HR Data Acculturation: towards a data-driven corporate culture

In the interests of performance and employee retention, companies are increasingly looking to invest in their development. The emerging use of HR data could make a major contribution to this. As a result, to make a successful transition to this new model, companies need to define a data strategy that is understood, supported and driven by their teams, who will become the actors of change.

Find out how to set up an effective HR data acculturation program to involve your employees.

What is data acculturation?

L’acculturation to HR data refers to the set of practices, initiatives and communication methods designed to improve understanding and control of data within a company, in order to increase overall corporate maturity.
This includes all awareness-raising and training measures undertaken to ensure that all employees understand the importance of use of HR data.

How to successfully implement an HR Data acculturation project?

Data acculturation must begin when change ambassadors define their data strategy to prepare employees for change. The various stages involved in a successful data acculturation project are :

• Defining the strategic vision: what does the company expect from its data strategy? What do you want to do with your data?

• Measuring data maturity.
  Various criteria can be used to measure the level of resistance, motivation and knowledge.

• Creation ofa roadmap for data acculturation.

Once the roadmap has been validated, the data acculturation program needs to be implemented through a number of action levers:

• Implementation of Design Thinking workshops and use of agile methods for project management.

• Actions aimed at Top Management: acculturation will be based on successful feedback from companies in the same sector or of the same size.
  The aim is to demonstrate the short-, medium- and long-term benefits of leveraging data.

• Engaging communication: celebrating victories to establish a positive dynamic and anchor change (a project put into production, elements that have borne fruit…).

• Active pedagogy: popularizing the data professions (events, workshops, feedback from people demonstrating the benefits of data, etc.).

The aim is to enable employees to quickly adoptdata use cases to guarantee quality, security and continuous improvement. Companies need to adapt their cultural transformation programs to the specific characteristics of their information systems and their strategic objectives.

So what are the benefits of using HR Data?

Equality at work, inclusion of minorities… these are fundamental ideas for companies facing persistent challenges. For example, there is a serious shortage of female talent in the technology sector and, despite the efforts and good intentions of the departments concerned, problems such as the “glass ceiling” persist.

Knowing how to create holistic HR policies can be difficult because of the complexity of identifying the root causes of problems. Putting a figure on inequalities within a company gives us concrete information on how to focus our human resources policies.

Many of the benefits of using HR Data have been proven, such as optimizing talent management, workforce management, performance indicators or facilitating decision-making. It is also necessary to convince employees of its usefulness, in order to overcome any resistance to changing habits.

Transparent and engaging communication is important for successful change management. Clearly explaining the benefits of HR data to employees and the business, demonstrating how it improves day-to-day operations, and addressing concerns creates an environment of trust that fosters acceptance of change..

Conclusion on Data HR acculturation