Summary: James tells us Unilever’s data story, starting around seven years ago when the HR function was globalised. With a new HR operating framework, and a single system in place for all 104 countries, it was important that they also had global definitions and people metrics. As James explains, doing this put them in a very strong position – it ‘opened up the power of information’. James tells us about the 78 core HR metrics that Unilever collects about every employee, and then about additional data such as talent management information, and people survey data. They’ve got to the stage where ‘doubting of the data is off the agenda’, and people no longer challenge HR figures and information: ‘To be able to know what’s happening where, anywhere in the world in Unilever, with three or four years of history on our systems, is quite amazing.
