Maturity - Its more than just analytics

I have spent much of my career in HR Analytics focusing on building organisational analytics capability and maturity growth. I have been influenced by the many maturity models that exist (along with some brilliant people I have worked with over the years) and have developed my own way of assessing and striving towards maturity.

Whilst these models are great, they do have a focus on the maturity (or rather the type) of the analytics delivered and not so much about what it takes for an organisation to be able to deliver analytics at any level of maturity. In my view there are four key components to achieving analytics maturity within an organisation and all need investment for growth. 

The level of maturity in each component with then influence the type of analytics that can be produced. This is illustrated below.

Many organisations struggle to grasp that growth is required across all aspects simultaneously if they are to realise their dream of insightful or embedded analytics. To achieve that, significant investment is needed and too often avoided through the hiring of a skilled analysts or data scientist who is expected to perform miracles.

Analysts are also often called upon to use analytics to help evidence or evaluate the success of workforce strategies. I certainly have been! And just like the above, I've developed models and frameworks to help me along the way.
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The term strategy is mostly an umbrella term for a collection of policies, programs, activities or ways of working. The evaluation model seeks to categorise these through the lenses of those who it is aimed at (target populations) and the HR processes affected by it. This is after all the way we identify the participants and success measures for the strategy. Illustrated below.

Maturity features once again here, not in terms of analytics but in terms of the maturity of the programs being delivered. In my earlier stages of career, I would have simply identified which standard HR metrics are aligned to the HR lifecycle and said these were the measures of success. But that's just business as usual reporting.
The focus needs to be not just on the desired outcomes of a strategy, but on its own level of maturity! As this is the ultimate leading measure into how effective a strategy will be. It also helps manage expectation of when a strategy is likely to achieve desired outcomes. If an organisation isn't mature enough in its data, design, dedication and delivery of the strategy, how can it be expected to succeed?

I've since developed a maturity model for the assessment of strategies and built this into the evaluation framework above and detailed below.

Assessing maturity, whether it be analytics or workforce strategy, is critical for an organisation striving to achieve workforce / people outcomes. I've had conversations with clients that say "we don't need a toolkit to know we're not mature" and just continue throwing new "strategies" at the problem.

​A proper assessment of maturity will enable an organisation to identify where specific areas of growth are needed, where existing maturity can be leveraged or where investments are likely to yield a return. This action plan may well become a strategy of its own and may force an organisation to look within itself for improvements before expecting to see them in their originally intended outcomes. But every building, no matter how tall it wants to be, needs a solid foundation to grow from.