Using People Data to Drive Impactful Professional Development in Your Nonprofit
In nonprofits, we have limited budgets. This means we need to be able to prioritize the training and professional development opportunities to be created. How do we do this?
With people data.
But what data should we be asking for and how can we use it once we get it? That’s what we’re discussing in today’s episode of Learning for Good with data expert, Dr. Serena Huang.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
06:37 What is people data?
10:54 Collecting people data to show training impact
15:15 Using data to solve a problem or answer a question
19:47 High Potential Leadership Development Program data example
24:54 The value of using people data when creating training and leadership development solutions
27:23 Three things learning and development leaders should do with people data
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Using People Data to Drive Impactful Professional Development in Your Nonprofit
How do you know what training or professional development solution to create?
A lot of times, someone will come to us in L&D and say, “We need a training.”
But how do we know that's true?
And if it is true, how do we know where to prioritize it in the list of all of the other learning solutions that we need to create?
In nonprofits, we're often working with limited resources, limited budgets, and limited time. Even in some larger nonprofits, you may only be a team of two or three people. And in midsize nonprofits, you may only be a team of one.
We need to be able to PRIORITIZE.
We have to be able to use data as an input into our work. It's what helps us know what those real needs are and what the priorities should be. The data also helps us know what's working and what isn't. It helps us know the impact our training has.
So yes, it's an input. But it's also important to our ability to share impact, to lead, to influence, and to become that strategic partner that we want to be.
But many of us aren't sure where to start.
What data should we be asking for?
How can we use it once we get it?
How can we take the numbers on the screen and turn them into powerful stories that help us influence our colleagues and move us from order taker to strategic partner?
That’s what we explored in episode 81 with data expert, Dr. Serena Huang. In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
The Value of People Data When Creating Training and Leadership Development Solutions
Three Things Learning and Development Leaders Should Do with People Data
Dr. Serena Huang is an accomplished thought leader and professional keynote speaker with over 150 speaking engagements covering topics including people analytics, AI, Future of Work, personal branding, data, storytelling, and workplace well-being. Prior to founding Data with Serena, she led sizable analytics teams at prominent organizations including PayPal and Kraft Heinz.
1) What is People Data
So that we’re all on the same page, Serena briefly explained what people data is.
“People data, broadly speaking, is information, data, numbers, and metrics about people in the workplace. [...] It's covering from the beginning of the employee lifecycle from hiring all the way to exit when people leave.” - Dr. Serena Huang, Episode 81 Learning for Good
Serena gives some examples:
How many people are hired.
How quickly people are hired into your company.
How many people resign each year.
Promotion rates.
Serena explains that within Learning and Development, there’s lots of other data as well, from training completion to surveys.
“A lot of surveys are what I call the forgotten data in people analytics because it doesn't sit within most systems neatly.” - Dr. Serena Huang
People data can be looked at in many different ways. For example different demographics or time periods.
Serena explains that you can slice and dice your data which is important for gaining different insights and learning what different parts of your organization actually need. Some ways to slice your data are by tenure, seniority, or generation.
“A lot of times, especially in large organizations, it's hard to know what's really happening without diving in deeper. We hear now a lot on different channels that Gen Z wants different things. Well, how do you know Gen Z wants different things? They're assuming. My recommendation is always taking a look at the data within your organization to see if your Gen Z wants different things and what those things are, instead of assuming other publicly reported figures.” - Dr. Serena Huang
2) Collecting People Data to Show Training Impact
If you’ve never worked with data before, you may not even know where to find this kind of data.
Serena points to three systems that house this data:
The HR system where all the employee data is typically housed.
The applicant tracking system (ATS) where job candidates come in.
Most organizations also have a separate learning management system (LMS) that has all the training data.
“Sometimes they're connected, sometimes they're not connected. Most of the time, unfortunately, they're not as connected, cleaned, and harmonized as I would like when I see them. So that's where a lot of work goes into cleaning the data to make sure they are usable.” - Dr. Serena Huang
Don’t forget that there’s also the forgotten child of survey data.
“Whether it's part of the employee engagement survey on a regular basis or perhaps a separate survey that goes to training participants that is one-off, those often do not come back into one of the main systems unfortunately.” - Dr. Serena Huang
Serena explains the power of data comes in when you can connect across the systems. For example, when you tie something from learning and training to other outcomes in the HR system, whether it's promotions, time that the person has stayed in the company, or performance ratings. Something that is not in the L&D system essentially.
“That's easier said than done. But I've found tremendous value when I've done that to showcase the effectiveness beyond just whether or not someone was in a program or someone was happy with the program.” - Dr. Serena Huang
We want to go beyond that surface level data and really look at the impact that the training or professional development offering had on the organization.
So the two big takeaways here are:
If you're not in HR, start with HR to see what data exists and what data you can get access to, to inform learning.
Make sure as a learning team, your data is going back into the other datasets so that you can connect across those systems.
3) Utilizing People Data in Nonprofit Talent Development
Now that we’ve found this data, how do we actually use it?
Serena’s answer may sound counterintuitive, but she recommends not starting with the data.
