Five people analytics leaders share their biggest challenges

1 minute read

As People Analytics World descends on London, ThePeopleSpace discovers the main challenges faced by five speakers

People analytics is an essential requirement for HR today. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Human Capital Trends report, more than 70% of respondents are in the midst of major projects to analyse and integrate data into their decision-making. Advanced analytics can now track and analyse a dizzying amount of employee data, including data harvested from voice communications, personal interactions, and video interviews. Even the sentiment of employee emails can now be measured and monitored, say Deloitte.

But while there is widespread agreement that people analytics is now a must-have, implementing a people analytics strategy is not easy. People Analytics World organiser Tucana shared with ThePeopleSpace what some of this year’s speakers say are their biggest challenges in this area.

Roberto Amatucci, people analytics manager, Swarovski

“The main challenge is the ability to merge people and business data. HR systems and business systems do not share the same unique identifier and this translates into big reconciliation activities that take a lot of time to be executed. It also makes it more complex to operationalise and automatise people analytics solutions”

Vanessa Lammers, global director, people analytics & insights, Nestlé Waters

“For me, the greatest challenge has been supporting 35 plus markets who are all in different stages of their analytics journey; there is no ‘one-size-fits-allapproach’ for us with respect to people analytics at Nestle Waters. Many of our markets are in joint ventures, which makes workforce planning very complex”

Michael Tocci, global leader talent analytics, P&G

“Building the capability of our HR generalists and leaders to be better equipped in utilising data to enhance people decisions in organisations”

Max Blumberg, visiting professor, Leeds University Business School

“Getting HR people to understand that most companies run on finance and investment and that unless HR understands finance and investment, it will never be taken as seriously as functions (like operations, marketing and finance) that do understand finance.”

Swati Chawla, global head, HR analytics, strategy & planning, Syngenta

The three greatest challenges faced are:

  1. Lack of readiness (in terms of awareness, acceptance and capability) of the user base/customer group (wider HR function and business) for people analytics
  2. Overemphasis on tools and technology rather than the insights gained
  3. Establish ROI of the function by using insights from people analytics to solve business problems
People Analytics World runs on April 11 and 12 at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London, UK. It is one of Europe's leading conferences for senior professionals and leaders in HR and analytics
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