Using data to identify problems accurately

Accurate problem identification sits at the heart of this video, which addresses AC 1.2 of 3CO02 – Principles of Analytics. The video examines how organisations move away from assumption-based decision-making — where judgements are shaped by gut feeling, anecdote or the most vocal stakeholders — towards conclusions grounded in evidence. It draws on concrete workplace scenarios, including high employee turnover, to illustrate how surface-level explanations can mislead organisations into costly interventions that fail to address the actual source of a problem.

The video then turns to what data makes possible that informal observation cannot reliably achieve. It covers root cause analysis as a discipline for distinguishing symptoms from underlying issues, and explores how systematic data collection — drawing on sources such as exit interviews, staff surveys, sickness absence records, and recruitment data — can surface patterns that remain invisible to individual line managers working day to day. The concept of quantifying problems is also addressed, with the video examining how precise, segmented figures transform vague organisational concerns into prioritised, measurable issues that can inform resource allocation.

Baseline measurement forms the third substantive area of the video. The relationship between capturing a reliable starting point and evaluating the impact of people practice interventions is examined across several contexts, including wellbeing programmes, learning initiatives, team restructures, and changes to recruitment practice. The video positions baseline data not as an administrative step but as the mechanism by which HR professionals can demonstrate objectively whether an intervention has produced a genuine change in organisational performance.