The Global HR Capability Project People Analytics, HR ...

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The Global HR Capability Project

People Analytics, HR Technology, and Beyond

2 The Global HR Capability Project: People Analytics, HR Technology, and Beyond | Copyright © 2021 The Josh Bersin Company

All rights reserved. Not for distribution. Licensed material.


Introduction: The Global

HR Capability Framework

Our Global HR Capability Framework is an index

of the core functional capabilities needed for

high-performing organizations. The framework

is rooted in more than 30 years of experience

examining HR capabilities and based on

conversations with hundreds of global HR leaders.

The model outlines the 94 unique HR capabilities

we've identified as necessary for organizational

and individual success. We’ve classified the

capabilities into 20 broad areas that reflect

the most important capability areas for future-

focused HR organizations.

There are many competency models and

frameworks that try to define the skills of HR.

But as we talk with hundreds of leaders and study

what really makes high-performing companies

work, we find that what HR professionals need

is a set of strategic capabilities to do their jobs.

The Global HR Capability Framework is designed

to identify a future-focused, research-driven set

of strategic HR-domain capabilities individuals

and organizations can focus on. This set will be

regularly maintained to keep pace with the rapidly

evolving needs of leading HR organizations.

Keep this framework in mind as you read through

this report on our insights around HR capabilities.

See Figure 1 on following page.

The Global HR Capability Framework is

designed to identify a future-focused, research-

driven set of strategic HR-domain capabilities

individuals and organizations can focus on.

3The Global HR Capability Project: People Analytics, HR Technology, and Beyond | Copyright © 2021 The Josh Bersin Company


Change & Transforma�on

Change management

Mergers and acquisi�ons

HR Solu�on Design

Design thinking

Agile methods

User experience

Product management

Communica�ons

Employee communica�ons

Crisis communica�ons

Working with

Senior Leaders

Consul�ng with C-level

execu�ves

Selec�ng and assessing

senior leaders

Founda�onal/Cross-Cu�ng HR Capabili�es

Organiza�on Design

& Culture

Managing organiza�onal

culture

Global cultural issues

Organiza�on design

High-performance

organiza�ons

Con�ngent workforce

management

People Analy�cs

Types of people data

Sta�s�cal analysis

Using analysis tools

Data visualiza�on

Data quality

Data privacy and ethics

Advanced analy�cs

Data-driven storytelling

Workforce data consul�ng

Performance

Management

Performance

management design

Engaging leaders in

development

Career progression models

Global mobility programs

Performance management

tools

Performance coaching

Coaching leaders

HR Func�onal Domains

Talent Acquisi�on

Employment brand

Mobile and social media

Sourcing candidates

Recruing AI

Onboarding programs

Interviewing protocols

Recruitment tools

Talent acquision leadership

Job descripons

Benefits & Wellbeing

Implemenng benefits

programs

Employee wellbeing

programs

Emoonal wellbeing

CSR and volunteer programs

Compensa�on

Compensaon models

Compensaon benchmarking

Internal pay equity

Execuve compensaon

Total rewards strategy

Facili�es & Workplace

Sustainable workspaces

Moving to new facilies

Health and safety

Flexible workplace policies

HR Tech/Service Delivery

Core HR systems

Employee portals

RPA/Help bots

Case management

Customer orientaon

Labor Rela�ons

Labor/Union relaonships

Harassment and

discriminaon

Senior-level terminaons

Leadership & Succession

Leadership models

Idenfying potenal leaders

Developing early leaders

Developing senior leaders

Succession management

Board management

Rewards & Recogni�on

Recognion systems

Selecng recognion tools

and vendors

Learning & Development

L&D needs assessment

Creang learning experiences

Competency models

L&D tools and technology

Leading the L&D funcon

Business Acumen

Global economic trends

Budgets

Sales and markeng

Customer support

Manufacturing and

operaons

Diversity & Inclusion

D&I strategy

D&I measurement

Recruitment diversity

Workplace inclusion

Senior D&I support

D&I training

Employee Experience

Measuring employee

engagement

Acng on survey results

Survey vendors and tools

Employee experience

strategy

Digital employee experience

Leadership of HR

Leading HR funcon

Leading funconal areas

within HR

Senior business partnership

HR operang models

F I G U R E 1

The Global HR Capability Framework

Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2021




Capability in Focus:

