Jul 30, 2013 | Blog

Was That HR Program Worth It?

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Slowly disappearing are the days of gut feel as to which programs HR should support. Upper management is now demanding proof of connecting HR activities to business value. As an HR leader, what do you do?

I will provide a short demonstration of how to strategically determine which HR activities make a difference. Yes, I recognize that some activities will always be supported for regulatory compliance but what about the rest? Here are two examples.
I received a call from an HR Manager a while ago and the conversation went something like this. “Our leader told me that you can prove whether my coaching program was any good. Is that true? The employees’ annual feedback scores went up, so it must have worked, right?” Of course, with that level of detail, the answer is “that depends…I will need a bit more information.” With a few questions, I established the following background information.

HR had implemented a coaching program whereby HR reps coached managers who had the lowest annual employee feedback scores (AEF). The primary question on the table was whether the activity of coaching these managers had an impact on their AEF scores.
To approach a problem like this, you have to isolate the impact of the program on the survey scores. Doing this is similar to how medical trials are conducted. In medical trials, a group of people are selected and only a subset of the group receive the drug being tested. The rest of the group receive a placebo. In our HR program example, we can obtain a list of the managers who were coached but also need a list of managers who were not coached. That way, the ones who were coached become our isolated subset of the population.
I conducted the analysis and, skipping the details of “statistical significance,” I could determine whether the coaching activity was a contributing factor of the increased AEF scores.
From this example, it is possible to assess whether a program had the right impact on your organization and whether you should continue to assign resources to it in the future. In this case, the company was fortunate that a metric existed by which to evaluate the program as they had not foreseen the need for one when the program was developed. It is important to determine a “success metric” before a program begins.
Let’s take a look at another example. Consider this same employee feedback survey. Historically, HR felt that the higher these scores, the higher the level of performance for the company. With access to data, it was time to prove whether this annual feedback survey really had any impact on operational performance. Approaching the head of operations, we requested the selection of a metric within his area which he considered to be a “definition of success.” He selected one and we were on our way.

With a little data crunching and statistics, all was known. Now the company could determine whether the programs associated with trying to raise annual feedback scores would actually produce an increase in operational performance.

What does your data tell you?
 
Tracey led the global strategic workforce planning initiative for FedEx Express World Headquarters. In addition, she led a variety of global, strategic HR projects where expertise in data-driven decision making was required. She is now an independent consultant advising clients on HR Analytics and Strategic Workforce Planning. Tracey is the author of "Strategic Workforce Planning: Guidance & Back-up Plans," “Data Driven Decision Making for Small Businesses” and “Changing HR: The Little e-Book of HR Strategy Quick Wins.” She often speaks at conferences and seminars on the topics of strategic workforce planning and HR analytics. Tracey holds degrees in Mathematics, Engineering and Business from universities in Canada and the U.S. She has over 20 years of experience in the areas of Human Resources, Supply Chain and Engineering. She was born in the U.K. and has worked in both Canada and the U.S. Her company, Numerical Insights LLC, helps clients make better business decisions by utilizing strategic, data-driven techniques to assess value and reduce risk.
 
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