A New Approach to HR Analytics: Communication Training for Employees

As data-driven decision making has permeated the business world, companies and organizations are leaning on analytics to drive key initiatives across every department. And, over the past few years, HR departments have become some of the biggest users of organizational data in an effort to measure, track, and improve employee performance.

HR analytics, often referred to as “People Analytics,” takes countless forms, from the traditional (peer and 360 evaluations) to the high-tech (Sandy Pentland’s sociometers) to the downright futuristic (implantable microchips). All this to track everything from time spent engaged in work to quality of deliverables to teamwork skills.

But the one piece of data HR analytics is missing is communication

Research has shown that, on any given workday, we spend up to 80 percent of our time communicating. Between meetings, phone calls, one-on-one conversations, and company-wide presentations, this one activity takes up more of our time and energy than anything else we do in the office, and it’s often the primary driver of our success or failure. Consider these scenarios:

• A manager presents a new project to her department. At the end of the meeting, her team walks away feeling confused about the project’s purpose and their involvement in it.
• A new, promising SDR has missed quota three weeks in a row. When his team leader listens to his call recordings, she realizes he’s been struggling to answer basic questions about the product.
• An account rep travelled across the country to grow the relationship with a key customer, but he came home empty handed.

In every situation, the missing link was the communication skills the employee needed to seal the deal. The manager could have sent her team away feeling inspired and ready to work if she’d presented the new project more clearly. The SDR was missing the confidence (and likely the preparedness) he needed to respond off-the-cuff to prospect questions. And the account rep might have brought back some new business if he’d been able to give a more compelling pitch.

If communication skills are critical across the organization, why aren’t HR departments measuring them?

Traditionally, the trait has been difficult to pin down—communication evaluation has always been subjective and inefficient. And when organizations do identify development opportunities, the solutions rarely fit the needs. Personal coaching is prohibitively expensive for anyone outside of the c-suite, and generic communication workshops fail to address the team’s specific needs.

But as People Analytics has become more and more sophisticated, the demand has grown for scalable, objective measurement and lasting improvement for communication skills across the organization.

And the Quantified Communications Platform Offers Exactly what HR Departments Need

We combine world-class communication expertise with the latest advancements in data science to provide objective communication skill evaluations, actionable insights, and lasting improvement—at a rate that’s accessible for entire teams across an organization.

Using the QC platform, HR leaders can evaluate every potential and current employee’s communication skills and provide each with personalized improvement recommendations and learning resources. And aggregate, program-level analytics help leaders identify common challenges among teams and throughout the organization.

Our data-driven platform empowers HR leaders to understand the organization’s needs and ensure each employee receives the communication training he or she needs to excel at every initiative—improving the organization’s procedures, culture, and bottom line.