People Analytics in the Era of Big Data

CHAPTER 3 The Seven Pillars of People Analytics Success

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.

—Abraham Lincoln

While no one is chopping down a tree, Lincoln’s quote accurately captures the important role that preparation plays in People Analytics. Some leading companies have been applying the same critical assessment and rigorous discipline to workforce management as they do to other aspects of their business—and they’re leveraging People Analytics to gain insight and optimize outcomes. Investing the time in performing due diligence with data analytics will not only save organizations time and money, but it will also result in a more satisfied workforce who will drive business performance and help build and maintain a competitive edge.

In this chapter, we’ll take a look at the core pillars needed to build a successful People Analytics framework. But first, let’s quickly recap how we got here.

In the two previous chapters, we introduced People Analytics. By now, you should have a better understanding of how the Internet has changed the workforce equation and revolutionized the overall talent sourcing process while moving from a print base to a web base. It also enhanced the word-of-mouth aspect of social networks and social hiring channels. Additionally, Internet sourcing enabled the explosion of digital talent data and metrics, changing how this information could be captured, stored, processed, analyzed, and managed. ...