People analytics software is critical in our data-driven world. Yet, it’s often difficult to gain buy-in from the C-suite. We reveal our five key business case building blocks to get the critical executive support you need.
The Importance of People Analytics Â
Many organizations today collect workforce data, but it’s often in multiple locations using different techniques and standards. Your organization most likely does too. In fact, it’s typical to see several different data sets located in disconnected systems. You may be tasked more and more often with making sense of all your data. To properly do that, you need to gather it from different systems and clean it up. Then comes the task of figuring out how to curate it for the variety of people and tasks who need to use it. Â
That’s why a single analytics platform is such a relief. It makes it easy for companies to standardize data collection, clean it up, separate it based on role or query, and get targeted insights where they need to go.
People analytics platforms give your business the ability to make evidence-based decisions and drive better performance, productivity, and retention.
See More: Predicting Voluntary Turnover Risk with People Analytics
How to Gain the Buy-in You Need
The C-suite is often not invested in the pain points you experience trying to source, clean, and curate data. But they do understand the importance of data-driven decisions and may simply need to understand how those decisions can make a real business impact.
To that end, here are five key business case building blocks to get the buy-in you need.
Key No. 1: Write a succinct executive summary that outlines the solution to the problem
Ideally, you will write your executive summary after writing the rest of your business case. It’s important to keep it to two or three paragraphs of succinct and active description of your business drivers, risks, and possible solutions. Write your summary from the point of view of the decision-maker and ensure they would be able to not only understand the business problem you are addressing but also be able to see the solution, business impact, and ROI of your business case. Some leaders never get further than the executive summary, so make it compelling.
Key No. 2: Address the overarching issue, focusing on business and workforce drivers
What are the business and workforce drivers pushing you to recommend a centralized people analytics solution? Helping the C-suite understand these drivers in a clear and succinct way is important. What are these drivers? A good example of a workforce driver might be high turnover or low engagement. A business driver might be increased productivity or staffing costs.
Key No. 3: Identify and discuss the current state of people analytics in the organization
Next, you need to help them understand the current state of your HR tech stack and ecosystem. The C-suite may not know how rudimentary or how big and disparate all these technologies truly are. Address the ways your tech and processes work today and how and why they should be updated. It’s a good idea to offer specific frustrations, strategies, and opportunities.
Key No. 4: Define the proposed solution
Explore with your audience the potential benefits, downsides, costs, and risks of rolling out a new people analytics platform. Be prepared for them to ask questions from every angle. Also, it’s appropriate to cover the cost and risks of the alternatives, whether that’s continuing to use homegrown tech or other technology platforms. Show them that you have done your homework and are bringing them a solution to a current problem.
Key No. 5: Discuss the expected outcomes from the people analytics platform
Finally, it’s important to be clear about the business results that your new people analytics system can drive. When making important decisions on business investments such as people analytics platforms, leaders need to understand the outcomes clearly. So speak to them about those outcomes, whether ROI, expected impact on managers or the organization, or costs. For example:
- Reducing the cost of turnover
- Reducing absenteeism
- Reducing overtimeÂ
- Reducing people analytics labor costs and increasing throughputÂ
The Ticket To Winning
Every organization is different, with different needs and expected outcomes. The ticket to getting the C-suite on your side is to put yourself in their shoes. Remember that they’re usually as busy as you are, or even more so. They understand the value of data-driven decisions but simply may not have considered its uses in HR. Do your research. Bring them the problem and the solution and, most importantly, show them the real impact of a people analytics platform in driving business outcomes.
Now more than ever, you need to have a clear view of your workforce to engage and retain your employees, make critical people-related decisions, and drive home the competitive advantage of evidence-based people decisions. To do that, you need a better way to gather, clean, and curate the data you already have stored in your systems. It’s even better when you can deliver timely, reliable, and customized data across the workforce.
To do any of the above, you need to gain buy-in from your business leaders. These five tips should help you write a better business case for people analytics and start your company on the journey to greater business success.
What strategies have you used to gain C-suite buy-in for people analytics solutions? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .