Visier, named one of the “2012 Awesome New Technologies for HR” by Bill Kutik, the founding conference co-chair of the upcoming HR Technology Conference in Chicago, is changing the face of HR analytics. And by changing the face, I mean, putting a beautiful, incredibly interactive and astonishingly useful face on the workforce data collected by the many and disparate systems inside organizations.
All vendors in the HCM space commission research and surveys by credible third party organizations and write what they hope are useful white papers to ensure an educated prospect and customer base. These white papers, while clearly biased, have some powerful data and insights that any HR practitioner – generalist, specialist or leader – can use to educate themselves. Trolling through the Resources tabs of HCM solutions providers when you have some downtime can be worthwhile.
As I was browsing through the white papers at the Visier site, I came upon some great stuff. Since Visier is in the workforce analytics business the subject matter is all tied to workforce analytics. And they’ve got some great survey and research data for you. But in this survey report, 2012 Survey of Employers: Workforce Analytics Practices, Preferences & Plans, tucked in at the very end, was a chart showing what more than 150 U.S.-based employers (presumably through the voice of HR professionals taking the survey) thought their top workforce concerns were for 2012:
This is the first survey that I’ve read in which performance was ranked as the top workforce concern of HR professionals. These top concerns lists are everywhere and none of them rank performance at the top.
- Llloyd’s annual Risk Index (most recent 2011) lists Talent and Skills Shortages as Risk #2 (Loss of Customers is Risk #1)
- Deloitte’s 2012 Human Capital Trends lists Growth as #1
- The HR Policy Association (most recent list is 2011) lists Executive Development and Succession at the top of CHRO concerns
- The WFPMA & Boston Consulting Group survey (most recent is 2010) of global HR leaders lists Managing Talent as the most critical global HR issue
- Human Resource Executive’s annual “What’s Keeping You Up Now” survey (most recent is September 2011) lists “Ensuring employees remain engaged and productive” as #1 (note that the 4th concern in the Visier survey was engagement. Performance and engagement are not the same thing.)
I’m happy to see a survey of HR professionals identifying workforce performance as their top concern because performance is about business. Performance is quantifiable. Performance isn’t touchy feely. Performance is not the language of professionals who chose HR because they “like to work with people.” Performance is the language of professionals who are comfortable with measurements, analytics, data, accountability, business success. In short, performance is the language of business people. And I cheer when HR people speak the language of business rather than the language of HR.
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