“Where you want to start instead, is identify the problem that you want to solve. Is there a big question that you want to answer? And ask yourself this, whoever you're sharing this data with, what is keeping them up at night? And if you don't know that, maybe that's where you start.” - Dr. Serena Huang
Serena gives this example:
Say you're trying to present something to the Chief Learning Officer in your organization. They might want to know which program is effective for getting new hires up to speed.
How do you define up to speed?
Is there data that's captured somewhere that tells you how quickly someone gets up to speed?
Is it rated by the individuals themselves?
Is it rated by the manager?
Or do you have absolutely no idea how long it takes for someone to get up to speed?
“Trust me, a lot of organizations I have helped at the beginning have zero clue how long it takes, they're simply guessing.” - Dr. Serena Huang
Here’s what Serena suggests instead:
If you have a time to productivity metric somewhere in the system, you can make a simple comparison between the new hires who have gone through your particular program versus the new hires who have not gone through the program.
“We sometimes are spending most of our time and energy in designing an amazing program. And then we forget that we still have to tell our story around our program to get more budget because it's limited. [...] You need those stories on the effectiveness and impact for you to get those dollars.” - Dr. Serena Huang
These are some other metrics Serena suggests are helpful to share as L&D:
Performance ratings
Time to promotion
Percentage promoter
“Then you can compare and contrast between people who went through your program, and people who did not. You don't need a PhD to do those type of analytics. It is really starting with the right question at the beginning so that you're going down the right path.” - Dr. Serena Huang
This is very similar to how we start with a purpose or goal in Learning and Development and then we create the rest of the work around that.
4) High Potential Leadership Development Program Data Example
Serena has done some work with High Potential Leadership Development Programs. These are often the most expensive programs in an organization.
“A lot of times, what I'm seeing is that there's so much focus on designing the programs, but not as much to figure out whether or not it's effective.” - Dr. Serena Huang
In an organization Serena worked with, the budget was tight and programs were getting chopped. One question that came up was, “How do we know these programs are working?”
“To know whether or not your High Potential Programs are working, you have to first look at whether or not those leaders who go through the program actually become the leader we expect them to be.” - Dr. Serena Huang
They found a surprising result from the data - many of the program participants resigned and left for other companies pretty soon after they finished the program.
“It's going to be really hard to articulate the value and ask the Board of Directors for more money if your High Potential Program graduates end up leaving so soon.” - Dr. Serena Huang
So what caused this turnover?
They used both quantitative and qualitative data including feedback from program participants and exit interviews and this is what they found.
“A lot of people said these programs were so demanding and so time-consuming, they felt like they were taking on an additional job.” - Dr. Serena Huang
It made participants pause and realize that they might not like what they are actually doing.
It doesn't surprise me that Serena found people were leaving because they've just invested in them, they have these new skills, they probably have this new competence, and they might not have an immediate path to promotion in their current organization.
This sometimes happens. We prepare people with nowhere for them to go, and so then they start to take those skills and that competence elsewhere. So it's more of a system solution than it is an issue with a program. But to hear that they're saying it was the extra workload and then also the time to reflect and realize they didn't love what they were doing - that part to me is a little surprising
5) The Value of People Data When Creating Training and Leadership Development Solutions
“If you're in L&D, if you can articulate the value of what you're bringing to the table, that paints a great picture for you in terms of the possibility for promotions, to lead a program in the future, or really get to the C suite within L&D.” - Dr. Serena Huang
This is especially true with budgets tightening everywhere.
“Data is not just the new oil, it's better than the new oil. It's how you get those sacred dollars in this tough environment by showing that you've been able to make concrete impact.” - Dr. Serena Huang
Serena explains that because concrete impact is so difficult to measure, even just making some progress towards that will be huge.
“Focus on the impact of a particular training that you've provided by tying it to other metrics that your leaders will care about. Whether it's retention, promotion, time to productivity, and perhaps even revenue generation. [...] If you're able to prove that, that's the Holy Grail.” - Dr. Serena Huang
We all want to show our value.
We all want to be that strategic partner.
We want to be proactive in what we're creating, what gets created, and how it gets prioritized.
We can only do that if we've been able to show our value. So I think that's a great reason to use data.
6) Three Things Learning and Development Leaders Should Do with People Data
I’m assuming that everyone reading right now is excited and ready to use data, but if you aren't sure where to start, Serena shared with us the first three things you can do to get you started.
1. If you have a people analytics organization of some sort within your company, make friends with them. That's a group of individuals who can potentially support you and guide you along the way if you're just getting started.
2. Serena has three LinkedIn Learning courses on people analytics. She recommends checking out The Data Science of Using People Analytics. She talks a lot about how to quickly get insights from surveys that you use.
3. Serena's last piece of advice is to stay curious.
“I think curiosity is like one of my secret superpowers that allowed me to pivot successfully at different points of my career. And I continue to stay curious because I know, I don't know everything, but I'm curious to learn more.” - Dr. Serena Huang
If you want to learn more about data, check out some of my other episodes:
Episode 59: How to Measure the Impact of Your Training and Development
Episode 72: How Learning and Development Can Use Data to Create a Greater Impact in Training
To hear the full conversation I had with Dr. Serena Huang on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 81.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