People Analytics

In the early 2000s, we spent a few years

working on a product to help organizations

translate transactional HRIS (HR information

system) data to usable scorecards and

dashboards. The technology was groundbreaking

at the time, involving massive data extracts

and processing protocols, Cognos cubes that

precalculated every possible data filter and

crosstab, and a web-based delivery system that

was only as fast as the organization’s connection

(in 2002, this was . . . not fast).

At the time, many organizations were struggling

to calculate basic people data like number of

internal transfers, HR staff per FTE, or even

accurate real-time headcount. This tool helped

alleviate some (but not all) of the technical barriers

around people data and helped raise the visibility

of key people metrics for the organization. As

these barriers were reduced, however, the people

capability challenges became more evident. The

goal was to use HR metrics to help drive decision-

making at all levels of the organization, but the

HR teams weren’t used to having access to this

information and, in many cases, weren’t equipped

to confidently use the data to partner with the

business and help make decisions.

When we talk to HR leaders about the highest-

priority development needs for their teams, the

ability to understand and use people data is at

the top of the list.



Today, people data is much more accessible than

it was back then (although we still have a way left

to go). Line leaders now look to HR data to help

manage their business, and an entire discipline

around people analytics has become a critical

part of HR organizations. But to this day, when

we talk to HR leaders about the highest-priority

development needs for their teams, the ability to

understand and use people data is at the top of

the list. Thus, we decided to dig a little deeper into

this capability area.

Drawing Industry Insights on

HR Capability

We launched the Global HR Capability Assessment

as a pilot in May 2020 and began formally offering

it to all Josh Bersin Academy members in March

2021. To date, nearly 5,000 HR professionals from

companies spanning all major industries, locations,

and sizes have used this tool to catalog and

benchmark their knowledge, skills, and experience

in critical HR domains. The assessment offers

participants targeted learning pathways based on

their greatest developmental priorities.

Users aren’t the only ones to benefit from the

assessment; their companies benefit as well. HR

leaders from participating organizations can review

and benchmark their participants’ results to better

understand if they have the right capability profiles

in the right roles to meet business needs. But

beyond the individual and organizational benefits

of the assessment, we’re most excited about the

opportunity the data provides to better understand

current capability trends, coverage, and needs

across the HR field broadly.

Current State of People

Analytics Capability

Of the 5,000 global HR professionals who have

taken the assessment, one in five identified people

analytics as a top priority for their development

in the coming year (second only to change and

transformation, which was a priority for a quarter

of respondents). However, current people analytics

capability is also the second highest performing

of the 20 areas we measured. HR professionals

are reporting relatively strong capability in this

area, yet they are prioritizing building even broader

capability.

When we ask HR professionals to assess their

capabilities, we use a five-point scale that directly

relates to their knowledge, skills, and experiences

in each capability. The scale ranges from Novice

(“I’ve never done this and may not even know what

it is.”) to World Class (“I’m a leader in this field and

could write a book on this.”). The Intermediate level

is the third point on the scale and identifies those

who have done this work and can confidently do

it again. When we’re looking for professionals with

solid current capability in an area, we typically look

at those at the Intermediate level and above.

Looking at the capability-level distribution across

the domain, there’s a good amount of variation

across different people analytics capabilities (see

Figure 2 on next page). The strongest areas center

around using analytical tools (including Excel),

consulting, and using data to drive decisions.

However, more data-centric capabilities like

performing statistical analyses, managing data

privacy and ethics, and using advanced analytical

techniques are much lower, with more than half

of respondents reporting capabilities below the

Intermediate level.




