HR’s Secret Weapon: Leveraging Data and Storytelling for Greater Influence

Episode 29: HR’s Secret Weapon: Leveraging Data and Storytelling for Greater Influence

This episode explores how HR leaders can move from being data collectors to strategic influencers

Trina Sunday: This episode of Reimagining hr, I’m diving into how HR leaders can move from being data collectors to true storytellers and strategic influencers. We look at how to turn raw metrics into compelling stories. We look at Robert Cialdini’s seven principles of persuasion to help us get that exact buy in and become the voice decision makers listen to. If you want your data to drive action and not just reports, then this one’s for you. Welcome to Reimagining HR with Trina Sunday, the rule breaking podcast where we challenge our thinking and our current people practises. This podcast is for time poor HR teams and business leaders who are feeling the burn, lacking laughs and not feeling the love. I’m Trina, your host and I’m here to cut through the bs, explore different ways of thinking and create high impact HR functions because happier, healthier organisations are better for our people and our bottom line. So if you are keen to flip traditional HR on its head, hit the follow or subscribe button so you’re the first to know when new episodes drop. I’m here to help and also to shake things up.

Shift from intuition to data driven HR has stepped up that whole

So let’s get started. Okay, so maybe leveraging data and storytelling isn’t HR’s secret weapon anymore and maybe we do have that laser like focus on it, but the shift from intuition to data driven HR has stepped up that whole. We’ve always gone with our gut on this. Sound familiar? Well, HR has historically been driven by instinct and our relationships and that anecdotal insight. And while that emotional intelligence still matters, it’s really paramount. It’s no longer enough. In today’s environment, senior leaders are expecting data to inform people decisions just as much as financial or operational ones. And Data has become HR’s currency of credibility. So when HR comes to the table with numbers that link people trends to business outcomes, the dynamic shifts. And I know a global retailer that applied analytics to help identify flight risk indicators. You know those people that are just going to disappear and it’s going to compromise your business. They use those indicators to look at 10 year plateaus, you know, where everything was staying a bit the same and manage a turnover. But they managed to lead to a 15% reduction in voluntary turnover. And that could be real money back in the business. It’s like, well, how did they do it? They used the data, they analysed who was leaving at what times and where the patterns were and they could head it off at the past, right? They knew where they needed to intervene. And HR’s credibility grows when it presents workforce insights like that through clear strategic storytelling, not just intuition.

HR leaders should use Robert Cialdini’s seven Universal Principles of persuasion

But for me, before we go into the strategic communication side of what we’re going to do with data and telling great stories and all that stuff, I think it’s really key to talk about persuasion. Now, when people say it out loud, everyone says it sounds really manipulative. But the reality is having great data is only half of the equation. The other half is influence. Right? And people that have worked with me would know that I talk a bit in some of my coaching programmes around Robert Cialdini’s seven Universal Principles of persuasion. Now, he’s a leading psychologist in the field of influence, right? This is his jam. And he basically talks about the psychological triggers that drive people to say yes. So for HR leaders, understanding these principles is a game changer. It’s a game changer in life, just quietly. And they help you frame data in a way that engages hearts and minds, not just spreadsheets. Right, so here’s the quick rundown. The first principle is around reciprocity, a word that’s almost impossible to say. But essentially it’s people feel compelled to return a favour or act right when they’ve received something valuable first. So from HR perspectives, share your insights generously and others will lean in. Another one is scarcity. So the reality is people assign more value to what they think is limited or at risk. So we can use data to highlight what could be lost if action isn’t taken. Authority. So people follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts, be that be a credible, knowledgeable expert. You know, we need to present clean and evidence based data because that’s what’s going to build our authority in the room. And then the other thing is it’s all about consistency. So people are more likely to act in ways that align with their past behaviours or commitments. So use this to align our new initiatives with existing values or strategies or things that matter to people.

