By Helen Luketic, CHRP 

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth of a six-part series.

In this six-part series, the research function of BC HRMA is providing a high-level outline of how to get started measuring HR.  The subsequent articles will delve deeper into each step in the process and explore issues that you should think of as well as tasks that you need to do. Here is a highlight of information to come:

1. Be your own personal cheerleader
2. Develop your measurement vision
3. What your organization’s strategy is telling you about your choice of metrics
4. Figuring out the gap between where you are and where you want to be
5. Moving from planning to implementation
6. After implementation there is more implementation 
   Helen Luketic is the HR Knowledge and Research Associate at BC HRMA. She is the winner of the 2007/2008 Rising Star award for her significant contribution to the developing field of HR measurement. Helen is focused on sharing this knowledge with BC HRMA members through a range of activities and services.

PART FIVE:
Moving from planning to implementation

Do you ever wonder who is managing the entire Vancouver Olympics 2010 project?  Consider this: someone had to plan out the high level organizational structure and then start hiring. They had to figure out where each event would be housed and then organize the land and the building of the structures, plan the movement of people from event to event and kickstart the building of trains and roadways. The list goes on.

Luckily, you don’t have the world watching you move your plan into action. With that knowledge and the following tips, you can spend less time worrying and more time wondering when American Idol will start its new season.

Implementation is closing the gap between where you are and where you need to be.  As a result of the documentation exercise in Part 4, you should now have a better feel of what work needs to be done to implement your HR metrics.  Your next step is figuring out who will do the work and how.

Since you are an HR warrior and can get the job done, here are some ideas on how to address those gaps:

People/Skill Resources

It’s possible you’re lacking the required technical and analytical skills, people to do the work, or even people who desire to do the work.  The Conference Board of Canada surveyed organizations[i] and 38 per cent of respondents are challenged with unavailable technical capabilities (IT, analytical) to implement HR metrics. 

Here are resources to consider depending on your stage of implementation:

Planning and Project Team:

• Choose a current HR staffer who is analytical, loves data and spreadsheets, is fearless, and wants the opportunity to learn and grow.
• Bring in analytical resources available elsewhere in the business such as Finance or Marketing.
• Find a business analyst in your IT or project office to document the flow of your data and figure out the most efficient data collection and reporting process.
• Hire a co-op student or create an internship for an HR, business, economics or business analysis, or MBA student.

Operational resources after implementation:

• Create a cross-functional team with HR and non-HR members to interpret the data, comment on trends they are seeing within and outside of the organization, and ask the big questions before the metrics are presented to the organization.
• Use free websites on economic, labour market, and demographic trends – Statistics Canada, BC Stats, Conference Board of Canada or your industry association.
• Great courses are available on business statistics, Microsoft Excel, HR metrics, etc. Learn and apply liberally.

Data

As the saying goes: “garbage in, garbage out”.  Bad data is a people and process problem, not a technology one.  Assign some accountability for maintaining good data:

• Create data entry standards and hold staff accountable for accuracy.
• Choose your data auditor and include data cleansing into your operational practices.
• Choose to have HR data maintained and owned by HR wherever possible so that you can be in control of your own fate and take responsibility (and kudos) for good data. 

The bottom line is that you have to make data your priority – you will never get anyone to look at your metrics if you have bad data.  If you cannot afford anything else, this is the one task that is worth paying money for.

Technology

In the Human Capital Metrics Trends survey released in October 2008, BC HRMA members said that their HR system doesn’t track and report data efficiently, or not at all (48%).  There are lots of systems out there that have poor reporting capability within the system but here are some ideas to deal with this problem:

• Usually the problem is not bad reports but bad data – deal with the data instead.
• Get a “data dump” or flat file of basic information from the system on a regularly scheduled basis.  Do all your number crunching using that one powerful tool in Excel – the pivot table!
• Consider purchasing a reporting tool (i.e. Cognos, Crystal Reports) to tap into your database for more flexibility on what data you can pull.
• If you don’t have the technology, there is nothing wrong with tracking data on a spreadsheet.  Several billion-dollar organizations in Canada are using spreadsheets to store data and are doing it well.

Set up your team for success – general tips

• You don’t need strictly HR people to work on these tasks.  Teach them HR and watch them go!
• Choose people that have the drive to learn, figure out something new, and want to do this job.  There are plenty out there.
• It’s a project and you need to have a deadline. You’re not organizing the Olympics here, so make sure your deadline is not standing in the way of a good job.
• Consider a phased approach for your project if it becomes unwieldy and controlling the project scope.
• Accept that there will errors along the way.  Give your staff the confidence to do the work and learn a new skill without fear of mistakes.

Now that you’ve planned your implementation, it may be time to start planning whether or not you’ll be giving your staff that recommended “mandatory” vacation in the winter of 2010…

  Conference Board of Canada, Strategic Human Capital Measures – Orientation, Accountability, and Communication ientation, Accountability, dmmunication

Helen Luketic, CHRP brings more than nine years of HR experience to her current role as HRIS Analyst at Vancity, where she’s assisting the organization implement new HR systems and processes. For her innovative achievements at Vancity, Helen was the recipient of BC HRMA’s 2008 Rising Star Award. In her previous role as Manager, HR Metrics & Research at BC HRMA, she combined her CHRP, B.A. in Economics, HR information systems knowledge and experience in HR metrics to develop the HR Metrics Service and related workshops, presentations and webinars to teach HR professionals about HR metrics and benchmarking.