With this in mind, organizations should consider

which people analytics capabilities are most

important for subject matter experts and the

people analytics function vs. which are a

priority for all HR professionals. As technology

increases the scope of possibility, the diverse

set of analytical skills needed to succeed in

many roles also expands. Across the scope of

HR functions, who needs to be able to perform

statistical analyses and who needs to understand,

contextualize, and communicate these findings?

To some extent, the answer will depend on the

HR operating model and how data is accessed,

analyzed, and used within the organization.

People Analytics Capability

Across Roles and Functions

Bearing in mind that different HR functions will

require and use analytics capabilities differently

based on their role, we next looked at the

distribution of people analytics capability across

different HR functions (see Figure 3 on next

page). The function with the greatest proportion

of respondents reporting Intermediate or higher

capability was, not surprisingly, people analytics.

However, we also found stronger capability

among those in a strategic/leadership role, as

well as in several areas with more quantitative

responsibilities, such as compensation and HR

technology. We also found stronger analytics

capability in global mobility teams.

F I G U R E 2

People Analytics Capability Distribution for HR Professionals

Expert/World ClassIntermediateNovice/Beginner% of study respondents

Using Excel or other analysis tools 264827

Consulting with business leaders on data related to their workforce 233840

40Cleaning and assuring quality of data

2040

Creating data visualizations for easy understanding 40 1942

Understanding various types of people data to analyze

1941 41

Performing statistical analysis 143650

Creating data privacy and ethics policies (including GDPR)

61778

0%50% 100%

173647People analytics overall

Understanding advanced analytical techniques such as ONA and NLP 988 3

Using data to tell stories andhelp drive decisions 2238 42




When we compared each function’s current

capability with the percent of respondents

prioritizing people analytics development, those

areas with the highest current capability were also

those who most wanted to further develop this

area. Perhaps this is less surprising than we might

think. HR professionals whose jobs require this

capability are most likely to have it, but they are

also most acutely aware of how much more they

can know and the need to continuously develop

this capability.

Perhaps more surprising are the functions less

likely to prioritize people analytics. HR business

partners play a critical role in identifying and

acting on the people implications of business units’

strategies and needs. But business partners report

lower capability in this domain relative to many

other functions, with nearly half (47%) of business

partners below Intermediate, meaning they are not

regularly and confidently doing this work.

HR business partners are the face of the newly

available people and business data, and they

need to be consistently and effectively bringing

these insights to their conversations with other

business leaders in the organization. But do they

need to have deep statistical expertise? We know

these are difficult skills to build, and success

does not necessarily mean making a stats expert

out of every HR practitioner. However, every

HR practitioner does need to build comfort and

facility in core HR and business data, metrics, and

analyses, and in communicating the implications

throughout the company.

F I G U R E 3

People Analytics Current Capability Compared

to Developmental Prioritization


People analytics

HR technology

Global mobilityHR strategy/senior leadership

Compensation & rewards

HR service delivery

HR business partner

Talent management

Talent acquisition

Learning & development

75%

70%

65%

60%

55%

50%

45%

40%10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Employee communications

Healthy & safety

Labor or industrial relations

Leadership & successionBenefits & wellbeingPayroll & tax

HR administration or generalist

% Identifying People Analytics as a Developmental Priority

% In

term

ed

iate

or

Ab

ove

Employee engagement & experience

Functional Area Getting Started: Call to Action

All HR

Professionals

• Learn what types of people data are available within your organization, including what type are

available to you directly and what you can access through IT or a COE.

• Take advantage of training opportunities designed to build analytics capability for HR.

• Read research, case studies, and examples of how HR teams use people analytics to seed ideas for

how these can impact your daily work.

People Analytics

Professionals

• Cultivate close connections with HR colleagues outside the people analytics function to ground

analytical outcomes in the organizational environment.

• Pursue connections between people data and other business data to maximize the impact

of insights.

• Seek opportunities to extend your analytical capabilities through internal and external training on

statistics and advanced methods that extend beyond HR data.

