How to Be Great at People Analytics | McKinsey

As people analytics (PA) continues to be a capability that many organizations leverage to make better and faster business and talent decisions, this McKinsey article provides ideas for doing so. The authors spoke with 12 teams from some of the largest global organizations about the value that PA brings to HR. The conversations with these PA teams revealed a set of six best-in-class practices that have helped to propel the teams’ impact, success, and continued growth. These practices fall into three main categories: 1) data and data management, such as having “full ownership of their data repositories, allowing them to rapidly test new ideas, iterate, and reduce dependencies on enterprise-level technology resources.” 2) analytics capabilities, including the “ability to translate strategic challenges into analytic questions and use evidence-based practice to interpret insights derived from the analytics, engage stakeholders, and ultimately propel business changes,” and 3) operating models, where teams align themselves well against organizational priorities while maintaining space for open experimentation and innovation. Several other insights are provided, including two that can help PA teams understand where they are today, where they want to be, and how they can continue to evolve. They include: 1) Exhibit 1 “5 steps of People Analytics Team Trajectory” 2) Five questions that PA teams can ask themselves, including How does the organizational context influence the mandate of the PA team? For other ideas on PA, you can check out two books: Introduction to People Analytics: A Practical Guide to Data-driven HR | Nadeem Khan and Dave Millner; Data-driven Hr: Use Analytics and Metrics to Drive Performance | Bernard Marr.