Insight-based leaders, authors Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider Explain how companies can transform data into transformative tools for growth
“Water, water, all places, drinks.”
The thirsty sailor is stuck in a windless sea, lamenting his fate surrounded by saltwater seas in this 1834 poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
If you are a business leader, you are definitely in a predicament similar to the ancient Mariner Lime (hopefully minus the magical realism of a dream): surrounded by data – data everywhere.
Operational data, sales data, customer data, employee data, etc.
But for most companies, that data is just as useless as the vast ocean water that plagues seafarers unless they can extract insights. It's not easy.
For years, companies have declared “data-driven” in many fanfares, but there is little to show that. So, insight-driven?
Everything is difficult. But can you really afford not to try it?
Companies around the world face storms of complexity from increasing competition, economic uncertainty, rapid technological development, severe talent shortages, global instability, cybersecurity threats, and social and political changes.
And “workforce” doesn't even mean anything before. You are current employees, gig workers, outsourced labor, robots, AI bots, and there are all the possibilities for extraordinary progress by doing it right or by mistake by shattering value destruction.
All possible tools are at will to understand how an organization works. What's more important is where, when, and why it doesn't work.
And you need it now.
Fortunately, just 200 years after Coleridge wrote Magnum Opus, technology is poised to turn data into an insight into a daily reality.
Artificial intelligence, in particular, Generated Artificial Intelligence (GENAI), has transformed not only work but data and analytics (even for those with less data science training), is becoming more affordable, more realistic than ever, and creates powerful revelation (WFA) coming from workforce analysis (WFA).
Become insight
Workforce Analytics is like having a cheat code to understand why you check your business.
Imagine finding exactly why the other teams are behind while some teams are firing on all cylinders.
Or reveal which actions lead to high sales, customer loyalty, or top-class service.
Companies are now using workforce insights to solve real-world problems, from sales slumps to digital transformation.
In fact, a study published in November 2024 by Josh Bersin Company, a highly respected source of human capital management insights, found that companies with excellent workforce analysis* are more likely to experience a variety of benefits.
These include exceeding financial goals (3 times), please customers (3 times), and effectively adapting to changes (9 times).
Albatross
Yes, honestly, it's pretty perfect so I'm going to carry a bit more of the metaphor. In the story of Coleridge, the eponymous Mariner is troubled by the giant white bird he carries around with him, filming it for no good reason (only the beginning of his troubles).
You've rarely ever shot an albatross recently, but the images are useful.
Think of its fetid Fowl as potentially your data will trigger productivity, innovation, the best visibility projects and competitive advantages.
Or you cannot understand any amount of data within your transfer (you will be in a good company in that respect).
In any case, labor insights are strong enough to free you from those burdens. There's only one catch.
Workforce Analytics requires deep partnerships with workforce data from HR.
Yes, HR – I love to hate many features. Are we smarter? In July 2015, the cover of the Harvard Business Review boldly declared.
Internal articles laid out the innovative vision of HR, courtesy of thought leaders like Ram Charan, John Boudreau and Peter Cappelli.
They presented clear and great ideas on how to evolve HR to drive measurable business outcomes from process-focused.
But here we are still working on many of the same issues just 10 years later. The problem wasn't the vision. This was a follow-through of business leaders. That's what we want to change with this modest volume.
Evolved, insight-driven HR functions are no longer good. If the competitive benefits of labor analysis and AI are needed, time has passed that hesitant has passed.
It's not (almost) human resources
If you are a business leader (particularly a CEO) and something that is not working best in your company is never fixed, then that's… isn't it for you?
Certainly, some of the bad raps from HR are worth it. HR slowly loses touch and focuses on operations and rules.
It's not good for business – it's yours.
However, some of the HR's packages come with territory.
This feature has many impossible roles. There are only two interpersonal judges and policy enforcers.
HR also affects all employees in ways that no other functions are performed, including highly sensitive issues such as employment, layoffs, and payments. It's a hassle. And in many cases it's really not fun.
Still, is the entire field destined to not grow into that possibility? Have you lost the opportunity to innovate and acquire (or maintain) your competitiveness by paying the ultimate price in the form of problems that are not solving the ultimate price, paying empty costs to rehire and retrain employees heading towards eco-friendly pastures?
I've seen this movie
So, what happens if your HR department is… “great”? What happens when you bring a strategic, efficient, business-oriented, analytical problem solver to your staff?
Experts who have made sure to help maximize productivity and create conditions (operations and culture) that go extra distance to help employees achieve your most important goals?
Even if many business leaders have never actually seen a big HR, it's not that crazy. Once upon a time, finance was a bunch of paper pushers focused on maintaining books.
It was the nerd who kept the computer running.
Marketing Print Ads and Throw Party. All of these functions have grown into a strategic powerhouse. This is because changing reality would have made companies unable to remain competitive otherwise.
And when leaders saw it being their own biggest concern, they became high performance. They raised expectations and accountability, improved leaders of those functions into C suites, actively participated in board meetings, coordinated strategies, conducted cross-functional collaborations, and invested in the right people and technology.
HR is on the brink of the same conversion. In particular, automation has removed much of the functionality management load. We demonstrated insight-driven leaders how we can help HR evolve into a critical value creator.
This is not about doing HR, it's about making sure you have the strategic support you need. If you want to provide HR with insights that align with your goals, you must let them do more than they process.
The best performance companies already have top-notch HR features. So why don't you do that too?
And now the time is as follows: Free HR professionals in AI and automation can embrace advanced analytics from operational tasks, so they can become the strategic partner you need. But they can't do it alone.
Like it or not, if you want to be an insightful leader infused by workforce insights, we know the Twoway Street you can take to get there.
Transforming HR occurs when leaders like you see HR as an asset rather than an afterthought. Companies that get this are miles away.
This is an edited excerpt from an insightful leader by Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider (published by Wiley and published June 2025). Dearborn is an experienced executive leader in enterprise technology sales and human resources. Rider is a talent and learning strategist with over 10 years of experience in the leadership team.
