Ultimate Performance: Measuring Human Resources at Work

Best Dashboard Practices with Mary Claire Ryan, Director of Sourcing at Riviera Advisors

Q1:	How do you ensure that the data you present is the data that is important to your CEO?
Before I begin to think about the data, I use an in-depth questionnaire and sit with the CEO to understand his/her priorities. Even with that set of meetings, I know there will be a surprise in every meeting I have subsequently, whether it’s a business shift, entering a new product line, or an acquisition—process to dig into the new initiatives, business realities, and so on.
Q2:	What is on your Ultimate Executive Dashboard?
The first data points on my dashboard are related to Workforce Planning in the short term and in the long term. I map the key initiatives, new priorities, and economic realities to a practical talent plan for the organization. This is not a typical “telephone book” sized workforce plan—it’s concise, forward-looking, and has red flags where I think executives need to pay attention. Then I’ll keep the key data points that we’ve worked out with the executive team. Usually, turnover, New Hire Quality, and talent budgeting will be on the dashboard. A review of talent targets will be on there too, including management targets, internal survey data, and hiring manager feedback. I also always have a nugget of competitive information as well to compare us to, and I don’t hold back. If we’re not keeping up with talent acquisition, or if our competitor snapped up the top engineers in our most profitable ...