June 13, 2018
The CIPD says adoption of people analytics in the UK by HR is still too low

- Just over half (54 percent) of global respondents stated that they had access to people data and analytics
- Two-fifths (39 percent) have no access to people data for decision-making purposes
- Just half (52 percent) of HR professionals stated that their organisation uses people data to tackle business problems
- Just 42 percent of finance professionals have access to their workforce’s people data, despite the relationship between access to workforce data and strong business outcomes
- 75 percent of HR professionals globally who are using people data are using it to tackle workforce performance and productivity issues
- 65 percent of those who said that they work in an organisation with a strong people analytics culture said that their business performance was strong when compared to other competitors, but only 32 percent of those in organisations with a weak analytics culture report strong business performance
- Using people data was shown to predict the effectiveness of tackling key organisational challenges, such as workforce performance and productivity, showing that using people data leads to good business outcomes
- Just 21 percent of UK HR professionals are confident conducting advanced analytics compared to 46 percent of HR professionals in South-East Asia
- Two-thirds (67 percent) of HR respondents in South-East Asia and 60 percent in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) agree they have a standardised approach to using people data in projects compared to 50 percent of US respondents and just 42 percent of UK respondents
- South-East Asia is also leading the way in using AI and/or machine based learning to compile data reports. Almost half (45 percent) of HR professionals in South-East Asia are applying it in this way compared to 36 percent of respondents in MENA, 20 percent of respondents in the USA and just 13 percent of UK respondents
- Just 40 percent of global respondents said that their HR team was able to tackle business issues using analytics data
- Only 53 percent of HR professionals globally think their HR team has demonstrable numerical and statistical skills and just 36 percent of finance professionals agree
- Only 35 percent of non-HR professionals think their HR team are experts at using people data.
- Build people analytics skills and confidence into the profession: Low skills and low confidence have a clear impact on business outcomes. There needs to be greater investment in people analytics skills but HR professionals also need to build it into their daily decision-making in order to grow in confidence and capability.
- Build strong, cross–functional relationships to improve the impact of people analytics: There are clear differences in the perspectives of HR and finance professionals, and other professionals using people data. Non-HR functions need encouragement to increase the use of people data in their decision-making and HR has a role to play in generating trusted, relevant people data to serve wider business needs.
- Make better use of people data to understand business risks: People data can provide a unique way to understand value creation and risk within organisations.