Communicating HR data is important. The data that HR collects is invaluable fuel for a company. Those numbers power data-driven decision-making that helps a company’s leaders empower their employees. From better training to higher retention of your best performers, HR data makes your employees more efficient and effective at their jobs.
The struggle today is not to justify the value of Human Resources. Rather, the struggle is communicating that value to other departments. In our blog post “Why The Best HR Strategy Is Part Art And Part Science,” we discussed how historically HR has been valued less than other departments because it has been seen as less scientific. HR data analytics is changing that, and those of us within the world of HR see that change happening daily. But those outside HR don’t always see what we see, and communicating these changes to other departments can prove challenging.
This raises the question: how can we use data analytics to communicate HR’s value to stakeholders?
Understanding The Goals Of Other Stakeholders
We discussed the importance of knowing your audience in our blog post “How Can HR Speak Better CFO?” There, we emphasized that your CFO’s goals are probably not the same as yours, so you can’t simply say your company should invest in new diversity initiatives and assume that your CFO will agree. Instead, you have to speak the CFO language and demonstrate how diversity–or any other goal–relates to the CFO’s priorities: “How much will it cost?” and “How will it earn or save money?”
The same is true when communicating HR data to any stakeholder in another department. Your CEO, CFO, Board of Directors, consultants, and investors all have particular priorities that may feel very different from your own. It’s your job to show these stakeholders how your concerns align with their priorities, and if you do this well, you can be extremely persuasive.
Communicating The Value Of HR Data To Your Audience
Bernard Marr of Enterprise Tech writes, “The average Human Resources (HR) team is sitting on a data gold mine…. In the past, a lot of HR data went unused or, if it was used, it was put into charts and tables for something like a corporate performance pack. Now, in the era of big data and analytics, companies are turning their data into insights, such as predicting when employees will leave, where to recruit the most suitable candidates from, how to identify and attract those suitable candidates, and how to keep them happy once they become employees.”
You know that this information is valuable to your company. That’s why you track it. And it can be tempting to want to share everything with everyone. However, if you provide too much information, or too much irrelevant information, you’ll lose your audience’s attention. Stakeholders expect information they can use and they prefer to have it delivered quickly, so tailor what information you share to your audience’s specific interests.
For example, why might your board of directors or investors care about HR insights? Consider how much it costs to recruit, vet, hire, onboard, and train a new employee. Now consider the cost to retain or retrain an existing employee. Retaining or retraining costs much, much less. Implementing policies that better utilize existing employees can save companies an enormous amount of money, leading to higher profit margins, more money to reinvest in the company, and higher overall business valuation. And you know who cares about those things? Your board of directors and investors.
Once you establish a shared source of truth (such as “retaining and retraining are more efficient uses of company resources”), it’s easier to get all important stakeholders on board, working toward the same goals.
Building messy spreadsheets and dull reports can hold you back from communicating your people data effectively. If you’re ready for a chance, click to get your demo of Employee Cycle’s HR analytics dashboard. Learn how you can pull and view all your HR data in one place using colorful, engaging charts and graphs. Do it better in half the time.
