Posts

#Leadership : 3 Ways to Use Data to Set and Track Your Organizational Goals…In Short, Employers — Recognizing that Data is Crucial in Goal-Setting and other Business Aspects — are Using Tracking Information to made Educated Decisions.

/in /by

Data is finding its footing in the workplace: A 2016 survey from i4cp found that 67 percent of organizations surveyed said they now use results from human capital analytics projects. This increase in the use of analytics shows a shift toward predictive practices that will likely have a huge impact on the way companies run their operations.

Free- Counting Abacus

In short, employers — recognizing that data is crucial in goal-setting and other business aspects — are using tracking information to made educated decisions. Here are some ways your company can use data to set and track your organizational and employee goals.

1. Define ‘OKRs.’

Objectives and key results (OKRs) is a popular technique that helps get whole teams moving in one direction. No more one-time “tips” and “tricks” for a quick boost that fails to sustain continued success. Instead, OKRs use data to create long-lasting solutions.

This way, companies can set objectives and come up with key results that are metric-based indicators of success. Companies can then make those key results visible, to encourage accountability at all levels of their organizations.

A May 2016 survey of 250 companies from Geckoboard found that those companies considered keeping their employees aware of key metrics and setting clear objectives the top important factors for company growth. When employees are given and are aware of specific targets to aim for, they are more engaged in their work and motivated because they know what success looks like.

So, how should companies start setting their goals?

The answer is to begin at the top. Set broad goals that are large in scale; then cascade the objectives down to your teams and individual employees. Define what the objective is and the key result you expect to be accomplished. For example, for marketers, that objective might be “Build brand awareness to create more leads and conversions.” The key result would be “Increase website traffic by X percent.”

Ensure that each key result is trackable and has a time frame. As the Geckoboard survey found, 92 percent of participating companies that tracked their metrics in real time had met some or all of their goals in the previoius 12 months — compared to 64 percent of companies that did not track in real time.

When tracking metrics like traffic, keep each team’s members informed about how their work is contributing to this goal. Objectives need to be large enough to break down into smaller steps; and these objectives should consist of several key results because every goal should have several possible routes to attainment.

Overall, data can drive performance and help teams hit their goals. Keep a finger on the pulse of the OKRs at your company and focus on organizational alignment.

 

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network: (Over 15K+ Members & Growing !)   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

Facebook: (over 12K)   http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

Continue of article:

2. Align and track team members.

Set each employee up for success with realistic goals to aim for. When objectives seem out of reach, the team’s performance suffers. A study from the University at Buffalo School of Management found that even teams that had been successful in the past and had plenty of resources became less efficient when management set unrealistic expectations.

Don’t let that be you. Instead, structure each goal to build toward the organization’s overall goals. Provide real-time tracking and visuals so your staffers can see how they are progressing, and take corrective actions if needed. This will help leaders see how work is allocated.

Performance data adds depth and value to employee evaluations and informs better, more constructive feedback. It can also act as crucial evidence of, and show employees and employers alike where, each person is struggling — or succeeding. This information may help adjust organizational expectations and provide more accurate project-assignment and task allocation.

3. Improve quality of hire.

Goal-tracking data can inform your company’s post-hire quality metric to measure how your talent acquisition is progressing. Using performance data, hiring managers can provide detailed, informed opinions and solutions for newer employees to improve on, and determine what the hiring team should look for in future candidates.

It’s important to conduct surveys to measure your workforce’s satisfaction levels and analyze how your employees align with the company’s culture and values. This gauges how well the team is hiring for cultural fit.

Also, revenue-per-employee data helps determine your company’s costs of turnover and hiring. Recruiting goals factor into larger, organizational goals, which is why quality of hire is a crucial factor to measure and analyze.

Predictive analytics can be analyzed to guide the talent acquisition team to make better hiring decisions and improve its entire recruitment process.

