THE PERFECT PAIR: THE CHRO & PEOPLE ANALYTICS LEADER
Protective Life
CHRO
Wendy Evesque
EVP & CHRO
PA LEADER
Matthew Hamilton
VP, People Analytics & HRIS
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
Wendy Evesque & Matthew Hamilton
This pair has worked together for four years at Birmingham, Alabama-based Protective Life, a financial services company that offers life insurance as well as annuity and asset protection solutions serving over 14M customers.
CHRO Wendy leads an HR team of 44 and considers VP of People Analytics and HRIS, Matthew, her thought partner when it comes to integrating talent strategy with business objectives. She says her HR leadership style is data-driven every step of the way, and considers herself and everyone on her team to be business people first and HR people second.” People analytics have played an outsized role in enabling that credo.
Why people analytics?
"I saw people analytics as the future and what we needed to do to deliver insight. We needed to understand our employees to help inform our business. I didn't want people analytics just to be this siloed thing that we had on the side. These insights, if we're going to do this right, need to be integrated across the HR function into everything that we do."
Wendy
"People analytics and an HRIS are the foundation and everything else is built on those. There really is no purpose to do analytics in and of itself. It's a means to an end for something else. It’s really an enabler, complementary."
Matthew
"We always tell everyone that's in our HR group that our expectation is that they're a businessperson first and an HR person second. Understanding data, understanding how to apply data, how to ask good questions, how to have that intellectual curiosity is important in whatever function you’re in. So that’s our starting point here in HR. We’ve got to be good businesspeople and then the HR skills complement that."
Wendy
With people analytics, Protective Life has:
Armed leaders outside HR with insights
Improved focus on data-driven DEI
Improved understanding of retention risks and drivers
“Matthew is my thought partner.”
"Matthew is not only an important leader in our organization, but he's also a thought partner for me. We think about and approach things slightly differently. So we have a nice give and take. I may have the rough makings of an idea or a question or a direction that we want to go, but then I call Matthew to understand how to develop that idea. What do we need to be looking at? What insights can you pull that would help inform our direction?"
Wendy on Matthew
"When I’m talking to anybody who is considering a role in people analytics the very first thing I tell them to consider is if they would report to the CHRO, or if the CHRO is at least bought in as a champion. It’s not that you can’t be successful with people analytics at a company where the CHRO is not a champion, but it is so much harder."
Matthew on the value of working with a supportive CHRO
Detailed insights for executives in 60 seconds
Matthew explains two of the top benefits for executives that his team are able to provide by using Visier for people analytics: the ability to do a deep dive on insights and to deliver insights in minutes instead of weeks.
How has the quality of questions about people data improved since onboarding people analytics?
"The maturity of what people are asking and talking about is improved. They used to ask, “What’s my turnover?” Now there’s much more nuance around understanding the difference between voluntary and involuntary, or resignation and retirement without us having to prompt, people are peeling back the layers for themselves."
Matthew Hamilton, VP, People Analytics & HRIS
"I’ve seen that change as well. As we’ve gotten into different initiatives with the business they value the insights that we bring and now they’re looking for those."
Wendy Evesque, CHRO
"If you haven't already done it, you're behind, would be the first thing. But, I would say for us, it's been an important capability not only for HR but for our business in reaching our strategic objectives."
Wendy on what she’d tell other CHROs who are considering people analytics
Q & A with a data-loving CHRO
What data-loving CHROs like Wendy love about people analytics.
About Visier
Visier is the recognized global leader in people analytics, workforce and compensation planning, embedded solutions, and genAI for people answers. At the core of Visier’s innovations is a simple premise: People impact is business impact, and you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Visier gives people-powered organizations the tools and insights to drive productivity, performance, and business outcomes through people impact. Founded in 2010 by the pioneers of business intelligence, Visier has over 60,000 customers in 75 countries, including enterprises like BASF, Panasonic, Experian, Amgen, eBay, Ford Motor Company, and more. Visier is headquartered in Vancouver, BC with offices and team members worldwide. For more information, visit www.visier.com.