the benefits of big data

8/12/2019 The Benefits of Big Data.

1/8


2/8

BS P^ pw -7


3/8


4/8

COVER STORY

e-mails, and even images and videosall of which require new technologiesfor organization and analysis.

Velocity refers to th e increase instreaming d ata arriving in real time andto the speed at which data must be eval-uated and made actionable for businessvalue.

Data IntegrationOf the three dimensions of big data,variety presents the greatest challengeto H R .

HR has two internal sources: datait owns and d ata it collects from otherenterprise systems.

HR data comes from systems such aspayroll and HRIS. W hile HRIS and pay-roll systems have seen an increase in datavolume, this by itself is not big data.

Sometimes an HRIS is a module inan enterprise application suite, whichcan m ake accessing data from othermodules relatively easy. But often anHRIS stands alon e, not linked to othersystems in or outside H R. Point solu-tions have proliferated for talent man-agement, recruiting, performance man-agement, learning management andother functions, adding to the challengeof accessing and m anaging th is rich datavein.

Surveys by Josh Bersin, principal

and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, a tal-ent management subsidiary of DeloitteConsu lting, have found that the aver-age large company has more than 10HR applications and its core HR sys-tem is over six years old , he wrote ina recent blog post. It takes effort and

energy to bring this data together andmake sense of it.

HR often needs a data mart to tie itsdata together before subjecting it to ana-lytics. data mart is a software layer ontop of independent databases that givesusers access to some or all of the data ineach layer.

decade ago, when Defense Acqui-sition University got serious about met-rics and analysis, it brought in an expertfrom industry as its new CF O, MarkWh iteside. He led a team that quickly

put into place an integrated set of busi-ness systems that included a data m art.All these systems were mapped into thedata m art, says Christopher R. Hardy,director of the university's global learn-ing and technology center.

Dashboards on desktop computers

oming to Terms

Data will set you free, says Steven Rice, executive vice

president for HR at Juniper Netw orks based in Sunnyvale,

Calif.

But first it might drown you. Many basic issues about

big data existed before the concept of big data itself exist-

edsuch as availability, accuracy and definitions of data.

Consider Rice's skirmishes over how to measure head

count. There was always a battle over who owned the

data and the definition of head cou nt, Rice recalls. Peo ple

fought me tooth and nail, insisting that it was o w n e d by the

line businesses and wasn't co mpany data.

Consultants, analysts and practitioners agree that defin-ing wha t a metric means is one of the big unresolved chal-

lenges for HR metricsan d that challenge existed long

before the big data era arrived. If enterprises do not use

standard definitions of the data po ints that create these met-

rics, they are essentially meaningless. Imagine if the finance

department had to use different d efinitions for revenue

from each business unit. That's the basic problem many HR

organizations face with head count, attrition and other key

te rms.

Eventually, Rice successfully argued that the company

needed to agree on one calculation to use for business plan-ning, forecasting operational expenses and resource plan-

ning that would com ply with the legal definition of employ-

ee. It still took a couple of quarters after his t e am own ed

head count before business-unit leaders accepted HR's

number as accurate. Now, it's no longer question of who

owns the data but of how to unleash the potential brought

on by having so much information at one's fingertips.

Disputes like the one Rice describes may someday be a

thing of the past. The 3-year-old Center for Talent Repo rting,

a consortium with 60 member companies, has proposed a

se t of standard definitions to be used for HR metrics.

David Vance, the center's execu tive director, says the

goal is to bring standard measures and standard reports onHR metrics the way the accounting profession has standard

measures and reports for financial statements. More than

500 proposed definitions can be viewed on the center's

website .

Th e aim is to persuade HR organizations to adopt the

definitions voluntarily and for software vendors to incorpo-

rate them into their produ cts. This fall, the group expects to

post an accreditation process for HR organizations, vend ors

and consultants, Vance says. Now, w ith big data, it is more

important than ever to have clarity and ground rules on how

you report these m easures, because companies are buriedin data.

