Don't Make this Mistake - Tesla Saves Their Piggy Bank

[00:00:00] I'm Felicia Shakiba and this is CPO PLAYBOOK, where we solve a business challenge in every episode. Today, we're diving into the critical role of people analytics with Bryce Hoover, who served as the former head of people analytics at Tesla.

[00:00:20] Without people analytics, steering and organization is like flying blind. Lacking the crucial insights needed to support informed decisions that drive success and sustainability. Today, we'll discuss common challenges across people analytics. How people analytics leaders can position their team to maximize their impact

[00:00:41] and how they can enable leaders to leverage data to enhance decision making. How did you first get into people analytics? Well, I originally got hired to do something completely different actually.

[00:00:56] But by the time I joined the company, they got hired me, wasn't it like I would have to do with the company. But this was right around 2017 when the model 3 was just being introduced and vehicle logistics needed analytics to measure and manage the rapidly scaling vehicle delivery operations.

[00:01:12] So I was a lot of deal with that team and have been leading analytics functions ever since. And have rotated through many different departments in the company from vehicle delivery, vehicle service, finance and then HR. Leading these analytics functions can be quite challenging.

[00:01:32] Seemingly every business problem could benefit from data and analysis. What's your perspective on how a people analytics team should identify the scope of work to prioritize? That's a great question. This is the perennial problem that centralizing analytics teams often face.

[00:01:50] There are endless problems and priorities that need the attention of analysts with dozens of stakeholders asking for their time. So it can be really difficult to understand where you fit as a team and what's expected of you and whether or not you're even being successful.

[00:02:05] So to make a real difference analytics teams need clarity on their purpose and they need enough runway to do deep work that produces step change improvements in an organization. Adlock shallow, urgent, unfocused work is definitely necessary at times but we'll definitely not need to last it in fact.

[00:02:24] And if this is the notice operandi of the team will definitely lead everyone. The stakeholders and analysts frustrated. So one is no one is satisfied with the experience. This is a lot of the org structure is really crucial to get right.

[00:02:40] And I want to highlight the great worth of the team at insights to do to have done it to emphasize the importance of the org structure in their research.

[00:02:48] So people analytics capability cannot be buried somewhere in the HR award or they'll just be out touch and behind the curve on rapidly evolving priorities.

[00:02:58] They'll be on the periphery rather than in the center of the action and also the team cannot sit at an independent entity equally at the disposal of multiple departments throughout the company which requires the analytics leader to be the arbitrator of two gets teams of touching.

[00:03:13] So it would really be impactful the people in the analytics function needs to report directly to the HR leader with the analytics leader acting essentially as a chief of staff for the HR leader when it comes to data.

[00:03:25] So in this operating model the objective is first and foremost to do everything possible to ensure that the HR leader is successful in their objectives.

[00:03:35] Now someone might object and say but wait aren't we here to make the company broadly successful and don't we care about doing what's best for the business as a whole.

[00:03:43] Yes, of course we do but that's too broad to be a useful guide post day to day making the company successful can mean more than making the HR leaders successful certainly but it definitely doesn't mean anything less than that.

[00:03:54] So we first need to ensure that the HR's internal affairs are in order before trying to help other teams.

[00:04:00] So if the HR function is not well equipped with robust analytical solutions access to data and reliably able to generate insights on its own questions that needs to be the teams primary focus.

[00:04:13] And I guarantee you if this is not yet in place your HR leader is going to feel very uneasy they will want to know that their team has strong commands over the data.

[00:04:22] And has the capability to access report, analyze and deliver results that make the HR team successful operationally and ultra polished on a port network reporting.

[00:04:32] So this is really the first step in your math was hierarchy stabilized access to the data you need work with the HR leader to set up baseline reporting and operating tools and build your underlying data model that enable you to be nimble with add lock requests and deep dive analysis within HR this is your beach at once you're firmly planted here you'll be able to expand.

[00:04:51] Your circle of concern but the process won't change you're not going to go rogue that's all going to be driven by the analytic flea maintaining a strong relationship with the HR leader and aligning all its most important together and maintaining a high degree of focus.

