The CIPD has warned employers they’re unlikely to ‘perform well’ in the long term without data-led decision making. It follows a survey of 1,560 HR and business leaders showing that despite collecting data on multiple people issues, many businesses do not regularly review it or use it to inform decisions.
This is the CIPD’s survey conducted as part of its Effective workforce reporting: Improving people data for business leaders report. They say it reveals a significant mismatch between the scale of the challenge that workforce issues currently pose to businesses and how often workforce issues and data are discussed by senior leaders. They say organisations are unlikely to perform well in the long term unless decisions taken at a board and executive management level are informed by an in-depth and evidence-based understanding of the value and risk their workforce poses.
The survey indicates that much more data is being collected than reviewed. So, while leaders are largely satisfied with the quality of people information they receive, 30% said it doesn’t give them the full picture and almost one in four - 22% - said it wasn’t clear how the data connects to organisational priorities.
Personnel Today covers this and quotes Katie Jacobs, stakeholder lead for the CIPD. She says the gap between the people data being collected and what’s being reviewed suggests there is work to be done around translating data into something that has a commercial impact. She says: “Another ‘dashboard’ isn’t going to be the answer. Reporting needs to be clear, timely and provide actionable insights beyond numbers to be effective. It will be important for people professionals to provide leaders with a strong narrative to indicate where workforce opportunities and risks lie, and how they can be best managed.”
We agree. HR has an important role in translating the data into clear actionable steps that leaders can take to improve diversity. Kate Dodd is a D&I specialist who has been involved in helping a number of clients and earlier she joined me by video-link to discuss it:
Kate Dodd: “So, when we're talking to clients, and we're doing this on an international basis with lots of our clients now, it's interesting and it's exciting. So, it's around who is in your business, understanding where that diversity data sits and, of course, making sure that you've got that mechanism in place. So, once you've got that data you know how to use it. So, what I want to know, if I'm coming to talk to you, is to say well, how long does it take to get promoted in your business and how does that differ if you're a man or a woman, or if you're a woman of colour, or if you are a man with a disability? I want to be able to understand how that impacts on somebody's experience within your organisation. That is the kind of ‘numbers data’ as it were, but also then we want the quality, the qualitative data, which is around people's experiences and, therefore, being able to ask questions. Things like focus groups are great for that and surveys, to some extent, are really good as well so that you can say to people, how inclusive is the leadership here, or how transparent are our processes and systems? You're not going to get that information from a numerical spreadsheet, you have to go out there and ask people for their experiences. The other thing, I think, is a really crucial thing, and is something that all employees should be inspiring to doing, is to create a culture of listening and acting. It’s like when you go on the train. I always noticed in the railway stations they've got these kinds of boards that say, ‘you said we did’ and I absolute love those. They can be quite simple things. So, you've told us that you don't understand our promotion processes, or that our promotion processes are shrouded in mystery or secrecy, and what we've done is X or Y, so that you've got a really clear demonstration of being responsive. Then finally, something that really goes into that, of course, is being able to gather that evidence yourself as a business to show that your leadership is inclusive because you are making these changes. So, you're not just asking the questions but afterwards you have got demonstrable actions that are forming part of an overall strategy that you can then go back and show that this is you moving towards much more inclusive, transparent leadership.”
The CIPD’s survey was conducted as part of its Effective workforce reporting: Improving people data for business leaders report. We’ve put a link to it in the transcript of this programme.
LINKS
- Link to CIPD report: ‘Effective workforce reporting – Improving people data for business leaders
