How and why data promotes trust

With the recent controversial comments from Elon Musk, suggesting that people are ‘pretending’ to work whilst at home, it is clear just how complex the dynamic can be between employers and their employees when it comes to trust in the workplace.

With the growth of hybrid and remote working, this need for trust is ever more important, and business leaders need to think carefully about how they can best build the most supportive and productive working environment for their teams.

Data has the potential to help enable this when used in a clear and effective way.

Recent research suggests that a majority of employees are comfortable with being monitored in a transparent way – 61% said that was the case – on the basis that it can help to provide employers with clear and unbiased information about their productivity.

There is always a risk with data though that, without the context behind the numbers, you might not be getting the whole story.

Business leaders need to look, therefore, at how best to combine human oversight with data-based decision making to make sure that every angle is covered.

Data and fairer decision making

Despite usually being implicit rather than overt, cognitive bias will always impact decision-making processes, even for the most strategic leaders. This may mean, for example, that employers are susceptible to making promotion decisions based on subjective evaluations, perhaps overestimating the talents of familiar people or people more like themselves.

When it appears that decisions have been taken without making use of the full spectrum of information available, this can result in promoting individuals who cannot excel in the new role, and will undoubtedly risk offending those who feel they have been overlooked for a position.

This impression of unfairness that it can create will have an impact on the motivation and commitment of the individual as well as the wider team, and will damage the level of trust between employee and their employer.

It is often the case that those groups from less represented backgrounds feel most excluded from positions of power in the workplace, meaning that they can be more likely to feel less involved and less engaged. As a result it is disproportionately important to reach out to them, and ensure their voice and views are heard.

Research shows that BAME employees are very likely, at 74%, to accept monitoring, with data helping to avoid biased personal decisions, and so a data-driven approach can also support diversity and inclusion measures within a business. 

Create transparent processes

If an organization can mitigate bias, and demonstrate a data-driven approach when it comes to decisions such as promotions or bonus levels, the process becomes more clear for those involved and the decisions taken are far more likely to be accepted.

One way to reduce any apparent subjectivity could involve putting a consistent review structure with clear goals and expectations in place; this allows employers to easily and transparently track employee performance.

By analyzing promotion decisions based on performance analytics, companies will encourage employees to perform well, as opposed to simply putting in time.

It also can allow business leaders to source proven talent from unexpected people – maybe the quieter one in the office who is less likely to shout about their performance – leading to better business outcomes over time.

Finally, it forces organizations to very transparently define what value means to them in order to define these performance metrics, which gives employees clarity of where discretionary effort is best deployed.

As well as helping to promote trust and clarity within the business, a data-driven approach such as this will have the added benefit of allowing businesses to really understand their employees’ strengths and weaknesses.

This will mean they are far more likely to be able to excel in their role, to be more engaged at work, and to report a greater wellbeing in the workplace, and productivity will rise in tandem.

In order for data to be used to its best effect, leaders and HR teams need to be prepared to tell the true story of the data and not cherry pick in order to tell the business what they want to hear.

They need to know the data, know the limitations of the data, and understand its commercial relevance.

There is no doubt that data can help to give direction on, and make the case for, what needs to be changed in an organization, but decisions about people should never be automated.

An integrated approach of human insight and informed data will always deliver the strongest solution.

The great employment churn

With research finding that 40% of employees are actively looking for a new role, employers need to think about how to retain their teams, and make sure that they feel part of a cohesive and vibrant team.

The key drivers behind this employment churn were found to be flexibility and pay, with the cost of living rising, as well as the increased difficulty of creating connectivity between colleagues in a hybrid working environment.

The increased flexibility of work means that the role of the employer has changed, and businesses need to be prepared to adapt to meet the needs and requirements of their team if they want to keep them. 

There is scope to make use of data when looking to address this issue, and the simple step of asking the right questions in employee surveys can help to identify what employees are looking for.

Companies can also use the data available to them to predict risk factors of who is most likely to leave (it might be those that stop turning up to training, or start providing more negative feedback in surveys, for example) and can then use this to work out what may make the difference in persuading them to stay. 

Currently only a very small minority of companies use HR data to its full potential.

Implemented correctly, a data-driven business can play a critical role in improving the wellbeing of staff, diversity and inclusion initiatives, employee retention, whilst also radically enhancing business performance and efficiency.

While there needs to be human oversight, better use of employee data in businesses can help to level the playing field and lead to fairer decision making and greater trust in the workplace.

The task for employers is to ensure that they educate their workforce on their data rights, create transparent and clear processes, and ensure they act responsibly and fairly.

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