Amy Mosher – Why 2023 Will Be the Year HR Gets People Analytics Right

Connect with Amy:

• 

Connect with Dwight:

• 
• dwight.brown@salary.com

Connect with David:

• 
• 
• david.turetsky@salary.com

 

Podcast Manager, Karissa Harris:

• HRDataLabs@salary.com

 

Production by Affogato Media

Resources:

• isolved
• HR Data Labs Season 4 Episode 25
• HR Data Labs Season 4 Episode 23

• “In the past, HR was more about soft skills. . . . Well, now it's a core function of organizations. Just like you are tracking revenue, and bookings, and profitability, you should be tracking, turnover, retention metrics, onboarding efficiencies. Those are just as important as other metrics now.”
• “[An evidence-based HR approach] improves the employee experience, which is really the most impactful way that your an attract and retain talent.”

Announcer: 0:02

Here's an experiment for you. Take passionate experts in human resource technology. Invite cross industry experts from inside and outside HR. Mix in what's happening in people analytics today. Give them the technology to connect. Hit record for their discussions into a beaker. Mix thoroughly. And voila, you get the HR Data Labs podcast, where we explore the impact of data and analytics to your business. We may get passionate and even irreverent, that count on each episode challenging and enhancing your understanding of the way people data can be used to solve real world problems. Now, here's your host, David Turetsky.

 

David Turetsky: 0:46

Hello, and welcome to the HR Data Labs podcast. I'm your host, David Turetsky. Like always, we have with us today, our friend and colleague, Dwight Brown from Salary.com. Hey, Dwight, how are you?

 

Dwight Brown: 0:57

Hey, David, I'm good. How you doing?

 

David Turetsky: 0:58

Good. I'm great. Actually, we just got back from the HR Technology Conference, we're gonna have a lot to talk about there. But first, what we always try and do is find the best and the brightest inside and outside the world of human resources to talk to you about what's happening in the world of HR data, analytics process and technology. Today, we have with us Amy Mosher, the Chief People Officer from isolved, an AKKR company. Amy, welcome to the program.

 

Amy Mosher: 1:27

Thank you so much for having me, David.

 

David Turetsky: 1:29

It is our pleasure. Amy, why don't you tell us a little bit about Amy.

 

Amy Mosher: 1:34

Well, I've been with myself for a few years, really just as a generalist, and then in the HR leadership spectrum and a lot of different industries over the course of many years. And I like to grow people, you know as a life goal, not just a career. And that really translates well into the Chief People Officer role overall. And I really feel like I'm fulfilling that right now in my in my current career choice.

 

David Turetsky: 1:58

That's awesome. It's a great thing to aspire to, especially as a CPO because people look look to you as being a an example, shining star. So that's great.

 

Amy Mosher: 2:07

Well, it's my pleasure to do that every day.

 

David Turetsky: 2:10

So Amy, now we have to find one thing that no one knows about Amy.

 

Amy Mosher: 2:16

Wow, really? Interestingly, there's a lot of interesting things. I don't think a lot of people know about me. I'm an extrovert that likes to be alone. And it's an interesting dichotomy.

 

Dwight Brown: 2:27

You don't hear that very often!

 

David Turetsky: 2:28

No, you don't hear that. Sounds like a diagnosis actually.

 

Dwight Brown: 2:32

Yeah, exactly.

 

Amy Mosher: 2:33

For the purpose of this podcast, it is very relevant, because there's a lot of things that a lot of people don't know about me. But I have a couple of interesting things. I was a Future Farmer of America, I served many roles with the Future Farmers of America. And one of those is as a dairy cow judge. So if you do know anything about me, I'm a city girl, right? I'm not a country girl. And that's I know, an inordinate amount of weird information about dairy cows is what that translates to.

 

David Turetsky: 2:59

So hold on, hold on. What cities are you living in that have a ton of cows? That's what I want to know. Is this Iowa? Are we talking about Iowa?

 

Dwight Brown: 3:08

India?

 

David Turetsky: 3:10

Yeah that's right.

 

Amy Mosher: 3:12

I grew up in rural northern Nevada. And that's just what you do out there to cattle town.

