Everything will become analytical and we have to make sure that all analytics are technology enabled. I see the adoption of analytics multiplying ten-fold in the next five years. We can apply the concept of people analytics in our everyday life
A Human Resource (HR) business partner for 15 years and a strong advocate of HR Analytics, Mr Sukumaran Mariappan, Director-HR Analytics and Reporting, Trimble Inc., USA, unfolds the nuances of analytics in the HR domain. Besides trends in data crunching within corporate houses, he also believes in keeping intuition alive based on meaningful insight for measuring people and performances in today’s tech-driven Human Resource Management (HRM)
His life unfolds his strides emerging as a young lad from Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, starting his career in Coimbatore, traversing many a milestone in Chennai to reach qualifying heights in Colorado, USA.
Starting out with Lucid Technologies & Solutions as Business Unit HR Executive (Coimbatore), he moved as founder member and HR Manager with Virtusa (Chennai), followed by his role with Amazon.com as HR Business Partner and Talent Sourcing/RPO Program Manager. He joined Trimble Inc, USA, eight-years-back at Chennai, relocated to its US base at Colorado, and is now Director, HR Analytics & Reporting. Sukumaran Mariappan or ‘Suku’ as he is fondly known, has worked across diverse cultures including the Middle East and Thailand. His career is interspersed with experiences of acquisitions and transitions that helped integrate personnel and processes within merged entities.
“To be successful in any global company, we need to leverage the 3Cs−Connection, Credibility (who you are, what you can deliver) and Contribution (adding value)−in that order. If you contribute before you build your connection and credibility, the outcome of recognition or contribution will be limited. Once you have built your relationships and your credibility, that is when you should contribute−then even small contributions will beget higher recognition and value,” says he.
Sukumar acknowledges his rise in life owes to all who enabled his entire journey. “I learnt that building credible professional relationships without any expectations helps in professional development. You never know who can make a positive difference in your life.”
Sukumar’s thirst for excellence came from his father, Mariappan Subramanian, who journeyed from being an oil shop vendor’s assistant to a small business merchant in Cuddalore. Hailing from a small village, 70 kms from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, his father, despite being a 5th grade dropout, worked in ‘ rice mandis ’ before moving to Cuddalore. He then began manufacturing face powder for rural people. Despite tough competition from big brands, he would convince wholesalers and bangle shopkeepers to stock his product. “Probably a lot of my attributes come from my father because he used to talk about those difficult days of his life,” reminisces Sukumar.
Cuddalore was a small town, but that helped me to rely more on my social skills. I was a very active member of Leo Club-junior wing of the Lions Club. I bagged the ‘Outstanding Secretary for the District’, and my association with Leo gave me a lot of opportunities to connect. During 1994-98, I managed to connect with several industry folks. Thankfully, it was also a boom period as a lot of companies had set up their factories in SIPCOT Industrial Complex, Cuddalore. Therefore, I could, connect with many executives, directors and HR managers, through the Lions Club. I understood the true meaning of networking at that time. I got first-hand knowledge about their jobs, their training and skill sets.
I started training others as I finished school in 1995. Around that time, my father lost his business and despite securing admission to an engineering course, I had to settle for a B Com degree. I did not want to be a burden on my father by joining an engineering course. Ours being in a small town, my father’s tough financial situation became known to a few. Thanks to the network that I had built up with Leo Club, Lions Club members Sekaran and Premala -tha Sekaran approached my parents about my future. They came home one day when I was about to finish college (1997-1998) and over dinner told me that they were keen that I pursue higher education despite my father’s financial situation and offered to sponsor my Master’s degree and all educational expenses. My father and I were initially surprised. However, my father was very open-minded and said, “Why Not”! Their timely help and the money they spent made a big difference to me.
I was aware of appraisal systems even during my under-graduate days and I owe it to N S Iyer, (Retd.), who was GM-HR with Asian Paints, Cuddalore. He introduced me to HR terminology. Thiagarajan Mahalingam−an IIT B Tech and M Tech (Chennai) alumni and co-founder- MD of Omnicast Precision Pvt−became my mentor. I look up to him as a professional role model and a father figure. We too got connected via Lions Club. I used to bother him a lot during my undergraduate days. I wanted to listen to him; I didn’t even write good English those days. He made me read and write form the Thirukkural or the Kural−a collection of 1,330 Tamil couplets. Several HR leaders and business leaders like Srinath Jagannathan, T N Hari and Bryn Fosburgh, whom I worked with, enticed me into the world of strategic HR. I invested a lot of time and money to listen to leaders and I grew in my career faster by learning from them.