24 HR Magazine Oct ober 2013


5/8

COVER STORY

now give man agers a direct view into thedata m art and the metrics they use torun their operations. We have monthlymeetings to specifically look at trendsand results, Hardy says. Da ta analysishas changed our whole culture.

An early exercise convinced Hard yof th e power of data analysis. The lead-ership team at the university had ear-lier accepted the co nventional w isdomthat an instructor needs four hours toprepare for one hour of cl ss instruc-tion. Data analysis revealed tha t after

the instructor had taug ht the class fora w hile, prep time fell to 30 m inutesfor each hour, says Hardy , co-auth orof Leading Learning R evolution:The Story Behind Defense Acquisition University s Rein vention of Trainin g (Pfeiffer, 2008 ). The finding had ahuge impact on staffing, budgeting andinstructor performance expectations,and other resource decisions, he says.

Peeling Back the LayersAnalysis that combines HR data andfinancial data can provide human capi-tal insights that lead to decisions andprogram s with business impact. Salesdatabases and customer relationshipmanagem ent systems are fertile reposi-tories for information that can be usedin advanced workforce ana lysis. Due totechnical difficulties and silo mentali-ties, however, gaining access to dataoutside of H R 's control can be a hurdle.

This is especially true of companies th athave decentralized structures with busi-ness units that use different systems.

We have all the people data we needbecause we did a serious overhaul ofHRIS a couple of ye rs a g o , but the peo-ple data by itself isn't enough for strate-gic analysis, says Andrew Erm on, HRanalyst at Superior Energy Services In c.,a Houston-based oil equipment andservices business with 14,000 employ-ees worldwide. Ermon needs additionaldata to prepa re a strategic w orkforceanalysis when a business unit considersopening operations in a new domestic

11110000001100 1 0 0 0 i s o i u mIOt11111l11111 -I 1 I 01111M11l1M11110000110i1l1i1t1'1 0 0 0I11190001100 110000001iO 0 0 1onoooonto ii i ii i O io ii iri o)oiiiioiiii MOCOtMon 0 0

ji tuoiimo iiinoiio o 11ioeoiiiitoii otMoeoooo 10ioiit i i io*o t on ooo o o itiiiiioo*o t oo 1190 0 o o101111000011 1100 011 1 11oiitiimii 1111 Mito 00>oooiiii 11 1111 neo o 1 0I1901111 11 1100 1111 o 0

m i t o 11 ton wo o 01111(0 to oto 0011 1 1oooto to l i to 11 o 0

1'1 o 1111 90 1 11 1 ' I 0000 090 eo1 1 O M- I -1-0 O0 1 1 1 11 0o o 1 .0 lO oo 1 '1 '1 1

o o ^ 1 o 1

ooo

1

, u .0 0 0 1 00 0 0 1 1 '0 0 0 0 1o 0 1 o O'0 - 1 1 1 1

n o 0 11001100110001111110 o 1i111 1 < 1 >

1 1 o1 1

1

o 1111100i1111111001100O1Oi090 o 1 016OO01001111O0111i>0tH111 o 1 o 111000011001111110040t1*010 o o 11100110011000000110000111111 o o i ' i oo i i i ioo t i i ioo t i i i i io io io 1 1 1M00000011111100 11t11110 '1 10900011t100001111 BOtOHI

1111000000iiiieoioiiii imiitoeo

00

111

1111

11 1

0 0

1 1 1

1 o

0 1

11O0f111011 tO11111H1 10011111111 11 111100 tito a

ooioiiiooo 001100 ton 1

a o OM'1 001111 eoti 1

0 0 1 o o 00 1111111 0 1 1 1 'O O ' r o1 1 0 1 0 1 o 1 11,1 1 1 0 0 1 vO o to 1 00 00 11 i 1 1 O -JO go 1 o 1 fo a0 1 0 .,1 0 1 o0 1 0 . ,o 1 oo 1o1

In t e r n a l a n d e x t e r n a l s o u rc e s o f u n s t ru c td a t a a r e m u lt ip ly i n g t o in c l u d e s o c ia l n n

b l o g s w i k i se - m a i l s a n d m o re .

location. This data includes internal andexternal HR and financial data aboutthe labor poolsupply, dem and, skillsand hiring costs.