HR Leaders

• Become an advocate for people data, supporting and requiring your team in bringing it to daily

activities.

• Establish the norms and processes for using people analytics to support HR functions and business

units, making it a standard part of the way your team does work.

• Increase the visibility of people data through your interactions with other members of the senior team.




Implications for HR

Professionals

Here are some actions HR professionals

and leaders can take to get started on the

path of accelerating people analytics capabilities

(see Figure 4).

As technology continues to evolve, real-time

access to accurate people data is becoming

less of an issue. The challenge ahead is for HR

capabilities to keep pace with what is possible and

to ensure we are using the available data to best

inform and support HR and business decisions.

F I G U R E 4

The Path to Accelerating PA Capabilities




HR Technology

Capabilities: Beyond

Technical Skills

Today's HR leaders need to be bold, think bigger,

and be tech-savvy and responsive enough to

address an increasingly agile and demanding

workforce. Indeed, organizations are investing

more than ever in HR technology, and rightly so.

Solutions are rapidly evolving to enable more

efficiency and entirely new ways of working.

Looking at human capital management (HCM)

solutions alone, implementation costs can

exceed $20 million, only to result in dashed

expectations and several millions of dollars of

recurring annual costs.

Adding to the confusion, a whole new world of

talent applications and systems of engagement

and experience have surfaced, leading many

organizations to buy tons of standalone tools for

productivity, wellbeing, feedback, and everything

that matters but rarely gets accomplished. While

these standalone apps don’t cost nearly as much

as HCM deployments, they can still cause a

disjointed user experience and add to the data

clutter that already exists in most organizations.

To effectively navigate this potentially chaotic HR

technology landscape, HR professionals across

all domains must learn to understand, evaluate,

and use technology to improve efficiency and the

employee experience.

HR professionals across all domains must learn to understand, evaluate, and use technology to improve efficiency and the employee experience.




Our Global HR Capability

Project

The compelling impact of HR capabilities on HR

and business outcomes has been a common

thread across our research at The Josh Bersin

Company, most recently in our Definitive

Guides for HCM Excellence and Employee

Experience. Through our Global HR Capability

Project, we’ve amassed a treasure trove of data

on HR capabilities across nearly 5,000 global

practitioners. As part of the project, we deployed

an HR Capability Assessment designed to

measure HR leaders’ experience, knowledge,

and reputation in key areas of HR capability. The

assessment provides a means for individuals and

organizations to evaluate and accelerate critical

capabilities, and the responses give us great

insights into the broad state of HR capabilities.

HR Technology and Service

Delivery Capabilities: The Weak

Link?

We dug into the data to look specifically at HR

technology and service delivery capabilities. Of

all participants in the Capability Assessment, only

1% rate themselves as having expert/world-class

HR tech and service delivery capabilities, and

more than 50% of respondents rate themselves as

novices/beginners in this area. These capabilities

are among the three weakest self-reported HR

families—in fact, it is the second lowest-scoring

area, second only to facilities and workplace. See

Figure 5 on next page.

To be fair, not all of these 5,000 respondents

sit within the HR tech/service delivery functions.

And while all organizations should develop “full-

stack HR professionals” who have a breadth

of knowledge and experiences across all HR

capability areas, that’s aspirational at this point.

Maybe if we flash the torchlight on HR tech and

service delivery professionals who specialize

in this field, the capability levels would be

significantly different, right? Probably not.