HR needs to build influence through relationships, empathy and shared understanding

Basically one that’s a bit of a challenge and always creates some great conversation is one of his principles around liking. So the reality is people say yes to people they like and trust. And I have a lot of HR leaders push back on this and say that’s the boys club or that’s the golfing thing, or it’s, you know, that works against diversity. All of that could be true. But the reality is people say yes to those they like and trust. So we need to build influence through relationships, empathy and shared understanding, not just our logic. So while we might sit there and we’ll die on that hill, Debating that principle, it is a reality. If I like you, I’m more likely to say yes to you or switch it around, like reframe it. If I don’t like you, I am less likely to say yes to you and to support your initiative. Right? Another principle is around social proof. So when uncertain people are going to look to what others are doing. So we have the opportunity in HR to benchmark our data and show what peers or competitors are doing really well. Fomo, fear of missing out, competitive advantage, competitor analysis, like it’s old school marketing, Right? But that social proof, when uncertain people are going to look to see what others are doing. The last one, which was added on because it was originally only six principles, was the last one of unity. The more people feel one of us, the more likely they are to act. So you can frame your data in ways that empathise shared goals and collective outcomes. I see unity as a bit of an extension of liking, but the reality is I might like you and that’s one principle that might get me to say yes, but if I don’t feel like I belong, then I’m probably less likely to do that. So the unity is around how connected we are to the whole. Right? And these principles aren’t tricks, even though they feel that way when you consciously are looking at them, but they are tools. And when we combine data with persuasion, HR stops reporting, right? And we start influencing so we can move into that strategic communication space. And we’ll keep coming back to these levers a little bit for making my insights kind of land. But if I look at strategic communication, to me that is what storytelling is. It’s about framing data for maximum impact, giving people something they can understand. And we’ve all seen reports that are packed with metrics that leave people thinking, so what? Absenteeism, so what? Turnovers. X so what? Like data without interpretation. It’s just noise in my mind. And our job in HR is to translate those insights into business relevance. So I use the so what test. And. And I must admit, and I told people this, that I was gonna be really annoying as a manager when I would have people prepare statistics and reports, but I gave them a heads up that I was gonna do this, right? And it’s annoying as a toddler that keeps saying, why? Why? But why? And my thing was, so what? Don’t care, so what? Like so don’t just report a turnover rate. Say turnover’s 20%, and I’d say, so what? Which is costing us 2 million in rehiring and lost productivity. Here’s how we can reduce that by 25%, blah, blah, blah. The so what is critical if we want people to listen? And this is where one of Cialdini’s principles, the one on authority, is kind of key. Because when HR backs insights with evidence and we explain them with confidence and clarity. Confidence, clarity, key. Then it reinforces HR’s expertise, right, that were credible, that were reliable, but we also need to not overcomplicate it. Like simplicity equals impact. In my mind, maybe I’m just a simple girl that’s doing some simple work here, but in my experience, executives don’t want HR speak, right? they want clarity and they want solutions. So influence isn’t just about how much data you have, it’s how clear and compelling you frame it. So communicating HR effectively is essential to influence decision making and to demonstrate the value of our, people centric initiatives. We want people to say, yes, well, we’ve got to be able to tell a compelling story and a clear story to get people to listen, right? We all switch off when people start telling a boring story at a party, right? So we’ve got to use HR data to speak the language of the business. And we all know that, we know it intellectually. But I think if we’re really honest with ourselves, myself included, because of habits and having done this for 20 something years, I, do I slip into Hrspeak all the time. All the time.