In this highly decentralized com-pany, however, getting access to finan-cial and op erational data is hit or miss.The data is either hard to get to or hardto find, Ermon says. And it oftenincludes confidential data th at peopleare hesitant to let others have access to.

Once H R gets permission to usefinancial data, there is m ore to do. AtJuniper, which has more than 9 000employees worldwide, HR wanted toquantify how quickly it took new sales-people to generate revenue at expectedlevels. A lot of our backend systemswere not aligned to capture this kind ofinformation, says Steven Rice, execu-tive vice president of H R . We had to doa lot of architecting around what dataitems we capture. T hat is hard work.

In the past decade, HR at FedExExpress, an operating com pany ofEedEx Corp. with 155,000 employees

worldw ide, has increased its use of ana-lytics and fought similar battles. Todayit has access to all kinds of data. Wealways look at HR metrics in hiring ,recruitmen t, training , RO I, efficien-cies, retention , talent, skill sets needed,succession plannin g and individualplanning, Bennett says. To supportbusiness goals, we also look at businessmetrics when w e evaluate our talentcost of salary and benefits for talent per

revenue, for exam ple.

Unstructured DataEor years, HR has used unstructurednarrative answers from engagementsurveys and perform ance reviews forhuman capital insights. In the era of b igdata, the internal and external sourcesof unstructured data are multiplyingto include social media, blogs, w ikis,e-mails and more. These sources arelikely to offer many actionable insightsabout employee engagement.

Starbucks gained insights abou temployee motivation from a survey w ith

26 H R Magazine Octob er 2013


6/8

COVER STORY

many open-ended qu estions the com-pany used in an employee segmentationstudy. It hired graduate students to assistwith a man ual content analysis of themassive amou nt of information. Toolsto automate this type of process are stillevolving.

Automated analysis techniquesof unstructured data are still in theirinfancy, says Ranjan Dutta , directorof th e metrics and predictive analyticspractice at PwC Saratoga, a con sult-ing firm. But the capabilities will grow

over the next few years. Oracle, SAP,Workday and other software vendorsare working to make it easier for cus-tomers to manage and use multisourcebig data .

A few HR organizations alreadymine social networking sites for data.Juniper, for example, uses Linked ln.In addition to housing resum es, the siteputs a lot of research and developmentinto analytics. Over the years, it hasrolled out more and more analytical features for both individual users and busi-nesses. T oday, a business th at subscribesto the Linkedln Recruiter service canaccess every Linked ln p rofile and searchfor any number of criteria using stan-dard Linkedln filters.

Rice had developed an internal data-base for tracking employees' skills,knowledge and experiences, as wellas voluntary departures and potentialcandidates, but Linkedln has become a

superior solution because most profes-sionals use it as the go-to place to postand update their career profiles. Peopleare much better about updating theirprofiles on Linkedln th an in our data-base, he says.

In addition to rec ruiting. Rice's teamuses Linked ln data to better understandwhere Juniper hires from and wheredeparting employees go.

Juniper is also among a group of cor-porate early adopters and power usersthat collaborate with Linkedln to iden-tify emerging talent practices and inno -vative ways the service might evolve.

