New Global Research Highlights Role of People Analytics in Driving Strong Business Outcomes

LONDON, June 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

CIPD/Workday research highlights need to improve workforce data confidence and skills 

New global research from the CIPD in association with Workday illustrates an important relationship between the use of people data and strong business outcomes. It shows that organisations with a strong people analytics culture are much more likely to report strong business performance. However, the survey also highlights that the widescale adoption of people analytics in business is still low and that more needs to be done to improve skills and confidence, particularly in the UK which is lagging behind South-East Asia, the USA and the Middle East and North Africa in both capability and confidence.

The research People Analytics: driving business performance with people data, surveyed 3,852 business professionals globally - including HR and finance professionals - to understand attitudes towards people analytics and how it is being used in organisations. It found:

People analytics is far from being business as usual: 

• Just over half (54%) of global respondents stated that they had access to people data and analytics
• Two-fifths (39%) have no access to people data for decision making purposes.
• Just half (52%) of HR professionals stated that their organisation uses people data to tackle business problems
• Just 42% of finance professionals have access to their workforce's people data despite the relationship between access to workforce data and strong business outcomes

However, when people analytics is used, it is adding value to organisations 

• 75% of HR professionals globally who are using people data, are using it to tackle workforce performance and productivity issues
• 65% of those who said that they work in an organisation with a strong people analytics culture said that their business performance was strong when compared to other competitors, but only 32% of those in organisations with a weak analytics culture report strong business performance
• Using people data was shown to predict the effectiveness of tackling key organisational challenges, such as workforce performance and productivity, showing that using people data leads to good outcomes

There are clear regional differences. The UK is lagging far behind other markets in data analytics capability and confidence: