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Your spreadsheet can’t do this. The latest Dandi updates make it easier than ever for HR teams to spot trends and discover insights.

Announcing New Dandi Visualizations

Today we're excited to announce new updates to Dandi data visaulizations.
These latest enhancements will save HR teams hours of manual work once spent on creating complex graphs and overlays. Now, you can spend less time in Excel and focus more on crafting data-driven strategies that move your business forward.

<h2>New graph overlays: Insights at a glance</h2>
Dandi&rsquo;s new graph overlays allow you to display two analyses on the same chart, instantly revealing patterns, correlations, and trends across employee segments.&nbsp;
Say you're analyzing gender representation against hiring trends. With Dandi, you can easily visualize both metrics on one chart, instantly revealing correlations that could guide future hiring strategies. It&rsquo;s a faster, smarter way to get the insights you need.

Key benefits
<ul>
<li>Instant trend identification: Easily spot correlations between key employee metrics to make faster, data-driven decisions.</li>
<li>Improved efficiency: Save hours by having complex visualizations generated instantly, freeing you up to tackle higher-priority tasks.</li>
<li>Actionable insights: Quickly highlight outliers and anomalies, allowing you to address issues with greater speed and precision.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Configurable x-axis: Easily tailor your visuals</h2>
HR data isn&rsquo;t one-size-fits-all. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve introduced a customizable x-axis, so you can tailor your visualizations to your exact needs.&nbsp;
Imagine you&rsquo;re analyzing hiring trends across department. With Dandi&rsquo;s configurable x-axis, you can now easily display departments across the x-axis, allowing you to quickly build the visuals you need to communicate key information to stakeholders.

Key benefits&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Precise analysis: Visualize key metrics that are most relevant to your strategic goals, such as diversity or talent development.</li>
<li>Deeper insights into employee segments: Easily compare data across different employee groups for more granular reporting and strategic planning.</li>
</ul>

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">More powerful analytics features coming&nbsp;</h2>

 Later this year, we&rsquo;ll be launching even more advanced analytics features, designed to give HR teams and analysts even greater power and flexibility. Stay tuned for more updates.&nbsp;

<h3>Track the metrics that matter. <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/copy-5-essential-employee-experience-dashboards/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">See the 5 essential dashboards for understanding employee experience</a>.</h3>

By leveraging AI-native platforms, HR organizations now have the opportunity to gain far greater insight, while significantly reducing operational complexity.

The New Maturity Model for HR Data

Working with HR data has never been easy.&nbsp;

Extracting insights from raw data is time consuming and expensive, which puts many organizations in a bind: while being data-driven is essential, it comes at a huge operational cost.&nbsp;

However, with the advent of generative AI, new opportunities are emerging for HR leaders to do more with data, far more efficiently.

"Generative AI has completely upended what&rsquo;s possible with HR data," says Jeff Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Dandi.&nbsp;

This paradigm shift calls for a reevaluation of how organizations approach HR data workflows and management.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">The Need for a New Maturity Model</h2>

Data maturity models serve as frameworks to assess a company's ability to create, manage, and effectively use data. These models not only measure a company&rsquo;s potential to extract insights from data but also evaluate how well they actually do so.&nbsp;

Evolving your HR data workflows in the age of AI means more team members can play the part of data analyst, resulting in more dynamic and efficient HR departments. No longer strictly reliant on the analyst, the era of AI for HR data is about empowering all team members to derive meaningful conclusions on their own. Increasingly, HR teams won&rsquo;t be blocked by technical barriers from work with data. All team members will work with data like experts.

Data management requires a progressive approach to keep pace with advancing technology and shifting business needs. &ldquo;Sales and marketing have long collected tons of data to improve every day. But HR was always a little behind. With people data, it&rsquo;s just been slower &mdash; but that&rsquo;s changing with AI,&rdquo; says Fernandez.

Integrating AI into your HR data workflows fundamentally changes the maturity model. It&rsquo;s no longer sufficient for HR teams to merely be &ldquo;data-driven.&rdquo; To stay ahead, companies need to leverage <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/buyers-guide-ai-for-hr-data/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">AI-native platforms</a> that accelerate time to insight and improve operational efficiency.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Stage 1: Traditional People Analytics</h2>

Key Characteristics
<ul>
<li>Use of traditional tools like spreadsheets and basic HR software</li>
<li>Manual data entry and report generation</li>
<li>Time-consuming processes for data extraction and analysis</li>
</ul>
Expected Outcomes
<ul>
<li>Limited insights due to manual processes; infrequent data refreshes</li>
<li>High dependency on HR analysts for even minor data requests</li>
<li>Basic understanding of workforce trends</li>
</ul>
At this foundational level, companies rely on tools like spreadsheets and basic HR software to manage HR data. While they may collect substantial data, they often struggle to extract its full value. Data is fragmented across spreadsheets and workplace systems, and HR leadership depends heavily on analysts to fulfill data requests necessary for building compelling business narratives.&nbsp;

This has rendered people analytics a check-the-box activity for many orgs, rather than a strategic imperative. When data is so challenging to use at even a basic level, HR teams often refrain from pursuing deeper analyses.&nbsp;

<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonalabramson/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Sharona Abramson</a>, SPHR, founder of <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://inflectionpointtr.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Total Inflection Points</a>, a total rewards consulting company, says complex analysis is tough because, in her field, &ldquo;You may have big ambitions for analysis, but when analyst resources are limited there&rsquo;s only so much you can do.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;

What&rsquo;s more, the hands-on nature of traditional data workflows makes them susceptible to human error. &ldquo;Manipulating data in spreadsheets is cumbersome. There&rsquo;s always the opportunity for mistakes, given that spreadsheets are made of formulas, and there are many opportunities for issues with the logic and the formula,&rdquo; says Abramson.

This limited ability to generate insights impacts the whole business over time. As Fernandez points out, &ldquo;There's going to be this bifurcation where more data-mature companies, leveraging native-AI platforms, know their people inside and out and build more compelling workplaces because of that.&rdquo;

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Stage 2: AI Experimentation</h2>

Key Characteristics

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Integration of AI tools to automate data extraction
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Continued reliance on HR analysts for complex data analysis and interpretation
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
AI enhances data retrieval but lacks advanced analytical capabilities
</li>
</ul>

Expected Outcomes

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Improved data retrieval efficiency
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Reduced but still significant dependency on analysts
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Better access to data but limited analytical depth
</li>
</ul>

At this stage, companies are experimenting with AI, incorporating it as an add-on to existing HR systems. AI helps these organizations get better answers faster, enabling employees to engage more broadly with data. But since these AI tools are layered on top of existing HRIS systems and people analytics platforms, functionality remains less cohesive. Companies are still reliant on data analysts for more than basic data retrieval or content creation, limiting their ability to fully harness the power of AI.

With AI tacked on to existing business systems, these solutions primarily present a three-fold challenge:

First, bolt-on AI often cannot work across multiple data sets, which limits the insights they reveal.&nbsp;

Second, these solutions may fail at performing complex calculations. &ldquo;Bolt-on solutions being used in the data analytics realm usually act as a retriever,&rdquo; says Mamdouh AlRamadan, CTO and co-founder of Dandi. They can find data if it exists, but they cannot function as a data analyst would.&rdquo; 

Third, ensuring privacy and security is tough with bolt-on solutions, as they may struggle to incorporate key organizational protocols to keep data safe.&nbsp;

Taken together, these hurdles mean HR is still reliant on analysts for more advanced analytic work. This prevents people teams from accelerating their time to insights and creating efficiency across the function and ultimately the organization.&nbsp;

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Stage 3: AI-Native</h2>

Key Characteristics

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Use of platforms built with AI at their core, eliminating the need for bolt-on solutions
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Natural language processing capabilities for data queries
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Automated, real-time data monitoring and alerts for workforce trends
</li>
</ul>

Expected Outcomes

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Significant reduction in reliance on HR analysts
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Ability to run complex calculations and generate insights without coding
</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000;">
Proactive workforce management through real-time alerts and trend analysis
</li>
</ul>

By adopting AI-native platforms&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-ai/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">like Dandi</a>, companies stand at the leading edge of HR data maturity.&nbsp;

At this stage, companies democratize analysis across the organization. Everyday users &mdash; from associates to HR leaders &mdash; can run sophisticated calculations and generate new insights without needing special training.

Team members can get on-the-spot answers to maintain the momentum of the conversation. For instance, a recruiter can quickly assess the effectiveness of different sourcing channels. Or, a total comp specialist could model the impact of proposed changes to the company&rsquo;s benefits provider.