[00:05:08] In an aligned direction focus equals impact and maintaining the ally with the HR leader is what enables you to stay focused and not delete your effort.

[00:05:17] Brace you said so many things that I wish came out of my own mouth because all of their things are so critical and important and.

[00:05:27] And I want to just really help our listeners understand what does it mean to make the HR unit successful before moving our words to the business. What does that mean to you at Tesla?

[00:05:41] Sure, making the HR leader successful starts with a strong relationship with that HR leader and understanding their needs. So I can't say exactly what it means for everyone but to start in that direction strong connection with the HR leader and the analytics leader.

[00:06:00] That's where you start and then you understand their problems and priorities what's keeping them up at night. Where are they trying to take the business? Where are they trying to take the internal or the HR function?

[00:06:10] Understand their intent and then harness the technical resources on the team to maximize. But isn't this facing value of the data assets that you control that's high level. And do you see any pushback or angst from the business when you're so focused internally on the HR team?

[00:06:32] Sometimes that doesn't always translate to other business units as valuable. That's a great question. Often the priorities of your HR leader are going to be aligned with broader business objectives, but you want to be driven towards those objectives by the HR leader.

[00:06:51] So that you are being pulled into it through that leader rather than feeling like your team is being stretched by this leader and that leader and this leader and that leader. That's the solution of focus that is going to enable effect your team's ability to deliver impact.

[00:07:08] Especially if you're a lean team, if you're a team of four animals, six analysts, you need to be realistic about what sort of impacts you can have and where you can have it at the timeline of that impact.

[00:07:19] So trying to deliver impact everywhere all at once is not of its strategy. Establishing a beach head that you can grow and expand out of is much more realistic, especially when you're in for a starting out. You might have a young developing team.

[00:07:33] So creating success somewhere is extremely important. And that's somewhere since you'll keep allowing the living team starting with your HR lead making them successful.

[00:07:43] And then working on that platform will enable you to start working with your HR lead to see what other leaders in the business can benefit most from our efforts.

[00:07:55] And so really leaning on your HR leader to help other business units understand the scope of work that you're doing and how that relates to them.

[00:08:03] Leaning on your leadership is basically what you're saying totally well and to be clear you will be engaging with leaders throughout the business even as your maintain in the priorities of your HR leader focusing on your HR leaders priorities does not mean you won't interface with other leaders in the business.

[00:08:21] If you're creating a head count report at the enterprise level, you can be sure that every leader in the company is vested in that report. I don't understand the definitions or in a limited sentence to that reporting to is getting it.

[00:08:35] And where the accountability lies for those numbers. So you're going to be interfacing and solving addressing concerns and problems with other leaders along the way to create alignment for these solutions that you're delivering on behalf of your HR leaders.

[00:08:50] Because those solutions aren't going to be at the enterprise level and they're going to be likely executive facing because that's the upper and upper reporting that your HR leaders responsible for.

[00:09:00] So yes, to your point you absolutely be interfacing and engaging those leaders but you will be doing it in a way that is focused on the priorities of your HR lead.

[00:09:13] And when building the foundations for people analytics reporting and tools what are the challenges that leaders should expect to face and what are your thoughts on how to overcome them.

[00:09:27] Well great question, I mean just like we were talking about related to definitions it's really important to align on definitions at the outset with your HR leader. That might sound intuitive but it's shouting how misalignment on definitions can create problems.

[00:09:43] I would rather if they are clearly expressed in articulated and agreed on right at the outset.

[00:09:48] So felt head count is defined for example, much huge downstream effects for how leaders in the company are held accountable for growth or career priorities and attrition or how you calculate attrition rates of what time period.

[00:09:59] And then you head count it points to you so determine the average head count for the period what segment of the head count population counts towards the decision.

[00:10:06] You know these are all extremely important to flesh out the HR leader needs to be engaged at that level of detail to understand and agree before any reporting is distributed and all those definitions need to be clearly documented. So those old leaders can follow along with the math.

[00:10:22] Otherwise you're going to get bombarded with questions or leaders just want to trust the reports because they can't back into the numbers so they don't understand the definitions. So that needs to be front and center at the outset, especially any enterprise level reporting.

[00:10:35] And then the other thing you really need to pay attention to is trending data. So one of the easiest ways to lose trust in your data, especially if the executive level is to show trending data where the numbers you're reporting on shift retroactive.

[00:10:48] So data for the prior week in this week's report doesn't match data in the last week's report that sort of scenario.

[00:10:54] So taking the time to understand all the operational nuances that can lead to retroactive changes we've ever weak can be really tedious but it's time well it's really important to understand and account for that in your logic.

[00:11:06] So historical data remains unchanged along similar on where I have leaders change throughout the organization.

[00:11:12] And the change continues to continue to head count and the triton trends through leadership changes can also be very tedious who is getting cruise high panels getting redistributed to who and where and at what time.

[00:11:24] That logic will continue to build up over time and can be complex to maintain. So you need really good documentation in your code.

[00:11:32] And someone on your team with a historical organizational knowledge to explain the reasons for how head count was allocated where historically as you're looking at long-term trends. Another point would be creating foundational tables so many companies have employed change detail tables.

[00:11:49] Only create a new employee record whenever there's a change to the employee's details like job change or location change or employment status. So if this is all you have then trending reporting aggregated by employee attributes will be really tough, if not impossible.

[00:12:05] What you need is a daily employee snapshot period you just need a record of every employee every day and don't look at the data engineers talking about it because it's computationally expensive.

[00:12:15] Putting in the effort to establish this table as well as other tables like standardized as date tables for example easily tagged date like starb is more than the week beginning to quarter.

[00:12:24] Setting up your data model is what will significantly simplify reporting and make it easy to maintain continuity across the team.

[00:12:31] So take time to the outset to think through what sort of data model will make your life easier and enable standardization across the team and then finally write access.

[00:12:40] So this is probably the most pivotal thing to get right. So if you're an analytics leader at a company and you don't have a database environment where you have right access, you need to make that your number one priority.

[00:12:52] You don't want to be in a position where you have to rely on data engineers to implement your business logic in their data mark or keep queries offline or embedded in top lower books.

[00:13:00] Having right access to your own database environment will give you the ability to fully own all business logic store procedures, views and tables use RHR reporting.

[00:13:09] You're obviously going to clear guidelines from managing sensitive data but that extra effort is well worth it to ensure you can drive a control to evolution of your data assets. I love the point about right access that's minor thing to think about but so important.

[00:13:27] Yes. Right and so I want to zoom out and get to the real tough stuff, which is how do you recommend analytics leaders partner with different parts of the business to integrate people data and really gain by and.

[00:13:46] That's a great question. So I would say if you're just starting out for the first six to 12 months just say razor focused on two things build your underlying data model which is discussing. That will enable you to deliver business facing results quickly and accurately.

[00:13:59] And then build all the reporting the HR leader team needs to report up and this work will never go away, but once it reaches cruising altitude you'll notice the conversation with your HR leader will begin the shift.

[00:14:10] There are in search of the question what's keeping you up at night will change from questions live how can we desk communicate.

[00:14:16] Head count is a voluminous organization. It'll change from that to higher level questions like how can we ensure that this company's the mission will work to the best.

[00:14:26] So you'll notice a shift from very targeted questions to like higher level enterprise impacting questions and that will shift as you and your leader feel confident that you have failed the foundations under the utility answer these questions.

[00:14:41] So let's use your field in these sorts of questions. The stakeholders we need to engage will expand dramatically you'll need to accurately wield a problem array of data points.

[00:14:52] The first take over groups to engage with functional leads so who leads your training department who leads benefits who leads leads to them who leads HR claims you're going to find a functional leads.

[00:15:02] And you need to expand your understanding of these functional domains and create full light with these leaders on how to measure their work that's up one.

