We talk about a ‘data-first’ culture with our colleagues and clients on a regular basis. However, in practice, however, energised people may be by this concept – it can be really hard to change the narrative in your organisation.
When we talk about data and insight challenges we completely empathise with the fact that these aren’t solvable overnight.
The process of becoming a data-first organisation isn’t quick and whilst there are a lot of practical implications involved, there are also a lot of more nuanced factors at play here. When we try to change an organisational approach or culture, we need to be patient and prepared to make small but impactful steps.
We believe there are a lot of benefits to embracing the insights that clear and consistent data can bring.
Clear communication around these benefits will be the key to your success.
For example:
- By immersing your organisation in a data culture, everyone will be proactive in nature and there will be more appetite for improvement and agility.
- By considering the entire organisation and the usefulness of the L&D data, you can better connect learning experiences with organisational goals.
- If you have cleaner and more consistent data (that you are regularly analysing) then better decisions will be made (and there will be more confidence behind these decisions).
- You can more readily see opportunities and be prepared to take new initiatives forward.
- Many organisations have seen efficiencies made as a result of successful data analysis. Which means better use of budgets and resources. Win win!
- When there’s more confidence and clarity in decisions and opportunities, there will be happier employees and loyalty will be strengthened.
So, how can you convince everyone to adopt a data-driven approach?
If you or your colleagues aren’t yet convinced about the power of good data analytics, let us share our 3 reasons to adopt a data-driven approach. These reasons can be used throughout your communications, town hall meetings and any other employee-related conversations.
You might be up against a lot of questions or dismissive opinions about this way of working. So, it’s important to be both specific and evidence-led in your argument for a data-driven approach.
If you track data points across your entire learning experience you can successfully answer key questions in the following essential areas:
Compliance
- Understand what you need to improve to create a better learner experience
- Understand if training is having the right impact and which areas need improvement
- Track annual progress to improve and plan for the future
- Understand if employees behave differently as a result of their training
- Understand if there are gaps between employee’s skills and training resources
Engagement
- Understand what communities and collaboration opportunities are delivering results
- Know if higher engagement is creating better competence across training
- Understand when and how your learners are most engaged and what type of training is most effective
- Have knowledge of your learners’ appetites – is their attention spread over multiple sessions? Are they coming back for more after completing the learning?
Skills
- Gain insights on how long it takes to gain competency across training programmes
- Begin to understand how you could map skills and competencies to roles and career pathways
- Be aware of competency and engagement gaps and how you can map them to all learning
- Know your learners’ knowledge levels better: What do they already know and where are the gaps? How are learners performing against learning objectives?
- Building the knowledge to make meaningful predictions about the future (e.g. planning for future skills).
What next?
There are so many great benefits to embracing a data-driven approach to learning. And there are multiple insights and opportunities you can get from effectively using data analysis.
We can help you achieve the following 4 steps to your data-driven success.
- Embracing the benefits of being a data-first team.
- Understanding the value of the insights you can access
- Adopting the right tools and processes (thanks to Kineo!)
- Using data to make decisions and identify opportunities
Want to know which metrics can help you drive better data decisions? Find out more about how you can crack the code and discover the 5 metrics that prove and improve learning outcomes
Final thoughts
We are here to help you navigate the data storm! And we’re here to help you make this meaningful culture shift.
Get in touch with our friendly team today to start your data-driven shift today!