Q: What is "workforce analytics"? What is Strategic Workforce Planning?

Workforce analytics is part of the Strategic Human Capital Management process and is used to guide decisions regarding recruitment needs, talent management, succession planning, financial bugetting, etc. . Predicting the onset of the baby-boomer retirements is a popular example of workforce analytics supporting strategic workforce planning.

Q: What is regression analysis?

A: Regression analysis is about finding relationships in your data. Are your sales correlated with the month of the year? Is the education level of the population correlated with income level? Is absenteeism in your factory correlated with the age of the worker or the time they have been with your company?

Regression analysis is a statistical way to determine if these hypothesized relationships hold true.

Q: What is time series analysis?

A: Time series analysis, as the name suggests is a study of data over a period of time. More specifically, it is a study to discover the underlying structure of the data such as trends and seasonal effects.

Q: What is spend analysis?

A: Spend analysis is a popular example of a data analysis application. Many companies like to assess their spend occasionally to see if they have opportunities to consolidate the number of suppliers for a particular commodity or whether they have been spending a disproportionate amount of money on expenses vs. revenue. Many companies are often surprised to learn where their money is being spent. A spend analysis also provides the foundation on which purchasing personnel can begin seeking cost reductions for the business.

What is graphical analysis?

Graphical analysis is almost always the beginning of any data analysis as it helps to identify errors and differences among different sets of data. Furthermore, the use of graphical methods helps to identify the distribution of the data and whether multiple populations exist within the dataset. Graphical methods can often tell a story about what type of insights can be found buried within the data set.

Q: Do you work with clients outside of your local area?

A: Yes, we support clients in Canada and the U.S. With the use of technology like video calling and and web meeeting tools, we provide data analysis services to a remote clients.

Do You provide flat rate quotes on consulting projects?

Flat rate quotes are available depending on the nature of the work. For survey work, the amount of time associated with the set-up, execution and analysis can be fairly well defined. For other projects, such as a data analysis of a more “discover what's in the data” kind, it is not possible to predict the number of hours the analysis will take. Thes projects can be taken in "chunks" according to the customer's agreed approach.

Why don't you list your phone number on the web?

The majority of my new clients come through referrals from previous work. When I post my phone number on the web, I receive too many phone calls from people trying to sell me things.