Analytical Aptitude is the third competency in the Business cluster, and it replaced the old name Critical Evaluation. It runs from arguing that data matters at all to acting on what the data shows.
The definition
The BASK defines Analytical Aptitude as the KSAOs needed to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, and to interpret and promote findings that evaluate HR initiatives and inform business decisions and recommendations.
Do not confuse it with Business Acumen (apply business tools and analyses consistent with strategic direction) or Consultation (work with stakeholders to design and implement change initiatives). Building networks and managing relationships is outside the Business cluster entirely.
The four sub-competencies
- Data Advocate: understanding and promoting the importance and utility of data.
- Data Gathering: determining data utility and identifying and gathering data.
- Data Analysis: analyzing data to evaluate HR initiatives and business challenges.
- Evidence-Based Decision-Making: using the results of data analysis to inform the best course of action.
Wrong sets to reject: data cleansing, data mining and data visualization are data analysis *techniques* from the key concepts, not sub-competencies. Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive are analytics types, not BASK names. Business Analysis and Strategic Alignment belong to Business Acumen.
Matching the stage
- Persuading skeptical department heads that workforce data should inform staffing decisions at all: Data Advocate.
- Deciding which data is worth having and collecting it: Data Gathering.
- Using a completed pay equity study to select and justify a course of action for the executive team: Evidence-Based Decision-Making. The analysis is already done, which rules out Data Analysis.
The sequencing trap
With a leadership team that has never used workforce data, the first move is not to present the full statistical output. It is to promote the importance and utility of data with leaders so the analysis will be understood and used. Advocacy has to land before analysis can change decisions. Building the program without evidence skips the point; buying an external benchmarking study adds data without addressing the disregard for data.