I was neither aware nor prepared for MBA or competitive exams like CAT needed for Tier 1 institutes. Then I came across this industry institute collaboration course. It had the entire syllabus mapped to what was then the latest in a general management course. But the problem was, there was no specialisation in that course. It linked Information Technology with general management. The idea was to train managers with IT skills and IT people with managerial skills. There were seniors who excelled in software development. But, I opted for HR. I also desired to join an MBA and do an HR course because, then my only understanding of HR was that I was ‘very good with people’ and ‘had done a lot of teaching and training’. While pursuing my graduation, I used to teach in schools.
My first job was with Lucid Technologies & Solutions in Coimbatore in 2000. It was a small company those days. While they wanted me on board, I had offers from seasoned companies like Polaris and KGISL also. Polaris could have been the predictable choice as Lucid was a startup then. I evaluated as to which one would be good for me in the long run though I told Srinath Jagannathan, the MD of Lucid Technologies that “I will be leaving the decision to my mentor”, and if it was “okay if my mentor will call and talk to you”. Such a thing is impossible today. Thiagarajan spoke to Jagannathan for 45 minutes and he then advised me to join Lucid saying I would learn everything needed in HR there.
The interesting aspect of analytics, data and insight is that you have some algebraic modelling and say this is how the future is going to be and that is definitely a good-bad effect. If we fine tune that data model, then our prediction can be different
I left Lucid to join Virtusa in Chennai in 2004 and was one of its founding members for global business and IT consulting. I was with them for four years . Then I left to join Amazon as an HR business partner. I eventually became an HR program manager there, holding responsible for the RPO engine. I left them within one and a half years, looking for a more challenging and dynamic environment. Then I got the opportunity with Trimble in India. I started with Trimble as Head of HR in Chennai, then moved up as head of HR (all India) then Head HR (SAARC), Dubai and Thailand. I moved to Colorado four years back as Director of HR−a business partnering role. In the last one year, I have moved on to manage data and insights and HR Analytics with Trimble. My passion is to transform−look at the mission that I am working on and to transform the way HR provides strategic support.
The talent war is everywhere. The problem is the same, irrespective of the size of the company. While companies are seeking good people, employees look for very clear value propositions from HR on what the company will offer as ‘value’ for hiring them. It is important for companies to apply their logic and offer a clear value proposition. In Lucid Technologies & Solutions, we had difficulty hiring seasoned senior people because it was a small company and in those days (1999-2000), the ‘Infosys’ and ‘Cognizants’ of the world were hiring in big numbers. Nobody was willing to join a small company. So, we created a model to hire the best college students, get them trained on things that their peers would be equipped to do five years hence. We got them ahead of the learning curve and gave them the opportunity to do things in a manner that they could position themselves as doing superior work compared to their peers in large companies. We appraised them every quarter. As a cohesive small team, we focussed on the mission. We could not increase salaries like other corporate units. Therefore, we handpicked an elite group of people based on their performance and this elite group changed every year. We rewarded this group with two additional components, besides their pay packs by introducing performance incentives (goal driven) and employment incentives, (duration of stay in the company from day 0). Net, the total package was equivalent to what large companies could offer. Thus, we could retain top talent in the small company in a very systematic way.
Hire the best people, train them a lot, and have them do more than what they can do to deliver outstanding results. In my experience with Lucid, we observed that we were able to get a lot from employees even if they stayed for under three years. They were willing to do multiple things from day one. We had a dynamic team. Whether that model will work now, I have my own doubts, because expectations and work ethics of people from a small company are different now. I am talking of 16 -17 years back when we had this as the success model.
Virtusa was a growing MNC and we had to hire the best brains in Chennai−top-notch people from large companies and get them to influence and bring in other people. We built a strong founding team. In a small company, you have to go hands on and think out-of-the-box to retain and hire people whereas for larger entities, the brand and the value proposition is prime. The brand can make it easy, but you need to offer a different employer value proposition. In a midsize company, it is very different. But everywhere the talent war exists and we have to focus on what we can do to have happy employees.
