HR’s credibility crisis: learn to love data

Jo Faragher

It’s a statement that’s been trotted out as many times as those empty election promises; that HR ‘faces a crisis of credibility in the boardroom’. According to research by KPMG, one in five top executives lacks faith in HR to use hard data relating to the business or its workforce.

This feeling is certainly nothing new – countless surveys have shown similar results over the years, from CEOs favouring finance directors over HR to HR being left out of board decisions altogether. Add to this a healthy dose of self-deprecation and navel gazing from those in HR seeking a seat on the table, and the situation simply hasn’t improved.

KPMG’s report, called Evidence-based HR, highlights the importance of how HR use data to evidence their value. It talks about the need to “create a line of sight between what they do and how business objectives are delivered”.

A key area where HR can prove their worth in this regard is in recruitment. Analytics programs are emerging all the time that can aggregate data on a range of hiring metrics from how long it takes to get someone on board to complex links between recruitment, retention and engagement.

Recruitment is also a fertile ground for the use of ‘big data’, which involves extracting insights from lots of different data sources by seeing how they inter-relate. Awkward questions around the board table such as ‘why do our sales people always leave after around six months?’ can now be answered confidently, and a solution presented – showing HR to be a lot more scientific than other functions would give it credit for.

It’s something HR needs to embrace wholeheartedly and fast, however. KPMG’s suggestions include bringing data specialists into the function from outside to demonstrate the value of these business findings.

And for those worried about data making HR too scientific, or too hard-edged, it helps to see this as telling stories – the stories behind key business issues such as retaining talent, where the most skilled people are, and how they can drive up business performance.