will help you quantify your impact on talent and the business.
View Josh Bersin's Course
Interested in learning more? Check out the full People Analytics course that we’ve unlocked on LinkedIn Learning.
Topics: Learning and development
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