I O 11 i 1 ' 1 ' 1 M 'M O O i i ' 1 0 0

011*000110001111901111

1 1 0 1 , o i 1 1 1 OuO IWUUOJ i. i. io.iiiim90iiooonoooooo1 0 1 1 1 1 1 o o O j 0 o o o o i i 6 o a o @ o t i o o i i o o i o i i o o i i i i t o i i i i o o i i i

i1uOuOtOi1OvOuOt1000000i11111MI10111100011011111100011111100001111i100OOO00OO011|OO(01111O0l1tO11OM0011O0O

8 1111 11 111111

oootooo o

111100 10000S0000 0 0 o

OO'OCO i 100001 1060l 11100111 lO O tit 160111111(101 1 0 1M11i1011l1111100909000t11H1001 0 1 1 0 0 iotuio0oooooii i i i (moii i i

imeo

O11t1OtO11I 0 111U 1111110001111 11

1 1

1 10 0

O

o

. 0

1

1

1

1

1

o

o

o

o

1

1 1

mon0 0o

0 0 1 1

o

' 1 o11111111' 1 o

o 10 o1 o1 10 o1 1

1o1

0

1

0

01

1

0 5 1111

0

1

o 1 1 o 1 1

0 o 00011'1111 1 000111111o 0 1 1

1190000060111111t111tO11iit m iioot o 1111 000001111 1111i i t i e o t o t o o o11 1111 11

4 0 11 O t o

1

1 1

01

01

1

0 01 ooooo oo

ooeoo1100*00 1 1

1 1

1 1

0 0 01 1 11 oo 11oo1

o

1

1

1

o

toso1 1 6 0

1111

1

1

1

1

o

1

o

o

o

o

1

m

1111

3

1

0

1

011

n m o oooot m011111111t1 111100

M1190toim111111 119t o 11

119 0

1

1

0 0 0

0

t o11

t1 1fOf1 A 11S 1111 111111 111 1 0

0 11 11 0 11 11

11

0 0

11

0 0 1111 , 1

0 01

0

01

01

11

-1

00

T h e HR te a m u s e s L in k e d ln d a t a to b e t te ru n d e r s ta n d w h e r e th e c o m p a n y h i re s f ro m

a n d w h e r e d e p a r tin g e m p lo y e e s g o

Linked ln is moving deliberately andthoughtfully on the corporate talentsolutions beyond recruiting, which willbe more applicable for our needs, Ricesays.

He would like to use Linkedln tobetter understand career paths andthen apply that knowledge to influencerecruiting, learning and other programs.But we're still figuring out the method-ology to tackle this, he acknowledges.

Thrivent uses Linkedln, t o o Basedon the com pany's earlier analysis of HRand financial data, McKinney knowsthat a predictor of su ess for indepen-dent agents is having a family memberor friend w ho works for Thrivent orelsewhere in financial services. Thriventseeks agents who are entrepreneurialand want their own business but whoalso like the idea of being connected toa b ig company. It seeks individuals withstrong ties to their commu nities and adesire to serve others. We are figuringout Linkedln as a mechanism to findthese candid ates, McKinney says.

Social networkin g sites such as Face-book also hold promise.

FedEx, which has conducted cor-relation studies between employeedata and unstructured customer sat-isfaction d ata, is now exploring howit might com pare wha t employees sayabout FedEx on public social network-ing and career sites with w hat they sayon engagement surveys. Employeesare your brand ambassadors, and social

media and network sites are mega-phones about your company, Ben-nett says. Today employee satisfac-tion transcends the workplace into thesocial space . If we se e that employees aredissatisfied and pu tting th at on socialmedia, we have a problem.

But McKinney is reluctan t to tap intoa social networking site such as Face-book because of privacy concerns. Heargues that the trust-based relationshipwith employees could be at risk if HRstarts perusing Facebook pages. W hatdata you decide to look at and why is atricky line to walk. J

2 8 H R Magazine October 2 0 1 3


7/8


8/8

C o p y r i g h t o f H R M a g a z i n e i s t h e p r o p e r t y o f S o c i e t y f o r Hi t s c o n t e n t m a y n o t b e c o p i e d o r e m a i l e d t o m u l t i p l e s i t e s oc o p y r i g h t h o l d e r ' s e x p r e s s w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . H o w e v e r , a r t i c l e s f o r i n d i v i d u a l u s e .

the benefits of big data

Documents