Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2020 - 24

*	 Data about organizational capacity
(e.g., ratings of company's focus on
innovation and risk).

Armed with these evidence-based
insights, HR and learning and development
(L&D) practitioners can take a strategic
role in helping their organization achieve
results. Predictive models can make a
credible case for investing in leadership
development, because it is now linked
to a tangible ROI. As a leader in your
company, you can embrace the latest
methodologies to help your organization
normalize and grow amid uncertainty.

*	 Data about employee experience or
organizational culture (e.g., employee
engagement surveys).

FOSTER
ACCOUNTABILITY
BY TYING GOALS
TO PERFORMANCE
RATINGS, BONUSES
OR PROMOTIONS.

CONVEY INSIGHTS AND
TAKE ACTION
Even with a robust model, the process for
building your business case can break
down if you don't translate insights into
action. HR and learning leaders can do
this in four ways:

In addition, you must have access to
business metrics - like year-over-year
same store sales, margin improvements
or employee turnover.

*	 Create simple visualizations. Simple
visualizations like heat maps make
it easy to understand the impact of
key drivers.

At the end of the day, you will need
to create a purposeful measurement
system. Predictive modeling is not about
assessing trends; it is about identifying
the leader and organizational levers that
drive or inhibit outcomes relevant to your
business. Leveraging relevant data will
create a compelling business case.

*	 Create a playbook. Link the drivers to
recommended actions. For example, if
risk-taking is a key driver of innovation
and the organization is risk-averse, you
will need to develop a risk orientation
across the organization.

USE ANALYTICS
TO PREDICT
WHAT
INVESTMENTS
MATTER MOST
Predictive models pinpoint
statistically significant drivers
of business outcomes. Models
can also be prescriptive,
indicating how much a
business metric will improve
by increasing performance
on key drivers. It's not magic,
but these models do require
sophisticated data science
to produce. Such models
are commonly used in most
business
organizations
but are rarely used to
understand the return on
investment (ROI) of leadership
development investments.

| 24

*	 Communicate results up and down the
organization. Everyone responsible for

the business outcome must see the
results and create action plans.
*	 Create accountability for change.
Foster accountability by tying goals
to performance ratings, bonuses or
promotions. A predictive model cannot
create change - it can only point to
where change needs to occur.

TWO CASE STUDIES
The following case studies illustrate how
predictive analytics prioritized leadership
development investments using the fourstep approach above:

FORTUNE 500 RETAILER
The Challenge
A Fortune 500 retailer sought to design
and validate a new high-performance
competency model as part of their
succession planning strategy. The vice
president of talent development wanted
an objective approach to reducing the
organization's 18 competencies to a
manageable subset validated as key
drivers of business outcomes.
The Approach
1.	

Business outcome metric: The client
identified four job performance
metrics as the critical business
objective - annual performance

FIGURE 1
4.3

PROMOTE

MAINTAIN

4.2

Building Trust

Driving Results

4.1

4.0

3.9

3.8

3.7

Customer Focus
Listening

Leading through
Vision & Values
Building Strategic Coaching &
Work Relationships Developing Business
Acumen
Empowerment
Building Org Talent Cultural
Interpersonal
Effectiveness

Operational
Decision Making

Influence
Communication
Facilitating Change
Adaptability

MONITOR
Low Impact

Driving Execution

Innovation

FOCUS
FOUR PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES

High Impact
Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2020

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