3 Tips From Cartier on Scaling People Analytics To Drive Business Impact

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to implementing people analytics in your business. The starting point will depend on internal perceptions and your approach to HR data. You must first assess where your organization currently stands. It is crucial for the CHRO and CEO to understand what people analytics is and the value it brings. Conducting interviews with key stakeholders will provide a clear picture of the maturity level and help determine who will sponsor the initiative. 

With this diagnostic information, you can develop a strategy and shape your desired direction. This involves defining a vision statement and identifying two or three mission statements that will support your goals for the next three to five years. Once these elements are established, you can take a pragmatic approach to implementation, and start to scale your work across all aspects of decision-making in the business.

Here are three simple steps that underpin how we achieved this at Cartier.

1. Technology enables success  

Partner with the data office and other digital teams. A lot of the technology stack will already be in place. Find out what you can use, and what you can build on top. Most importantly, identify how to deliver more value—and faster than before. This is where buying cutting-edge solutions will be essential to reach the optimal time to market. Our partnership with Visier has been critical to enabling the organization to use and consume people data simply and efficiently.  

2. You can’t do people analytics alone 

People analytics is a team game, so you’ll need a full upskilling HR program. Data needs to be democratized. Your stakeholders all need to be aware of people analytics, how it is different from reporting, and how they can align to realize business value. Some people in your organization will be very at ease with data, such as those who may have been financial controllers or HR analysts. They will have the interest and desire to go further with people analytics. Work closely with these data champions.

3. Data stewardship

Quality is paramount. Data quality does not improve by itself, and you need a strategy to improve data quality along the way. Crucially, though, you cannot work on the quality alone as people won't see the value in merely pushing principles without action. On the other hand, people will not believe your insights if the quality isn't there. These elements have to go hand-in-hand and be developed in parallel. 

It goes without saying that you’ll need buy-in from the CHRO, which is achieved when they start seeing that there is something valuable to dig into. But the CHRO will only get you so far. HR must not be done for the sake of HR alone—you must deliver business value beyond HR. You must show other C-level executives—including commercial, marketing, and operations—that people analytics offers something for them as well. 

Find your most probable sponsor—where there is affinity—and go there. Pick a project and build out a team for your concrete deliverables. These might be achieved by mixing business data with retail data, or commercial performance with HR performance, to look for correlations and bring new value. 

Using people analytics to drive business impact

Start with one project that will build your credibility as a function and, as this project succeeds, you’ll raise awareness of the impact people analytics can have on your business.

Once you start scaling your people analytics function, you will be able to start using data to compare different levers that affect business outcomes on a level not previously possible. For example, let’s say you want to improve productivity and performance. In the past, companies have relied on simple metrics to measure productivity, such as the ratio of total labor time (input) to the amount of goods produced (output). With people analytics, you can look beyond productivity itself to understand what human factors influence it, helping improve efficiency and make better business decisions. 

This can be done at a high level by comparing departments or teams with different ways of working. A simple place to start is by showcasing how your high performer ratio affects your productivity level. Alternatively, you can show the impact of employee turnover on sales turnover or productivity or look at how productivity correlates with well-being scores and learning initiatives.

You’ll soon see how HR data can give you valuable insights into where things are working well, and where improvements could be made. These solid foundational elements will help you build trust so you can develop your practice even further. The goal here is that each of your local executive committees will have a clear view of how HR strategy impacts different elements of business performance. 



On the Outsmart blog, we write about workforce-related topics like what makes a good manager, how to reduce employee turnover, and reskilling employees. We also report on trending topics like ESG and EU CSRD requirements and preparing for a recession, and advise on HR best practices like how to create a strategic compensation strategy, metrics every CHRO should track, and connecting people data to business data. But if you really want to know the bread and butter of Visier, read our post about the benefits of people analytics.