Building influence through data storytelling is an art

So pot kettle black here I am. But the truth is most HR dashboards still speak hr, not C Suite and we absolutely need to flip that. So we’ve got to speak in terms of efficiency, productivity, you know, risk. So useful metrics are not just things like turnover or absenteeism or things like that. Useful metrics to a C suite are things like revenue per employee or the cost of vacancy per role and cold hard dollars or engagement index versus profit per fte. I know a tech company that case studied using predictive analytics to model upcoming leadership gaps and it resulted in this really seamless succession with zero business disruption. Like that’s workforce planning, not just HR reporting. What they did was they used predictive analytics, predict the future, not the past, to see where the leadership gaps were going to come. And they put interventions in place early so that they did not have business disruption, whether that’s shadowing succession, looking at how they structured the work so that manager’s departure wasn’t going to have an impact. There were lots of different ways that they’d looked at it from memory. But this is where consistency comes into play. Aligning data driven recommendations with existing business stuff that’s going on and that creates less friction and more follow through. So the influence happens when we in HR can connect the people metrics to the business performance drivers. But it’s not that easy, right? So I know it’s not that easy. And like building influence through data storytelling, it’s an art. And to do it well, we have to get to the heart of persuasion storytelling. And the most effective HR leaders I know, they don’t just throw out dashboards, they shape a narrative. And there’s basically from a marketing perspective, there’s a three step storytelling model. Basically the first step is you set the scene. Okay, so Turnovers increase by 10% this quarter, for example. The second step would be show the impact. This is costing the business 1.5 million in lost productivity. So we’ve set the scene, Turnover’s increased by 10%, impact is costing the business 1.5 mil in lost productivity. Third step, propose a solution by investing in retention initiatives. We can cut the churn by 25%. Say, you know, saving 375k. Three step storytelling model, set the scene, turnover increase by 10%. Show the impact, it’s costing us 1.5 mil. Everyone propose a solution, we’ve got to invest in these retention initiatives, blah, blah, blah, to get this outcome 25%, $375,000, you’ve got to be able to tell the story to get people to listen. And that aligns with what Cialdini talks about in terms of his reason why kind of thinking and more broadly with the authority and the scarcity principles. Like when you clearly explain why something is happening and what’s at stake. If you don’t act, you’re engaging both the logic and the emotion. And it’s one of those things where I’ve seen it, ah, over and over. Like an Australian financial services firm, they use their engagement Data to justify 1 point mil spend on leadership development programmes. They claim it resulted in a 10% higher retention and measurable performance improvement. But there’s some things in that data analysis where that story’s still unfolding. So it might be something I talk about another day, but the data alone, the message here is it won’t change minds, right? Data alone is not going to change your mind if you tell me Data’s increased by 10% this quarter. Mm So what? Data alone is not gonna change my mind, but stories will. And I know when I interviewed him on the podcast previously, Richard Rosenow from One Model, he talked about data allowing us to listen at scale. And I often think about that, like making informed decisions means listening to people who can add insight. If our data can, can help us add broader, deeper, more diverse insights into our storytelling process, then our decisions are going to be better. If you want to influence, you need data fluency and tools that deliver insight at speed, right? Things are moving fast. And if you want data fluency and tools that deliver at speed, you need a people analytics guru or function. I chatted about how we can leverage data, ah, a lot on my last HR mastermind call with a group and we did a deep dive into this, you know, what was happening in the data space for them, how they could influence what was leveraging, where there were roadblocks. And interestingly, none