Aligning people analytics to strategy: Imperative for businesses’ growth

In Ghana’s fast-evolving business economy, companies are under pressure to retain top talent, reduce operational inefficiencies, and prepare for future growth, especially in sectors, including banking, fintech, telecommunications and manufacturing.

Despite these demands, many organisations are still making talent decisions based on assumptions rather than insights.

Yet, as Ghana’s labour market becomes more competitive with youth unemployment around 12.3 per cent and graduate unemployment exceeding 20 per cent (Ghana Statistical Service, 2023), the need to optimise talent strategies through data is more urgent than ever.

This is where people analytics, aligned with a strong people strategy, can help HR become a strategic force, not just an administrative function.

What is people analytics?

People analytics involves collecting and analysing HR and business data to gain insights about employee behaviour, workforce trends, and organisational performance rather than relying solely on guesswork.

In driving real value, people analytics must be aligned with your organisation’s strategic goals. Providing a practical framework for Ghanaian business leaders:

• Understand business priorities: Are you expanding across regions? Digitising services? Improving operational efficiency? Your people data must serve these goals.

• Define your people strategy: This could mean developing future leaders internally, improving gender balance in management, or retaining critical technical talent.

•Identify analytics opportunities: Start with key questions: Is training making a difference? Are we paying competitively?

• Prioritise, impact vs feasibility matrix: Focus on high impact vs effort, thus, projects that are both important and easy to implement with available data. (This matrix is adapted from decision-making tools commonly used in Lean Six Sigma and project management frameworks such as the PMBOK® Guide.)

• Build relevant dashboards: Tools, such as Excel or Power BI, can help visualise critical metrics such as turnover by department, diversity by grade level, or training participation by region.

• Use insights to act: Ensure that findings are shared in business language and used to drive change, such as adjusting recruitment strategies or revising retention policies.

One Accra-based bank faced high attrition among customer service staff. People analytics was conducted to analyse exit interviews, performance trends, and engagement scores, they found that a lack of career growth was a major factor.

In response, the bank introduced an internal mobility programme that allowed junior staff to apply for vacancies across departments.

Within a year, attrition among frontline staff dropped by 27 per cent, while internal hires increased significantly.

This case highlights that even with limited resources, organisations can drive real impact by asking the right questions and using data already at their disposal.

Absolutely. You don’t need a big budget to start. Here’s how small businesses can get started:

• Use Microsoft Excel for basic analysis and simple dashboards.

• Collect feedback using free tools such as Google Forms or Microsoft Forms.

• Leverage existing payroll and attendance data to analyse trends in lateness, overtime, or absenteeism.

• Start small—pick one or two key questions and build from there.

Advanced tools like Power BI or Microsoft Fabric can further enhance capabilities, but they are not required to get started.

Conclusion

People analytics, when done right, helps HR shift from gut-feel decisions to evidence-based action.

Organisations that use data to understand and optimise their workforce will have a competitive advantage.

Founder, Lunara Learning Hub;
MBA|HR strategy & analyst professional|Certified Power BI analyst
E-mail: duncanemmanuel369@gmail.com