Data Rich, Intelligence Poor: Outdated Measures and Infrastructure Hinder Workforce Decision-Making for some Public Sector Organizations

OTTAWA, Feb. 19, 2016 /CNW/ - Out-of-date processes and legacy technology are limiting some public sector organizations' ability to make timely operational decisions about their workforce. Having the right workforce management and analytics technology can help public sector leaders transform their operations and effectively execute corporate strategy. A new Conference Board of Canada report provides a roadmap for a solid business case for investment in technology and analytic skills development. It shows that some public sector organizations lack the right information and analytic capabilities to make the best possible workforce management decisions.

"Growing organizational complexity and an increasing need for speed mean that timely workforce information and analytics are becoming essential operational tools for decision-making." said Shannon Jackson, Associate Director, Leadership and Human Resources Research. "In lieu of data and facts, many operational leaders are still relying on experience, gut, and manually produced spreadsheets to make decisions. Updated technologies are required to help close the gap between corporate planning and operational execution."

Highlights

• Outdated decision supports (i.e., timely automated reports, processes, etc.) are restricting some business leaders when making workforce decisions required to transform operations.
• Workforce management and analytics technology is providing some leaders with key decision-support information essential for critical workforce decisions.
• The research outlines a roadmap of common challenges and investment benefits that may help leaders make the business case for skills, process, and IT investment.

The briefing, Leveraging Today's Technology: Connecting Operations to Corporate Workforce Planning in the Public Sector, explores the current state of practice in the public sector in using analytics to support workforce decision-making, the role that technology plays, and the benefits realized by some organizations. It finds public sector organizations are at varying stages of upgrading aging technology infrastructure, and developing their knowledge about using workforce analytics. Some, for example, are working with 20 year old systems, but have well-developed analytic processes and skills. Others have successfully transitioned to new systems, but are just developing the analytic skills of their business and HR leaders.

The initial benefits identified by early adopters who use real time data included: optimized staffing levels and capacity, improved efficiencies, avoiding under-staffing customer contact areas, and reduced overtime costs. Leaders were able to make timely decisions since they no longer had to wait for manually generated analysis of historical data that may be weeks or months old.

The Conference Board of Canada will be hosting a live webinar titled Workforce Planning in the Public Sector: Using Real-Time Data to Increase Flexibility on March 23, 2016.

This research was made possible through the financial support of Kronos Canadian Systems Inc.

SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

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