HUMAN RESOURCES ANALYTICS

In this introductory session, you’ll meet your instructor and peers, explore how the course is structured, and understand the assignments and final project. We’ll also break the ice and start building the collaborative learning environment that will carry you through the next six weeks.

• Meet your peers and instructor
• Course structure 
• Assignments and final project overview
• Icebreaker discussion: Who’s in the room?

Learn how analytics fits into the broader business strategy and why it has become essential to decision-making. We’ll explore how HR analytics acts as both an enabler and evaluator of organisational initiatives, backed by real-world case studies.

• Role of analytics in business strategy
• Analytics as an enabler and evaluator 
• Case studies: HR analytics supporting organisational goals
• Workshop: Discuss challenges and opportunities in small groups

Discover the economic importance of HR analytics and how to use metrics to solve organisational problems. You’ll learn which HR measures have the biggest impact on business performance and practise aligning them with strategy.

• HR analytics as a business enabler
• Economic importance of HR analytics 
• Solving organisational problems with HR metrics
• Key HR measures that impact performance

Assignment #1: Imagine launching your own company. Identify five essential questions or data points your HR analytics team should track.

Explore the systems that generate HR data, why provenance matters, and how HR connects with other functions to form a complete business picture. A case study will illustrate how one organisation transformed raw HR data into actionable insights.

• HR systems and their data pipelines
• Why data provenance matters
• Cross-functional analytics
• Case study: How DP World transformed HR data into actionable insights with Power BI

Good analytics depends on trustworthy data. This session covers the essentials of preparing, cleaning, and validating data, alongside frameworks for governance, compliance, and ethics. We’ll also look at the real costs of poor data practices.

• Data preparation essentials
• Governance frameworks and policies
• Security, compliance, & ethics
• Impact of poor data quality
• People, systems, & culture
• Case studies: Lessons learned from flawed data

Assignment #2: Review a messy dataset and propose your own governance strategy.

Not every audience needs the same data. In this session, you’ll learn how to anticipate requirements, adapt metrics, and present data to stakeholders in ways that resonate. A guest speaker will share real-world insights.

• Presenting data to different audiences
• Anticipating stakeholder requirements
• Tailoring metrics to stakeholder priorities
• Workshop: Anticipate the requirements and create a dashboard concept for a CEO persona

Assignment #3: Design a 6-8 metric dashboard for a stakeholder persona, with justification.

This session digs into reliability, variation, and statistical pitfalls in people analytics. You’ll learn to handle outliers, validate distributions, and ensure that the data you present truly supports decision-making.

• Case Study: People Analytics demystified 
• Reliability, variation, & statistical pitfalls
• Handling outliers & understanding distribution
• Understanding stakeholder decision-making

Great analytics is not just about data, it’s about storytelling. You’ll learn how to frame insights for different audiences, create persuasive narratives, and anticipate the impact your story will have.

• Turning numbers into compelling stories
• Storytelling techniques
• Tailoring messages to diverse audiences
• Framing insights for executives vs. managers
• Workshop: Create and present one clear action headline with a justification tailored to your stakeholder persona.

Self-service analytics promises speed, but also introduces risks. We’ll examine curated vs automated workflows, and how to balance automation with curation to create scalable, sustainable reporting solutions.

• Discussion: Reflections on storytelling from Session 7
• Automation vs curation: finding the right balance
• Examples: Curated vs. automated workflows
• Self-service dashboards: Benefits & risks 
• Building scalable, sustainable reporting solutions

This practical session gives you the chance to build dashboards using Excel or Power BI, working with real HR datasets to explore how different tools can shape insights.

• Working with Excel or Power BI
• Building dashboards from HR data
• Exploring Microsoft HR data samples

Learn how to move from cluttered charts to clarity. We’ll cover best practices in HR dashboard design and discuss how AI is shaping, but not replacing, human interpretation in analytics.

• Charts, graphs,& dashboards
• HR dashboard design: Best practices
• Demo: From clutter to clarity in dashboards
• Discussion: AI in HR Analytics

Assignment #4: Critique real dashboard examples — suggest improvements and defend your reasoning. Write a short “business case” for why HR analytics needs human storytellers in the age of AI.

Select a business scenario, define the problem, and plan an HR dashboard tailored to its context. You’ll identify key stakeholders and explore how to demonstrate ROI and commercial value.

• Selecting a target business
• Defining the problem clearly 
• Identifying stakeholders
• Discussion: Using AI as support, and humans for context and judgement

Dive deeper into the data process, using AI tools to generate datasets and frameworks that move smoothly from concept to build.

• Using ChatGPT/CoPilot for datasets
• Stakeholder analysis & metric selection
• Frameworks for moving from concept to build

See examples of effective dashboards, explore how to align metrics, visuals, and narrative, and practise refining your own solution in breakout groups with peer feedback.

• Case examples: Strong dashboards
• Connecting course ‘threads’
• Workshop: Peer review and feedback on dashboards/storyboards

Assignment #5 (optional): Prepare an elevator pitch of your project for a non-technical audience. Gather feedback, reflect on it, and use it to refine your final product.

This is your opportunity to showcase your work, share insights with your peers, and receive feedback to take forward into your career.

• Project presentations 
• Peer and instructor feedback
• Discussion: Key takeaways and lessons learned

We’ll wrap up with a look back at your learning journey, practical career advice for advancing in HR analytics, and a final open Q&A.

• Course reflections
• Career tips
• Final Q&A with the instructor