Get your copy and find out: 

• 4 examples of HR boot camps 
• 5 steps to create an impactful HR boot camp 
• A template to identify strategic skills gaps 

The Skills Gap Endemic  

Digital transformation and changing employee preferences are shaping a new world of work. 

But 79% of HR Professionals do not have the skills to be successful in this more digital, data-driven, and people-centric landscape.

So how do you set your team up for long-term success? By helping them close critical skill gaps standing between HR and real organizational impact.

And HR Boot Camps are a proven way to do just that. 

The HR Boot Camp Playbook 

HR Boot Camps are intensive skill-building programs that combine teamwork, accountability, and hands-on projects to rapidly build key skills and competencies.

Download the HR Boot Camp Playbook to find out how you can  help your HR team rapidly and effectively develop the skills your organization needs. You will also have access to four boot camp examples so you don’t have to start from scratch. 

Download your copy of the HR Boot Camp Playbook and see how you can build a high-performing HR team.

The post HR Boot Camp Playbook appeared first on AIHR.

Fill out the short form and find out:

• How to build an HR Academy in 5 steps
• Which approach to building an Academy works for you
• How to measure the impact of your Academy (free template included)

HR needs support 

HR departments play a crucial role in supporting and enabling almost the entire organization — but often overlooks itself. Yet in the face of shifting employee expectations, economic challenges, and other business challenges, an impactful and effective HR department has never been more essential.

Setting up an HR Academy is the structural solution to combat the HR skills gap. By offering them a continuous development platform, you will keep your HR team effective, engaged, and empowered.

The HR Academy Playbook 

This essential guide walks you through the five-step process of setting up an HR Academy of your own. From why you need an HR competency framework to what to consider when selecting the right technology and learning content, this guidebook will help you design and deploy the best solution for your organization.

It also includes a free template to help you measure the impact of your HR Academy and share outcomes with your key stakeholders.

Download your copy of the HR Academy Playbook and find out how you can elevate the impact and efficiency of your HR team. 

The post HR Academy Playbook appeared first on AIHR.

In this report, Founder of AIHR Erik van Vulpen and AIHR’s Chief HR Scientist Dieter Veldsman outline how HR can take action to elevate work in 2024. 

Fill out this form and find out: 

• How HR will transform over the next 12 months 
• 11 HR trends shaping the world of work in 2024 and beyond 
• What HR leaders need to know in what will be a monumental year for the function

Work is at a crossroads  

Organizations face a labor shortage while millions of workers are unnecessarily sidelined. Productivity stagnates despite the democratization of powerful new technology. And as workers reexamine their relationship with work, it’s clear that traditional career structures have reached their limit.The playing field has shifted. 

Something needs to change. And HR can provide the breakthrough needed to get work back on track.

11 HR Trends in 2024 and beyond 

Discover the 11 HR Trends shaping the future of work and drive value for both your organization and your workforce. The main HR trends for 2024 include:

• Resolving the productivity paradox
  While we feel busier than ever, productivity has stagnated. HR can use trusted HR tools and new tech to empower employees and get productivity back on track. 

• From silos to solutions 
  As organizations evolve to become more adaptable, so will HR. This means shifting to solution-focused multidisciplinary teams and rethinking what we consider fundamental HR skills.

• HR leans in 
  The HR function continues to struggle with misconceptions about its value. By recognizing its own strategic value and giving the function the same support it offers other departments, HR will be able to change perceptions, empower its practitioners, and drive even more value for the business. 

The full report discusses the 11 key HR trends for 2024 and what HR can do to provide a breakthrough at this critical time. Receive a PDF copy of this HR Trends Report 2024 via email by simply filling out the form above.

The post HR Trends Report 2024 appeared first on AIHR.

Fill out the short form and find out:

• Why the HR skills gap is keeping leaders up at night
• The key to unlocking strong L&D ROI
• 3 essential factors for L&D success

The skills gap impacting the entire organization

79% of HR Professionals don’t have the competencies required to tackle the people challenges you’ll face over the next 5 years. If leaders don’t take action, the HR skills gap will become a critical blocker for EX — at a time when it’s never been more important.

The good news is that the majority of HR Professionals are willing to upskill. However, bridging the HR skills gap takes more than a motivated workforce.

Critical success factors for L&D

Encouraging your HR team to enroll in courses and coaching isn’t enough. As L&D budgets come under pressure in the face of the economic downturn. it’s more important than ever to understand the critical success factors that determine the ROI of L&D investments.

Download your copy of The State of HR Upskilling Report and get briefed on the key considerations for leaders looking to bridge the HR skills gap.

The post Report: The State of HR Upskilling 2023 appeared first on AIHR.

The Canvas provides a strategic overview of all the key aspects of your HR organization, such as your:

• HR Value Proposition
• HR Operating Model
• HR Value Drivers
• HR Cost Drivers

When filled in properly, the canvas provides a blueprint of the inner mechanics of your HR organization and how it drives business value.

How does the HR Service Delivery Model Canvas work?

This HR canvas (or, in full, HR Service Delivery Model Canvas) is inspired by the Business Model Canvas. The HR canvas has nine distinct fields split across the two main areas of strategy and execution.

Filling it in is easy. For each field, there are a couple of questions that will guide you to fill in the field.

Impact of using the Canvas

Investing a few hours in filling out the canvas will have a massive impact on your organization:

• Showcase how HR drives business value
• A blueprint of how the HR organization operates
• Develop a shared language understood by everyone in HR
• Create internal HR alignments

Driving strategic impact can be challenging. HR is often seen as not having a ‘seat at the table’ and struggles to be in the lead of strategic people conversations and showcase its added value to the business.

The HR Service Delivery Model Canvas is designed to tackle this problem by summarizing all critical areas of HR and enabling HR leaders to create a common language.

The post Template: HR Service Delivery Model Canvas appeared first on AIHR.

In this article, we share our observations on common oversights. If you navigate these insights correctly, will set your HR operating model up for success.

The quest to become a strategic business partner 

The Ulrich HR business partner model gained popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many organizations opted for an approach in which the traditional HR advisor was expected to become a strategic business partner. This resulted in the same person interacting with the same stakeholders in the same way, with many a CHRO expecting a radically different outcome. And why not? The HR operating model was, after all, transformed. 

As we all know, the reality was that it often took organizations years – if not decades – for their HR business partners to become truly strategic. The intention was noble, yet we did not manage to create the capacity for these changes to occur in execution.

Another, more recent, example is a large financial organization we’ve worked with. They decided to transform HR into a digital self-service environment. This led to a sprawling IT landscape with over 70 disjointed HR apps. The result was the lowest employee experience ever recorded and a total lack of data integration. It took an external team of consultants more than a year to define a digital strategy, clear up the IT landscape, and create one centralized employee portal that integrated the remaining tech solutions.

A third example is a large pharmaceutical organization implementing a data-driven way of working as part of its business strategy. After implementing several self-service HR dashboards, adoption remained in the single digits. Only after extensive training of the HR organization in data-driven ways of working, the organization saw an uptick in adoption. That was two years after they initially introduced the dashboards.

Why HR operating models fail

All these organizations had a clear people strategy that translated business objectives into people priorities. In addition, these organizations were working with an HR operating model that fit their organizational context. They had clearly defined roles and structures. So, why did these models not deliver value? 

If we dive below the surface, we can see that in these scenarios, the HR design lacked a clear understanding of the required capabilities that were needed to underpin the operating model design. Even though they redesigned roles, they never took the time to answer the following questions as part of the overall design process:

• What do we need to be good at in order to execute the strategy through our current operating model?
• How do we build the right capabilities to deliver business value?
• What is our current baseline, and what needs to change in terms of our skills, experiences, technologies, and processes to deliver on our strategy?
• How do we create the required capacity and boundaries for these shifts to occur?

Many organizations made this mistake when aiming to move towards the Ulrich HRBP model. Even though the model allowed for the opportunity to position HR in a strategic way, the required underpinning capabilities were not in place to enable strategic execution. Ulrich himself warned us as the HR community that real transformation needed to stretch beyond just a new organogram. In fact, it required a designated shift in accessing the right underpinning capabilities. 

Similarly, the other two organizations had a clear mission to implement self-service and a more data-driven way of working. However, without the technological capabilities nor the data literacy needed to achieve this, the HR organization missed its mark.

