Study: Nearly 70% of Executive Teams Use Workforce Analytics

Business leaders in high-performance organizations are increasingly relying on people analytics to help drive better business results, according to research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and ROI Institute, conducted in coordination with the Center for Talent Reporting. The study, The Promising State of Human Capital Analytics , found that executive teams at 67% of the organizations surveyed now use results from human capital analytics projects.

"Successful companies tend to be those that purposefully use data to anticipate and prepare rather than to react to daily problems," said Patti Phillips, president and CEO of ROI Institute. "The future focus of professionals in the human capital analytics field will increasingly be on using analytics to guide strategic decisions and affect organizational performance."

Management seems more convinced than ever before about the power of people-related data: 43% of those surveyed reported having strong support from the management team vs. 27% who did not believe the support was there.

The study, which details the story of how Google got started using people analytics, along with similar profiles on practices at LinkedIn, HSBC, and Intel, confirmed the widespread belief that the field of workforce analytics is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace. As evidence of this, i4cp's Workforce Analytics Exchange —a research-based working group of analytics leaders—continues to be a popular and growing group with members of i4cp's network because of the constant advances in the field.

Despite the positive momentum, the study found several areas of concern, such as:

• Only 30% of professionals surveyed believe the human capital analytics function has strong credibility, influence, and respect.
• A similar small percentage—28%—reported having a highly skilled team.
• Only 22% believe they have achieved several major successes each year.

"Organizational effectiveness is often the initial and primary focus of workforce analytics," adds Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. "But, we'll continue to see an increase in executive support and commitment particularly as companies become more sophisticated with predictive measures, and management teams begin to rely on people data as much as they do on financial data today."

The report is currently available exclusively to i4cp member companies and ROI Institute clients, but will be released publicly later this summer. If you're an i4cp member, download the report now , or sign up to be notified when the report is available to you.