 

David Turetsky: 3:18

See I would not have pegged Nevada as a state that has a ton of cows, I thought that would be more well, I guess deer and Buffalo. And I wouldn't have pegged Nevada as

 

Amy Mosher: 3:30

It's very, it's a small area of the desert that that. allows for this.

 

David Turetsky: 3:38

Desert cows. There you go. Okay. So, Amy, today, our topic is going to be an interesting one as well. And it's one that's very near and dear to the HR Data Labs hearts and souls. And it is around analytics. But it's not just around analytics. It's why is 2023 the year HR finally gets people analytics right. So why don't we start off at square one? Let's talk about 2023. And why will HR finally get people analytics right? And what is actually wrong with people analytics right now and today?

 

Amy Mosher: 4:21

So there's a lot about people analytics that that we're getting right and for lack of a better term, righter, than we have in our past as HR professionals especially. And there's a lot of opportunity for us going forward as well. But the reason why we're finally getting it right, I think it's because there's finally a link to organizational readiness and or the organization's ability to grow and change and move to the people effort more than there ever has been in the past. And I think that has a lot to do with the last couple of years and the challenges that we face from a people perspective and socio economic perspective. So it's brought to light a lot of opportunity there a lot of linkage that may not have been prioritized in the past, there's also a lot of opportunity for us to, to have better data than we have in the past where we have access to so much more data. There's so many more opportunities for us to gather the information. And there has been over the last couple of years. So we now not only have benchmark data, but we have data to benchmark against our base benchmark data. So suddenly, it's analysis that can really mean something to us. I think that's why the time is now for us to get this right.

 

David Turetsky: 5:34

Now, you mentioned that people have had to step up a lot. Because things have just come fast and furious at them. Do you think that we've stepped up in terms of our acumen and our ability to be analysts, not just HR people?

 

Amy Mosher: 5:49

Yes, I feel like the basis for HR knowledge now includes an analytics understanding, if not a background, I feel like at least a background around HR technology and data as an HR professional. In the past, HR was more about soft skills. It was about you know, your your communication skills, your ability to listen well, your ability to influence change across the business, and to help people to coach individuals around those kinds of areas. Well, now it's about it's a core function of, of your organization. And so just like you're tracking revenue, and bookings, and profitability, you should be tracking, turnover, retention metrics, onboarding, efficiencies, and those are just as important as those other metrics now. And so understanding how important those are how to collect that data in a reasonable way is so much more important than it used to be. So your HR person needs to not just be a quote generalist from the soft skills perspective, but also needs to understand how they can collect data efficiently and effectively, and how they can monitor that information and translate that information into real metrics that can help to move the company forward. So it does take a more technological maybe approach.

 

David Turetsky: 7:10

So you're also saying that they have to have a consultative approach as well to be able to connect what's happening in the numbers and the analytics to the business leader, and be able to not just listen to the leader, but also provide them with advice.

 

Amy Mosher: 7:21

Absolutely, absolutely. That that consultative approach has probably always been there for most generalists, at least the executive level from within human resources, but it hasn't necessarily been applied to those business metrics. So though the skill set may be there, the relationships may also be there, there need to change and can pivot toward more of that the data analytics piece is really a backup tool more than anything to, you know, reinforcing initiatives that will impact the business as a whole.

 

David Turetsky: 7:50

Absolutely. So HR has become better consumers, better strategic consultants. And now, hopefully, they'll be asked better questions too by their leaders, because the leaders will trust that not only do they understand the business better, but they also understand the needs that the business has, and that leader has.

 

Amy Mosher: 8:08

Agreed.

 

Announcer: 8:10

Like what you hear so far? Make sure you never miss a show by clicking subscribe. This podcast is made possible by Salary.com. Now back to the show.

 

David Turetsky: 8:22

So Amy, you're and isolved is in a unique position of being a company that not only provides people analytics inside of its platform, but because you're the head of HR yourself. So not to promote anything or any technology. But let's say somebody does get investment for people analytics, what do they need to look for in the right vendor for them?

 

Amy Mosher: 8:45

Yeah, there's a few things that I recommend that you look out for, first of all, it's time to value, you know, how quickly can you stand up a people analytics solution, and really show the value of it another unique area that's getting additional, you know, prominence right now is DEI&B, you know, how can you support those kinds of initiatives through data? How predictive is it? What kind of insights and suggestions are going to be able to provide via the technology? And then is it intelligently connected? Really, really important. How do you ensure that you've got your data sorted and accessible and that you don't have any data silos? And then training and customization, I think is really important. So is, is the tool going to work for you for your business? And can you configure it to allow you to do that? I think all of those are really important.