We expect this problem to only increase. According to McKinsey Research, 87% of organizations are facing a skills gap within the next five years. In addition, 54% of all employees will require significant upskilling, according to the World Economic Forum.

An HR capability model

In our experience, organizations can overcome these challenges by creating an HR capability model that describes the required technology, processes, skills, and resources required to execute. The use of this model is threefold.

• It helps identify the future capabilities needed to deliver on the HR or people strategy
• It gives a realistic view of the current state of the HR organization as well as the biggest areas of risk
• It provides a tangible roadmap towards accessing the desired capabilities

The challenge is that many existing HR capability models are old. We had a recent engagement in Moscow, where one of the participants working for an international company shared that their organization’s skills structure was based on the old USSR model that was commonly used in the 1980s.

Not all our capability models may be that outdated. However, there are very few HR frameworks in use that address contemporary skills such as digital dexterity and data literacy within an HR context or describe the requirements for HR to operate in the human experience era. This is one of the reasons why we created the T-Shaped HR professional framework.

However, we noticed that simply having an overview of needed future skills is insufficient for organizations to execute on their HR operating model. That is why we set out to create a process that helps organizations create a capability framework that fits their organizational context. 

We call this process the HR navigator. The outcome is a clear overview of the capabilities required to realize the people strategy and make the HR operating model work. It also provides a roadmap on how to build these capabilities, and identifies the biggest areas of risk to address. HR navigator also shows you a way to implement this using your internal learning resources as well as a relevant selection from the AIHR course library.

We’ve worked with multiple organizations to implement the HR navigator and have seen great results. HR professionals are more fit for purpose, more strategic, and make the business succeed by being able to execute the HR strategy.

As we prepare for a post-Covid workplace and have to deal with distributed organizational models in a digital-first world, we see the importance of having a clearly defined HR capability model become non-negotiable for HR functions of all sizes. In a constant sea of change, can you afford to navigate without a clear roadmap?

If you’re interested and want to learn if you have the required capabilities to execute your HR strategy, visit the HR navigator here.

The post Leading Transformation: Why Most HR Operating Models Fail appeared first on AIHR.

But as many management roles are redefined and as CEOs and companies are required to lead in areas traditionally beyond the scope of their business (e.g. social, cultural, or environmental issues), how can leaders adapt to this new reality and what role does HR play in facilitating this change?

Three ways HR can drive major leadership changes

One of the less talked about consequences of the coronavirus pandemic is that leadership as we knew it has fundamentally changed. This is obviously having a profound impact on businesses and how they operate. 

But an even less discussed issue is the capacity of HR to steer this change towards leadership that is fit for purpose and one that can deliver better business outcomes. 

Here are three ways in which HR can (and should) drive major leadership changes:

#1. Democratization of leadership 

What is at stake

In the past two years, we have seen a massive democratization of leadership responsibilities. The focus is shifting away from middle managers towards workers who increasingly need to autonomously manage their own work. This is caused by the rapid rise of remote and hybrid work. 

This means that many middle managers have been made redundant. Companies such as HSBC or Wells Fargo are “actively seeking to take out layers of expensive middle management”. These cuts are part of their restructuring to become more competitive in the new post-COVID economy. Likewise, these changes contribute to companies’ transition towards a more efficient management system.  

The role of HR

Organizations looking to make such sweeping changes need to rely on data and hard evidence. 

These consequential decisions require CEOs and C-suite leaders to work closely with HR departments which have a unique overview of the company’s workforce. Through data analytics, HR can draw insights that will match the needs of the business against the potential of the workforce. Thanks to people analytics, businesses can thus make smarter decisions and redesign their structure without unnecessary costs. 

Furthermore, as more and more employees will take on leadership responsibilities in their respective roles, HR professionals will be able to help identify the best performers and via custom leadership development plans prepare them to assume more senior roles within the organization.

#2. Repurposing of managers 

What is at stake

Of those middle managers who have not lost their jobs, the chances are many of them will need to redeploy to new and different roles.

For instance, in 2020, the Japanese tech giant Fujitsu pioneered in Europe a new concept of working. The company decided to emphasize local decisions and empower those who weren’t previously involved in management. And while this transition meant the end of middle manager roles as such, the company made the effort to ensure that the people who filled these roles would still remain part of the journey (albeit in a different capacity).

