FUTURE TALENT November - January 2019/2020 | Page 30
O
ON TOPIC
The use of data to improve business outcomes is
certainly seductive. In marketing, for example, it’s been
transformative: no more John Wanamaker-style “half
the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble
is I don’t know which half”. Smart marketeers know
better than ever how to maximise their advertising
dollar for targeted results. And, even when it comes
to managing people, being able to measure and see
what works can make all the difference.
Examples abound. Collecting gender or ethnicity
pay-gap data is undoubtedly shining a light on pay
inequality. Having accessible data to hand on staff
turnover supports positive policy change. The good
people at Facebook can now easily track the likelihood
and timing of staff resignations to whether they
engage or not with ‘pulse’ staff surveys. It’s clear that
data analytics are here to stay. The question is how far
can (and should) we take its use in HR? Unlike
marketing, where the objectives are more identifiable,
working with people is much less clear-cut.
The first obstacle relates to practicality. In many
firms, the data will undoubtedly be found in a variety
of places. Data sets are unlikely to be compatible, clean
or consistent. They are often not big enough to make
the most of standard data-science analysis. And even
if a suitable data set is collected, can we be sure that
organisations have the skills they need to ask the right
questions and understand and analyse the answers?
Then there are crucial issues of permission, privacy
and fairness. Employee distrust about the use of their
personal data is understandable and, in some cases,
justified. Most of us feel uneasy about Amazon-style
metrics being used to track and squeeze every ounce
of efficiency out of their warehouse workers.
But perhaps the greatest obstacle to tech-based
efficiency in HR is more conceptual. Peter Cappelli,
director of the centre for human resources at The
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, is clear
that “the speed with which the business rhetoric in
management moved from big data to machine
learning to AI is staggering”.
30 // Future Talent
Strict policies are
often excuses to
not think, leading
to clashes between
common sense
and bureaucracy
This doesn’t mean, though, that there’s a match
between “the rhetoric and reality”. Cappelli’s starting
point is that HR outcomes are inherently complex; he
questions whether we can really identify what
constitutes ‘a good employee’, especially as
performance so often depends on working with others.
He is also sceptical about the ability of algorithm-
based analyses to navigate the frameworks and
practices we’ve developed over the years to ensure
that HR outcomes are arrived at fairly. Being able to
explain and justify decisions which impact individual
and organisational wellbeing is much more important
than in other areas of work.
Algorithms might be able to “perform better than
human judgement when used to predict repetitive
outcomes, such as reading X-rays”, but, when it comes
to the relationship building crucial to people’s
experience and behaviour at work, we jettison human
empathy and goodwill at our peril.
As Nick Cowley puts it: “Tech can be a wonderful
thing and has enormous potential for good if used
properly. But it’s crucial to remember that we’re still
the same people, wired in the way we’ve always been,
with a need for affiliation, acceptance and recognition.
There’s no substitute for trusting relationships.”
This is an approach espoused by enterprise software
experts Workday. Richard Doherty, senior director,
product marketing, is clear that HR tech should not just
be about cost reduction and efficiency; it’s more about
freeing up HR to have those Nick Cowley-style
conversations.
He uses the example of Workday itself, a company
that has grown significantly in recent years, with all the
challenges to culture and performance that brings.
One solution was to use its own weekly survey tool: “We
ask employees two questions each week – on Feedback
Friday; over time, we’ve built a body of data which has
informed more strategic HR programmes that have
helped to support our values and maintain high levels
of customer satisfaction,” he explains.
For Doherty, richer data provides insights that trigger
the conversations needed for individual and
organisational development and innovation. These