of my clients that are in the mastermind have any people analytics resources. And we’re talking some big employers in here that they’re working for. And having a people analytics guru or function that brings the technical expertise that you need to uncover patterns, you know, predict the risks and translate the workforce data into actionable insights, it turns the raw numbers into powerful stories and that’s what can elevate our impact and our influence right across the business. It is a superpower. And we can’t simply expect that every HR person could respond to these needs in this gap. Like we do that enough already, right? Expecting every single HR person to do all the things where we actually have very specialised disciplines within people functions, HR functions, people and culture, whatever you’re calling it, they’re, specialist skills. And we need a mature and sophisticated people analytics approach in the same way as we approach our financial analytics. And so how are we going to use our data to tell that story so you can leverage getting some support for your people analytics function? There’s some links I might put in the show notes. How can you leverage getting the FTE or headcount that you need to have the people analytics expertise that you need? Because the reality is there’s really critical people data metrics that we need to be able to use. So if we talk about metrics that actually move the needle, senior leaders are looking for insights that answer, ah, like what are our people risks and what are the costs if we do nothing? Because let’s be honest, the default is we don’t want to do anything. Maybe your execs are more progressive and have a greater appetite for change and I’d, be really happy to chat about that. But in my experience, most execs aren’t really wanting to do anything. So the story we’re telling a lot of the time is what’s the risk and why do we need to do something about it? What’s the cost to us going to be if we don’t? And so if we look at turnover risk analysis, who’s likely to leave and why? And so what if we look at talent pipeline forecasts, what skill gaps are developing and so what, what’s going to happen if we don’t do anything about it? Productivity, metrics, how does our engagement affect performance? So what, what’s it going to cost us in terms of revenue, bottom line and share price? And what’s the cost benefit of HR initiatives? We’ve got to prove the ROI right, We’ve got to prove the return on investment, not just the activity. It’s about outcomes, not activities. And this is where the scarcity and social proof principles Cialdini helps to sharpen our case. Like it highlights what might be lost and what others are doing to get ahead. So if we use predictive, risk orientated data, it’s going to help us drive better, faster people decisions. But getting exec buy in is the hardest thing and the most common conversation that I have with my coaching clients because even the best data is going to fall flat basically if it’s poorly presented. You know, so this is about dashboards over spreadsheets. You know, use visuals to show the patterns, not just the points. And it’s about what we’ve been talking about, storytelling over static reports, because only with the storytelling can we frame the data in the context that we want it to be framed in for it to be meaningful. And then it’s about live dashboards, real time, not annual reviews. Those real time insights is what’s going to build relevance if it’s that old. And you’re doing it once a quarter, once a year. And it’s the same format, same dashboard, same. There’s nothing meaningful about that data team because authority and liking principles, they come together here. Like the more trusted, clear and personable you are as a HR leader and the more clear you are in terms of what you’re trying to communicate, which is going to be different every time. I don’t turn up to a conversation with someone and say the exact same thing every time I meet with them once a quarter. That’ll be weird, right? And this is the people bit. So it’s like if we want people to act on our data, they’re more likely to do that if we’re trusted, clear and personable as HR partners, leaders. So great data tells a story Great presentations are what gets decisions made, basically. But leveraging AI and people analytics to strengthen our influence is levelling up. Right? like AI is not just a tech trend, and I’ve talked about that before, but it’s absolutely the enabler for proactive hr.