[00:15:12] Then step two is to consolidate and organize and synthesize the data from these functions in a way that can tell a holistic story.

[00:15:20] So once you've done this, then you're ready for step three which is to get the data into the hands of your business leaders and demonstrate the power of that data for decision making in the day that they business to improve employee experience.

[00:15:35] So step one is to get alignment with the HR leaders and how is it that they would measure their work. The second is to consolidate and organize and then the third is getting data into the hands of the business leaders to help make better decisions.

[00:15:56] Exactly and not just getting the data but doing the work of front to show how the data can be used to make the decisions. These solutions don't have to be perfect, but they should demonstrate to those leaders what is in the realm of possibility.

[00:16:15] And then they become felt part of how to iterate on that. Absolutely and I'm sure that iterated process is forever thing. Exactly, yes.

[00:16:23] That's the first step to get your front at them with something that's meaningful and that you put thought into that is synthesizing the results of this data and makes decision making all of the data that you're providing intuitive.

[00:16:37] At least from your perspective and then that's when you're ready to start the conversation with the leaders to really who ended in to exactly what they want. And what they see whether starting from a provided they're going to be great thought parties on how to direct it.

[00:16:51] How do you think about managing the employee experience with all of this data and knowledge and partnering. Great question, I'm a firm believer that great people want to become telled by a mission that's worthy of their time energy and emotional investment.

[00:17:10] They do not want to be caught, but they also don't want to be constrained by obstacles that are not in parents to the mission of trying to achieve. So delivering on your company's mission is going to be hard.

[00:17:23] And that's what we're all here wrong employed because we're tackling hard problems that have been addressed yet. There are worthy of us addressing. But that's a hardship that talented and motivated people are inspired by.

[00:17:35] So what they do find acceptable and rightfully so are constraints that get in the way of this mission that are not inherent to the mission.

[00:17:43] And these are all the constraints that arise from just people organizing themselves and working together in the functions that arise from inefficiencies in your structure or cultural dynamics.

[00:17:54] So you want to surface these issues so that your teams can maximize the energy that they dedicate to the mission and are not slurred down with a friction that related to the core innovation or operational solutions that will deliver all that mission. That's just very high level.

[00:18:09] So let's double click into that. How do you think about getting the right data in front of the right people? This is a tough one, especially in HR because you're dealing with such sensitive data you have to ensure that the right people are seeing the right data.

[00:18:23] And only the right data and not extra data. So especially when we're reporting outside of HR, this is a hot top level concern. Scaling access to business leaders actually shouldn't be too difficult because the or hierarchy is an attributes of each employee.

[00:18:40] So as long as you bring in data to the reporting layer at the record level before you aggregate it, you should be able to permission control the data within the reporting layer itself. But scaling access to sensitive data internally,

[00:18:56] to HR stakeholders ironically can actually be much more difficult because HRPs have their own structure and each HRP is responsible for supporting multiple leaders. And their responsibilities often overlap with HRP to lead a coverage.

[00:19:10] So if that happens as a challenge and this relationship is really documented anywhere for various companies, much less in a format that can be ingested and used to control permissions.

[00:19:20] So how do you get sensitive data, these be permission control into the hands of your most influential HR partners who can actually drive the color, who could actually drive the conversation with the business leaders if they have access to the data? So how do you give them access?

[00:19:36] The quick answer is to hard code, but it's not scalable and hard to maintain. You'll just be able to manage access to your top level HRP leads. So you'll give HRP lead for all engineering access to the engineering org,

[00:19:51] but you probably won't be able to manage that for all their direct reports. So the lead HRP will have access, but probably won't be able to scale it down anymore than that in the container. What you really want to do, actually get that hard-coded solution in place,

[00:20:04] but then what you really want to do is digitize the relationship between HRPs and leaders. So there needs to be a mapping maintained in your HR workforce system defining each employees HRP, not just some or level share point, but each person's HRP.

