People analytics: The underutilized tool to help higher ed HR leaders meet talent goals and reduce costs

As colleges and universities collect more and more data, leaders are using insights to make critical business decisions, such as analyzing student success data to identify at-risk students or using enrollment data to manage course and program offerings. However, after interviewing over 65 higher education leaders, EAB discovered that most institutions overlook valuable employee data. Most only use employee data for baseline compliance reporting and miss opportunities to improve recruitment and retention for staff and faculty.

People analytics is the collection and application of employee data to improve business outcomes. It can help anticipate turnover and retirements, save money on sourcing candidates, and identify engagement opportunities for staff and faculty. HR and executive leaders can no longer afford to ignore their employee data; the cost is simply too high.

Progressive higher ed HR teams are beginning to use employee data to estimate cost savings and convince institutional leadership to invest in talent initiatives that work:

While some skeptics view people analytics as an added expense, these institutions prove it can be a cost-saving technique. To overcome common barriers and fully realize your people analytics capabilities, see EAB’s advice outlined below for both executive and HR leaders.

Barrier #1: Lack of trust in institutional data processes and systems

Many leaders are skeptical of their HR unit managing inherently messy employee data. They are often wary of data insights due to the large number of shadow systems and untrained users. Further, cabinets are more likely to trust historically data-driven units like institutional research over traditionally administrative units like HR. In turn, some cabinets do not use employee data at all beyond compliance purposes.

This skepticism prevents leaders from using directionally correct employee data, which sufficiently detects trends despite not being perfectly recorded, to inform decisions. Leaders must acknowledge the inherently messy nature of employee data and learn to act on what they already have access to, even if it’s imperfect.

Barrier #2: Disconnect between employee data and decision making

Presenting data can become a check-the-box activity when not accompanied by a recommendation or explanation of a trend. When HR does have the opportunity to present data to the cabinet, they often only present broad or general statistics such as overall turnover.

Without additional direction on what units, roles, or groups of staff are most impacted, campus leaders cannot identify problems or plan solutions. Data without recommendations or assigned next steps limits the ability of campus leaders to improve processes and track success metrics.

Barrier #3: Constrained capacity for HR to analyze data

The above solutions ensure you collect and report only on necessary metrics. Yet, without the time and expertise to conduct thorough analyses and provide recommendations, you cannot realize the potential cost savings of people analytics.

Given chronic HR staffing shortages, overextended teams, and a lack of technical skills in HR, institutions must focus on cost-effective ways to conduct people analytics. In fact, a dedicated people analytics team is not strictly necessary—efforts should encompass the collective effort of experts both in and outside of HR to help leaders make quicker and more accurate decisions.