Happy employees = more productive employees? People Analytics can drive both!

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Let’s be honest with yourself and answer following questions:


3 x YES? Lucky you…and your company! As many research show there is strong link between happiness/engagement at work and profitability. So if you are happy, you work better. Easy to say, harder to prove. As we are data based company loving challenges we took a chance to check if it is true!

QUESTION: ARE HAPPY SALESMEN MORE PRODUCTIVE?

We prepared a recruitment communication strategy for a big bank operating in Poland, using people analytics and verifying, for example, whether a sense of happiness is related to work performance.

The aim of the analyses was to determine the predictors of efficiency with respect to sales chain employees, and therefore, determine the profile of employees with best sales results in one of the retail banks operating in Poland.



ANSWER: YES

We considered three performance groups with respect to different variables. It turned out that the profile of the top performers differs significantly from the profiles of other groups, both in terms of expectations about organisational culture and hard elements of the offer. What is more important, it also turned out that the people who are the best at performing their tasks exhibit a much higher level of happiness and sense of meaning at work. In this group, it turned out the flow state was the key. People who achieve better results (i.e. are more productive) up to twice as often feel that their everyday tasks allow them to grow and fulfil their professional dreams than people with a low level of task completion.

Based upon the survey results, we created a profile of a happy employee and reformulated recruitment communication with a focus on acquiring top performers and also made changes to the motivational system. The results showed that there is value to applying an analytical approach to profiling and shaping a long-term employee happiness policy.

CONCLUSION: HAPPINESS PAYS OFF

There is no doubt that building employee happiness pays off, both for employers and employees. It is not a random intervention though – it requires a strategic approach and consistency. But it is not impossible. And, what’s more, the results are felt by both the employees and the employers. I strongly encourage you, in these times of big challenges on the job market, to focus on employee happiness and to include it in strategic goals as a source of higher EBITDA.

AND IF YOU LOOK FOR MORE NUMBERS YOU SHOULD USE TO MAKE YOUR BOSS INVESTING IN EMPLOYEES HAPPINESS CHECK MY SHORT SLIDECK!

THE MOST IMPORTANT EMPLOYER BRANDING “TO DO” IN 2019

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As we see massive growth in popularity of technology, people analytics and ROI in management there is no longer space for treating employer brand other way than data-based and performance driven area.  So if you still think about employer branding as a PR function, focused on preparing nice leaflets for students fairs, better switch to the strategic approach. If not, you will reach nothing but few smiles from your project team members. And what we reach for in employer branding is (as in all business) higher revenue growth and higher profit margin. Delivering on that will get you smile from your board team 😀

Easy to say, harder to get. How to do that?  Looking backward to 100 projects for 500Fortune companies I can say the the most important success factor in delivering great employer branding outcomes is not knowledge nor experience but our own beliefs on the topic.

That is why preparing for success you should start form transforming your beliefs

from ->>> IT IS HARD to find measures, to track them and to extract ROI of employer branding 

to ->>> #IT IS POSSSIBLE:

#IT IS POSSIBLE to influence profit margin through employer branding

If we compare companies on different HR dimension it is obvious employer branding play important role impacting revenue growth and profit margin. See the table below:

 

#IT IS POSSIBLE to make revenue out of the particular employer branding processes

Going deeper, we can easily find the dimensions you can use to show the revenue of strong employer brand as it can:

  • lower the expected salary by 10% (CEB) ,
  • boost engagement and productivity up to 44% (Gallup)
  • lower the turnover by 26% (LinkedIn, 2016)
  • make employees more reluctant to competitor’s offer by 44% (Tower Watson)
  • make people better respond to the clients’ needs by 65% (Gallup)

Try to extract these numbers in your organization and your board will love you. Guaranteed 😀

 

#IT IS POSSIBLE to track employer branding precisely

Thanks to the massive amount of data being collected nowadays from the candidate-employee lifecycle we can track almost every step of candidate and employee answering questions such as:

Do people know us? Do we reach our target well enough? Do we build emotional connection with candidates and tailor our offer to their needs? Is our process of application friendly and effective? Which channel is sourcing the best performers? Are people safe and emotional stable in our company? Do we craft our position to make them flow? Are they loyal? Do they contribute to the brand? Do they refer us to their friends?

As the answer to  “Can we measure something such intangible like employer brand? “ question is obvious the challenge starts when we go deeper with above questions. To track employer branding precisely we must know how to measure the employer brand as complex entity and how to connect the data we collect to the right outcomes.

How deep can it go in data collection? Well, together with EBnavi team we systematically review more than 250 processes and 530 measures of each company. Is it lot? I don’t know. It is enough to automatically asses not only the overall strength of particular brand but also identify the weak and strong points on the road to lowering the salary expectation, minimalizing turnover and improving engagement.

But one can always go deeper. Let me know if you the one, I’ve been diving into the HR. EB, OD measurement for 15 years and I am still hungry for new discoveries in the area.

 

GOD LUCK dear folks in 2019 mind shaping! Fingers crossed for great results! 😀

 

Starting with people analytics? Here is your help for a good start!

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Looking for a real hand-on people analytics guide? Here is the one!

The Power of People: Learn How Successful Organizations Use Workforce Analytics To Improve Business Performance

Why is it worth reading?

The book is full of tips and easy to understand examples. It written by experts who spent many years of their careers driving better business results through people analytics (including such organizations as IBM) and now sharing their knowledge with others.

My fav part is… case studies part

The ones I really recommend are:

  1. Nielsen: improving Careers Through Retention Analytics
  2. ISS Group: From Employee Engagement to Profitability
  3. Rentokil Initial: Growing Sales Using Workforce Analytics

Worth investing in is also a vignettes part – where you will find specific practical tips from the experts.

