the last stage on an HR team’s analytics journey. “Models on HR
analytics can be a bit misleading. Because they suggest you have to
do one thing first, then another, then another – they’re either a
pyramid or a curve. But actually some of the prescriptive stuff is a bit
simpler than predictive. So it’s being tactical about what outcome
you want and what methods you need, as opposed to thinking you
need predictive and prescriptive across the whole lifecycle and a
dashboard and all the rest of it,” says Britnell.
He adds how unhelpfully varied definitions of prescriptive
analytics can be. “There isn’t a recognised global view of what it
is, whereas predictive is a bit cleaner and clearer; you’re predicting
an outcome.”
Cutler agrees that deciding on a course of action is “surely what
analytics is all about”. But he feels there is not necessarily any harm in
the term if it helps HR professionals recalibrate their approach to
data. “I think the risk is people have just got swamped in data and
have become completely overwhelmed with where to focus.
Sometimes the result has been analysis paralysis,” he says.
“So for me prescriptive analytics is where analytics can finally
begin to be useful. Because what differentiates it is it’s applied nature.
So it’s not just analysis of trends and using that to predict. It’s
actually going: let’s cut straight to the outcome.”
“I guess it’s how broad is your definition?” muses Craig Stanton,
manager, Workday practice at PwC UK. “If your definition of
prescription is ‘it’s completely brand new insight’, maybe it doesn’t
qualify. But, if prescriptive is ‘I need help making a decision, what do
I do?’, then maybe it does.” He adds: “For me, humans are pretty
bad at making decisions even in the face of data that points to an
outcome. So prescriptive analytics says: ‘Look, here is all the data
that’s telling a story, and here’s what the system is telling you to do.’”
This is particularly helpful for smaller businesses, adds Modi. He
agrees that prescriptive analytics should be demystified so that
people realise they have effectively been doing the ‘low-tech’ version
with their brains for years.
“When you go to an expert and tell them about a problem, they
ask a few questions and come up with a recommendation. That act is
a data-driven analytic. That’s why prescriptive analytics can be so
powerful for small businesses. Large firms have the resources to hire
experts and effectively do this manually.”
He adds: “The beauty of these recommendations is that, unlike in
a traditional case where a consultant could come up with generic
recommendations, these are specific to the data.”
True analytics?
But it’s on this latter point that the experts begin to seriously part
ways – with many sceptical of technology’s ability at this stage to
recommend action truly based on specific datasets. What the tech is
actually doing in most cases, some assert, is offering generic bestpractice
advice.
It is crucial to be clear on whether it is the system itself telling you
what to do or the professional extrapolating the best course of action
based on the data, stresses Keith McNulty, global director of people
hrmagazine.co.uk October 2019 HR 9
/hrmagazine.co.uk