Ask The Analyst: What are the most effective ways HR leaders are building analytical confidence in their own teams right now?

Every Friday for The Briefing, UNLEASH’s weekly intelligence email for senior decision-makers, we put a question to the true HR experts, our community of analysts.

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This week we asked: What are the most effective ways HR leaders are building analytical confidence in their own teams right now?

Here’s what they had to say.

David Green, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Insight222:

The most effective HR leaders are building analytical confidence by making data part of everyday work, not treating it as a specialist skill reserved for people analytics teams.

Our research at Insight222 shows that when the CHRO and HR leadership team visibly role-model evidence-based decision-making, regular use of people data across HR rises dramatically.

Ownership also matters: organizations make faster progress when the people analytics leader is accountable for upskilling, supported by a multi-year program rather than a sequence of isolated workshops.

The best programs focus less on teaching HR professionals to become data scientists and more on five practical capabilities: framing business problems, interpreting evidence, influencing stakeholders, turning insight into recommendations and telling a compelling story.

Leading teams then reinforce learning through real decisions.

Stella Ioannidou, Senior Director, Research, The Josh Bersin Company:

Let’s start with a (perhaps) uncomfortable truth uncovered in our Definitive Guide to People Analytics: 50% of HR professionals identify as beginners in analytics, and only 7% of companies are effectively using advanced analytical capabilities. The gap between ambition and capability is real, and the most effective HR leaders are closing it through three concrete moves.

The first move is standardizing data collection and establishing shared definitions. A common headcount methodology is the entry point that creates immediate credibility for any analytics team.

From there, it’s about putting dashboards in front of managers. High performers are three times more likely to provide people data access to managers, yet only 44% of organizations currently do this. Real-time dashboards on turnover, headcount, and engagement reduce the need for ad-hoc reporting and free the team for higher-value work.

Lastly, leaders invest in building consulting capabilities alongside technical ones. We found that teams fail not because they lack data, but because they cannot connect people insights to business outcomes, tell stories that resonate, and influence stakeholders.

Sequence matters. Confidence does not come from training in the abstract. It comes from solving a real problem, showing the result, and building from there.

David Wentworth, Managing Director, Learning & Talent, Brandon Hall Group:

With the pace of technology, it has become easier and easier for HR teams to rely more heavily on the tools they are using, rather than their own insights into the data and outcomes that are being analyzed.

With AI still sometimes delivering iffy results, it’s more important than ever for HR teams truly understand what questions they are trying to answer. Smart HR leaders are trying to ensure their teams have a grasp on the inputs before they begin relying on the outputs they are being given.

In an AI heavy environment, they are also making sure their teams are reviewing the insights the tools are providing, giving everything the gut-check it requires at this stage.

To bolster the teams’ confidence in their analysis, we’ve also seen more HR leaders investing in certifications around data & analytics and AI literacy.

Just as importantly, HR leaders are creating opportunities for their teams to use analytics to drive business decisions rather than treating analytics as a standalone skill or an exercise in building dashboards or reports.

Confidence grows when teams can see how analytics influences business outcomes.

Joey Price, CEO, Jumpstart HR:

The most effective way to build analytical confidence in your team isn't just coaching people - it's cultivating your systems. Training alone rarely sticks. How often have you sent someone to a workshop and watched them come back fired up... only for that energy to fade within a few weeks? The motivation was real, but the environment they returned to hadn't changed. That's the gap.

If your systems aren't built to encourage, validate, celebrate, and hold people accountable to analytics-driven outcomes, then reliability will always break down eventually. It's not a matter of if, but when. People drift back to old habits not because they lack skill, but because nothing around them reinforces the new one.

Real analytical confidence lives in the structure: the routines, the recognition, and the expectations you set every day. Coach the person, yes — but build the system that keeps them there.

Three simple takeaways:

• Training fades; systems last. A one-time workshop can't compete with the daily environment your team operates in.
• Reinforce what you want to see. Encouragement, validation, and accountability need to be built into your routines, not left to chance.
• Confidence is structural. If you want analytical habits to stick, design the system to hold them in place.