Alex Yeung, Director—Human Resources Shared Services, Avery Dennison
Alex Yeung, Director, Human Resources Shared Services, Asia Pacific, Avery Dennison gave the audience a brief overview of Avery Dennison—a global Fortune 500 company that specialises in labelling and packaging with more than 1,000 employees throughout APAC.
A workforce of that size provides plentiful data and metrics can be implemented. Yeung explained, “Metrics aim to measure HR effectiveness. Analytics aims to provide insights that will drive better talent decisions and offer better returns on investment.” It is a tool to enhance an organisation as a whole.
Yeung discussed how metrics are leveraged within Avery Dennison. “There was the case of turnover rate being noticeably high in one department, under one particular manager in general. The data highlighted this and HR had to step in to address the situation.” The data can reveal all manner of things to HR and draw attention to areas that need investigation.
Metrics enables the ability to somewhat predict outcomes in the future, however, Yeung explains, “We have to establish a baseline. Previous measures, analyses and reports should be used to create a baseline. This then becomes the foundation of predictive analysis—including predictive models, scenarios and strategic planning at large.”
To facilitate the tricky business of data analysis, Yeung provided a few tips:
- Sources of data: What system do you have and what data is it actually store? Decide what is useful and what is not
- Data dictionary: compile a complete set of HR-related data inventory with definitions and sources
- Data integrity: check that data being used for analytics is authentic, legitimate and up-to-date
- Ask questions and hypothesise: What problems do you want to solve? Are they business relevant? What possible routes can we take?
We are not trying to solve HR problems; we are trying to solve business problems.
—Alex Yeung, Director, Human Resources Shared Services, Asia Pacific, Avery Dennison
Yeung concluded, “We are not trying to solve HR problems; we are trying to solve business problems. Keep the corporate goals in mind!”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
