What’s Wrong with People Data?

In a recent report by TI People and FOUNT Global, Inc, “The Big, Bad State of EX”, 70% of the respondents reported that their organisation’s Employee Experience (EX) data is inadequate for their needs. Another finding was that HR professionals take too much responsibility for EX, with 76% of EX professionals responding to the survey saying they are primarily accountable for the quality of EX at their organisations, while business leaders and managers are the #1 influencers of EX in their company. 

I was delighted to sit down recently with Jennifer Sigler, FOUNT’s Head of Research and the author of The Big, Bad State of EX report, for a discussion on the issues identified in the study in relation to people data for this executive article.

Jennifer explains that the inadequate data problem is rooted in a love of “big stuff”, including enterprise-wide surveys on broad topics, infrastructure-building within HR, and giant strategies that take forever to finalise, and that people analytics and HR professionals need to take a smaller, more agile approach to EX improvement to make more progress, faster. 

People analytics teams have tons of people data, but the problem is that it is not always useful data. I discuss the topic in more detail with Jennifer below, enjoy!

Jennifer, you published the provocatively titled “Big, Bad State of EX” report back in November, replete with adorable social tiles of Little Red Riding Hood. What’s so big and bad about the state of employee experience?