The world of work is becoming more and more data-saturated as days pass by. The emerging digital transformations and data explosions alongside the growing demands for agility, transparency and personalization have reshaped how leaders approach decision-making. Leaders can no longer afford to rely on intuition and experience alone for essential people or business decisions.
As leaders across departments and hierarchies begin to turn to data to enable effective decision making, one key barrier stands in the way - data silos. Data silos are collections of data that are isolated from other systems in an organization (Oracle, 2024). This blog investigates the challenges posed by such data silos and explores how breaking them down can unlock the full potential of data among three key groups: among people managers, within the C-Suite and across HR leaders.
Watch the gap -- the communication gap!
To understand how data siloes are hurting people managers specifically we must first understand the main objectives of their role. Many organizations struggle with a persistent gap between leadership and employees; the former are often focused on high level goals and long term vision while the latter are more concerned with their day-to-day operations. Without a clear bridge between these two perspectives, organizations risk misaligned priorities, reduced employee satisfaction and decreased productivity. This disconnect is exactly where people managers operate.
People managers work to foster open communication between employees and leadership, in both directions. To ensure that employees are aligned with long term strategic objectives managers help employees understand how their work contributes to organizational success. Simultaneously, managers work to make the voice of employees heard in gathering feedback and advocating for employee needs to leadership. However, unsurprisingly, efforts to bridge the communication gap are hampered by data silos.
How Can I Bridge What I Can’t See?
The data has become an increasingly important piece of the puzzle when it comes to bridging the communication gap. The expectations and needs of both leadership and employees are evolving rapidly. Leadership faces the challenge of navigating a dynamic business landscape, with increasingly complex strategic objectives. At the same time, employees are moving away from traditional work models to prioritize their wellbeing and satisfaction. While these needs clearly differ in nature, both depend on people managers’ ability to communicate effectively and plan adaptively. Meeting these expectations requires more than intuition, it demands data-driven insights to ensure alignment and effective communication.
In order to maintain a strong bridge over the communication gap, people managers need complete visibility into two key elements of their teams: (1) employee readiness and (2) employee sentiment.
Employee readiness: Aligning employees with strategic goals requires ensuring that their capacity is effectively appropriate for the task at hand. If managers don’t have access to data illuminating workforce capabilities, they cannot effectively translate these goals into realistic plans. Managers need to be able to easily access HR data on skills and training completion to ensure that employees are proactively upskilled and are, therefore, prepared to meet new targets as they arise. Without this data access, the impact is felt on both sides: leadership feels frustrated by a perceived lack of employee productivity while employees feel overwhelmed and burnout which leads to greater levels of dissatisfaction and attrition.
Employee sentiment: People managers must not only ensure their teams can achieve organizational objectives but also establish their satisfaction and alignment with these goals from the outset. Without access to key HR data, such as employee engagement scores, absence rates and sense of belonging, people managers struggle to fully understand employee sentiment around leadership decisions. This often leaves employees feeling under-valued and under-appreciated which ultimately leads to elevated employee dissatisfaction and attrition.
How to Keep the Bridge Intact
It is clear that without the appropriate visibility into their team’s HR data, people managers fail to keep leadership nor employees happy. It is clear that we need to break down these data silos but how can people managers kickstart this process?
Advocate for unified data: Many leaders throughout the organization may be unaware of the extent to which HR data silos are undermining people managers. Either for yourself or for peers in managerial roles, push for the adoption of unified HR platforms or data integration tools that connect employee performance, engagement and training data in one place.
Strengthen data literacy: Even when data is accessible, managers may not know how to use it in order to drive decisions. People managers therefore need to strengthen their data literacy skills so that they can act on the information as soon as it becomes available. Understanding data isn't just about being able to read it, it’s about recognizing areas of risk and opportunity that can then drive effective decision-making.
Collaborate with HR - People managers need to prioritize building stronger partnerships with HR by participating in regular discussions about their shared goals and data needs. These forms of collaboration are essential in ensuring HR understands what data managers need to effectively lead their teams so that data-sharing processes can be outlined with this in mind.
In conclusion, HR data is not just for HR; it is a practical tool that empowers managers to align their teams with organizational strategy in a way that promotes success and satisfaction. When managers operate without visibility into key workforce data, the communication gap is left with dangerous room to grow. The organizations that prioritize eliminating these data silos will have managers who are better able to keep the communication gap closed such that both employees and organizational objectives can thrive.
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