This required more investment in training and coaching to guarantee everyone could adjust and safely transition. It is needless to say that this transition would not have happened without the involvement of HR. 

The role of HR

HR departments are key in helping organizations assess which leaders need redeploying and which managers need upskilling. HR is also essential in helping these managers upgrade their skills, once they have been identified, through skills development programs and coaching.

Managers who will redeploy will need to get trained, among other things, to become more transparent in setting expectations and OKRs, as well as learn how to better measure performance. 

This is particularly relevant because as more and more of us become informal leaders thanks to the new work dynamics, we will need to shift away from measuring output and input towards measuring outcomes (86 percent of employees now say they want to work for a company that prioritizes outcomes over output). 

Furthermore, the democratization of leadership and redeployment of existing leaders require a fundamental change to business culture which, again, will depend on HR’s contribution and leadership. 

Without a culture upgrade, it will be difficult to ensure the shift of the manager’s role will succeed. Without a new purpose and necessary guidance, integration into their new role will be a struggle.   

#3. More emphasis on the top tier management 

What is at stake 

And last but not least, we have witnessed the growing importance of leadership in the top echelons of organizations. A trend that is not new but has been massively accelerated in the past couple of years. 

This means that CEOs, CHROs, and other C-suite leaders have been under more pressure to take a stance on and lead in an increasing number of issues that transcend the walls of their organizations (e.g. addressing inequalities, the global pandemic, or fighting climate change). 

The pressure is both internal (as 68 percent of employees would consider leaving their employer for an organization that takes a stronger stance on cultural and social issues), and external (as 47 percent of consumers now associate personal views of C-suite leaders with those of the whole company, affecting their purchasing behavior). 

The role of HR

And it is HR professionals and CHROs in particular that can help CEOs keep their thumbs on the pulse of their workforce and the society at large. They can help them become more socially, culturally, and environmentally conscious. C-suite leaders can then be more active in supporting causes that better align with their personal and business values. 

Thanks to a more strategic role and HR professionals’ increasing business savviness, HR has been able to forge a stronger link between the business and the outside world and help companies serve their consumers and clients better. 

Moreover, due to COVID-19, many leaders are having to suddenly flex muscles that they didn’t have to flex as much before. These include empathy and active listening.

One of the reasons behind the current high attrition rates (often referred to as the Great Resignation or Reshuffle) is the fact that many employees don’t feel appreciated or valued by their company or managers. HR’s role will thus also entail helping CEOs and C-suite leaders develop new soft or power skills and other leadership competencies. 

Leadership has never been more consequential

So whether it is regular workers who have had to acquire leadership skills to become more autonomous, lower and middle managers whose purpose has been redefined or C-suite leaders who are having to reinvent themselves and expand the scope of their role, leadership has never been more consequential for companies’ success. And HR’s role in facilitating this shift has never been more important. 

Shifting towards more democratized, repurposed and values-driven leadership means organizations need to adapt. And because these changes require upskilling, upgrading one’s business culture, coaching, and a better connection between the business, its employees, and the outside world, it is up to HR to strap in, roll up its sleeves, and drive the change.

The post Three ways HR can reshape post-pandemic leadership appeared first on AIHR.

The ‘why’ question is particularly relevant because it implies that workers are not only concerned about how much and where they work, but care just as much about their work’s quality and purpose.

Purpose has become a blind spot business can’t afford 

As a result of people’s changing expectations of work and work environments, not paying attention to or blatantly ignoring the growing importance of purpose has become a major blind spot for many companies. And it is not one they can afford.

In the current context of tight labor markets and the Great Resignation, companies need to use every tool in their arsenal to attract and above all retain the talent they have. Millions of people around the world are rethinking their relationship with work and as a consequence are leaving their jobs. In the US alone, more than 15 million workers have quit their jobs since April 2021. 

Thus, hanging on to your existing talent and attracting new hires is becoming a mission impossible for more and more businesses. Meanwhile, companies are largely out of touch with what is driving people’s decisions to leave. 

While 63 percent of US workers admit the pandemic has dramatically shifted their priorities and 82 percent of them say it is important for a company to have a purpose, companies are far too often fixated on the more transactional elements of work (e.g. compensation and benefits). This creates a mismatch between what employees want and what companies are prepared to give.

