Let me start with a question: What do you believe is the best indicator of success among high-performing teams? Google spent several years studying high-performing teams to find out. Many suspected the answer was teams filled with people having the deepest level of subject matter expertise. They were wrong.
The best indicator of success for a high-performing team was a shared sense of “psychological safety.” You probably know it by a more common name: trust. These teams that shared a high degree of “trust” were more willing to take risks, push boundaries, challenge traditional thinking, and better understand when mistakes happen.
Now, let me ask another question: Why can’t this feeling of mutual trust reach across all aspects of any business (including yours), including the use of employee data? Employees have natural fears about protecting their personal information (age, gender, pay, engagement measurement, etc.), but if there is a sense of trust among their people, organizational leaders can use data to help guide positive change.
This is especially important to understand today, when companies are rethinking how they utilize modern workforce technology. Things may not go perfectly. But every organization has a unique opportunity to rise to the occasion and start using data for good.
OK, one last question: How can you start to build trust that you’ll use data for good? We suggest you start in these three key areas: DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), manager coaching, and useful dashboards for leadership.
1. DEI
The murder of George Floyd highlighted many unacceptable realities, including unacceptable barriers to equity that our organizations must work to dismantle. Organizational leaders need to leverage data to ensure they’re creating a diverse and inclusive culture.
Many large organizations are likely already collecting data for EEOC and payroll purposes that can be leveraged to improve their DEI outcomes. You also probably have some form of performance management process that can help support your DEI initiatives. Start by asking:
- Where do pay gaps occur?
- Is everyone presented with equal opportunity to advance in their career and grow as an individual?
- How does diversity on the leadership team compare with the rest of the organization?
Equally important are the recognition patterns inside your organization. Is everyone recognized within their teams and across the organization? Or do you see opportunities to ensure a more inclusive culture?
Leaders in your organization need to ask themselves these types of questions so employees trust that data will be used to identify and remove disparities across the business.
Need an ROI point to bring this home? Best-performing organizations know the power of using data to create greater DEI results. Businesses with above-average diversity and engagement measurements outperform those with below-average metrics by 46% to 58%.
2. Manager Coaching
Here’s another area where you can find opportunities to build trust and use data for good: to improve the positive impact of your managers. Gallup research has found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. Think about what this statistic means for your company.
But we can’t put all the variances at the feet of managers.
These individuals are often promoted because they are high performers in their current roles. Yes, some are natural leaders. But most need at least some support developing managerial skills — if for no other reason than a manager’s proven impact on employee engagement and retention. You should be asking yourself:
- Where does employee turnover exist?
- Are employees getting the opportunities to share feedback throughout their tenure at the organization?
- Have managers been provided with the tools to develop relationships with their team?
You can use data around recognition, engagement, and retention to answer these questions and then build support and trust among all of your managers. When this happens, managers will be better equipped to nurture trust among their teams.
3. Useful Dashboards for Leaders
With all of these uses of data, you and your leadership need to share relevant workforce information in a safe, efficient, and useful way. Ensure your full leadership team has transparency into what’s really going on and can be empowered to make informed decisions.
To get an idea of what we’re talking about, let’s compare these two scenarios. Two companies want to identify one employee from among a 100-member team to support with greater, more focused career-development opportunities. Which company could get that assessment done more quickly and effectively?
Company A: Two people in HR see the weekly engagement and recognition data of all of those 100 employees.
Company B: A leadership team of 14 people see that data, including six people who interact with that employee in a unique way on a daily basis.
It seems like a no-brainer when it’s put that way, right? If trust is established and you have more leaders who know more about their teams, the better they’ll be at implementing positive change — using data for good
The time is now.
Times are changing, companies need to change with them, and it’s going to require all of your leaders to be on board to make that change authentic.
For example, if information is being collected for EEOC reports to get a more in-depth look at equity initiatives, you and your leaders should communicate this to employees. Similarly, if you’re looking to improve management skills or workforce data usage, share how that data gathering and the changes it may lead to will impact your employees. Transparency is a key ingredient to building trust.
Having conversations about people data might always feel uncomfortable for some people. But when you build trust, your organization can use data to improve the lives of everyone and do good.
Latest posts by Raphael Crawford-Marks (see all)
- You’ve Got People Data. Use It. But Use It For Good! - August 16, 2020
- Visible Recognition Matters Now More Than Ever - July 12, 2020