 

David Turetsky: 9:35

So those are phenomenal factors. And I want to kind of take a few of them on especially something like predictive. We've worked in the HR analytics space for a long time. And I personally have been doing it since 2014. So in those eight years, I've very rarely seen organizations that have enabled their technology to tell them what to do. I'm not saying you're saying they're being prescriptive, but the predictive basically, are there areas of insight that the technology finds that the end user needs to take some action on or should take some action on. Talk to me about predictive a little bit in that context.

 

Amy Mosher: 10:18

Sure, I feel like when you are utilizing a technology, you should expect that it will have some level of best practice that allows you to not have to reinvent the wheel on some of this data collection. And that is what produces the predictive piece of this, and you don't have to use it. Right. But knowing that there are many organizations that this technology provider has coordinated with, to come up with the best practice that they've implemented for the prediction of these analytics, I think gives you another tool with which to benchmark your own predictions and your own output. I think, you know, why not allow best practice technology to lead your best practice as an organization and take advantage of that?

 

David Turetsky: 11:04

Okay, so you're basically saying, just just allow it to give you some insights, you don't have to use those insights, but just allow it to be another input into the equation that you're you're trying to drive for how you do business.

 

Amy Mosher: 11:16

Agreed, David, and I, I feel like a lot of the time, when you look at this there, there are many insights that you'll find in a truly predictive people analytics platform that will allow you to that will allow you to think in a different way, maybe that you haven't thought about benchmarking your data in that way before. And it can really kind of open up those creative barriers that I think a lot of HR generalists may have, especially if they haven't dipped their toe too far into the analytic side yet, or they don't come with that technical, technological background. It can be really, really powerful.

 

David Turetsky: 11:48

Sure, yeah, I get that.

 

Dwight Brown: 11:49

And that's always a challenge, especially in the people analytics division in the HR space is just people with the acumen to understand what they have, and realize the potential of it and, and the curiosity to continue to learn more, you know.

 

Amy Mosher: 12:04

If there's one thing that I've learned in HR is that, you know, curiosity and lifetime learning are essential, because we don't just deal with change, we're, we're facilitating and implementing change all day, every day.

 

David Turetsky: 12:18

And to go back to your earlier example, if anybody who's listening doesn't remember what we had been going through over the last three years, we have been the center of change, whether it's remote work, whether it's doing any of the reporting necessary, or just being the absolute glue that holds an organization together, especially during a global pandemic.

 

Amy Mosher: 12:39

Agreed, I feel like that's an opportunity for us. I've certainly turned it into a more of an opportunity for me and for the functions that I support and, and my team and their ability to come to the table on many strategic initiatives that they may not have been considered for in the past, really, as a core, you know, center of that wheel of your of the organization. And I hope that all you know, a lot of other organizations are doing the same.

 

David Turetsky: 13:05

The other piece I wanted to touch on that you mentioned that I don't know if you actually mentioned it out loud, but I know you're going to which is access.

 

Dwight Brown: 13:12

He read your mind.

 

David Turetsky: 13:13

Yeah, I was reading your mind Carnac over here. Access and giving people access, we used to call it democratizing data, giving more than just the HR function, the ability to utilize analytics, because it's not just a platform for generalists. It's not just a platform for practitioners. It's a platform for managers and leaders, and giving them access to not just insights that are focused on HR, but those are really Business Insights, actually, anyways, but also being able to give them those insights from the lens of that generalist, again, to give context and better consulting. Have you seen anything there that it will enable people who are listening to say, Hmm, I guess I can do that. You know, why don't I give this out? And what barriers would there be to giving it out to to managers and leaders.