 

Entrepreneur.com | August 2, 2016 | Andre Lavoie

#Strategy : 4 Ways Big Data Will Change Every Business…If You’re Still Saying, “Big Data isn’t Relevant to my Company,” You’re Missing the Boat.

/in /by

It Doesn’t Matter What Field you Operate In or The Size of your Business; as data collection, analysis, and interpretation become more readily accessible, they will have an impact on every business in several important ways.

 

If You’re Still Saying, “Big Data isn’t Relevant to my Company,” You’re Missing the Boat. I firmly believe that big data and its implications will affect every single business— from Fortune 500 enterprises to mom and pop companies— and change how we do business, inside and out.

It doesn’t matter what field you operate in or the size of your business; as data collection, analysis, and interpretation become more readily accessible, they will have an impact on every business in several important ways.

1. Data will become an asset to every business.

Even the smallest businesses generate data these days.  If the business has a website, a social media presence, accepts credit cards etc., even a one-person shop has data it can collect on its customers, its user experience, web traffic, and more. This means companies of all sizes need a strategy for big data and a plan of how to collect, use, and protect it. This also means that savvy businesses will start to offer data services to even very small companies.

 It also means that businesses and industries that never thought big data would be “for them” might be scrambling to catch up. Let me just make this as plain as possible: If you own or operate a business, and you have questions about how to improve that business, you have data, your data is an asset, and it can be used to improve your business.  Simple as that.

Like this Article ?…Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 300K+ Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network:   www.linkedin.com/in/frankfsc/en

  • Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

educate/collaborate/network….Look forward to your Participation !

continue of article:

2. Big data will enable companies to collect better market and customer intelligence.

Like it or not, the companies you do business with know a lot about you — and the quantity and diversity of what they know about you is increasing every year. Every company (from car manufactures who will monitor our driving to tennis racket manufacturers that know how often and how well we play) will get much better insights into what customers want, what they will use, what channels they use to buy, and so on.

The other half of this equation is that companies will need to be proactive about creating and maintaining their privacy policies and all the systems and security needed to protect that user data. As we’ve seen with the recent backlash againstSpotify and to a lesser extent Microsoft 10, most people will allow companies to gather this data, but they want transparency around what’s being collected and why and they want the ability to opt-out.

3. It will improve internal efficiency and operations

From using sensors to track machine performance, to optimising delivery routes, to better tracking employee performance and even recruiting top talent, big data has the potential to improve internal efficiency and operations for almost any type of business and in many different departments.

Companies can use sensors to track shipments and machine performance, but also employee performance. Companies have started using sensors to track employee movements, stress, health, and even who they converse with and the tone of voice they use.

In addition, if data can successfully be used to quantify what makes a good CEO, it can be used to improve the HR and hiring process at any level.

 Data is breaking away from the IT department and becoming an integral part of every department in a company.

4. And data will allow companies to improve the customer experience and build big data into their product offering.

In the best of all possible worlds, companies will use the data they collect to improve their products and the customer experience.

John Deere DE -2.23% is an excellent example of a company that is not only using data to benefit its customers, but also as a new product offering.

All new John Deere tractors are equipped with sensors that can help the company understand how the equipment is being used, and predict and diagnose breakdowns.  But they’ve also put the sensors to work for the farmers, offering access to data about when to plant, where, the best patterns for ploughing and reaping, and more. It’s become an entirely new revenue stream for an old company.

As we invite more connected things into our lives — from smart thermostats toApple AAPL -0.92% Watches and fitness trackers — there will be more and more data, analysis, and insights that companies can sell back to consumers.

These are just the top four impacts I predict big data will have on businesses of all types in the near future. Is your business ready to capitalize on these opportunities?

Bernard Marr is a best-selling business author, keynote speaker and leading business performance, analytics and data expert. His latest books are ‘Big Data‘ and ‘KPIs for Dummies‘.

 

Forbes.com | September 8, 2015 | Bernard Marr