And as C-suite leaders will try to bridge this divide in an attempt to retain and attract talent, they will need to increasingly rely on their HR departments to help them connect the business and employees. 

Making work meaningful is a win-win

Behind every decision to leave a job is a myriad of reasons, be it lack of appreciation and purpose, insufficient work-life balance, or better opportunities elsewhere. While a lack of purpose isn’t the only reason companies are struggling to retain talent, organizations have nothing to lose and everything to gain from becoming more purpose-driven.

Having organizational values that are reflected in decisions, conversations, and your company’s behavior across all levels and a clearly defined mission statement can go a long way in giving people that one extra reason to work for you and feel satisfied with their job.

For LinkedIn’s CEO Ryan Roslanski, the current wave of changes in the workplace is a great opportunity for people to do work “they love at companies they feel passionate about, leading to greater success for organizations who engage their employees with empathy and trust.” 

In other words, running your business with a purpose in mind is a win-win situation. For both your company and your employees. And your HR department will be instrumental in making this happen. 

HR professionals will help introduce and uphold purpose in the workplace while at the same time, their work will directly benefit from being part of a purpose-driven organization – namely by finding it easier to engage existing workers and attract new ones. 

Here’s why. 

The power of purpose and why it matters

#1. More enthusiasm 

Employees who feel aligned with the company values are more enthusiastic and committed to maximizing their potential. Work goes from a job to a source of pride and personal investment. 

#2. Stronger resilience 

This creates a better and stronger relationship between companies and their workers, as well as between companies and customers. Thus, organizations that are purpose-driven tend to be more resilient to market instabilities. 

During the last financial crisis in 2008, for instance, the so-called Certified B Corporations (i.e. businesses that balance purpose and profit) were 63 percent more likely than other businesses of a similar size to make it through the downturn. Similarly, a 2018 study of 1,500 C-suite leaders found companies that defined and acted with a great sense of purpose outperformed financial markets by 42 percent. 

#3. Better performance 

Corporations with engaged, purpose-led employees deliver 21 percent higher profitability than their peers, and according to Harvard Business Review, purpose-driven companies are (among other things) better at product launches and major transformation efforts. 

One more reason why HR should pay attention to purpose

Yes, aligning your organization’s and your employees’ purpose and values makes business sense, and yes, companies that do so tend to perform better than their peers.

But there’s one more reason why you should consider running a more purpose-driven organization: demographic change. 

While it is true that COVID-19 has helped place purpose on the map of new work-related demands, the trend itself was always going to become a key one. It was just a matter of time.

That’s because studies have shown that younger workers (especially Millennials and Gen Z’ers) are more purpose-driven when it comes to working. According to the Cone Communications Millennial Employee Study (published before COVID-19), 64% of Millennials won’t take a job if their employer doesn’t have strong social and environmental values. What’s more, Gen Z is the first generation to prioritize purpose over salary.

We expect that by 2025, Millennials will account for about 75 percent of the global workforce, and the proportion of Gen Z’ers will continue to grow steadily as well. Consequently, purpose will only become more important. 

And this is already having an impact on the ground. One good example can be found in the way Gen Z’ers work with technology. 

According to a General Assembly survey, young people are far less interested in working in tech for the tech’s sake compared to their older peers. If and when they choose to work with technology, it’s usually in the fields that prioritize the “human element” such as UX design or digital marketing. They are interested in knowing how technology relates to people and how, for instance, data science helps solve health, environmental, and business challenges.

Zoom in on your purpose statement and revise your company’s culture

For businesses to survive and indeed thrive, it is no longer a question of whether but when and how organizations should become more purpose-driven. Many companies have previously paid lip service to purpose and its growing importance to workers. But COVID-19 and the generational turnover are driving change here. 

Organizations no longer have a choice but to invest more in ensuring their purpose is clearly defined and better aligned with employees to ensure they will remain competitive and in business. Ultimately, they will need to upgrade their workplace culture to ensure that decisions, conversations, and behavior across all levels are integrated with that purpose. 

