Turning HR Data Into Real Insight

Turning HR Data Into Real Insight

From HR Disrupted by Disruptive HR

December 16, 2025 · 35 min · Episode 97

About this episode

This episode explores how HR can better utilize data to drive people strategies and build stronger organizational cultures.

HR doesn’t struggle with not having enough data - we’ve got tons of it. Engagement scores, churn and absenteeism rates, performance ratings, DEI metrics - the works. But can we honestly say we’re brilliant at using that data to drive our people strategies? The answer is probably, “not yet.” So, this episode explores how we can get better at turning data into real insight and how that insight can help us build more trust, better performance, and stronger cultures. Lucy is joined by Jenny Deaborn who’s spent her career helping organisations do exactly that. Her new book, The Insight-Driven Leader, is a practical roadmap for HR teams and leaders who want to make analytics genuinely useful and human. Drawing on over 100 one-to-one interviews with CEOs, CHROs and board members, Jenny explains why the best organisations aren’t using “magic” HR metrics – they’re just using familiar ones with far more rigour. She unpacks why “regrettable attrition of top performers in critical roles” beats a single company-wide turnover number every time, how to define “top performer” and “critical role” with real fidelity, and why every good HR metric should be in service of a small handful of measures…

People in this episode

Guest: Jenny Deaborn

Topics covered

  • HR data
  • insight-driven leadership
  • people strategies
  • analytics
  • organizational culture

Keywords

  • engagement scores
  • churn rates
  • absenteeism
  • performance ratings
  • DEI metrics
  • insight-driven leader
  • AI

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Insight-Driven Leader

Books & works: The Insight-Driven Leader

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