Introduction to People Data, Dashboards and KPIs

Covered in this video are the foundational concepts underpinning AC 3.1 of FREE02 – People Professional Technologies: what people data and analytics mean in a workforce context, and how both inform evidence-based decision-making in HR. The video addresses the shift away from intuition-led practice towards data-informed approaches, and it introduces dashboards as a tool for presenting workforce information in a consolidated, accessible format. KPIs — Key Performance Indicators — are also introduced as a mechanism for tracking whether people strategies are delivering against organisational objectives.

The video gives particular attention to what distinguishes a meaningful KPI from a vague aspiration, examining characteristics such as specificity, measurability, relevance and trackability over time. Concrete examples ground the discussion, including a voluntary turnover target framed around first-year employees, which illustrates how a well-constructed KPI differs from a loosely worded improvement goal. The role of dashboards is examined through the lens of practical workforce monitoring, covering how filtering by department, location or time period allows people professionals to investigate patterns rather than simply observe headline figures.

Wider indicative content for AC 3.1 sits in the background of this introductory video, with turnover, absence, engagement, performance, DEI and pay metrics all referenced as the types of data that populate people dashboards and feed into KPI frameworks. The video also touches on the relationship between correlation and causation, and the importance of triangulating quantitative data with qualitative insight — concepts that connect dashboard interpretation to sound analytical reasoning in workforce planning contexts.