And there’s only one department that will be able to drive and lead this change: Human Resources 

That’s because HR professionals with strong business acumen are best placed to connect company-level purpose with employee-level purpose.  They understand how the organization’s values reflect the broader world and how these core values help motivate employees themselves.

HR’s role is to help their organization identify its values, understand how these resonate with employees, update the organization’s business culture accordingly and then work with the management to ensure the company also lives by these values in practice. The result will be a more productive, engaged, and motivated workforce.  

Moreover, having a clearly defined purpose also helps HR with talent acquisition. In the current tight labor market that is heavily tilted in favor of job seekers, having values that resonate with candidates can make or break a job offer. There are many examples of companies that have smartly used purpose and organizational values to their advantage, including Nike, Netflix, and Buffer.

Ultimately, while identifying and staying true to your business culture and purpose may not look like a solution to all your business challenges, it is a first (and necessary) step towards ensuring your organization becomes future-proof. 

The post Building Purpose-Driven Organizations: How HR Can Take the Lead appeared first on AIHR.

From rising inflation, disrupted supply chains to the ever-changing state of play of COVID-19, uncertainty is on top of everyone’s mind and most boardroom meeting agendas. But as companies learn to live with uncertainty, what can business and HR leaders do to ensure their organizations are not flying into this new era of work completely blind? 

The answer lies in data. While it is impossible to accurately predict all of the future, relying on good data can help you prepare for it the best you can.

The potential of data in HR remains largely untapped 

The benefits of data-driven decisions are now largely recognized by organizations worldwide. For instance, 92 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies are currently increasing investment in data initiatives, so much so that by the end of 2023 the big data analytics market will be worth more than $100 billion. 

Yet, when it comes to HR specifically, the potential offered by data is largely untapped. Only about a fifth (22 percent) of companies globally use people analytics even though HR data is crucial in addressing some of the most pertinent challenges such as talent shortages, hybrid work, or digitalization.

There’s no going around it. The use of people analytics in HR and business decisions, in general, makes perfect business sense – organizations that use data in HR see an 82 percent higher-than-average profit over three years compared to their low-maturity counterparts. 

What we all can learn from people analytics in retail

One good example of where people analytics in HR has a huge potential to drive positive business outcomes is retail, as the sector is ripe for more use of data. 

According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, as much as 52 percent of all activities in retail can be automated (including data processing and data collection), making it one of the most exposed industries to digitalization. 

While much of our attention on retail digital transformation and the use of data has been focused on the operations side of the business (undoubtedly indispensable to serving customers amid the COVID-19 crisis and lockdowns, as well as to changing consumer behavior), there’s a truly fascinating push towards digitalization and data use beyond the level of customers. And it’s inside HR.

For CHROs, the main challenge coming out of the coronavirus pandemic has not necessarily been the digitalization of operations as such but rather making sure their businesses have enough employees to run their operations in the first place. 

The Great Resignation, shortage of labor, and employees’ changing demands have meant that HR departments have been forced to step up their game. 

For instance, one US retailer has found an innovative way of collecting and using candidate data to improve the recruiting and hiring process. 

Through an app that they had developed, the HR department was able to screen potential employees, gather feedback, collect credentials, schedule interviews, and track candidates as they moved through the pipeline. 

Having access to this data and using it to improve the hiring process has led to impressive results. The retailer saw a 60 percent increase in the applications’ processing speed, an 80 percent reduction in paperwork, and higher employee retention rates. All of which has had a positive impact on the company’s bottom line – in particular in today’s tight labor market. 

Other examples from other industries, on how better workforce data drives business impact, are no less impressive (for instance, HR analytics helped Credit Suisse save $70 million a year by reducing turnover risk factors). 

So if the benefits of the use of people analytics (and technology) in human resources and workplaces are so impressive, how come only a fifth of all companies use it?

Why so few HR departments are using people analytics

It’s all about skills. As with most solutions to most problems these days, when it comes to people analytics, HR practitioners simply do not have sufficient skills to make the most of it. According to our own research, only about two-fifths (41 percent) of HR professionals have sufficient data and tech knowledge.

This does not mean they need to breathe and live data. But it does mean that they need some level of data literacy (on top of understanding technology). 

Let me explain.

In today’s world of work, digitalized data is a must. Companies need to be able to collect, analyze, and then utilize data – and do so in a way that will lead to better business performance. So where exactly in this data chain does HR fit?