[00:20:20] And every employee record needs to have the core responsibility of HRP. What this is established and you've got that data flowing into your database, you can use the combination of the HRP employee mapping and the org structure to ensure that the HRPs

[00:20:36] can see the data for leaders, but they support and all the people below them in the employee org structure. So that's the general roadmap. So the data is specific for each client group. Yes, and this has not only will this help you on the data side,

[00:20:53] but it will force the HR function to get much more organized around who supports what. And to see that mapped out clearly will probably help them as an HRP unit's wrong or efficiently. So then how did you work with leaders to understand and apply people analytics and sites?

[00:21:13] Fostering it, they are in culture with HRs really important. So back to our point about getting data into the hands of those HRPs, that's essential because the analytics leader can't maintain a relationship with each department has to enterprise level organization.

[00:21:30] So your HRPs are essential partners because they need to be able to translate this data. They need to internalize it, they need to understand it and then they need to be your partners in managing that.

[00:21:42] The insights and the data that's generated, they need to be able to use that to drive penetration of that data into the business so that the business is aware of the resources. But they know how they use them and it becomes part of the decision making cycle.

[00:22:01] And the HRPs are excellent at that because they understand their business units so well. And if you come alongside them as a leader to help them internalize the data and the tools and the capability of the tools,

[00:22:16] then they're the ones that are going to be best positions to find the most useful application of those tools in the words that they support.

[00:22:24] So you'll find that your HRP partners are going to lean into this change big time because it's going to give them a competitive advantage on being more useful to the leaders that they support.

[00:22:36] So really lean into those relationships with the HRP partners and make sure they know how to be successful with the tools so that they can elevate their contribution with the business units they support. That's a win for everybody.

[00:22:50] And I think that having that relationship with HRP partners are really important and helping them collect the data and make sense of all the qualitative data that they collect throughout here is very powerful.

[00:23:04] They're going to be able to make connections that nobody else can make because they will see the data points and they'll be able to connect those to the quality of conversations they've had over the past month.

[00:23:18] And they'll be able to help the leader piece together much more richer picture. What's going on? Absolutely. So, Bryce, what advice do you have for other companies looking to solve business problems through people analytics?

[00:23:34] First thing you think need to think about is leadership that you need. If you're a startup pre-series see you probably just need a bit analyst. If you are past your ECT through enterprise, you need a data leader to partner with the HR lead. This person is with key.

[00:23:50] You're looking for a hybrid leader who sits at the intersection of business and technology leadership. They need to be trusted, thought partner, engaged, and contributing to the strategic direction to address problems and priorities.

[00:24:05] But they also need to be effective at solving complex data engineering problems, upstream product design, leading and coaching analysts in effective data modeling and business logic and ensuring the quality and affected delivery of those findings. So the person you're looking for is an end to end data leader.

[00:24:22] Now the HR lead can trust to ensure that the data is hardest for maximum business value. And the second thing I really think about is operating independence. You need to be able to deliver results at the speed of relevance.

[00:24:36] The people analytics team needs to have full control and delivery of the HR analytics capability. So what does that mean? It means that once the raw data from applications has been made available in whatever reporting environment your company uses the people analytics team.

[00:24:50] And these are a full control over the development and subsequent tables, views, circuit seizures, business logic, automation processes all of it. So if the analytics team owns the business logic, but doesn't have rewrite access to its own database, you're going to have a hard time being successful.

[00:25:06] There will be two which friction in the process working with adjacent engineering teams to make that happen. Again, a good leader is essential here because they'll ensure that higher the right analysts who are nimble database management data engineering and automation

[00:25:18] addition to the basic analytics skills set, so that the team has the skills that they need in the fields to manage this broader scope that enables them to have the little lot more freedom independence that you need. Bryce, thanks so much for being here. My pleasure.

[00:25:39] That's Bryce Hoover, former head of people analytics at Tesla. If today's episode captures your interest, please consider sharing it with a friend or visit cpoplaybook.com to read the episode or learn more about leadership and talent management. We greatly appreciate your rating, review and support as a subscriber.

[00:26:02] I'm Felicia Shakiba. See you next Wednesday and thanks for listening.