In advance of her presentation at People Analytics World 2018 in April, Swati Chawla shares a few thoughts on her experiences and predictions in HR Analytics...
Swati has over 18 years of experience in Human Resources spanning across consulting and Line/ Business partnering roles, across sectors of Agriculture, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Financial Services and ITES. She has been involved extensively in jobs which required a shift in culture, change management, HR re-alignment or building of an effective HR practice to assist in a business model shift, enable business transformation and support M&A.
She has held a blend of Territory, Regional and Global roles in diverse locations such as Switzerland, India, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Rest of ASEAN, North East Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, making her savvy to cross-cultural environments.
Her breadth of experience, among other things, covers shaping business oriented People Strategy, Organization Design & Effectiveness, workforce analytics & planning, HR Transformation, Talent Management, design of HR functional models, Succession Planning, scorecards & sales incentives and Change & Communication Strategies across diverse industries.
In the current role as the Global Head for HR Strategy, Reporting & Analytics, in a span of two years, she has been instrumental in setting up the COE and building a strong team and a practice that has empowered over 300 HR professionals and equipped senior business leaders with insights on people & organization structures and policies, linking HR strategy to the Business direction. The insights have been instrumental in driving business productivity, organisation effectiveness & change and operational excellence.
For how long has your work involved analytics, either directly or in project leadership?
2 1/2 years as the Head of the Analytics COE and 4 years prior to that as Practice Lead of Strategic Workforce Planning & Analytics at Towers Watson APAC.
For how long have you worked in the HR domain?
18 years.
How well do you feel People Analytics is progressing?
I think the function has grown steadily in the last 3-5 years.
What have been the greatest challenges that you've faced within People Analytics?
The 3 greatest challenges faced:
1) Lack of readiness (in terms of awareness, acceptance and capability) of the user base/customer group (wider HR function and business) for people analytics
2) Overemphasis on tools and technology rather than the insights gained
3) Establish ROI of the function by using insights from people analytics to solve business problems.
What are your predictions for 2018 and beyond? Where are things heading?
The function needs to leapfrog in next 1-2 years to get into the driving seat of the HR function by overcoming above stated challenges.