Optimize Your Greatest Asset -- Your People: How to Apply Analytics to Big Data to Improve Your Human Capital Investments

Chapter 4From Data to Action

“When I look at the next set of technologies that we need to build in Salesforce, it's all data-science technology. We don't need more cloud. We don't need more mobile. We don't need more social. We need more data science.”

Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO, Salesforce.com

Now that we've given you a taste of how analytics can improve your business, you're probably wondering how to get started. Our first two books go into great detail about the process and science of optimizing your investments; this chapter will give you a condensed version. If you are really ready to get down and dirty in your data, we highly recommend reading Developing Human Capital and Human Capital Analytics.

The Continuum of Analytics

To begin, you need to understand the points along the continuum, shown in Figure 4.1, fall into three categories:

1. Descriptive: Historical, departmental activity reporting that describes what has already happened or what is currently happening within an organization. Typically, the data are presented and consumed in dashboards.
2. Predictive: Forecasting by turning data into valuable, actionable information.
3. Transformative: We refer to this as optimization. Suggesting decisions that take advantage of the predictions.

Figure 4.1 Human Capital Analytics Continuum

The further along the continuum you reach, the more complex the processes and the richer ...