https://joshbersin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Accelerating_Capabilities_HR_v3.pdf

https://joshbersin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Accelerating_Capabilities_HR_v3.pdf

https://joshbersin.com/2019/11/the-full-stack-hr-professional/

https://joshbersin.com/2019/11/the-full-stack-hr-professional/



F I G U R E 5

Percent of Respondents Across Different Capabilities and Levels


People Analytics

Communications

Business Acumen

Talent Acquisition

Employee Engagement& Experience

Change & Transformation

Performance & Career Management

Working with Senior Leadership

Leadership & Succession

Learning & Development

Labor Relations

Organization Design & Culture

Benefits & Wellbeing

Leadership of HR

Rewards & Recognition

Diversity & Inclusion

HR Solution Design

Compensation

HR Tech & Service Delivery

6

Facilities & Workplace

Bottom 3 Weakest Capabilities

% of study respondents Expert/World ClassIntermediateNovice/Beginner

0% 50% 100%

47

49

52

55

58

58

59

60

63

64

65

65

67

71

66

70

73

75

78

78

36

34

35

30

28

28

26

25

25

23

22

25

23

18

25

22

20

17

16

17

17

18

13

15

15

14

15

16

13

13

13

10

10

11

9

8

8

8

5




Many HR Tech “Professionals”

Are Beginners

We looked at almost 1,400 HR tech professionals

who participated in the assessment and

were baffled to find three out of five HR tech

professionals fall in the Novice/Beginner level in

this capability family. What this means is that the

people hired or designated to do the job often

lack the needed skills and expertise and are not

regularly and confidently able to do key functions

within the domain. Looking more closely, one out

of three people who are working in HR tech roles

consider themselves Novices/Beginners—have

never done this and don’t even know how to do

it. Only 3% of HR tech professionals believe they

have Expert/World Class expertise in this area.

See Figure 6.

F I G U R E 6

HR Tech and Service Delivery Capability Levels by Roles


HR Tech & Service Delivery Roles

All HR Roles

61 24 15

78 16 6

World Class: 3Expert: 12

World Class: 1Expert: 5

Novice: 32 | Beginner: 29

Novice: 51 | Beginner: 27




The Capabilities HR Tech

Professionals Need

Within our stack of more than 90 capabilities

categorized across 20 areas that define how HR

performs, we identified five key capabilities that

fit within the HR technology and service delivery

domain. See Figure 7.

Selecting and Implementing Core

HRMS and Payroll Tools

A foundational capability is selecting and

implementing core HRMS and payroll tools. Any

organization, large or small, needs these tools.

And doing this well requires a whole spectrum

of organizational skills starting with selecting the

right solution, partnering with internal and external

experts, project and change management, and

translating data generated from these systems

into actionable insights, all while keeping a laser

focus on employee experience. GE, for example,

sunset 156 different systems built or acquired over

20-plus years for HR, payroll, time and attendance,

performance, and talent, in lieu of one integrated

HCM system, and attributed building new HR

capabilities as a key enabler of their success.

Designing HR Employee Portals

Another important capability is designing HR

employee portals where employees and potential

employees can access all the information they

need, when they need it, in one place. This

can mean anything and everything from policy

and benefits to business and HR tools to

performance tracking and technology support to

communication and collaboration channels.

F I G U R E 7

HR Technology-Related Skills


Selecting & implementing core HRMS and payroll tools

Designing HR employee portals

Designing customer-oriented service delivery operations

Implementing case management/ knowledge management

Implementing RPA &employee help bots

69 21 10

75 18 7

77 17 6

78 17 5

90 8 3





Designing Customer-Oriented Service

Delivery Operations and Implementing

Case Management/ Knowledge

Management

These next two capabilities center around how

employees interact with HR and how inquiries

or requests are addressed. HR service delivery

and the experience created in each interaction

can have an exponential impact on the overall

employee experience. Deutsche Telekom, for

example, uses design thinking, personas, and

agile approaches to make services helpful for its

employees, bringing employees to the forefront

and designing around their problems—not HR’s

assumptions of their problems.

Implementing RPA and Employee

Help Bots

On the horizon is robotic process automation

(RPA) and employee help bots. This capability can

do way more than automating and streamlining

processes. When optimized to its full potential,

RPA can radically improve the user experience by

simplifying things, such as enabling employees to

ask their computer about their leave balance and

get an immediate answer right away, using people

data from across HR systems to generate insights,

working with interaction metadata to assess gaps

in inclusion, analyzing employee sentiment and

using algorithms to gauge early signs of burnout,

and then using all of that data to nudge people

to make behavioral changes that can support

employee wellbeing. PwC, for example, uses

nudging to improve digital relationships, and SAP

uses it to cement desired leadership behaviors.

