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Background

NSTAR is the largest investor-owned electric and gas utility in Massachusetts, with revenues of approximately $3.6 billion and assets totaling approximately $7.8 billion.

Situation

Following a four-month Dashboard implementation, NSTAR's human capital leaders launched a Prep/Brief/Debrief process for providing more detailed workforce data and insights to the company's CEO.

Action

NSTAR's data-driven communication process has 3 steps:

1. Prep: Each quarter, several members of NSTAR's Organizational Effectiveness/HR team collaborate to produce an executive report organized around the company's mission to "Acquire, Develop, and Retain Quality Talent". Two sets of data are prepared:

• NSTAR's Organizational Effectiveness team prepares an overall corporate results report.
• HR Business Partners prepare BU-specific data for the same metrics.

The two groups meet to review the results, identify trends and outliers, and suggest root causes or potential drivers. Critical for success with the report is balancing pure data with a qualitative "story" of how the company is progressing towards its workforce objectives.

2. Brief: In January and June of each year, the aggregated report is presented to NSTAR's CEO and senior executive team. Executives use the data and insights to discuss such topics as the:

• Aging workforce (especially in highly technical roles with 4-5 year time-to-full productivity).
• Increasing population of younger workers and the growing workforce generational mix.
• Female and minority workforce representation.

3. Debrief: Several days after the executive briefing sessions, the Organizational Effectiveness/HR team communicates the findings to individual business unit heads. Discussion of business unit-specific implications, interventions, and opportunities for improvement ensures that key messages are consistently disseminated and that scorecard results are translated into actionable next steps.

Subsequently, monthly Organizational Effectiveness/HR team meetings are held to review progress on action items and share best practices in data analysis. Such interactions develop team collaboration and individual analytical skills.

Results

The Prep/Brief/Debrief data-driven process ensures that:

• NSTAR's CEO focuses undivided attention on human capital metrics trends and issues.
• Corporate business and workforce and strategies are completely interwoven.