Alchemy in action: the magic of blended analytics

 

Alchemy in action: the magic of blended analytics 

Want deeper insights, faster?  
Want more context when making key decisions?  
What about the chance to uncover hidden connections in your data? 

For any business seeking the competitive edge, the answer to all these questions is a resounding “yes.” That’s why so many organisations work to centralise all their data sources and adopt what’s called ‘blended analytics’. Break down siloes, combine your data sets, and you’ve got a panoramic view of your organisation – and, potentially, the outside world – when answering the big business questions of the day. 

People Insight practitioners know better than most what blended analytics can do for their workforce. That’s partly because they have access to so many data sources, from hiring processes to exit interviews and everything in between. If you can combine things like training participation with appraisals, absence, and so on, you have the complete story of your workforce in your hands. 

Say, for example, you have a problem with attrition. You might take a look at related areas like absence and burnout. Maybe there’s a simple root cause, or a complex network of issues that need tackling in tandem.  

The key ingredients 

This all sounds great in theory, but let’s get practical. What kinds of insight can you gather, and how? There are three main areas to look at… 

 

1. Combine research sources to capture different perspectives on the same topic. Example: Understand the employee traits needed for customer satisfaction by blending employee and customer research. 
2. Add internal data for a more specific query. Example: Show the human impact of your organisation by exploring how people feel about working in teams with high commercial success. 
3. Add external data for critical context, from wider social factors to moments of interaction with your organisation. Example: Forecast staffing shortages by comparing attrition in your business to job vacancies in the wider industry. 

Recipe for success 

Just like making a cocktail without a recipe, the possibilities of blended analytics are endless – figuring out meaningful combinations of data is the first hurdle. Here are a few things to bear in mind as you get started. 

 

• Crystal clear focus. Don’t be tempted to tackle multiple challenges at the same time. Keep one core focus to get a specific result. 
• One step at a time. Once you know your main goal, only then consider what data could help you get there.  
• Bigger picture. Publicly available data can add a lot of context, especially where your organisation meets the outside world. Why not compare employee pride with stock price? 
• Trust the experts. When deciding which data sets are relevant to your investigation, it’s best practice to consult stakeholders in those areas.  
• Just get started! Many organisations hold a tonne of patchy, incomplete, and inconsistent data. Don’t worry about it, and don’t delay! Somewhere amongst the chaos, you have just enough robust coverage to begin your exploration. That’s the place to start.  

 
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