Here is an excerpt from an article written by Laurie Bassi and Dan McMurrer for Talent Management magazine. To check out all the resources and sign up for a free subscription to the TM and/or Chief Learning Officer magazines published by MedfiaTec, please click here.

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With retooling, HR leaders can better use survey data to drive business results.

CEOs often proclaim that “people are our most important asset.” Yet many HR departments find themselves unable to play a significant part in translating these words into reality for several reasons:

• Some HR departments rely so heavily on benchmarking that they fail to customize their strategies to their organization’s unique circumstances, thereby almost guaranteeing they will, at best, stay average.

• Others get too caught up in the flavor-of-the-month programs.

• Many are so busy putting out fires they have no time to address what’s truly important — drivers of business results.

• Despite its potential, too often the only thing that comes out of the annual employee engagement survey is a big data dump with no real impact.

Analytics can ensure HR is not pigeonholed as non-strategic and out-of-touch. “It’s no longer possible for HR departments or functions to ignore analytics,” said Larry Costello, executive vice president, Tyco Fire and Security. “The forces bringing analytics to the forefront are simply too powerful to disregard.

Talent leaders can use a four-step process to create an HR analytics strategy that will transform the traditional engagement survey into a source of actionable business intelligence.

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Bassi and McMurrer explain in detail each of the four steps. To read the complete article, please click here.

Dr. Laurie Bassi is CEO and Daniel McMurrer is Chief Analyst of McBassi & Company, an analytics company they co-founded, one that uses data (which can include an existing employee survey data) to help leaders in their client companies to gain a much better understanding of what concrete steps they should take to drive better business results through improved people management.