 

Amy Mosher: 14:03

I honestly feel like the only way you can be effective and the whole reason for collection of data. And analyzing this data internally within HR is to provide the same level of access to your leaders. Because if HR is anything, it's an enablement center, right, you're enabling and coaching your leaders to be better at their jobs, to develop their people more effectively, to continue to manage the business more efficiently and effectively. And the only really, the way that you can do that is by sharing information. So this is one very powerful way for us to provide real, live factual data in support of these functions and in areas where a lot of times HR, again, as a soft skill area previously may not have been expected to provide that level of quantitative information and it can really be a change factor from a leadership perspective, right when you when you put the facts behind some of the initiatives that you're working through and really show that quantitative dynamic change that you're impacting, and that over time, it can be a real win for for human resources and the things that we're trying to do across the business. It shows the why so much more clearly. To your latter point, you know, around, you know, how do you trust that, that they're gonna be able to maturely have access to this information and, you know, be able to use it intelligently, it really is about training, really important for them to understand how to use the data, how not to use the data, how they may want to be transparent with their teams about the data in areas where maybe they may not be ready yet, and why I think that's really, really important for your leadership, before they get access to this data to understand, you know, what the pitfalls could be to being overly transparent to not being transparent at all, you know, a lot of opportunity there for coaching, but all of that I think of as an opportunity just to to get more effective leadership kind of coaching opportunities. And this is something that I know that I, myself, and my team uses a lot to gain credibility with the leadership across our business.

 

Dwight Brown: 16:02

One thing that you that you hit on there, I've been in the analytics space for a long time, and there's a culture shift that I hear you advocating for that time and time again, you hear over and over somebody who owns the data, say, I won't give you access to this, because you wouldn't know what to do with it. And, you know, they build their little fiefdom, they, you know, they close the dig the moat, close the gates and say, You're not going to get the data. And what I, what I like about what you said, is you're advocating an approach that, yeah, I mean, it can be a real factor that people won't know what to do with the data. But does that mean you don't share it? No, you find a path to share it, you find a path to create that transparency, the training that you talked about. So HR doesn't become the sole owner of the data and the the business benefits from from the sharing, ultimately, at the end of the day, everybody's rowing in the same direction.

 

Amy Mosher: 17:07

I couldn't agree more, do I and it really is about elevating self service to not just providing the data, but to helping people how to understand why, right, and it's that that whole concept of you know, information is not power, right? For someone to hoard, right? It really is power for the entire organization to take advantage of. So

 

David Turetsky: 17:28

I'm sorry, are you saying HR would hoard data and not provide it?

 

Dwight Brown: 17:34

Never, ever happens.

 

David Turetsky: 17:36

I've never heard of that before. It's radical. I've never heard that. That's the first time I've ever heard that on the HR Data Labs podcast. I want to touch on another thing that that I think you were implying there, but I think is very important to talk about as well, which is, there are new technologies, especially at HR Tech, we saw many new technologies will now enable a conversation with data, a conversation with an AI that uses structured and unstructured data to answer questions about HR that enables HR to get out of the administrivia. And to enable more mature conversations, for not just managers and leaders, but also for employees as well, who asked questions of the data. And obviously, there's security and obviously there's you know, permissions but they're allowed to self service, ask good questions, and get five to six seconds later, get answers, not minutes, not days, seconds.

 

Amy Mosher: 18:37

It's pretty incredible. It's a game changer to be perfectly honest. David, from an HR generalist perspective and a support team perspective, we utilize a

 

David Turetsky: 18:45

Well, I can I can definitely answer that conversational virtual assistant, it is a game changer, you suddenly, as an HR representative are not spending question. And the answer comes back to we don't think in those your time answering the same questions all day, every day, how do I access my benefits? What's my How do I change my ways, and I'll tell you why. If you think about some of the chat direct deposit? You know, what, how do I get a verification of employment, you know, all of those things that you you know, bots we have today on the consumer side, they answer as you scale, it just becomes a min you know, the amount of time stupid questions because we can't form better questions to that your team is taking to do that. And you can serve a lot with self service in your HCM. But you can do so much more. And ask. We can't ask questions because our brains not going in it's so it's so much more available and accessible across multiple streams, right, especially in retail, where you that direction. More than what's the forecast for today? Or who have access to that kind of real time even chat data, right via chat a lot of the time and I can tell you that it has wrote Video Killed the Radio Star? And when was it published? significantly improved response time efficiency and and the team's efficiency as well, especially around our Because I can't use those words because they're listening right operational HR operational team. And, you know, why didn't we think of this sooner from a technological perspective? now. But if you talk to the a word, or the S word, or the G word, they answer questions that are very simple in nature. And non structured, right? They have to be very straightforward. Because if you start doing you can't nest questions, right? You can't say, Okay, well, if it was published in 1975, what were the other songs on that album? Because it was what what album you're talking about. So we have to do a good job of training employees to now with this new conversational AI, hopefully it does that already for us to be able to get to that next layer to understand the context and now then be able to dig in a little further, to train our brains to be able to ask better questions. It's just not there yet.

