How to Use People Analytics for Business Growth

I recently mentored a new Head of HR at a 1,200-person tech company to build her first People Ops dashboard. Not a PowerPoint. Not a vibes report. A real dashboard that said: “I know how this company makes money, and how my team helps it grow.” First, we clarified her goals: ✅ Understand what drives revenue and retention ✅ Make people strategy a lever for innovation, not just operations ✅ Reset how HRBPs see themselves - from support function to business collaborator Her exact words: “I want to build the muscle to operate like any other exec on the team, while teaching my team to embrace a ‘biz-first’ mindset.” Then we built a dashboard to match. 📈 Revenue per Employee 💡 Why: Shows workforce productivity + ROI on talent 🎯 Target: $250K+ (varies by industry); improve quarter-over-quarter Tip: Segment by GTM, R&D, G&A to spot optimization opportunities 📈 Profitability per Employee 💡 Why: Growth is great. Profit funds the future. 🎯 Target: $50K–$150K per employee (varies by stage/directionally, aim up). Tip: Segment by function or team to see who’s building vs. burning value. 📉 Voluntary Attrition (Regrettable + Non) 💡 Why: Attrition is culture + leadership feedback in disguise 🎯 Target: Regrettable <7% annually Tip: Cut by: Team, tenure, manager to reveal hotspots 🌟 Top Talent Retention 💡 Why: Losing high performers = losing velocity 🎯 Target: >90% annual retention of top 10–15% Tip: Track: Internal mobility + development investments 💬 Employee Engagement (eNPS + Pulse) 💡 Why: Engagement predicts performance, CX, and attrition 🎯 Target: eNPS >30; Pulse up trending Tip: Segment: Trust, DEI, belonging, confidence in leadership 🧑💼 Manager Effectiveness Index 💡 Why: People don’t quit companies, they quit managers 🎯 Target: 85%+ favorable across feedback, clarity, support Tip: Sources: Pulse, 360s, retention by manager 🎯 Goal Alignment Rate 💡 Why: Strategy without execution = wasted time 🎯 Target: 95% with 3-5 measurable goals aligned to OKRs Tip: View: By team and level 🚀 Time to Productivity (New Hires) 💡 Why: Faster ramp = faster ROI 🎯 Target: <60 days to first impact deliverable Tip: Benchmarks: Sales ramp, engineer first ship, CSAT lift 🪜 Leadership Bench Strength 💡 Why: You can’t scale what you haven’t built for 🎯 Target: 75% of key roles with 2+ ready successors Tip: Cut by: Function, level, diversity 💵 Compensation Equity + Transparency 💡 Why: Trust starts with fairness 🎯 Target: 100% pay equity audits + 100% manager training in comp philosophy Tip: Overlay: Gender, race, tenure, role 🔧 People Ops Health Score 💡 Why: Broken processes break trust 🎯 Target: <5 days to close HR tickets, 80%+ system adoption, 90%+ hiring manager satisfaction Tip: Layer in: “Do internal systems help or hinder your work?” Now she, nor her HRBPs are waiting to be brought in. They’re co-pilots at the table, with the data to match. Because great HR doesn’t just build culture, it builds companies.

I recently supported an HR leader at a 500-person organization through a transformation that felt small on paper but was massive in mindset. She didn’t come to me for consulting. She’s someone I knew who needed a sounding board, so I offered to help. She thought she needed to pull together a basic HR report. What we ended up building was a blueprint for how HR earns its seat at the business table. Here’s where we started: One core question: How does your work connect to how the business runs and grows? From there, we shifted the lens: • From reporting activity to delivering insight • From tracking turnover to protecting performance • From keeping up to leading forward We built a dashboard, not a deck, that spoke the language of the C-suite. And it changed how she showed up in the room. Some of the metrics we focused on: • Revenue per FTE – Are we getting the ROI on our talent investment • Top talent flight risk – Where are we at risk of losing our future leaders • Manager effectiveness – How are we enabling the front line of culture • Time to productivity – Are we onboarding for speed and success • Engagement drivers – What’s fueling or draining performance • Bench strength – Are we building capacity or just filling gaps We also layered in pulse trends, goal alignment, and internal mobility because strategy isn’t real unless it reaches people. She told me, “I finally feel like I’m leading HR, not just managing it.” That’s the shift. When HR stops waiting to be invited and starts leading with data, clarity, and intent, that’s when transformation begins. Not just for the function. For the whole business. #HRRealTalk #EmployeeExperience #PeopleAnalytics #HRLeadership #EmployeeEngagement #WorkforceStrategy #HRTransformation

We spend over 20 hours a week talking to #peopleanalytics teams and found that some are spending way too much time on 3 things: 1. Predictive Analytics 2. External Benchmarks 3. Adhoc Analyses ... and instead should be spending their time on: 1. Prescriptive Analytics 2. Internal Benchmarks 3. Automated Reporting ---------------------------------------------- Predictive ❌ vs Prescriptive ✅ Predictive analytics are informative. Prescriptive analytics are actionable. There are really only 2 things you can "predict" in PA that might be meaningful, attrition and headcount... If we predict attrition is going to be 25% next year, or headcount is going to grow by 500 - what does that mean for our organization? The insights on what to do with this data is less than valuable. Instead focus on what to improve via actionable insights -- optimize headcount allocation, improve engagement in teams with high attrition etc. ---- External Benchmarks ❌ vs Internal Benchmarks ✅ External benchmarks are a vanity metric. Internal benchmarks are a performance metric. When executives ask to look at external benchmarks it's often to give a pat on the back to show how successful the organization is versus peers and if the results are less than satisfactory we chalk it up to differences in the way the metrics were calculated. Using internal benchmarks instead actually drives performance improvement because the metric measurement is consistent, easily tracked, and won't break the bank to continuously monitor. ---- Adhoc Analyses ❌ vs Automated Reporting ✅ Adhoc analyses is firefighting. Automated reporting is fire prevention. PA teams spend most of their time chasing the answer to questions posed by the org instead of preempting the questions with systems that are automated. The claim typically is our organization is not ready for self-service... but this is typically a short term view and while it maintains control within the PA teams it fails to advance the organization towards becoming more data-literate. Use automated reporting to drive self-service and increase data-literacy. Do it earlier rather than later