There are lots of perceptions and opinions in large companies and how do we clear all this air? It can be done only via some credible data and insights. Sometimes, decision leaders will question the solution given and seek supporting information or evidence that will influence their decision based on our HR or data inputs. Also, the solution given should not be blindly followed because the HR said so. Business partnering can be done in an authentic way only with data insights. HR business partner should be analytical, and have data and insights to interpret the data and present it in a form that business leaders will understand quickly to arrive at meaningful decisions. The idea is to use data and insights as a base for people-led decision and drive a data driven culture. Anybody can give an opinion, but if it is not supported by data and insights, it is a mere opinion.
There is lot of data available outside and within any company. The biggest challenge is that analytics, as a whole, has been evolving a lot in the last few years. In the US too, it is picking up only now. However, the maturity level of HR analytics even amongst US companies is low. In India, we have been talking about it for some time now, but very few companies have actually matured their HR analytics to the next level.
Here, I am not talking about descriptive analysis, or HR metrics or balance score card. The idea of measuring people-activities and its impact started in the late 1970s. From the 1970s, people said we can measure people-behaviour and that assessment is important in the future too. From there, we have now moved on to HR metrics and about metrics for people-function as key performance areas. Thereon, people started connecting it to business and tabbed it as the ‘balance score card’. Those have existed for several years now but pure analytics is still maturing. Organisations have done a lot of interesting analytics, but the adoption of analytics in truly gaining business value is still to mature. Building HR capabilities to do credible analytics that makes absolute business sense and create higher business value is the biggest challenge now.
Both business leaders and HR leaders have their intuitions. As a person with 16 years of HR experience, I have a strong opinion or feeling about something, which may not be driven by data or insights. But I, or any business leader who has managed business for several years has his or her own intuition on what is going on and what is going to happen.
The interesting aspect of analytics, data and insight is that you have some algebraic modelling and say this is how the future is going to be and that is definitely a good-bad effect. If we fine tune that data model, then our prediction can be different. The fight between intuition and insights will have to evolve over a period of time. We can then see if intuition is right or the insights. Therefore, the quality of data is what needs focus. When we are doing an analysis, the credibility of data maintained should convince the business leader or HR to forgo intuition and look at the insights. But, don’t try to fight your intuitions too much, but mature your insights with opinions. Don’t let bias be a part of your insight. It is always good to calibrate thoughts and mature your data modelling to a really predictive one.
We never read the list of ingredients on the packed foods we ate ten years back in India, but we do it today. We are well educated and know what is good for us. So, people want to make informed decisions after carefully analysing all the facts. This trend will only grow. Hence the need for collecting information, and analysis of such information.
Everything will become analytical and we have to make sure that all analytics are technology enabled. I see the adoption of analytics multiplying ten-fold in the next five years. We can apply the concept of people analytics in our everyday life. With the technology sophistication that we have today, we are and we will be collecting more and more data about what we do and what happens in our life, which forms a new thinking around how people make informed decisions in their life. Parents will want to adopt personality assessment tools when their kids are in elementary school and monitor their child’s overall development. Data pertaining to our habits, health/medical, education, social media engagement and personality assessment, etc., are going to get correlated and analysed in this process. You might come across analytic software tools to build a holistic lifestyle and development.
It is all about ‘people’ metrics. I define people analytics as the art and science of combining people data, business data, information technology (IT) and analytics expertise together to make effective and efficient decision about people. I foresee a world where we collect a number of data points from the time we are born, to all phases of life, and make informed decisions in our life. Who knows, the ‘horoscope matches’ may get replaced with ‘assessment tool matches’ in the future?
I learn quite a lot by reading thought leadership insights from leaders like David Green, Global Director, People Analytics Solutions, IBM Kenexa Smarter Workforce, Laszlo Bock, Advisor and Author of "Work Rules!", former SVP of People Operations at Google, Tracey Smith, leading business and analytics expert, President, Numerical Insights LLC, Ross Sparkman, MSc, MBA, MHR, Head of Strategic Workforce Planning at Facebook and Dawn Klinghoffer, General Manager, HR Business Insights at Microsoft. I am currently reading, “Mindset–The new psychology of success” by Carol S Dweck, Ph D and “My Unskooled year” by Sagarikka, a 16-year-old from Trichy.
Make every day of your life happier, meaningful and memorable. Every single day, pray and thank God, learn something new and bring a smile on someone’s face. Always find time for people and things that make you feel happy. I thank my better half Revathy and my daughters–Lasangika and Kanishka–for the joy they bring to me.
by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