 

Amy Mosher: 21:01

I love it. David, this is amazing. I one of the ways we're getting around that right now. It's we're running the exact issue that you're talking about the nesting of questions, right. And, and once you introduce this type of technology, you know, how do you continue to advance it? And that's one of the ways that obviously, you you can and you should, and that's consumer led, right, they're like, Well, how do I? How do I, you know, how do I request time off? If I have, you know, this situation that I've already asked the system about, right? It's really, it's a really interesting issue, the way that we're getting around it right now is by generalizing even further to say, Well, if you, you know, if you have a question about this policy, please access it here. Right? That's the answer. But it needs to continue to evolve in that way. And I can see that being an incredible asset to in this very particular situation to companies and HR teams around the world.

 

David Turetsky: 21:54

And that's exactly correct. You just brought up the greatest use use case. My PTO policy, right. I don't know it. Dwight do you know our PTO policy?

 

Dwight Brown: 22:03

Nope, not a clue.

 

David Turetsky: 22:05

So how many days do I have left in this year? We're talking about September. Right now. We're recording this September 21. It's we're almost at the holidays. Right? How much time do I have left? Are there blackout dates where I cannot take that time? Well, if you ask the question of, you know, how many days do I currently have off? That's one layer of question. It should naturally go then. Okay. Well, and here are days when you're not allowed to take days off between now and the end of the year when your accrual starts over again. Right. And then the other stupid question that everybody asks, do my days rollover, or am I compensated for those days? Well, if you have an unlimited PTO policy, the answer's no. But the person may not know that. So all these are really important decisions that that employee needs to make, but they can't make them because they don't know how to form that question the right way.

 

Dwight Brown: 22:55

Right. So it's a challenge.

 

David Turetsky: 22:58

It is definitely a challenge. And hopefully, we've helped isolved figure out a new product offering that make you guys a lot of money.

 

Dwight Brown: 23:07

PTO policy product.

 

Amy Mosher: 23:10

Mine is especially unique because because I get to be a part of those discussions. So I feel pressured. Challenges are accepted. And they're very solution oriented. So I'll be sure to point them to this podcast.

 

David Turetsky: 23:26

That's great idea.

 

Dwight Brown: 23:27

That's what we'd like to hear.

 

David Turetsky: 23:37

So that actually transitions nicely into our last question, which is, so what is your personal approach to people analytics at isolved? How do you actually use this in your daily work?

 

Amy Mosher: 23:47

Well, I am lucky that I get access to all this technology, right when it's released within the platform. And I always like to say in my marketing team will laugh, because they say it so often. But it, we drink our own champagne here at isolved. And so I feel like what works best for HR professionals is what adds value. And so I'm, of course, a big HR data nerd myself. So I would tout the availability and importance of data as being key to Human Resources regardless, but my personal approach here at isolved really has been to use an evidence based HR approach. And I think that most effectively impacts our ability to just grow as a business as quickly as we want to. And it also improves that employee experience, which is really the most impactful way that you can attract and retain your talent, bar none. And it really also makes us a very change ready and high trust environment because we're providing so much transparency around our data that employees trust us. They believe us, you know, it's backed by the facts, but it's hard to you know, to not follow someone who's giving you quantitative information on a regular basis.

 

David Turetsky: 24:59

I know was might sound stupid, but as long as you have the facts and the facts are things that people believe in, then there should be no argument there. Right?

 

Amy Mosher: 25:07

I would hope not. I would hope not. There's always an opinion, David, there's always an opinion. More power to everybody. Right? Like way to have some opinions. Love it. Creative Thinking fantastic. But you know, just the use of data for for change management, I think is so incredibly important to us here. And we have really been, we've grown 40% last 18 months, from a headcount perspective, like there's no, no question that this hasn't been one of the catalysts that has allowed us to do that so effectively.

