Question: what is one of the most important tools at the disposal of the HR department?
Answer: the HR dashboard!
Of course there are a few other tools you might name, but the HR dashboard is very valuable as an accessible part of everyday, informed decision-making. At its heart, the HR dashboard can provide clear data for some of your company’s most important questions.
The caveat is, it must be set up effectively! That’s what I’m here to discuss in this article:
Why your HR dashboard matters
Your HR dashboard can be one of your most valuable reporting tools for essential measures or tasks within the HR department. There are benefits for both the HR department and any senior managers in the organisation, such as:
- Being able to track any problem areas, particularly as related to HR. For example, if you were concerned about turnover rates, a dashboard can help you drill down on turnover in a transparent way. Perhaps the turnover is related to particular departments or certain managers, for example.
- Delivering key management information. The dashboard can keep managers informed of key developments within their teams.
- Tracking key workforce metrics. This is especially valuable for the roles of the HR department. HR needs to be able to spot any issues or trends within the workforce early and to be able to show data-backed evidence to senior managers, especially to help justify decision-making.
A key characteristic that an effective dashboard has is it remains agile. As circumstances or contexts change, the dashboard needs to be aggregated to new tracking measures too. HR analytics teams can help ensure the dashboard remains relevant by monitoring in real time and quickly identifying any new key areas of performance.
HR dashboards should remain agile, in keeping with the current context Click To Tweet
Source: WebHR
Determine your parameters
It is important for the HR Director to determine which parameters are the ones to concentrate everybody’s attention on and work to improve those. There needs to be continuity of direction. This should always be in collaboration with senior managers in the organisation as the parameters need to be in line with the general business strategy that they decide.
The dashboard parameters should be very limited and carefully chosen. Trying to monitor too many different things can muddy the waters and make useful insights more difficult to extract. It’s important to only collect the data that is necessary, too. I would not ask employees to collect data and work on data with no purpose. I would not like it that no action is taken after all the upstream work has been done. People need meaningful work!
The detail of HR data needs to be in relation to what senior management can really manage and decide on. I would ask permission, or explain to the staff what data is being collected and for what purpose. Transparency helps to ensure data integrity and a trusting environment.
Examples of dashboard parameters might include:
- Recruitment indicators. For example, you can monitor things like the average time you need to advertise for, recruit and integrate a new employee. Monitoring this can help you spot any lagging points.
- Absenteeism data. You can track when it happens, from where it happens and potential reasons why. You can extrapolate and compare between departments and managers.
- Payroll and remuneration management. An effective scoreboard can help companies to control their remuneration policies and track the impact of compensation against performance.
- Skills and talent management. The dashboard can be set up to monitor and identify skills, assess internal needs and define parameters for evaluation.
Of course, as HR analytics practitioners, a core component of dashboards is that they can be great predictive tools. We can use algorithms to make predictions based on the dashboard data (if those aren’t already built into the dashboard).
Consult with HR specialists
One of my favourite practices is to allow HR analytics specialists to come up with new perspectives and new ideas. I love the exchange of ideas.
I would venture to say that the HR team is often an underutilised resource when it comes to sourcing feedback. In many organisations they are acting on the criteria that has been decided by senior management, but it’s important to tap into their own knowledge too.
It has only been in more recent times that HR departments are starting to be seen at the same level as marketing or sales in terms of ability to drive overall strategy in an organisation. It’s important to keep that door open and also for HR to come forward with data-backed suggestions that are relevant to the goals of senior management.
Have the right tools
Investments need to be made to alleviate the workload and make things sustainable in the long term. I would decide on a risk-based approach. I would work on the definitions underlining the data and make sure that colleagues understand what is being analysed. I would also be available for external consultants and IT providers to propose new tools and try them out for short periods of time. I would love a mixture of data and intuition.
When I say “the right tools” there are some relatively common pitfalls to be avoided. These may include:
- Relying on a lot of manual processes. If HR is required to generate every report manually, you’re going to create that unsustainable workload I alluded to above. It’s highly inefficient and contributes to draining the capabilities of the HR analytics team. On top of that, you always run the risk of missteps or inaccuracies whenever anything manual is required.
- Death by data. HR can find themselves overrun with requests from different areas, but it’s important to “keep your eye on the prize” so to speak. The parameters of what you monitor should stick with those areas that are most important. Generally speaking, something like the 80/20 rule can apply – you can keep 80% of people satisfied with 20% of the accessible data.
- Data mistakes. One thing I always emphasise about HR data is the need to ensure it is “clean.” All sorts of mistakes or inaccuracies can come from the various source systems that feed your dashboard – you need a plan to ensure you get the best quality data possible. Look to fix any errors in source systems to clean data that comes to your dashboard.
Source: Bamboo HR
Final thoughts
Your HR dashboard should become one of the most valuable tools in the HR department. When set up well, the dashboard can help to give valuable data and drive meaningful actions for improvement.
As with anything related to HR data, a lot rides on the planning and execution. An effective dashboard shouldn’t overwhelm teams with data and should focus on the key metrics of vital importance to senior management. This is one way that HR helps to drive strategy in organisations.
Importantly, work to keep the dashboard relevant. HR analytics is uniquely positioned to understand how things are changing and what might need to be updated to keep up.