How do you prove the value of HR in terms finance leaders trust? In this episode, recorded on-site at People Analytics World in San Francisco as part of our series on measuring the human impact of work, Ben Eubanks talks with Shane Noe of Astranis Space Technologies. Shane calls himself a recovering finance guy. He moved from finance roles at Apple, Google, and Box into data-driven HR leadership. He explains why measuring productivity is still so hard, why AI surveillance is not the answer, how HR can build credibility with the CFO, how to calculate the cost of a vacancy, how to approach L&D ROI, and the one metric every CHRO should start tracking tomorrow.
Thank you to People Analytics World and Ikona Analytics for supporting the show.
Key Takeaways
Productivity is easy to measure in sales and hard in most other roles, and every method still relies on layers of subjective judgment.
AI could estimate productivity by capturing email, calendar, chat, and conversations, but that creates a surveillance culture and still trains on subjective performance ratings.
Today, the best productivity measure is often the manager, so training managers to assess talent well matters more than ever.
HR faces a credibility barrier because everyone thinks they can do HR and recruiting better, and understanding your business and your data is how you break through.
Accurate capacity planning and hiring forecasts earn instant credibility with finance because headcount is usually the largest expense line.
Reverse funnel analysis shows hiring managers how many applicants and how much lead time it takes to fill roles, turning conflict into alignment.
Estimate the cost of a vacancy by dividing company revenue by headcount, then adjusting by level or salary, and walk leaders through each step.
Focus limited L&D budgets on first-time managers and AI adoption, and measure outcomes like adoption, use cases, and hours saved.
Retention by performance grade is the metric to track first: keep top performers and either improve or manage out low performers.
Org shape analysis by level and tenure reveals people stuck in roles and can expose structural blockers in competency frameworks and career paths.
Timestamps
00:00 Why measuring employee productivity is so hard
02:00 AI productivity tracking and surveillance concerns
06:00 From finance to HR: Shane’s career path
08:00 Balancing people focus with data and numbers
12:50 Overcoming HR’s credibility barrier with finance
14:30 Capacity planning and hiring forecast accuracy
16:00 Reverse funnel analysis for hiring managers
19:00 How to calculate the cost of a vacancy
21:30 Measuring training and L&D ROI
24:30 Retention by performance grade and org shape analysis
Keywords
people analytics, HR metrics, measuring productivity, HR and finance partnership, cost of vacancy, capacity planning, recruiting forecast, L&D ROI, retention by performance, org design
Connect with Shane Noe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-noe-425a3712/