 

David Turetsky: 25:39

And you also have to worry about margin, right? So you're growing at a very high clip, and still being able to focus on the numbers. And that's what HR being a business partner and using metrics to drive the business enables you to do. Right?

 

Amy Mosher: 25:54

Agreed. I couldn't agree more. And we've actually gained a significant amount of agility. As a result, as a business, we can say very quickly, add here, don't add there, move these here. And if and we've also really strengthened our relationship with accounting and FPA. And those teams and our ability to support those teams with real time data as well.

 

David Turetsky: 26:16

You're talking their language, you're now providing them with numbers and facts that they said, Who are you? And what have you done with my HR?

 

Amy Mosher: 26:24

Yeah, it's amazing, it's it. That is, it's incredible, because, you know, you get these these silos, I think, these implied silos between finance and accounting, and HR when I have kind of always as, again, a self proclaimed data nerd, I've always felt that connection to that to that function. And I think that's part of what's made me successful in the past really, with these growing businesses is that is a lot of that connection and the sharing of information and, you know, not being afraid of the of the data of the spreadsheets and the processes and all of that, I think it's a partnership for

 

David Turetsky: 26:58

sure. And that's why a lot of the people in the audience who are HR practitioners, they listen, because they want to hear stories about practitioners who've been able to adopt analytics and use the data framework that they can then use. So before we before we conclude, I wanted to ask, if you had some advice for people who had either been afraid of adopting analytics and the evidence based approach you were talking about, would you give them any advice and any examples of how they can get started?

 

Amy Mosher: 27:27

Collect the data, I think, understand how you can get clean data, that's incredibly important. That's always the first step is making sure that the data you're collecting is clean, incredibly important. In fact, don't even do anything else if you can't make that happen first.

 

Dwight Brown: 27:42

Amen to that.

 

David Turetsky: 27:43

Yeah

 

Amy Mosher: 27:44

Yeah, if you don't have reliable data, you're never gonna get anywhere. So do that first. I think the other piece is, is take it on just like you would any other business partnership initiative, think about training, think about coaching, think about alignment with business objectives, and how you can feed into that start small and clean, and then build up from there. Those would be my, my, my core recommendations. And it doesn't have to be a lot of data, or a large data set, or a lot of different types of data to be impactful. It can be one or two or three things that you do really, really well that are the core of your organization. And those can be enough.

 

David Turetsky: 28:22

Yep, that's great. Because people tend to try and start with everything. They try and get the whole kit and caboodle in one. And you're absolutely right, start small, get some wins, do the training, and make sure you understand how to train people about them. And then as you build that core of people saying, hey, that's great. Hey, can you give me more of this, it builds that demand. So that's a really great set of examples and advice. Thank you, Amy. Amy, thank you very much for joining. We've talked a lot about people analytics and how 2023 will be the year for people analytics and why, we've talked about some examples of how people analytics has kind of grown, and what has been wrong with it today. We've also talked about, you know, the tools that are available and some things to pay attention to. But we also talked about your approach. Is there anything else that you wanted to cover before we close?

 

Amy Mosher: 29:21

The only other thing that I would say that I would want to cover really is that you do not have to be a data scientist and you actually don't have to be a spreadsheet guru to be an HR professional, who values and is able to utilize data effectively. It's okay, you can be a soft skills master and still have an appreciation for the data and how it can help to impact your business in a positive way. So don't be afraid of it.

 

David Turetsky: 29:51

That's beautiful. Because we all know if you don't have context for the data, you have nothing

 

Amy Mosher: 29:56

Mic drop.

 

David Turetsky: 29:58

There you go. Walk away. Amy, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

 

Amy Mosher: 30:03

My pleasure.

 

David Turetsky: 30:04

Dwight, as always, thank you so much.

 

Dwight Brown: 30:07

Thank you. And thanks for being with us, Amy.

 

Amy Mosher: 30:10

Thank you, Dwight.

 

David Turetsky: 30:11

And thank you all for listening. Take care and stay safe.

 

Announcer: 30:14

That was the HR Data Labs podcast. If you liked the episode, please subscribe. And if you know anyone that might like to hear it, please send it their way. Thank you for joining us this week, and stay tuned for our next episode. Stay safe.