The HR reporting training, I would like to write about, took place on 12th to 14th March 2018. This intensive three-day course provides ...
The HR reporting training, I would like to write about, took place on 12th to 14th March 2018. This intensive three-day course provides our participants with profound insight into variety topics connected with collection of data, people analytics and how to use them to support changes HR wants to get through within their company.
First day we talked about different levels of HR reporting, starting with basic data collection and descriptive analytical approach, followed by prescriptive approach and leading to predictive analytics, which is so far the most advanced step to use our data for.
Concrete tools should never be the first thing we are considering while planning their implementation (even though this might be very appealing – looking at all the different graphs of colourful dashboards can make us feel like a child in an ice-cream shop). Therefore, we talked about our company’s and consequential HR strategy at the very beginning. Balanced Scorecard was one of useful tools we have met with.
As soon as our strategy is clear, we can start thinking about metrics that will be able to show us whether we are really heading towards goals we have created. Then we consider what kind of data we will need to measure these metrics and then we can start creating our reports and gather them in dashboards.
Because we believe that we are learning the most by doing, our first group task was to propose few metrics for one of chosen strategic goals. Then we spent some time working on individual exercise – throughout these three days all the participants had a chance to prepare their own reporting based on their individual company or department needs.
Talking about metrics we focused on different HR processes and talked about appropriate metrics for them. Apart from basic metrics we also took detailed view on proportional metrics, which are useful the most on strategic level and are acknowledged by management when it comes to managerial decision-making process.
When it comes to reporting we of course have to learn some data and statistics basics as well. Therefore, we talked about different kinds of data and measures of the properties of a data set, like median, modus, percentiles or standard deviation.
We ended our first day with case study which puzzled our participants a bit. According to given data they had to decide whether our company is doing well and what should be the first tasks for new HR manager.
At the beginning of our second day we took a look at HR dashboards created with different visualisation tools. We also showed different kinds of graphs, maps, matrixes, heat maps or organisational charts. Then we practiced designing of our own dashboard.
See what we’ve done in Qlik Sense within 2 hours! Not bad, ehm?
Thereafter we spent some time on data visualisation by Tableau. It wasn’t always easy to use all the correct codes but finally all of us made it work.
Big topic of HR analytics is of course benchmarking. Of course we couldn’t have missed this, therefore we have spoken about different data sources for benchmarking. But also we stressed what things we should bear in mind while comparing our data to someone else and what limits of this tool we might be facing. Internal benchmarking has been mentioned as well.
Focusing on tools, we explained requirements of data collection. We have seen examples of different analytical and visualisation tools, such as Minitab, Crystal Ball, R, Microsoft Power BI, Good Data, Tableau or OrgVue.
There are many methods which can support managerial decision process. We took a look at NPV, ROI calculation, different surveys, Pareto graphs and last but not least regression analysis, which is necessary when it comes to predictive models.
During the last day we talked about data mapping, typical problems connected with data, its storage and also data quality and integrity.
Big part of today’s agenda was related to predictive models, favourite part of our work. Thanks to predictive analysis we can for example see in advance which employees are the most likely to leave our company due to some kind of dissatisfaction.
We have also seen several case studies of HR analytics added value. And as we wanted to end our training in more playful way, we practiced in small groups storytelling and presentations of HR data, which will always be the crucial part of analytical approach.
Atmosphere of the whole training was very pleasant and we enjoyed a lot spending these three days with all the participants, who were curious and hard working, which always makes it very enjoyable for the trainer to work with so highly motivated people. We are already looking forward to another training as it always brings lots of positive energy to us.