&ldquo;With native AI, you can ask three, four questions in quick succession that would take an analyst weeks to finalize,&rdquo; says Mamdouh AlRamadan, CTO and cofounder of Dandi.&nbsp;

Say you&rsquo;re looking to understand the correlation between attrition and salary, and you want to segment by department, gender, and caregiver status. With traditional people analytics, this would take you weeks, and bolt-on AI wouldn&rsquo;t even be able to correlate the data.&nbsp;

&ldquo;If you ask Dandi AI, it'll tell you, &lsquo;Well the correlation is X and Y and Z,&rsquo; or, &lsquo;Women in Austin are leaving faster than women in NYC, whom they&rsquo;re being paid equal to.&rsquo; And It&rsquo;ll give you all of the information on the spot in about 30 seconds,&rdquo; says AlRamadan.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Companies at this stage are working more efficiently top to bottom thanks to the rate at which key questions are being answered and transformative insights are being discovered,&rdquo; says Fernandez. &ldquo;They'll be able to build a better company culturally, innovate faster, and deliver better results &mdash; and they'll do so more efficiently.&rdquo;

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Navigating Data Maturity</h2>

In the past, doing &ldquo;advanced&rdquo; data work meant greater complexity and increasing reliance on specialization. The new Maturity Model for HR Data reverses this model completely: by leveraging AI-native platforms, HR organizations now have the opportunity to gain far greater insight, while significantly reducing operational complexity.&nbsp;

This is a tremendously exciting moment for HR leaders. The potential to democratize data workflows across the HR function creates powerful new possibilities for workforces of every size&mdash;and we are still in the very early days of understanding the potential impact of this shift. 

If you would like to learn more about leveraging generative AI with your HR data, <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/a/ai-landing-page/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">please reach out to us at Dandi</a>. We&rsquo;d love to help you take your organization to greater, simpler levels of data maturity.

<h3>Not all AI is created equal. <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/buyers-guide-ai-for-hr-data/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Learn the difference between fake AI and real AI for HR data</a>.</h3>

Not all AI's are created equal. Here's what to know when choosing an AI for HR data.

Buyer’s Guide: AI for HR Data

The buzz around AI is hard to escape. We&rsquo;re quickly approaching the &ldquo;there&rsquo;s an AI for that,&rdquo; age, where companies meet their business needs with a patchwork solution of specialized AIs.&nbsp;

Amid the frenzy, people leaders and CHROs have emerged as key players in bringing generative AI to their organizations and are under immense pressure to invest in AI. A <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/topics/artificial-intelligence-in-hr" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;">recent survey by Gartner</a> found 76% of HR leaders believe their organization will fall behind if they don&rsquo;t adopt and implement AI solutions in the next 12 to 24 months, compared with those that do.&nbsp;

But, with all the noise, identifying the best AI HR data platforms can be a challenge. This article is here to help people leaders and decision makers understand the key elements of evaluating AI for HR data.&nbsp;

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">AI for HR: The current landscape</h2>
Seemingly overnight, AI has taken the business world by storm. Today there are already a wide range of ways that HR teams are leveraging AI in their everyday work:

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-wrap-mode: nowrap;">
Content creation. HR teams are using generative AI to create job postings, new hire welcome letters, interview summaries, internal announcements, and more.&nbsp;
</li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-wrap-mode: nowrap;">
Content evaluation. Companies are turning to AI to screen applications, identify bias in job posts, and aggregate employee feedback, among other use cases.&nbsp;
</li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-wrap-mode: nowrap;">
Documentation. One of the most common use cases for AI today is more intelligent search in document management. Think quick and accurate policy retrieval, regulatory document search, and incident reports. 
</li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-wrap-mode: nowrap;">
Data analysis. People teams are using AI to analyze HR data and discover new insights. If done right, this allows HR folks to assume work that&rsquo;s typically reserved for analysts. 
</li>
</ul>

These are all relevant ways HR teams are using AI, but at Dandi, we&rsquo;re most focused on and excited about the HR data analysis capabilities of native AI platforms. Platforms that do this exceptionally well equip companies with instant insights, saving weeks of time, budget, and frustration.&nbsp;

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Native AI vs. &ldquo;bolt-on&rdquo; AI</h2>
Companies offering AI for HR data typically fall into one of two categories: &lsquo;bolt-on&rsquo; AI or AI-native platforms. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-ai/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Native AI platforms, like Dandi, offer distinct advantages</a>, but bolt-on solutions make up much of what&rsquo;s available today.&nbsp;

Bolt-on AI solutions leverage large language models (LLMs) to cover basic use cases. They&rsquo;re often legacy companies or long-standing software solutions that have been quick to deploy their &lsquo;AI features&rsquo; amid the AI mania &mdash; but their capabilities are limited.

&ldquo;In these types of companies, they&rsquo;re trying to add AI features to whatever tool they have. So if you have an applicant tracking system, you may have some AI generation of job descriptions or job posting,&rdquo; say <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hernanchiosso/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Hernan Chiosso</a>, an HR consultant specializing in AI solutions and author of the Substack <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://productizehr.substack.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">ProductizeHR</a>.

AI-native platforms cannot function without its AI core, which makes AI-native options the premium choice. &ldquo;These types of tools wouldn&rsquo;t even be possible without AI. These are the most impressive ones because they aim to not only improve, but completely revolutionize the way business processes get done,&rdquo; says Chiosso.

Dandi co-founder and Chief Technology Officer&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mamdouhalramadan/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Mamdouh AlRamadan</a> offers the example of mobile development alongside the advent of smartphones to clarify.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Back in the day there was a massive movement toward mobile development and we started seeing the words iOS- native and Android-native versus a cross platform application. These native-applications will always be more accurate, better performing, and less buggy because everything is within the platform.&rdquo; The same is true for AI-native workforce intelligence platforms.&nbsp;

Read on for 3 key takeaways as you navigate the flood of AI platforms hitting the market today.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Choosing AI for HR data: Here's what matters</h2>
<h3 role="presentation" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">1. Fast time to insight</h3>
Since everyone is offering AI today, tools need to show value fast because the novelty will wear off quickly. &ldquo;What are the differentiators? The tool should show value not just by generating things but by generating high quality things, fast,&rdquo; says Chiosso.&nbsp;

Today, businesses spend weeks summarizing dashboards to derive insights. It&rsquo;s a huge pain point, but the majority of AI on the market does little to resolve this. Most bolt-on AIs essentially function like a glorified search engine: they can pull data but can&rsquo;t generate live calculations.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Look for AI that is going beyond data retrieval. Be sure that you're buying something that adds true value, like generating on-the-spot insights,&rdquo; says AlRamadan.

Accuracy is also an issue for most AI. &ldquo;The best bolt-on models available today are accurate only to 61%, and once trained, brought up to 75% accuracy,&rdquo; says AlRamadan.&nbsp;

Dandi generates insights instantly with uncompromising accuracy &mdash; Dandi AI has a 98% accurate rate of analysis.

<h3 role="presentation" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">2. Data ownership &amp; security</h3>
AI security is a real and important concern. Organizations are thrilled by the efficiency gains these models promise but can&rsquo;t help but wonder about the potential for reputational damage, regulatory issues, and legal risks. Especially when it comes to sensitive HR data, AI creates new questions around ownership and use.&nbsp;

To prioritize security, HR leaders should avoid models that train on their company&rsquo;s HR data.&nbsp;

&ldquo;If I train on a client's data, then anyone who's figured out how to write a few prompts here and there, and knows to continue repeating the questions, could easily access someone else's data,&rdquo; says AlRamadan.

If this sounds stranger than fiction, bear in mind it&rsquo;s already happened. In November 2023, Google researchers were able to get ChatGPT to <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/chatgpt-can-leak-source-data-violate-privacy-says-googles-deepmind/">reveal its training data</a> by repeating a single word, like &lsquo;poem&rsquo; or &lsquo;company,&rsquo; ad infinitum. ChatGPT divulged whole sections of training data, including thousands of examples of personally identifiable information it had scraped from the web.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s terrifying that the information can be extracted,&rdquo; says Chiosso of the incident.&nbsp;

Companies must also assess whether they retain ownership and custody of their data, as not all AI solutions guarantee this. Data ownership isn&rsquo;t just a legal issue but an ethical one, especially given the personal nature of HR data. It&rsquo;s crucial that companies retain control of their own data to protect employee confidentiality, ensure security, and meet compliance requirements.&nbsp;

Another on-the-ground challenge for HR teams sussing out AI solutions is access control. How are <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-enterprise-grade-roles-and-permissions/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">roles and permissions</a> handled in the system? Non-native AI systems can struggle to understand who can or should be able to access certain data, say, for example, a VP-level trying to view data from a different department.&nbsp;

Native AI platforms, like Dandi, are more sophisticated, and Dandi&rsquo;s roles and permissions are embedded in our AI. 

