You’re leading People Analytics: Now what? People Analytics Projects

You’re leading People Analytics: Now what? 

Executing an effective people analytics project

Introduction

I’ve been considering writing LinkedIn articles on the topic of “people analytics” for a while. I’ve started people analytics functions at a few organizations now, so what better topic to discuss than a series I’m calling “You’re leading People Analytics: Now what?” These thoughts are my own and do not reflect my employer.

The third installment of this series is: executing an effective people analytics project. 

Executing an effective project

As a new leader in people analytics, executing an effective people analytics project is essential for demonstrating the value you bring to the organization. I can’t remember where I came across it (pardon the lack of attribution), but the saying “the more you know, the less you use” has really stuck with me. When lecturing about people analytics, I use this saying to reference the value of OLS regression and correlation in people analytics, but I'd like to reapply it's use to pay homage to the scientific method and its relation to executing an effective people analytics project. There are many articles on this topic which helped guide the model I’ve built for running effective projects, but I fear the real attribution falls back to science itself. The scientific method is the real OG of org interventions and has yet, in my opinion, to be supplanted. The more you know, the less you use anything but the scientific method. :)

Alec Levenson and Alexis Fink speak very presciently about how the real value of people analytics is located at the nexus point between analytics and OD as both analytics and org development are necessary to effectively make a sustained impact on the business. People analytics in a vacuum doesn’t do much. Before you can execute an effective people analytics project you must know what steps by which you’d solve the problem. Ian Cook recently published an article on how to identify the right people analytics project. It’s a good primer for determining the right conditions for solving a problem. My personal version of how to solve a problem is below, which I call the “People Analytics Problem Solving Steps”. The steps are an amalgam of multiple problem solving methodologies I’ve come across, but primarily they are related to the scientific method.

People Analytics Problem Solving Steps

1. Identify business problem/research questions
2. Review previous findings
3. Select variables and hypotheses to test
4. Collect data
5. Data analysis and modeling
6. Present results and take action
7. Check and adjust

Later in the article, I’ll address these steps in detail with commentary. However before doing so, here is a second resource for running an effective people analytics project that new people analytics leaders will appreciate: “People Analytics Project Scoping Template” seen below. Effectively scoping out a people analytics project is an underutilized secret weapon to ensure a project is successful and makes an impact on the business. An effective scope should include the following:

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