HR uses AI to analyse engagement and workloads to help manage burnout

So I know a multinational firm that used AI tools to analyse engagement and workloads and it was really interesting because they’re identifying burnout risk six months ahead of time, which led to a 22% drop in absenteeism because they started in there early. They’re like, oh my gosh, we have a train wreck coming here. We need to get ahead of this and we need to help our people. We need to manage the work volume, the workload and we need to make sure we can even this out. Now, I’m tools agnostic for the purposes of this podcast. However, there are now many tools that can let us in HR model scenarios before they happen. And AI enhances our authority to persuade because it gives us deep insight into what’s predictive, which thereby is more strategic. Right, because we’re not reacting anytime, we’re not reacting and we’re being proactive, we’re typically being more strategic.

So with AI, we’re not just tracking the past, we’re starting to predict the future. But if you’re like me, oh, wow. A lot of resistance. A lot of resistance and scepticism, to be honest, about HR data. Like, there are lots of leaders that still think HR’s soft and that’s changing, but not fast enough. And an easy remedy to that perceived softness is balancing it out with some cold, hard facts. And we do need a balance. Most effective messages do. It’s the ying and the yang, the light and the dark. But if HR ourselves don’t believe in our data, why is anyone else going to see it or us as being reliable? And if you’re not seen as reliable, then you’re not consistent. If you’re not consistent, you’re not going to be influential. It’s just how it works. And so we have to really focus on trying to build belief in our, insights. And, you know, that’s where some of our bread and butter stuff is, right? Like ensuring the accuracy. Like there’s no credibility without clean, consistent data. But the other thing is benchmarking externally. This is the social proof opportunity, right? Using peer comparisons to create relatability, bit of competitive firing among the exec team when they see competitors doing stuff better than them. But it’s also about linking the data to dollars. We don’t just show the score. Like we need to show the commercial impact. And we can always find ways to build unity in that. Like make it clear that HR data isn’t ours versus theirs. Like it’s a shared tool. It’s our data that’s creating an opportunity for us to make some decisions that are going to help us support our shared goals. Like for the entire business. Right? Not HR being the backroom function. HR earns influence when our data is as reliable and impactful as financial reporting. And as much as I don’t want to compare myself to finance teams and the cfo, it’s why the chro as a role has risen to where it is quite rightly. And it’s not about that seat at the table stuff. It’s about operating in this space where your chief people officer is using predictive analysis to show what is going to compromise us getting the revenue, the customer, you know, the brand outcome, whatever the outcomes are that are important for the business. The dollars and the cents and the commerciality generally, that’s what your chief people officer is focused on. And it’s the storytelling and the context that goes with it that’s going to then help influence and drive decision making. So Australian tech company, you know, even looking at senior engineer turnover, they had a 15% annual turnover among critical senior engineers. And it might seem simple, but they did data analysis on exit surveys and, you know, interviews. You know, they actually looked at them and stuff. It was really cool, really advanced, but it just showed a clear lack of career growth. Like that was the top issue. So HR in action is then, okay, well, what’s the internal mobility programme? How do we look at AI driven career pathing, which is actually a really cool thing that’s emerging. You know, how do you put into the chatbot the things that you love, that you’re good at and what your superpowers are and how does that help you map out your career pathway? So awesome. But also targeted coaching for future leaders. Like, we need to be able to be on top of that for career growth. If that’s why everyone’s leaving, well then we need to look at it. And that’s what’s reduced their turnover by 7%, saved them, like $3 million in recruitment and ramp up time. And so the outcome was possible by activating authority. So the credibility, the consistency, which is reliable and the unity, like bringing all the evidence, aligning it with the business need and delivering a solution that served everybody. Now on the face of it, you might go, yeah, that’s simple. You’re not telling us anything we don’t know. I, would challenge you to reflect on, though. Is that how you’re crafting your HR insights? When you’re having your conversations with exec, like, what did it take and how hard was the fight to get that internal mobility programme? Do you have that AI driven career pathway? Because I don’t know many people that have it yet. But that AI driven career pathing is really cool and it’s something that we can be investing in. Yes, we’re focusing on some targeted coaching for future leaders to be better coaches and better kind of mentors. But when HR insights lead to business wins, then our influence becomes inevitable.