It’s not necessarily in data collection – most data these days is collected through technology, such as apps or self-service portals (although HR should definitely be involved in helping the IT department choose the right tools to serve the right HR purpose).

And it’s neither in data analysis. Most companies already have strong data analytical teams. This is true for about two-thirds (69 percent) of organizations globally with 10,000 employees or more. These teams are usually situated outside of HR departments. 

It is indeed in the last link of the data chain – in putting data to good use – where HR can bring the most added value. 

To that end, however, they need to develop data literacy skills to understand and utilize data. Only then will HR be able to help make key strategic decisions by turning data insights into action. 

How to master data literacy 

Mastering data literacy as a competency requires two things:

First, HR professionals will need to be data-driven to have the ability to read and use data. They should be able to understand and utilize metrics, reports, and determine KPIs. And second, with these skills, they should be able to translate data (provided by the analytical team) into action, policies, and decisions that have a direct impact on the business.

To be more specific, every data-literate HR professional should: 

• Comprehend and be able to establish metrics and KPIs;
• Read and interpret reports;
• Learn how to produce data visualizations (i.e. dashboards) and use these for data story-telling; 
• Understand the intersection of people data and the business they serve (which necessitates some level of business acumen).

Beyond what this means for HR professionals individually, data literacy also implies a shift towards a more data-driven culture. Without it, your HR department or organization at large won’t be able to leverage data to its full potential. 

A data-driven culture requires the right: 

• Mindset – HR professionals should treat data as useful in their daily work lives;
• Skillset – your HR team will need to upskill to become more data literate; 
• Toolset – as evident from above, people analytics and technology go hand-in-hand. This means you will need your IT department to work closely with you; 
• Dataset – people data is not a destination, it’s an ongoing process. The data collected, analyzed and used will need to be constantly assessed to prove accurate and useful.

Don’t wait. Just get started 

Data might not be almighty; it won’t provide all the answers you’re seeking and it won’t always help you predict the future. After all, people analytics, to paraphrase Microsoft’s chief scientist Jaime Teevan, is about having to make long-term decisions with short-term data. 

But the limits to the use of data are far outweighed by the fact that having some data is always better than having none and that even though data won’t map out the whole journey ahead, having an accurate picture of current reality will give you the advantage of knowing what’s around the corner – and that’s much further than most companies will be able to see if flying blind. 

So don’t wait around. Get started now! Become data literate and help upskill your HR department so that your decisions will be based on reality, they will reflect what your organization and employees need and will be instrumental in tackling the current and future challenges.

The post Data-Driven HR mindset: Only 2 out of 10 HR departments use data to guide their decisions appeared first on AIHR.

People Analytics has fast become an important specialization within HR, and the expectations are high. That’s why Capgemini was looking for ways to empower the team leading the People Analytics efforts with specialized online training.

Capgemini’s goals were clear, as Jan Krögel explains. “We need to be credible to the business, and we need to understand the business, as well as the data and analytics aspect. We thought that going outside and working with a curated source would really help us with that effort.” 

And that’s where AIHR comes in.

Selected HR practitioners already involved in People Analytics and reporting were enrolled in the Academy to Innovate HR to take their data and analytics skills to the next level. In addition to following specialized courses, participants also worked on real-life projects helping leaders within the organization tackle their business challenges. “Some of these are being grown into big projects,” Kröger says.

That’s not to say that Capgemini didn’t face challenges in this project. For example, it can be challenging for learners with full calendars and lots of responsibilities to find the time to learn. Watch the full video to find out how Capgemini overcame this challenge.

You will also hear more about:

• How Capgemini encourages people to implement the learnings in their day-to-day work
• Examples of projects implemented as a result of the training, and insights gained
• Measuring the ROI of learning initiatives

What we can reveal is that the project has been a success for Capgemini. Their next steps are expanding the scope of the project to include larger HR populations. But that’s not all. “We’re asking, how much needs to be part of the standard curriculum for HR? And the other question is, what else do we need to give the leaders we have identified to make them successful?”

Curious to see how AIHR can help you dodge the skills gap and empower your HR organization with future-proof skills? Explore our HR Skills 2025 framework, or learn more about our team licenses.

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