&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t allow it to access the data &mdash; a feature only available because we haven&rsquo;t trained the AI on user roles and permissions but rather custom built a specific set of parameters,&rdquo; says AlRamadan. &ldquo;If someone does not have permission to view compensation data in Dandi, our AI won&rsquo;t answer their compensation questions, plain and simple.&rdquo;

<h3 role="presentation" style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">3. Simplicity</h3>
Older platforms with bolt-on AI features can struggle working with multiple data sources.&nbsp;This can lead to AI bloat, with HR teams relying on many different copilots in order to meet their needs.&nbsp;

Rather, HR teams need a single AI that can work across all data. Native AI tools, like Dandi, are capable of providing much more value to HR leaders and orgs, as the AI is embedded into the core architecture of the platform, ensuring seamless integration of AI capabilities with all functionalities. 

All processes, from data ingestion to analytics and reporting, are designed to fully leverage AI. This enables everything from in-the-moment data retrieval to advanced predictive analysis and contextual insights that are deeply embedded within the system.

Having a single AI for HR not only provides quick access to powerful insights but also simplifies operations.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Start turning your data into insights</h2>
AI isn&rsquo;t just hype.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s going to be a major driving force in the evolution of HR. 

To start building for the future, it's essential that HR teams begin leveraging these technologies today. But it's important to know that not all AI's offer equal value. Don't settle for a smoke-and-mirrors product. 

Real AI for HR data works with all your HR systems, seamlessly secures your data, doesn't train its models on your data, and offers exceptional ease of use and time to insights.

This is exactly what we've built at Dandi. We'd love for you to see it for yourself.

<h3>Want to try Dandi AI for 30 minutes? <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/ai-landing-page/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Book a demo to get started</a>.</h3>

With Dandi, the people team at Demandbase is streamlining mission-critical reporting.

Dandi | Case Study | Demandbase

<h3>Snapshot</h3>
Industry:&nbsp;B2B software
Headquarters:&nbsp;San Francisco, CA
Employees:&nbsp;700+

<h3>Key results</h3>
3X faster turnaround time for people analytics reports 
70% reduction in ad hoc data requests 
Customized executive reporting across 8 divisions

<h2>About Demandbase&nbsp;</h2>
Demandbase is the leading AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM) platform that helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources.&nbsp;Over 1,000 companies worldwide use Demandbase to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. Their account-based technology unites sales and marketing teams around clear insights and facilitates quick actions across systems and channels to deliver big wins.

<h2>The challenge: Boost operational efficiency&nbsp;</h2>
As a product-centric organization, Demandbase relies on a highly skilled and engaged workforce. Building and retaining a world-class team is a major focus across all of their divisions. Over time however, Demandbase had outgrown their legacy HR tech stack&mdash;to the point that it was impeding their ability to make data-driven decisions regarding their workforce.
For example, generating the crucial workforce reports that the executive team relied on had become an onerous, multi-step process: First, data had to be exported from the HRIS tool into a spreadsheet. The data was then manually cleaned, harmonized, and formatted by an external consultant before being uploaded into a Looker dashboard. This was a time-intensive procedure ripe with potential for human error.&nbsp;
Demandbase&rsquo;s People Operations team decided that a better solution was needed. They included &ldquo;increased automation&rdquo; in their objectives and key results (OKRs), and started the search for an HR technology partner who aligned with their own philosophy of building products that unite teams around actionable, easy-to-understand insights.&nbsp;

<h2>Dandi unlocks dynamic reporting capabilities&nbsp;</h2>
Choosing Dandi enabled Demandbase to seamlessly integrate all their data sources in a unified reporting platform. This automation of workflows eliminated not only the need to outsource various aspects of the process, it also replaced error-prone manual work with a robust and secure data pipeline.&nbsp;
Dandi provides Demandbase&rsquo;s people team with the agility they were looking for when it comes to producing workforce insights. Reports that previously took an entire quarter to produce are now shared on a monthly basis&mdash;a 3X increase in efficiency&mdash;and the system is set up for dynamic reporting that captures the pulse of the team as it evolves.

<h2>Powerful features, built for the people team&nbsp;</h2>
Prior to implementing Dandi, the people team at Demandbase spent a significant amount of time each week on questions around workforce data, including hiring pipeline, headcount, employee statistics, and more. Today, Dandi&rsquo;s highly customizable reports mean the team is fielding 70% fewer ad-hoc data requests.
To further streamline access to relevant workforce data, the People Operations team at Demandbase also built custom dashboards for various stakeholders across the organization, who can now access insights on a self-serve basis. Here, two core features of Dandi come into play: Dandi&rsquo;s intuitive design makes onboarding and usage of the platform easy and quick for team members from all departments.&nbsp;
At the same time, Dandi&rsquo;s built-in privacy and data protection features ensure that the team stays in full control of data access and user permissions.

<h2>Leading with data&nbsp;</h2>
Having Dandi helps Demandbase break data silos and guide strategic people decisions. The granular intersectional measurement provided by Dandi makes it easy to analyze trends, set meaningful goals, and detect and act on outliers.
For example, when comparing the ratio of individual contributors to managers in various departments across different dimensions, the team spotted previously unknown inconsistencies. These findings led to an internal benchmarking initiative which informs future staffing decisions.&nbsp;
Today, Demandbase&rsquo;s executive leadership relies on insights provided by Dandi to set their teams&rsquo; growth strategy and mitigate churn. The people team is using Dandi to generate executive reports across all 8 company divisions.

<h3>It shouldn't take a workforce to know your workforce. <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-ai/" rel="follow">Learn how Dandi answers&nbsp;complex people questions</a>, efficiently and accurately.</h3>

Demandbase Case Study

Insights from across Dandi's user base reveal how hiring, attrition, and retention among in-person and remote employees has shifted.

Dandi Insights: In-Person vs. Remote Work

There's no doubt that the pandemic forever changed work. The question is: how? 

Except for the select few, pre-pandemic work meant going to work&mdash;no longer the case today. The swift shift to remote work showed that businesses could function without physical offices, altering our perspectives, beliefs, and values about work, as well as our willingness to compromise.

Now, four years after worldwide lockdowns, the ripple effects are still being felt in workplaces around the world. And as HR leaders try to understand the &ldquo;new normal&rdquo; of work, some basic questions remain about how to create a culture that attracts and retains top talent.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The post-2020 workplace has not settled,&rdquo; says Jeff Fernandez, CEO and co-founder at Dandi. &ldquo;Companies are still trying to figure out what is best for them. And in a lot of circumstances, they're finding that what they believe is right clashes with what employees feel is right,&rdquo; Fernandez adds.

For the first time ever, Dandi is sharing aggregate customer data to shed light on the state of work today&mdash;and the insights may surprise you. 

Sourced across Dandi customer accounts, this data reveals powerful trends about why employees stay&mdash;and leave.

Jeff Fernandez

, Co-founder and CEO

<h2>Once upon a time, remote work was a surefire retention hook</h2>
A sure retention tool pre-COVID? Remote work. Dandi&acute;s data from 2019 reveals a significant gap in attrition between in-house and remote employees, with attrition rates 2.75X higher for in-person employees.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Pre-COVID, remote workers were somehow &lsquo;safer&rsquo; from attrition, with remote employees having a significantly lower attrition rate,&rdquo; says Eric Walisko, data scientist at Dandi.

Since remote jobs were offered less frequently than in-person jobs, it&rsquo;s possible that people who had secured remote work were reluctant to give up these roles.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Today there seems to be a lot of strife on both parties' part. I don't think there are a lot of companies where leaders and employees would say, we nailed it. We're all really happy with the paradigm we&acute;re working in now. In 2019, that just wasn't the case. Remote work was a thing, but a relatively uncommon one compared people who commuted to the office X days a week,&rdquo; says Ryan Schell, VP of Revenue and co-founder at Dandi.

<h2>COVID turned hiring upside down</h2>
COVID drove a dramatic spike in remote hiring across most Dandi customers, peaking in 2021 when, for the first time in our data, remote hiring outpaced in-person hiring. The trend held for roughly two quarters before reversing. Today, however, the rate of remote hiring remains higher than&nbsp;the pre-COVID days.

&ldquo;That data corresponds with all of these companies coming into COVID lockdown policies, thinking remote work was the new normal, and then the retreat away from that,&rdquo; says Walisko. &ldquo;It's not an authoritative account across all industries or companies, but there are obvious things we&rsquo;re seeing in the data,&rdquo; he adds.&nbsp;

<h2>Today, remote work is just &ldquo;work&rdquo;</h2>
With remote hiring an established trend, remote work is no longer the retention hook it once was. Quite simply, remote work is now just &ldquo;work,&rdquo; and remote employees change jobs with the same frequency as their in-person peers.

&ldquo;We can look at it as a market where talent can move more freely. If what you require to move jobs is a remote opportunity, and now there are more of those than before, then your ability to move and transfer talent increases as well,&rdquo; says Schell. &ldquo;Now for companies who view holding on to employees as an important north star, that hurts a little bit because this used to be something that kept people for you.&rdquo;

We think there could be a few reasons for this. As mentioned, pre-pandemic fully remote jobs were harder to come by, and it&rsquo;s feasible that employees who landed one were more likely to stay put.&nbsp;

Eric Walisko

, Data Lead

Walisko agrees that the uptick in attrition among remote employees today may reflect the expanded professional options for work-from-home loyalists. &ldquo;Remote workers are no longer confined by their geographical locations, so they can regularly be looking for new jobs,&rdquo; says Walisko.&nbsp;

It could also be that as companies reconsider remote policies, bringing employees back to the office, those who want to remain remote prefer to seek new employment. As we see companies more firmly settle their work arrangement policies, we may also start to see an uptick in retention among remote workers emerge.&nbsp;

Another consideration is the quality of remote work. To be successful, productive, and fulfilling, remote work requires a separate set of considerations and policies than in-person work.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Remote work may not be as strong of a retention hook today as it once was because it&rsquo;s not the same quality of remote work that people were experiencing previously,&rdquo; says Schell. &ldquo;For some companies, it's likely that they applied this new concept without putting much thought or effort into how they were going to apply it.&rdquo;

<h2>In-person is now the reigning champ of retention</h2>
Among the many factors we&rsquo;re trying to parse here, one thing is clear: fully in-person companies currently retain talent at a much higher rate than fully remote or hybrid companies. Dandi clients with fully in-person setups have an average retention rate that is 8.9% higher than that of fully or partially-remote workplaces.

&ldquo;Many people need the structure of showing up, coming to an office, sitting at their desk, getting their coffee, getting their bacon, egg and cheese, if you&rsquo;re in New York,&rdquo; says Jeff Fernandez, Dandi CEO and co-founder.&nbsp;

<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anumandapati/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Anu Mandapati</a>, PHR, PCC, CTPC, Global Head of Culture, DEI &amp; Employee Experience at Magic Leap, notes the physical workspaces of these companies could be a draw. &ldquo;I'd be curious to also see what these environments look like. If we&rsquo;re looking at the physical workspace, what is working to be more conducive to brainstorming or collaboration among teams, for example?&rdquo; she asks. &ldquo;Maybe these companies are truly asking, &lsquo;what do people need?&rsquo; and crafting workplaces that help people want to stay.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Dandi&rsquo;s customer data lays bare a stark trend here, but there is no one-size-fits all setup to drive retention, engagement, and success. &ldquo;Dandi operates as a hybrid workplace, which maps well to our talent strategy of hiring the absolute best people regardless of location,&rdquo; says Fernandez. &ldquo;But we&acute;re very intentional about building culture and putting in place processes that enable us to do great work from afar. There&acute;s no doubt that being in person simplifies a lot of that.&rdquo;

While we're seeing a strong signal here, trends will likely continue to shift over time. &ldquo;There's no one right answer for all companies, but there is probably a right approach for your company. The key is having the data and insights to determine that, rather than working to replicate another organization's success,&rdquo; says Schell.

Ryan Schell

, Co-founder & VP Revenue

<h2>Fully remote? Hybrid? It doesn't seem to matter.</h2>
The various hybrid working arrangements that exist are nuanced, and so is the difference in retention rates across the three setups we looked at. Across Dandi customers, all companies that were remote &mdash; whether in a hybrid or fully remote arrangement &mdash; had roughly similar retention rates.&nbsp;

&ldquo;This is definitely somewhere where we&rsquo;d like to dig further into the data to understand the discrepancies in retention rates,&rdquo; says Walisko.
Dandi grouped companies as either not-remote, half-remote, mostly-remote, or some-remote. The average retention rate for fully in-person companies was 74.85% followed by half-remote clocked at 67.15%. Mostly-remote companies&rsquo; average retention rate was 65.30% and some-remote organizations landed at 65.40%.&nbsp;
&ldquo;For remote and hybrid teams, if you want the same productivity that exists in person, you need intrinsically motivated people. You need proper working stations. You need to be able to build that same sort of connection remotely as you would have in person,&rdquo; he adds.

<h2>3 key takeaways</h2>
As HR leaders digest these insights, it&rsquo;s best to remember that what works for each organization will be different. Regardless of how your company handles a return (or not) to office, keep the following top of mind.

<h3>1. Regardless of the work arrangement, engagement is key</h3>
Magic Leap operates with a hybrid model, which works well for the 1,000+ employee company. Mandapati says her team works hard to focus on engaging employees more so than being concerned about any one working arrangement.&nbsp;
&ldquo;For the organizations where there's less retention for remote workers, I&rsquo;d be interested in knowing: What does that performance evaluation process look like? How do managers ensure they&rsquo;re engaging remote workers on calls in a hybrid team setting? Are remote employees also getting stretch assignments at the same rate of in-person employees? We know proximity bias is real,&rdquo; says Mandapati.&nbsp;
High levels of employee engagement is linked to everything from <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">higher profitability to better retention</a>. Gallup has found that teams with low levels of engagement have turnover rates that are 18-43% higher than teams with high levels of engagement.&nbsp;
Companies that continue to offer hybrid working arrangements will need creative ways to engage with teams across in-person and remote work. &ldquo;I think you can feel a high degree of connection with folks and to your company remotely, but I think a lot of companies don't do remote well,&rdquo; says Fernandez.&nbsp;

Anu Mandapati

, Global Head of Culture, DEI & Employee Experience

<h3>2. Use an employee listening strategy to learn what matters</h3>
People teams can&rsquo;t build out relevant and effective workplace strategies unless they know what&rsquo;s important to their workforce. &ldquo;Companies need to be able to answer the engagement question," says Mandapati.&nbsp;
Collecting and analyzing data is the first step to that. &ldquo;Companies need to go and understand not only what these trends are from a benchmark perspective, but how true these trends are for you,&rdquo; says Schell.&nbsp;
Mandapati notes that this is a more consistent effort than the cursory annual engagement survey.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The link between employee data and retention is that when you know what&rsquo;s most important for people in a specific office, on specific teams, with specific working arrangements. If you create that, I wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if there&rsquo;s a stronger sense of connection, inclusion, belonging, all of which translates to retention,&rdquo; she says.

<h3>3. Data empowers people teams to make the best decision</h3>
The data we share here only tells a portion of the story. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s most important is getting qualitative and quantitative data that you can look at intersectionality,&rdquo; says Mandapati.&nbsp;
Looking for gaps allows HR to remedy discrepancies and support engagement. &ldquo;If we look at total rewards, if we look at sense of belonging, productivity, morale, if we look at all of these pieces, we really should have a 0% differential, be it based on dimensions of diversity or work arrangement style,&rdquo; adds Mandapati.&nbsp;

<h2>Turn complex people questions into clear insights</h2>
In the space of just a few years, remote work has gone from a rare, highly-prized benefit, to a commonplace hiring option, to a possible factor in higher rates of employee attrition.&nbsp;
It's been a huge challenge for businesses and employees to navigate this head-spinning change&mdash;and the dust still has not settled.
One thing is clear, though: as HR leaders continue to navigate these changes, data is the key to understanding the past, present, and future of your workforce. And this is precisely where we can help.
Dandi is an <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-ai/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">AI-native workforce intelligence platform</a> that answers people questions across the employee lifecycle. Simple, secure, and globally compliant, Dandi turns complex people data into clear insights.

<h3>Want to know more about Dandi? Learn about our <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-ai/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">powerful AI for HR</a>.&nbsp;</h3>

In-Person vs. Remote Work

We’re rolling out generative AI report summaries and chat. But that’s just part of the story.

Introducing Dandi AI

Dandi is launching a powerful new set of AI features that will save countless hours on reporting, unlock powerful new insights, and transform how people teams work with data. 

We know, we know. Another day, another AI announcement. Big deal. But hear us out: this isn&rsquo;t just &ldquo;another&rdquo; set of AI features. 

At Dandi, we&rsquo;ve been building to this moment for years. Everything from the way we structure data to the technical infrastructure we&rsquo;ve built has been done with a key vision in mind: to make Dandi a truly AI-native workplace intelligence platform.

Read on to learn what we&rsquo;re building, how we&rsquo;re building it, and why it all matters.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Report summaries: Weeks of work, done in seconds</h2>

Starting in a few weeks, customers will have access to Dandi&rsquo;s AI-generated report summaries.&nbsp;

When viewing a report or dashboard, a new &ldquo;Generate Insights&rdquo; icon now appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Clicking the icon instantly produces a summary.

You can then edit the summary and save it to a corresponding report or dashboard. Once saved, a smiley icon indicates that the summary was AI-generated. The summary can quickly be re-generated to account for new data as it becomes available.&nbsp;

<h3 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Why report summaries matter</h3>

It takes a lot of time to manually generate report summaries.&nbsp;

At one Dandi customer, a full-time analyst spent three weeks summarizing the data for a single executive report. For businesses everywhere this type of slow, expensive data work is the rule&mdash;not the exception. Dandi AI will drastically reduce the time that goes into building data narratives, enabling teams to focus instead on more strategic work.

Manually-generated report summaries are also prone to error and inconsistency. Dandi AI summaries create a clear, consistent framework for interpreting and understanding data, giving customers a more reliable basis for decision-making.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">AI chat: Answer your most complex people questions</h2>

In July, we&rsquo;ll roll out AI chat, enabling customers to ask questions and get answers about their data.&nbsp;

Dandi chat makes complex data analysis simple. You can query past employee numbers or predict future trends based on years of data. You can chat to compare your company's statistics with industry standards like the EEOC-1. Dandi chat can also analyze multiple data points to reveal insights, such as examining the relationship between gender representation and attrition rates over several years.&nbsp;

Initially, chat will focus on answering queries. Planned future updates include creating dashboards and setting goals via chat.

<h3 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Why chat matters</h3>

&ldquo;What's the risk of not increasing pay?"&nbsp;

&ldquo;How do we compare to our competitors?"

In boardrooms and strategy sessions, these are the questions people leaders face every day. It used to take weeks&mdash;or more&mdash;for analysts to run the data. And now Dandi chat can answer questions like these the moment they arise.

Chat makes complex data easy to use, freeing people teams to bring a truly data-driven approach to every decision.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Privacy and security </h2>
AI raises a host of important questions about data security and privacy. At Dandi, security has been core to our product since day 1. The same is true as we&rsquo;ve implemented AI across the platform.

Intelligent access controls

Our powerful <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-enterprise-grade-roles-and-permissions/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">roles &amp; permissions controls</a> are embedded into our AI, ensuring that customers have complete control over how other team members interact with data via AI. If someone does not have permission to view compensation data in Dandi, our AI won&rsquo;t answer their compensation questions.

We don&rsquo;t train our AI on your HR data

One of the biggest obstacles to AI adoption in HR is how AI models are trained. Companies are rightly skeptical of turning over their most sensitive information to any platform that intends to use the data for training purposes.

That&rsquo;s why we built Dandi AI to put the privacy of our customers&rsquo; data first. Our models are not trained on any of our clients' HR data nor are they reinforced with any client information. Further, each instance of Dandi AI is specific to a customer&rsquo;s account. This means that the AI in Customer A&rsquo;s account has no awareness of the data in Customer B&rsquo;s account, or vice versa.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Dandi is AI-native</h2>

AI is not a nice add-on feature for Dandi. It is not a third-party integration. It is native to our platform.

Dandi is AI-native because it can instantly make sense of your data in relation to any questions you ask, across all areas of the system, without prior training on your particular data. This allows us to unlock unique AI capabilities across our platform.

Faster calculations

Dandi stands out from other AI tools by excelling in mathematical calculations. By utilizing over 10 million pre-processed metrics per customer, Dandi reduces the complexity of calculations needed, leading to quicker and more precise answers.

More efficient, more accurate data retrieval

Dandi enhances data retrieval by attaching extensive natural language tags to all pre-processed reports. This allows the AI to quickly and accurately find the right data, reducing the chances of errors.

Increased intelligence and versatility

Dandi goes beyond just fetching data; it can predict follow-up questions, compare data across different reports, and incorporate data into new analyses. This capability makes Dandi more versatile than typical AI tools that are only capable of retrieving data points.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">More to come</h2>

AI represents a massive technological shift and everyone&mdash;us included&mdash;is still in the very early days of understanding how it will transform our world.&nbsp;

Nevertheless, it is already clear that AI will quickly become integral to the way people teams use and learn from data. At Dandi, we believe our AI-native capabilities, combined with our world-class design and security, make us uniquely positioned to lead in this area.

We are thrilled with the progress we&rsquo;ve already made, and look forward to sharing more.

<h3>Want to see Dandi AI for yourself? <a href="https://demo.itsdandi.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Book a call</a> with our team to experience true AI-native analytics.</h3>

Learn how Dandi can help HR and talent teams discover insights that drive stronger talent strategies.

5 essential talent and development dashboards

When it comes to people initiatives, there isn't one single most critical element. But, when companies neglect to develop and retain the talent they invest in, they risk squandering their most crucial investment.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Good talent is hard to come by, especially in a tight labor market. Since employees are the largest investment of any company, it is a better use of time and money to retain and develop staff than to frequently backfill due to high turnover,&rdquo; says <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-l-jensen-sphr/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Julie Lamothe-Jensen</a>, founder and principal at <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.moxiehrstrategies.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Moxie HR Strategies</a>, an HR consulting firm. &ldquo;It's not just the cost of recruitment either, but also the time and productivity that is lost while onboarding and integrating new talent,&rdquo; she adds.

But it&rsquo;s not enough to simply track performance metrics in HR, like time to hire, employee engagement score, and employee turnover rate. As you refine your talent strategy for 2024, here are the top metrics you should be tracking.

<h2>Broken rung analysis </h2>

Finding and remediating gaps in promotion will help you prevent unwanted employee loss and foster a more equitable company.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s essential that HR conduct regular promotion analysis to ensure equitable promotion practices across demographics at all levels of the organization,&rdquo; says Lamothe-Jensen. 

Promotions are a critical area of focus because we know that some demographic groups are less likely to receive promotions than others. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858420929298" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">One 2020 peer-reviewed article</a> that examined promotion rates among more than 4,500 assistant principals found that Black men were the least likely to be promoted to principal. The same study also found that even though women had on average over a year more of experience, they were less likely to be promoted to high school principal than white men.

Research also shows that promotions can make it more likely employees will stay. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/global-talent-trends/archival/global-talent-trends-october-2022" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">LinkedIn&rsquo;s 2022 Global Talent Trends Report</a> found a 22% lift in retention alongside internal mobility.&nbsp;

HR data insights related to promotions allows companies to zoom out and look for trends over time.&nbsp;

&ldquo;We all have biases, even in HR, and regardless of how much time and attention you put into a promotion or performance review process, bias can still creep in,&rdquo; says <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecgoodson/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Emily Goodson</a>, an <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.ecgoodson.com/consulting" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">HR consultant</a> specializing in organizational culture and inclusion. 

&ldquo;Having a dashboard where you can look at the data of tenure, performance scores, performance ratings, feedback, and then cut that data <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/using-data-to-create-more-inclusive-workplaces-for-neurodivergent-employees/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">across ability</a>, race, gender, and other diverse characteristics provides an additional bias check,&rdquo; she adds.

Perceptions of pay equity can be powerful drivers of retention &mdash; or a lack thereof. Employees who feel they&rsquo;re being paid unfairly are more likely to move on. Meanwhile, &ldquo;equitable and fair pay is among the greatest drivers of employee satisfaction,&rdquo; writes Josh Bersin in his <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://joshbersin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/WT-21_12-HR-Predictions-for-2022-Report.pdf" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">2022 HR Predictions report</a>.&nbsp;

To support talent retention, companies need to continuously monitor for pay gaps across multiple demographic categories.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so important to be able to look at comp intersectionality. It&rsquo;s essential to be able to pull, on a regular basis, what everyone makes in which job, then look across race, gender, ethnicity, ability, and other demographics to ensure there aren't any gaps that have crept in because of bias,&rdquo; Goodson says.&nbsp;

Real-time awareness allows you to remediate pay gaps as they develop to move toward a standard of equal pay for equal work. Beyond bolstering retention, ensuring equal pay for equal work supports employee engagement and productivity, too. Data from <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.indeed.com/lead/the-importance-of-fair-pay-and-salary-transparency" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Indeed</a> shows that 80% of employees are more productive and engaged when they feel they are paid fairly.&nbsp;

A reputation for fair compensation also pays dividends in T&amp;A: <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.indeed.com/lead/the-importance-of-fair-pay-and-salary-transparency" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Indeed</a> also found that 75% of workers are more likely to apply for a job when the company shares pay transparently.

&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t want to stay at companies where they feel like their basic needs aren&rsquo;t being met. And some of those needs are compensation. Employees need to feel safe psychologically but also physically taken care of in terms of their livelihood with their compensation,&rdquo; Goodson says.

<h2>Turnover rate</h2>

When it comes to non-voluntary separation, companies need both a deep and broad understanding of the landscape.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Without identifying and fully understanding the root causes of employee turnover, how can HR develop an effective retention strategy?&rdquo; asks Lamothe-Jensen.&nbsp;

While employees leave for lots of reasons, it&rsquo;s ultimately because they&rsquo;ve found a better option elsewhere. &ldquo;Companies need to understand why people have left, first and foremost. But then, it&rsquo;s about looking for patterns in the data,&rdquo; says Goodson. &ldquo;For instance, if you have a male in leadership whose team is all women and they all turn over within a year, then that&rsquo;s potentially problematic,&rdquo; she adds.

In those cases, it&rsquo;s up to HR to lean into the data &mdash; reasons for leaving, pay, promotion, engagement, and more &mdash;&nbsp; to glean insight.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Considering the high employee turnover rate, we can then look for, for example, feedback that was perhaps raised about that individual&rsquo;s management style, and then provide coaching or development,&rdquo; says Goodson.&nbsp;

This last piece is key. As Lamothe-Jensen points out, &ldquo;If there is a toxic department manager with high turnover in their team, it's likely turnover will continue as long as that boss is allowed to manage the team in the same way,&rdquo; she says.

<h2>Training effectiveness</h2>

Training and development is a core element of retention, and looms even larger in importance when we think about DEI.&nbsp;

&ldquo;When you're thinking about building a diverse and inclusive workforce, development and growth should be an even bigger priority because, if you're building a diverse workforce, you're going to be open to bringing in people who have non-traditional backgrounds or areas in their resumes that you want to help them upskill,&rdquo; says Goodson.&nbsp;

To measure training effectiveness, HR should look at outcomes and how outcomes change over time. Survey employees on their skillset in advance of the training, and then survey after to assess the progress they&rsquo;ve made.

Like stretch assignments, like promotions, training represents an opportunity to develop skill sets, gain visibility, and ultimately advance careers. HR must also be examining who receives these opportunities for development.

Employee engagement is one of the most prescient talent metrics when it comes to retention. Study after study prove that engaged employees are <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">more productive</a>, experience <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879110000783?via%3Dihub" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">less burnout</a>, and <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">stay at organizations longer</a>, while the converse is also true.&nbsp;

But it&rsquo;s not enough to just look at top line data of employee engagement scores from the general population. Companies need to take an intersectional lens to engagement data to understand which employee populations are generally the most engaged or disengaged, allowing you to build targeted programs in return. 

Population-specific campaigns to increase engagement in turn increase retention, and can even lead to greater profitability. A survey of over 21,000 companies across 91 countries conducted by the <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.piie.com/newsroom/press-releases/new-peterson-institute-research-over-21000-companies-globally-finds-women" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Peterson Institute for International Economics</a> found that companies with a minimum of 30% women in senior management positions had 15% higher profits.

<h2 style="margin-top: 20pt; margin-bottom: 6pt;">Drive stronger talent strategies&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>
Prioritizing effective talent retention and development is key for organizations looking to remain competitive. By actively nurturing and empowering their workforce, HR teams not only mitigate the risk of costly attrition but can also help to advance, directly and indirectly, nearly every strategic advantage at the company.

<h3>Want to spend less time digging for insights? <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/product/reporting/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">See how Dandi streamlines HR reporting</a>.</h3>

Learn the 6 steps that every people team should take to ensure compliant use, collection, and storage of people data.

The HR Data Compliance Checklist

Compliance is about reducing risk &mdash; for your company and employees. Especially when it comes to sensitive employee information, non-compliant, inappropriately secured data makes companies and people vulnerable. 

While a slew of consumer data protection laws have gone into effect in recent years, it&rsquo;s important to remember that these almost universally apply to employees as well.&nbsp;

For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) govern employee data. Among other requirements, these mandate that companies must secure permission to collect employee data, share transparently how the data is used, and have systems in place in case employees revoke their permission.&nbsp;

These regulations make for a complex compliance landscape but ultimately are net positive as they help protect the highly personal data employees share with their employers. Without the data employees share in <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-self-id/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">voluntary self-ID campaigns</a>, it would be near impossible to drive meaningful change in the workplace. But it&rsquo;s imperative this data is securely collected, stored, and <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/how-to-ethically-use-people-data/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">ethically used</a>.&nbsp;

Keep reading to learn how people teams can ensure the compliant use, collection, and storage of people data.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 1: Understand your compliance obligations</h2>
Businesses have serious responsibilities when it comes to data compliance. Regulations exist across state, federal, and international jurisdictions, and vary across industries. Companies that fail to comply with data protection laws face hefty fines and risk reputational damage.&nbsp;

At most orgs, it&rsquo;s up to HR professionals to uphold these standards in order to protect employee data and avoid costly non-compliance fees. From an HR perspective, some of the most important laws include GDPR, CCPA, some specific EEOC reporting requirements, and HIPAA.

<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): GDPR was signed into law in the EU in 2016 and companies were required to be fully compliant by 2018. Businesses that have or hold data belonging to any EU citizen are subject to GDPR data protection requirements. The <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://gdpr.eu/fines/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">maximum penalties</a> are 4% of worldwide revenue or &euro;20 million, whichever is greater.
</li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): After going into effect on January 1, 2020, CCPA became the strictest data privacy law the United States has seen yet.&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/employment-law-compliance/heres-california-employers-know-ccpa-compliance" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">CCPA requires</a> that all businesses with more than $25 million in annual revenue must explicitly disclose what information they collect and that consumers have a right to data deletion. Businesses must comply with CCPA if they collect data belonging to California residents.
</li>
</ul>
<ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;">
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
EEOC: <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.eeoc.gov/data/eeo-data-collections" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">The EEOC</a> requires that most private employers and federal contractors submit workplace demographic reports under EEO-1 Component 1 data collection. With the United States government poised to <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://apnews.com/article/race-ethnicity-census-bureau-hispanics-0b2c325b683efd95e8e8e24235654abd" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">change how it collects race and ethnicity data</a>, it&rsquo;s possible that EEO reporting requirements may shift as well.&nbsp;
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<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Nunito, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
HIPAA: If as a company, you pay for a portion of employees&rsquo; health care plans, you&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.hipaajournal.com/does-hipaa-apply-to-employers/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">may be subject to HIPAA</a>. Employee health records, whether obtained as part of workers comp or another workplace injury, are also subject to HIPAA data protection laws. 
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</ul>
It is essential that any data effort, and any data vendor or partner, operates within the applicable bounds of these regulatory guidelines.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 2: Gain employee consent for data collection and processing&nbsp;</h2>
Data was once hailed as a <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-big-data-can-transform-society-for-the-better/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">cure-all solution to our society&rsquo;s challenges</a>, and many companies adopted a &ldquo;more is more&rdquo; mentality. However, attitudes have shifted significantly, and arbitrary data collection poses significant compliance risks to companies.
It&rsquo;s crucial for companies to ensure employee consent for data and implement data minimization strategies. Employees should know what information you&rsquo;re collecting, how long you&rsquo;re retaining it, what you&rsquo;re using it for, and how they can find out what data of theirs you have. Employee consent for data is not only a requirement for <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/going-beyond-basic-employee-data-collection/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">ethical data collection</a> in HR, regulations require it.&nbsp;

When it comes to data minimization, accumulating unnecessary employee data heightens the risk of breaches and non-compliance penalties under GDPR and CCPA regulations. 

GDPR requires that companies only collect the data that&rsquo;s <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gdpr-advisor.com/gdpr-and-employee-data-balancing-privacy-rights-and-hr-practices/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">absolutely necessary for their purposes</a>. The EU&rsquo;s law also states that companies cannot use consumer data as they wish, but rather it must only be used for the purposes they communicated to consumers.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 3: Ensure secure data storage and access</h2>

When it comes to HR data storage solutions, companies have a lot of boxes to tick. Data encryption and cloud storage for HR data are table-stakes, and features like&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-enterprise-grade-roles-and-permissions/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">enterprise-grade data access controls</a> help businesses strike the right balance between <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/privacy-vs-progress/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">privacy and progress</a>.

Secure storage solutions and protecting data from unauthorized access are the cornerstones of data protection. Companies need solutions that ensure highly sensitive employee data remains encrypted, both in transit and at rest.&nbsp;

HR data storage solutions come as cloud or on-premise solutions. Cloud storage offers scalability, flexibility, and stringent security measures provided by reputable service providers. Conversely, on-premises storage grants organizations direct control over their data but requires significant investments in infrastructure and maintenance and are increasingly obsolete in our cloud-run world.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 4: Implement a data retention policy</h2>
A clear HR data retention policy helps with compliance, risk management, <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/privacy-best-practices-for-dei-data/">privacy protection</a>, and can lower data storage costs. Policies should outline data retention periods, highlight approaches for identifying outdated or unnecessary data, and share procedures for secure data disposal in HR.&nbsp;

A data retention period refers to the duration for which data must be kept based on both internal policies and external regulations, and these periods typically differ across organizations and industries. Once the data has served its purpose, it should be either archived, anonymized, or permanently deleted.

Companies need procedures for regularly reviewing and securely disposing of outdated or unnecessary data to support ethical data collection in HR and remain compliant.&nbsp;

HR teams should establish a systematic approach to ensure that data is continually assessed to determine its relevance. Regular reviews will help identify obsolete or redundant information, reducing storage costs and minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or breaches.&nbsp;

What&rsquo;s more, securely disposing of unnecessary data helps mitigate potential privacy concerns and legal liabilities. By implementing robust procedures, organizations can streamline data management processes, ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, and effectively safeguard highly sensitive employee information.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 5: Prioritize training and clear communications</h2>
Educating employees about your company's data collection and privacy policies is crucial. Help employees recognize their responsibility in handling data with care by creating a culture of compliance and mandating training.&nbsp;

When possible, give employees a TL;DR option alongside official data policies as traditional company-wide emails with dense text are often overlooked.&nbsp;

Additionally, make training mandatory for all employees, with more detailed offerings for those dealing extensively with sensitive data. Training should include data security best practices and information on compliance, as well as how to identify a breach and what to do about it, among other best practices and the various requirements of specific regulations.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Step 6: Commit to continuous monitoring and improvement</h2>
It&rsquo;s not enough to just set policies and educate staff on them. Rather, to remain HR data compliance companies need processes for ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement.

Regular HR compliance audits are crucial to ensure the company is still properly adhering to regulations, and keeping up with the pace of change in the compliance landscape requires HR professionals remain nimble to adapt to legislative changes and evolving best practices.&nbsp;

By prioritizing HR compliance audits and adapting to data protection laws, businesses can mitigate risks, uphold standards, and foster a culture of continual enhancement in their HR processes.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Bonus step: Find the right partners for your HR data journey</h2>
HR and DEI professionals play a critical role in ensuring companies meet the requirements of HR compliance. They serve as guardians of employee data protection, ensuring proper handling of data while adhering to a patchwork of state, federal, and international regulations.

This can be challenging work. But you don&rsquo;t have to navigate alone.&nbsp;

With Dandi, best-in-class data protection, enterprise-grade access controls, and GDPR-compliant storage are built right into the platform. We're a partner to every people team looking to do more with data, while ensuring that all security and compliance needs are met.&nbsp;

<h3>Learn more about how <a href="https://itsdandi.com/product/security" rel="follow">Dandi secures your business&rsquo;s most sensitive information</a>.</h3>

Learn how to track the metrics that matter for the employee experience.

5 Essential Employee Experience Dashboards

When exceptional, the employee experience not only fosters retention but also fuels employee referrals, attracts top talent, increases productivity, and can lead <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/03/31/why-invest-in-employee-experience-six-proven-reasons/?sh=5676b6f67d42" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">to greater revenue and shareholder returns</a>.&nbsp;

Read on to explore 5 data-driven methods to gain a deeper understanding of employee experience.

Finding gaps in opportunity can help you eliminate costly turnover and better retain top talent.&nbsp;

Career development consistently tops the list of most-desired employee benefits. Both job seekers and tenured employees seek more than just competitive pay and good benefits packages; they also want tangible commitments from their employer for learning and development.&nbsp;

Good career development doesn&rsquo;t just attract individuals, it makes the ones who are already in the door more likely to stay. The opposite is also true: A study by the nonprofit research group The Conference Board found that 58% of employees say they&rsquo;re likely to leave if they don&rsquo;t receive professional development opportunities. 

Yet, crucially, not everyone receives these opportunities equally. The same survey found that BIPOC are less likely to have opportunities for growth and development available to them. Specifically, Black employees are 38% and 37% more likely to say they face a lack of resources and opportunities, respectively, as compared to white workers, while Latino workers are 35% and 37% more likely to say they face a lack of resources and opportunities than their white counterparts.

While there&rsquo;s been much talk post-pandemic about what matters more to employees than pay (flexibility, for some), salary remains the most important factor for many.&nbsp;

According to <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/389807/top-things-employees-next-job.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Gallup</a>, almost two-thirds (64%) say that a significant increase in salary or benefits is &ldquo;very important&rdquo; in any job they&rsquo;d consider as their next role. The research firm also notes that &ldquo;Throughout Gallup's historical workplace research, pay has been one of the most important factors when accepting a new job offer.&rdquo; 

Competitive and fair pay not only attracts new employees but encourages tenured workers to stay. Yet pay gaps persist across race, gender, and ability &mdash; diluting the chances of &ldquo;fair&rdquo; pay.

Companies need to take an <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/4-ways-to-use-intersectional-measurement/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">intersectional approach</a> to understanding compensation to find and remedy the most significant gaps, which reflect systemic disadvantage. 

Real-time salary info lets employers stay in tune with market shifts and tweak their packages as needed. This not only attracts new talent but also assures current staff they're being compensated fairly. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/going-beyond-basic-employee-data-collection/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">With this data</a>, employers can spot retention issues early and take action before it's a problem.

<h2>Benefits &amp; training </h2>

Salary is just one form of compensation, but equity, healthcare, L&amp;D opportunities, and wellness programs can be significant drivers of employee satisfaction and engagement.&nbsp;

Benefits have long been a core differentiator for competitive companies, and recent data suggests this trend shows no signs of slowing down. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/total-rewards/employee-benefits-strategy/2024-benefit-strategies-report/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Mercer&rsquo;s Employee Benefits Survey</a> found that 64% of large employers were planning to enhance their health and well-being benefits offerings for 2024.&nbsp;

Well-being benefits, in particular, may be worth focusing on for companies looking to boost the employee experience and support <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/getting-realistic-about-dei-goals-5-best-practice-actions/">DEI efforts</a> at the same time. <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://hbr.org/2022/09/the-surprising-benefits-of-work-life-support" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Recent research</a> by socialists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev finds that implementing "wellness programs" like paid family leave, flexible workplace arrangements, and support with childcare improves workplace equity.&nbsp;

Dobbin and Kalev&rsquo;s research found that at companies with greater emphasis on these kinds of wellness programs Black, Hispanic, and Asian American male and females fared better, and their percentage in management &ldquo;increased significantly.&rdquo; This was true for white female managers, too.&nbsp;

Tracking benefits allows companies to understand which benefits matter most to employees to best allocate resources and implement competitive benefits packages.

<h2>Organizational change</h2>

Be it a reorg, executive departure, acquisition, or crucial new product launch, today it&rsquo;s not just the pace of changes that&rsquo;s increasing but the volume, too.&nbsp;

When employees become overwhelmed by incessant change, they sometimes experience <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/4317899" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">change fatigue</a> &mdash; a lead indicator that employees are hurtling toward burnout, or even getting ready to give their notice. 

Gartner&rsquo;s <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/trends/top-priorities-for-hr-leaders" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Top 5 HR Trends and Priorities for 2024</a> research found that employees experiencing change fatigue are almost twice as likely to leave the company (43%), and a third more likely to report lower levels of trust in the organization.

This data gives a helpful baseline idea of the top-line effects of organizational change on the workforce. But it can take weeks, months, or years to truly understand the specific impact of the kinds of seismic changes mentioned above at the organizational level. Companies need to be able to isolate and identify the impact in the data so they can guide future decisions and change management strategies.

<h2>Turnover</h2>

Turnover is a natural part of any business. But elevated rates of turnover are costly in more ways than one. Companies face the administrative costs of hiring a replacement and any severance pay but the intangible factors are costly, too. When employees leave, they take with them not only the skills to complete the tasks of their role but also the invaluable institutional knowledge they&rsquo;ve gained during their tenure at the company.&nbsp;

The employee experience also takes a hit, with company culture and employee morale affected by unwanted turnover. Elevated rates of turnover means employees are regularly pivoting to keep up with the shifting expectations that accompany losing a teammate.&nbsp;

Yet when it comes to understanding what&rsquo;s causing high turnover, companies are left in the dark without the data to illuminate the specifics of their company.&nbsp;

Companies need to establish a historical benchmark for turnover and identify the factors that are the most significant drivers of unwanted employee turnover.

<h2 style="margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 6pt;">Track the metrics that matter for EX&nbsp; </h2>
Investing in the employee experience pays dividends across the organization. 

From keeping proven performers happy and engaged to attracting new top talent and boosting the bottom line, the employee experience is worth focusing on.&nbsp;

By examining areas like career development, compensation, benefits, organizational change, and turnover, companies can leverage data to gain deeper insights and address disparities.&nbsp;

<h3>Save hours on HR reporting. <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/product/reporting/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Learn more about Dandi reporting</a>.</h3>

Learn how Dandi customers at Assembly and MiQ build trust with employees and leadership to drive engagement in voluntary self-ID campaigns.

Opt-in: Proven strategies for boosting self-ID engagement

While the formerly strict lines between the personal and professional have softened in recent years, employees may still feel reluctant to disclose certain personal information to their employers &mdash; like how they identify.

Today&rsquo;s political climate and <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/dei-culture-wars/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">culture wars</a> further entrenches existing hesitation to employee participation in <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/guide-to-vsi-campaigns-part-1/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">voluntary self-identification (self-ID) surveys</a>. &ldquo;The discourse around identity politics invariably impacts the conversation around employee data,&rdquo; said <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-gong-he-him-418596b/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Jason Gong</a>, DEI Lead at Dandi.

Whether they&rsquo;re concerned about <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/privacy-vs-progress/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">data privacy</a>, bias or stigmatization, or simply don&rsquo;t care to share personal information with their employer, many employees opt out. Yet <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/guide-to-vsi-campaigns-part-2/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">voluntary self-ID</a> data is essential for any serious HR or DEI program. 

Read on to learn more about the importance of employee engagement in <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.itsdandi.com/blog/introducing-dandi-self-id/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">self-ID campaigns</a>, and how two Dandi customers have built trust and encouraged participation with employees and leadership.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">The importance of employee engagement in self-ID surveys </h2>

Self-ID survey results give organizations a clearer understanding of who makes up their workforce and how they identify themselves. Without self-ID data, employers are left relying on a combo of the mandatory-to-collect EEOC data and&nbsp; a &ldquo;visual survey,&rdquo; which hardly provide rich or accurate insights.&nbsp;
Moreover, integrating self-ID data with other workforce information, such as engagement survey results, provides companies with invaluable opportunities to gain intersectional insights into their workforce.

Yet employees aren&rsquo;t always eager to offer up their most personal information, fearing retribution or simply not understanding how this data will be used. A lack of transparency and communication on the employer's part can compound this.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When communication and trust do not exist, employees are going to be much more reluctant to report. They may fear how that information is going to be used, and whether or not disclosing something really sensitive &mdash; like disability, status or sexual orientation &mdash; might be used against them at a certain point in time,&rdquo; Gong said.
Coupling a strong communication campaign with transparency about survey results, a clear plan of action, and regular communication are all key to easing employee concerns and encouraging participation.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">The importance of transparency&nbsp;</h2>
When employees take the time to self-ID and volunteer highly personal information, they want to know the results. By sharing in a way that offers transparency while reinforcing privacy and confidentiality, companies can boost employee engagement in the process.&nbsp;

Adtech company <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.wearemiq.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">MiQ</a> has published their <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://idea.wearemiq.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">I.D.E.A. report</a> &mdash; Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability &mdash; annually since 2021.&nbsp;

&ldquo;We created a campaign internally asking people to fill out their demographic information and giving them the reasons why,&rdquo; said <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraaxelbaum/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Sara Axelbaum</a>, Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. &ldquo;We talked about how we use that data for the I.D.E.A. report, that it&rsquo;s always used in aggregate, and that we weren&rsquo;t going to use it in a personally identifiable way,&rdquo; she added.

Sara Axelbaum 

Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity

The data MiQ collected yielded rich insights about the workforce, which Sara and her team used to produce the I.D.E.A. report and subsequently share with employees. &ldquo;We were able to get a lot of great information into the I.D.E.A. report, and I feel like that&rsquo;s really set us out on a more strategic path of using data to ensure we&rsquo;re making prudent decisions, and know where our baselines are,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;

More recently, as MiQ transitioned to a new system to store personal employee information, they conducted a new self-ID campaign to capture as much of that data in the new systems as possible.&nbsp;

Existing employees were familiar with the I.D.E.A. report and knew how their data would be used, but MiQ had to warm up new employees &mdash; who receive the self-ID survey within their first month &mdash; to the process. To do so, MiQ shares their I.D.E.A. report to demonstrate the actual use of the data.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I think when people see the report, they're like, oh, &lsquo;I get it and this is great and I want more of this,&rsquo;&rdquo; Sara said.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Crafting a clear plan of action</h2>

When it comes to any sort of employee data collection, it&rsquo;s crucial not only to ask but to act. If the company fails to act on survey results, it not only misses out on driving toward it goals but may also discourage employee engagement the next time around; when employees don't see the company addressing survey issues, they're less likely to participate in the future.

&ldquo;Companies need to be sharing [this data] with a plan, sharing it with intention, and doing it with the goal of contextualizing for your audience what they're looking at, why it's important, and most importantly how it's going to inform the work of strategy, processes, and systems,&rdquo; said Gong.

Jason Gong 

DEI Lead

MiQ&rsquo;s first I.D.E.A. report highlighted disparities the people team knew they needed to correct. &ldquo;We found a hidden but pretty significant pay gap for our employees who identified as women, and so we put a plan in place to close that pay gap,&rdquo; said Sara.

By the time next year&rsquo;s report came out, MiQ had successfully done so. Sara said sharing the plan of action and results really encourages employees to continue to participate and share data.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Our I.D.E.A. report has gotten a really great response, and even just that one pay equity proof point has been really helpful for people to say, &lsquo;I see what impact it can have on actually taking action and making change around here,&rsquo;&rdquo; she said.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Maintaining communication: the drumbeat of progress&nbsp;</h2>
Self-ID survey results can yield substantial insights, requiring time to not only build out programming and processes but implement them. That&rsquo;s ok. It&rsquo;s not always possible (or advisable) to accomplish everything in a short-time frame.&nbsp;

When that&rsquo;s the case, it&rsquo;s important to keep employees in the know. Maintaining a drumbeat of communication on progress keeps employees involved, reinforces the survey's purpose, and ensures they are informed about how their results are being utilized. 

&ldquo;You may not have the resources to do everything you&rsquo;d love to do immediately,&rdquo; said <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/venusjbrown" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Venus Brown</a>, the VP of Organizational Effectiveness at global marketing services company <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.assemblyglobal.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Assembly</a>.

Venus Brown 

VP, Organizational Effectiveness

&ldquo;For example, say you realize from the data that the organization could use more employee resource groups, that you need to implement new recruiting plans, or you want to overhaul development and succession planning,&rdquo; she added.

&ldquo;Be open with employees about that, and share your year 1, year 2, and year 3 plan. Sharing the progress on these goals will help individuals buy into self-ID and say &lsquo;This data is important. I see why they were asking for this, and I&rsquo;m glad I participated,&rsquo;&rdquo; Venus said. "Using a tool like Dandi has been critical to our enablement of sharing the self-ID data easily and succinctly for employee consumption and understanding," she added.

<h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Conclusion</h2>
By openly sharing results, establishing clear action strategies, and sustaining ongoing communication, companies can underscore the significance of self-ID surveys and empower employees in actively contributing to cultivating a more inclusive and diverse workplace environment. 
Simple, secure, and globally compliant, Dandi Self-ID breaks down many of the biggest barriers to employee data collection. <a href="https://www.itsdandi.com/product/self-id/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Learn more about how it works</a>.

<h3>Looking for more self-ID resources? <a href="https://product.itsdandi.com/self-id-guide/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Check out our guide to successful self-ID campaigns</a>.</h3>

Announcing more powerful Dandi data visualizations

New graph overlays: Insights at a glance

Configurable x-axis: Easily tailor your visuals

More powerful analytics features coming

Track the metrics that matter. See the 5 essential dashboards for understanding employee experience.

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