Presenting data and insights to help motivate stakeholders can be difficult

Right. And there’s a case for how to present data and insights to help motivate our stakeholders to act. And again, sounds manipulative when you say it out loud, but it’s like how to get people to do what we want. And people feel really uncomfortable when I use that kind of marketing language. But I once read somewhere that insight without outcome is overhead. So I’ll say that again. Insight without outcome is overhead. That is not my genius. That is from someone else who I cannot remember the name, but I’ll try and Google it to come up with them. But it’s true. Like if we don’t have any outcomes that have come out of it, the insight’s not an insight, it’s just noise. And if we draw from the Jewett methodology, which is a model where they put empathy at the heart of strategy and story and visuals and delivery, there’s some really key tips and tricks that you can use for persuasive data communication. Who knew that empathy was at the heart of number crunching, landing for our stakeholders? But for me, given my marketing background, before my two decades in hr, this has always been a bit intuitive for me. And it actually took me kind of two decades of working in HR and really in the last 10 years that I’ve worked for myself to realise that it wasn’t always the mindset of my HR peers. So things that I think about when I’m using data to leverage support for decisions and how to tell a story and a narrative using data, I didn’t realise that that was not something that everyone else did. And so the reality is storytelling enhances the data’s impact. So for me, I always thought about, well, storytelling is essential to make the data memorable and actionable. Like the best speakers I have ever listened to or the ones that I remember even are, the ones that told a story. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember any presenter or person that I’ve listened to where I’ve like, walked away and I’m just rattling off the stats. The stats didn’t land for me, it’s the stories that landed. So while the facts alone don’t always stick, if you wrap them in a compelling narrative that helps, you know, audiences emotionally connect with the data, then that’s going to lead to better decision making, because they’re going to get it. And so when we do presentations, we’ve got to make those empathy driven. So the success of a presentation, it really hinges on understanding the audience’s needs and goals. Like, if you don’t understand what’s going on for them, you don’t understand how to land your presentation. So empathy is key. You’ve got to craft your recommendations around what the audience wants to hear rather than focusing on what you want to say. Now, I don’t mean what the audience needs to hear in terms of tell them what they want to make them happy, help them understand what the outcomes are they’re trying to achieve, and then your data can help you tell a story of how you can get there. And that’s where the effective recommendations need to be crafted really well, because recommendations are intended to help people make an emotional decision at the end of the day. So when presenting data, we have to focus on crafting a clear and concise recommendation. So that means organising all our thoughts and not rambling and stuff and amplifying the key points. We’ve got to make it easy for our audience to understand what the takeaway is and to act on it. Right, and that’s how we can frame it specifically for them. Like if we tailor our narrative based on what the audience’s role is and what motivates them, then we’re going to be coming out in a more positive way. And so for executives, they focus on outcomes like revenue, market share, you know, risk, reducing risk for peers. It might be inspiring action by framing recommendations that resonate with them. You know, what are their immediate challenges, their concerns, their pain points. Everyone cares about their pain points. They want people to help them, solve them, be that person. Because if we are solving problems, we’re impactful as HR functions, but we’ve got to anticipate and address the counter arguments, right? We all know those people. We know those people that are going to be in the exec teams or around the table or in the conversation that are just going to really try and shoot down our, ah, storytelling. So when you craft your story and the recommendation like anticipate it, anticipate potential objections or the interruptions like be prepared to address counter arguments and provide the support data for areas where they want to go a bit deeper. And if you know your audience, then you know the people that are going to want to go deep. You know, the people that don’t want to go deep, they want to stay shallow. And so knowing that and having those relationships is going to make it easier for you to land the narrative in the room for you to get the outcome that you’re looking for.

Storytelling is a powerful tool to make people data and analytics more engaging

And lately I’ve been asked a lot about the impact of Gen AI on storytelling with data. It’s come up a lot in the HR mastermind or the one on one coaching that I do. And Nancy Jewett, who is I guess the head of and the co founder of Jewett, who have that empathy based model that I was talking about, she got asked this question at a people analytics conference in the US a year or two ago and the question was something along the lines of, you know, how do we balance great storytelling while knowing that people are also using technology such as Geni to create content? And her sentiments kind of mirror mine. And that is that content, generation tools are only as useful as the inputs we put in it. So these tools are not masters of empathy or data communication. And the quality comes in the value of the prompt. So we can use AI to our advantage, right? Check our assumptions, check our biases in the way our data and our charts are presented. And AI can be really useful to help humanise and understand the different perspectives of our audiences. But ultimately the data doesn’t speak for itself. It needs a storyteller. We can be that storyteller. So the power of people analytics is that it is not just math, but the stories that the math and the data tells. Storytelling is a powerful tool not only to make people data and analytics more engaging, but also more impactful. So crafting compelling narratives around data is really paramount, especially for HR business partners, because they need that to effectively support and help business leaders and managers better understand and act on HR insights, because we would have built the connection with their specific goals. And hacking HR had an article that created 10 building blocks that form the foundations of effective storytelling and in the context of people analytics, which is worth checking out. So I’ll put the link in the show notes along with a few other references and resources. But my final thought on elevating HR’s role here is about us being business strategists leveraging data, for enhanced storytelling to get outcomes and to have impact like HR isn’t just about policies and procedures. We know that. It’s about shaping the future of work through data driven insight and powerful communication. So the most effective HR leaders I know are not just partners, they’re persuaders. You know, strategists and storytellers. They know their numbers, they know their people, and they know how to connect the two in a way that has influence and leverage. Imagine that.

Thanks for tuning in and leaning in to this week’s episode. As we look to reimagine how we show up for our people, organiser organisations and community, reach out to us via our website at reimaginehr.com.au with your HR horror stories or suggestions of people you’d love to hear from or topics you want to explore. It’s all about people, purpose and impact and we are here for all of it.


Until next time, take care team.