Interesting gains from the book for me!

A small but interesting part on of Traditional Statistics versus Machine Learning where it is clearly stated when use what and who should decide on that and a part on consulting model using people analytics from the practitioners perspective.

Where to buy it? The simplest way just download on Amazon. 

Read the #PAF17 in Zagreb here PAF17 Croatia is over!

People Analytics: key takeaways from the leaders of #PAF17 in Zagreb

What is most important when using people analytics to drive business results? How to start he journey? How to make it work? I asked those questions during the meeting with European leaders in people analytics in Zagreb (see the summary and a video from the event here).

Listening to the keynotespeaking and case studies and  asking leaders for an advice I prepared the brief summary of 15 must know rules. Below you will find the list written thank to great speakers such as Jonathan FerrarMax BlumbergMariëlle Sonnenberg, and Aco Momcilovic!

  1. Focus on revenue as the most important metrics in people analytics
  2. Focus only on one single problem you wanna to resolve doing people analytics
  3. Human, not AI, is the only one who can define the business problem
  4. People analytics is not about the technology
  5. You can start people analytics with data you have, not waiting for one shared dataset or HRIS. You can start with what you already have
  6. Never use more than 4-5 main metrics in one analysis
  7. You don’t need sophisticated software, you can start #PA with xls
  8. When pitching to the business, use easy and understandable data presentation, nobody will understand the sophisticated regression coefficients
  9. Align #PA to the real business problem
  10. Measures can change throughout the time
  11. People analytics is a team sport
  12. When starting the project look at first how much you can get using people analytics (e.g. looking at the dependent variable dynamic). If you can’t see the big enough changes within , left the PA as a method
  13. Be aware of the old rule: trash in – trash out. Make sure you have updated data of the good quality
  14. Sometimes quantitative interpretations are good enough, but in some other cases, you will have to use also qualitative data
  15. Best HR reporting practice starts by integrating people data sources around the organization. First asks the research question before you think about what data you will need to solve it. Yet, many companies spend a fortune integrating data sources that will in fact never be useful for answering business questions. In fact, the chances of that the data you need to solve your question does not exist and that you will probably have to generate it yourself . This is usually an expensive exercise. Best people analytics practice, on the other hand, starts by first establishing the business problem that needs to be solved; and only then does it consider how it will generate the data required to solve this problem. This approach is much lower cost.

Would you add any tips to the list?

Who will stay, who will go? Case study from Atlantic Grupa

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The nicest case study I’ve seen during the People Analytics Forum 2017 in Zagreb (see the summary) goes to WHO WILL STAY AND WHO WILL GO..CAN YOU TELL ME MY NEW CRYSTAL BALL? presented by Maja Vekic Vedrina (Head Of DWH/BI) and Goran Feric (Corporate Performance Management & Rewarding Projects Senior Project Manager) from Atlantic Grupa.

What they did?

They used predictive people analytics based on cognitive technology in one of the leading regional food companies, Atlantic Grupa. It was pilot case with goal to develop reliable attrition predictive model and based on identified predictors assume attrition risk per each employee. Furthermore, based on model insights actively intervene, reduce turnover risk and retain key company’s employees.

Why do I like this case the most? My 5 top reasons:

First, they do it really together – IT/BI was responsible for modeling and HR for delivering data, it was a really deep teamwork and a best practice for implementing PA into organizational practices. Great job!

Second, they use advance methods like cognitive  technologies and good quality of data to identify a wide range attrition predictors

Third, they modelled significant predictive results (using decision tree modeling and Watson engine)

Fourth, they stated clearly (was was the main insight at the conference) that

they showed real added business value

It yet was not a precise ROI result (as they have already finished the analysis) but yet the result was clear: instead of implementing retention program on wide range of employees, HR will be able to invest more precisely on a larger scale to high risk employees, especially if they hold key positions.

Great job!

See the summary of the #PAF17 in Zagreb here PAF17 Croatia is over!

PAF17 Croatia is over! Personal gains from the conference.

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People Analytics Forum 2017 in Zagreb is over! It was a great event for those who wants to go deeper into people analytics. Double-stream conference dedicated to presenting, understanding and embracing the use of data-driven analytical approach in HR function, and business as a whole. The data-driven decision-making process is recognized as the key differentiator in today’s workplace, giving companies who apply it properly a substantial edge. And I am so proud that such really insightful and learning-centered conference was organized in that part of Europe! Really cool.

My personal gains:

1. People and network

I was delighted to meeet keynotes such as: as Jonathan FerrarMax BloombergMariëlle Sonnenberg and many great practitioners from Europe. Some of their insights on #pa you can read here: People Analytics: key takeaways from the leaders of #PAF17 in Zagreb

2. Case studies

The case studies was so different and has a wide range – from sourcing, engagement through retention to skills development. All of them kept the professional level and were concentrated on generating real business results! My favorite one was focused on retention algorithm presented by Atlantic Grupa. One of them with more detailed insights you will find here: Who will stay, who will go? Case study from Atlantic Grupa

3. Knowledge:

It was two days of practical tips, special thanks to whole day of hands-on exercises with John based on his book which short review you can find here: Starting with PA? Here is the help for a good start!)

To sum up, it was a great event and I am waiting for the next year edition! Really recommend you to enroll early

Here you will find a video from the event:

AND EXTRA TIP FOR NEXT YEAR!

Not most important but as such great event takes place in Croatia, I was delighted taking one day off after the conference and traveling around the south west catching sunrise at 6 am (see the picture above). Next time, don’t miss it. Let the next year be your year of sunset chilling!