As evident in each of the capabilities listed above,

technology capabilities span beyond technical

skills. In fact, these capabilities are a composite

of technical skills (knowledge of technologies),

professional skills (HR domain-specific skills), and

power skills (human, relationship, teamwork, and

leadership skills).

Functional Area Getting Started: Call to Action

HR Tech Role

• Work with third parties such as system integrators, consulting partners, and HCM solution providers

as “partners” and not “vendors” to truly leverage their expertise for collective success.

• Include employees in the selection, design, and implementation of solutions as a means of insight

into the voice of the business, particularly the pain points.

Non-HR Tech Role

• Actively engage with colleagues involved in HR tech implementations in the capacity of an advisor for

your domain in HR.

• Attend HR tech conference and peruse market studies to understand the landscape of technology

solutions and capabilities available across various domains.

HR Leaders

• Upskill your team by creating access to micro- and macrolearning opportunities in HR technology-

related capabilities and a deeper focus on people analytics, learning, and knowledge management—

the three areas that have the biggest impact on employee experience1.

• Upskill yourself by volunteering to be on steering committees to cultivate a solid understanding of the

voice of the business and relay the voice of the business to teams designing solutions.



Bridging the Capability Gap

Here are some actions HR professionals can take

to get started on the path of accelerating HR tech

capabilities (see Figure 8).

Technology is the enabler that can help

organizations optimize employee experience

and productivity through real-time data, insights,

and by facilitating collaboration. To do that,

organizations need to embark on a continuous

transformation journey and cultivate the skills

and capabilities needed to navigate this journey

effectively.


F I G U R E 8

The Path to Accelerating Tech Capabilities

——————————————

1 The Definitive Guide: Employee Experience, The Josh Bersin Company, 2021.




About Josh Bersin

Josh founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused

on corporate learning. He expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent

management, talent acquisition, and leadership and became a recognized expert in the talent

market. Josh sold the company to Deloitte in 2012 and was a partner in Bersin by Deloitte up

until 2018.

In 2019, Bersin founded the Josh Bersin Academy, a professional development academy that

has become the “home for HR.” In 2020, he put together a team of analysts and advisors who

are now working with him to support and guide HR organizations from around the world under

the umbrella of The Josh Bersin Company. Recently published research covers topics such as

hybrid work; HR technology market trends; employee experience; and diversity, equity, and

inclusion. He is frequently featured in publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review,

HR Executive, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a popular blogger and has

more than 800,000 followers on LinkedIn.

About Nehal Nangia

Nehal is the senior manager for research at The Josh Bersin Company. In this role, Nehal drives empirical

research on key workforce-related topics and the development of actionable insights and powerful stories

for today’s talent executives. Nehal has almost 15 years of professional experience in human capital,

with a focus on performance management; employment value proposition; workforce transformation;

and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Prior to joining The Josh Bersin Company, Nehal was a global

advisor for clients at Deloitte and published several studies on pertinent topics such as DEI, performance

management, and bias. Nehal lives and works in India and has a master’s degree in psychology.

About Amy Farner

Amy leads the Global HR Capability Project for The Josh Bersin Company, helping leading HR

organizations define and benchmark the capabilities most critical for success, as well as create action

plans to address key capability needs. Amy has more than 20 years of experience in driving more effective

HR management and decision-making using data. Prior to joining The Josh Bersin Company, Amy served

as a leader in Deloitte Consulting’s survey research and analytics center. Amy also helped define and

launch new human capital products at CEB’s Corporate Leadership Council (now Gartner for HR). Amy

lives in Frederick, MD, and holds a BA from Wesleyan University’s College of Social Studies.

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