HOW DOES CULTURE IMPACT
BIG DATA INITIATIVES?
Warning: before embarking on a Big Data initiative, be sure to
know where your organizational culture sits on the spectrum.
Where your organization is on this spectrum will determine the
possible side effects of a Big Data initiative, especially if it involves
HR-related data.
On one end of the spectrum are organizations which are closed,
do not share, are unaligned, secretive and where lone efforts prevail.
On the other end of the spectrum are organizations that have
strong leadership, are open, trusting, sharing and are collaborative
in nature. How a Big Data initiative is perceived will be very different
depending on where you are on that spectrum.
In the “negative” environment, any initiative using HR data will
be received as too much “Big Brother” and be seen as a weapon to
control and punish, and also be viewed as a loss of privacy.
In a more “positive” environment, it will be seen as a tool to help
improve the organization’s effectiveness and boost productivity –
something that’s part of the organizational learning journey and
that will improve employee engagement. ■
Peter Smit is the founder of Collabogence, an organization that uses
Big Data analytics to measure collaborative performance on multiple
levels.
The Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) is in the
midst of a thought leading research project with Collabogence and with
the sponsorship of Cisco Canada. The resulting White Paper, documenting
the findings and conclusions, is scheduled to be published in
spring 2015.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE POSSIBLE
SIDE EFFECTS OF A BIG DATA INITIATIVE,
ESPECIALLY IF IT INVOLVES HR-RELATED DATA.
More and more organizations are
recognizing the importance of collaboration,
not just within teams, but
also team to team and across departments.
Many organizations recognize collaboration
as a collective skill that is critical to improving
organizational effectiveness and boosting productivity
– but they wrestle with what it is, and
why it does and doesn’t happen.
Organizations striving to benchmark the collaboration
performance involved in different
projects must do so through costly and lengthy
consultations. It’s a complex challenge as collaboration
spans many facets: how well does
an organization use its collective experience,
expertise and knowledge, not just within a particular
team, but also team to team or across
departments? How frequently do people communicate
and how – one-on-one or in groups?
Is information being made accessible, are
people searching for available information for
their decisions and does the organization have
the appropriate tools to facilitate information
exchange? Does the social environment encourage
connections and exchanges?
BIG DATA AND COLLABORATION
IN PRACTICE
This is where Big Data enters the scene.
Typically, most organizations use four or five
primary collaboration tools: email, telephone,
document repository, social/community,
web-conferencing and perhaps a project
management app. Each of these applications
maintains an activity log recording who did
what, when and who else was involved.
This “metadata” functions as the basis on
which individual, team and department collaborative
performance is measured. Each interaction,
by each individual, is “mapped” against the four
collaboration quadrants: sharing, communication,
social and search. The nature, intensity,
direction and balance of each element between
individuals will lead to the identification
of Collaborator Types *(an example of which is a
“remote catalyst” – an individual who is able to
initiate and drive a team remotely).
Being able to measure collaboration would
have great value for organizations:
■■ Benchmark their performance against other
organizations
■■ Assess how well collaboration takes place
within teams and from team to team
■■ Assess how, and how well, IT tools are
being used and where additional training or
functionality is required
■■ Optimize where people sit, and in which
areas remote workers who come into the
office from time to time should sit (to the point
of even making them aware of where their
collaborative network is in the office)
■■ Configure team membership optimally in
order to ensure the team will collaborate
effectively and immediately (based on
previous collaborative working relationships
and different “collaborator types”)
cover feature
A NEW HORIZON FOR HR:
Measuring organizational collaborative performance
16 ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL