What Is People Analytics?

People analytics — sometimes called workforce analytics or HR analytics — is the practice of using workforce data to guide decisions about hiring, promotion, pay, and retention, so those decisions are both effective and legally defensible.

At Berkshire, our People Insights team provides the analytics and consulting support your HR teams need to select, promote, and pay the best people in a way that offers equal employment opportunity to all. In today’s rapidly changing regulatory environment, many organizations find themselves unsure of how to best manage their employment decisions in a way that drives results while maintaining compliance with legal requirements. While employers have more data about their employees and organization at their fingertips than ever before, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with what to do with all that information. Employers often end up doing nothing with these data, missing out on the benefits of analyzing and optimizing these data to make better and more legally defensible decisions. Our interdisciplinary team of Industrial/Organizational psychologists, labor economists and data-driven compliance experts help employers design fair, effective and legally defensible HR systems.  

Top Takeaways

• People analytics turns workforce data into decisions organizations can act on and defend.

• Common applications include hiring, retention, pay practices, and evaluating appropriate use of tests, including AI-enabled tools.
•  A strong people analytics practice starts with clean data and a clear question, not a dashboard.
  
• Using behavioral science and evidence-based, data-driven solutions to develop, monitor and update HR systems and processes helps ensure decisions about hiring, promotion, pay and retention are both effective and legally defensible.
  

How Berkshire's People Insights Team Puts People Analytics to Work

Berkshire’s People Insights team offers science-backed people analytics services that help employers turn the vast amounts of data they have about their workforce and organization into meaningful recommendations to help leverage their most important asset – their people – while maintaining compliance and making decisions that are based in accepted legal practices. The work of our People Insights team covers the full people analytics lifecycle, including job analysis and job description development and review, employee selection process analyses, employment test development, review and validation, AI governance, pay equity analyses, and human resource development.  

Job Analysis and Job Descriptions

Job analysis, which is a systematic study of the job that yields critical information about the nature of work performed and the requirements of employees who perform the work, is. foundational to nearly every HR program and critical for skills-based hiring. Conducting rigorous, legally defensible job analyses to define job responsibilities, identify required knowledge/skills/abilities, and ensure alignment between work performed and HR decisions is a key first step in a data-driven approach to workforce management. These analyses support:

• Accurate job descriptions

• Selection and promotion assessments

• Exempt/non-exempt classification

• Identification of jobs that are similar for pay equity reviews

• Selection Tests and Performance Appraisal design

• Training needs analysis

• Workplace safety and accommodation requirements 

Selection Process Analytics and Test Validation  

The selection process is key to finding the best talent for your organization but is also an area that holds an immense amount of potential risk for employers. There is no "one size fits all" selection process. The best selection process for your organization is one that allows you to hire the best person for the job, without unintentionally creating legal risk against legally protected groups in a way that's not job-related or defensible. Berkshire's People Insights team can work with you to analyze all steps of your selection process, and if issues are found, work with you to identify the root causes and recommend solutions. If your selection process includes tests or assessments, our team of expert Industrial/Organizational
Psychologists have experience developing, validating, and defending hundreds of tests and assessments, and will work with you to ensure that your assessments are effective and legally defensible.

Artificial Intelligence Governance and Bias Review

As AI rapidly reshapes HR, employers must understand when and how these tools add value—and when they introduce risk. As an increasing number of states pass laws about the use of AI in employment practices, employers must focus on implementing AI responsibly across the employee lifecycle, especially in recruitment, selection, internal mobility, and performance management... Establishing a monitoring and governance program to stay ahead and manage potential risk is a good idea for all employers using AI tools. Here are a few key considerations for employers in their governance activities: 

• Establishing internal AI governance teams

• Vetting AI vendors and tools

• Conducting third-party bias audits

• Validating AI-driven decision processes

• Monitoring ongoing compliance with state laws (NY, CO, TX, and others)

Adding an expert to your team is especially valuable for employers implementing AI for the first time, those navigating emerging regulations, or organizations proactively testing systems already in use. An I/O psychologist brings expertise in human behavior, job analysis, organizational systems, and employee assessment—helping ensure AI is designed and governed in ways that are fair, valid, and aligned with how work actually gets done. Their perspective can help organizations identify unintended bias, assess impacts on employees, and build AI practices that support both organizational performance and workforce well-being.

Turnover and Promotion Analytics

Once employees are a part of your organization, it's important to still monitor how they move through the company and eventually leave. Berkshire's People Insights team can analyze your data to identify if there are trends in promotions, transfers, or turnover that should be investigated, and these analyses can be customized to answer the questions you are asking. We will look at your data and help identify the story that the data are telling you, then help to dig deeper to find the "why" behind the story — and provide recommendations for remediation if needed.

Pay Equity Analytics

Pay transparency requirements are expanding rapidly across the United States and globally, pushing compensation strategy out of the back office and into the earliest stages of recruiting. These laws do more than mandate disclosure, they require employers to clearly define, document, and consistently apply their compensation practices. The result is a shift from reactive compliance to a more structured, proactive approach that integrates legal interpretation, compensation strategy, data management, and day-to-day recruiting operations. 

A pay equity study is the foundation for credible pay transparency. By analyzing compensation across roles, levels, and demographics, employers can identify and address unexplained pay differences before ranges are published or discussed with candidates. That makes posted ranges more accurate, strengthens the “good faith” behind them, and reduces the risk of employee distrust or legal scrutiny. In practice, employers that invest in pay equity analysis are far better positioned to support transparent, consistent, and defensible pay decisions.

Human Resource Development

Human Resource Development ensures that employees grow with organizational needs. Our I/O psychologists design systems that accurately assess performance today, evaluate potential for future roles, and prepare organizations for leadership transitions. This work includes building and updating performance and talent management processes and creating evidence-based succession planning models and individual development plans. This work is particularly important for employers who have inconsistent or outdated performance systems, concerns about subjectivity or bias, high turnover tied to lack of growth pathways, and leadership transitions or merger or acquisition activity.

Why People Analytics Matters Now

It is a challenging time to be an HR or compliance professional. The regulatory and compliance landscape is shifting rapidly, and we have more data available to us than ever before. Berkshire’s People Insights team can help you analyze your organization’s data to ensure effective workforce development practices while maintaining compliance and mitigating legal risk.  

 Ready to turn your workforce data into action? Talk to Berkshire's People Insights team about a people analytics assessment for your organization.

 Frequently Asked Questions about People Analytics

What is people analytics?

People analytics is the practice of using workforce data on hiring, promotion, pay, and turnover to make HR decisions that are effective and legally defensible.

What does Berkshire's People Insights team do?

Berkshire's People Insights team applies science-backed, data-driven approaches to job analysis, selection process development and validation, promotion and turnover trends, AI governance, pay equity, and human resource development for employers navigating EEO compliance.

How is people analytics different from HR analytics?

The terms are largely interchangeable. "People analytics" and "workforce analytics" both describe using employee data to guide talent and HR decisions; Berkshire uses "People Insights" as the name of the team and service line that delivers this work.