Data Analyst Project For Beginners (HR Analytics): 2 - Understanding Requirements

Summary

In this session, a data analyst discusses the importance of engaging with HR manager Pinali to understand the company's requirements using an Excel sheet. The focus is on strategic partnership, asking the right questions to align solutions with short and long-term plans. The analyst aims to uncover insights on employee working preferences, attendance patterns, and reasons for sick leaves to inform better capacity planning and health precautions. The conversation also touches on the potential migration to a new system and the importance of learning data analysis skills for self-sufficiency.

Takeaways

• 🧐 Listening is crucial for a data analyst, especially in the early stages of understanding client requirements.
• 🤝 Engaging with clients by asking the right questions can help in becoming a strategic partner rather than just a one-off solution provider.
• 📊 The client wants to analyze data from the current fiscal year to understand insights such as working preferences and attendance patterns.
• 🏠 The analysis includes understanding the reasons behind frequent work-from-home (WFH) and half WFH scenarios.
• 📈 The client is interested in insights that can help with capacity planning, such as days when most employees are present for better team building activities.
• 💼 As the owner of AtliQ, the client is looking for insights that can inform better infrastructure and cost management, like reducing rental space in a hybrid work model.
• 🤒 The client wants to understand the reasons behind sick leaves to plan better and take necessary precautions, especially in the context of health concerns like COVID-19.
• 🏥 Insights on sick leaves can help in planning preventive measures, such as flu shots before the fall season, to improve employee health and reduce absenteeism.
• 📅 The client is planning to migrate to a new system next month, and the data analysis should align with this transition for seamless integration.
• 🛠️ The client expresses a desire to learn data analysis skills to become more independent and capable of handling such tasks without external assistance.
• 📝 The transcript suggests that the data analyst will use Power BI to clean and shape the data to meet the client's specific insights requirements.

Q & A

What is the primary role of a data analyst in the initial stages of a project?

The primary role of a data analyst in the initial stages of a project is to listen more than they talk, engage the client by asking the right questions, and become a strategic partner rather than a one-off solution provider.

Why is it important to understand the client's short and long-term plans?

Understanding the client's short and long-term plans is important to align solutions accordingly and to provide strategic insights that can help the client achieve their goals over time.

What does the HR manager Pinali provide in the session?

Pinali, the HR manager, provides an Excel sheet with data that the data analyst needs to understand and work with to derive insights.

What is the significance of combining three months of data to gain insights?

Combining three months of data allows for a more comprehensive view of trends and patterns, which can lead to deeper insights into the data.

What specific insights does the client want to see from the data regarding work preferences?

The client wants to understand the working preference of people between working from home (WFH) and working from the office, including reasons behind frequent work from home on specific days like Monday or Friday.

How does the client denote work from home in the attendance key?

In the attendance key, work from home is denoted as 'WFH', and half work from home, which means working from home for half a day, is also considered.

What does the client want to understand about employee presence?

The client wants to understand the percentage of people present on a given week or month, which is essentially the attendance record.

Why is it important to analyze the reasons behind employees working from home?

Analyzing the reasons behind employees working from home is important to identify patterns, such as health issues or other factors, that may affect the company's operations and planning.

How can insights from employee work preferences influence team building activities?

Insights from employee work preferences can help in planning team building activities or lunches on days when the majority of people are present in the company, ensuring maximum participation.

What is the benefit of understanding employee work patterns in a hybrid work model?

Understanding employee work patterns in a hybrid model can help with better capacity planning, efficient utilization of office space, and cost savings on infrastructure.

How can the company respond to high percentages of employees taking sick leave?

The company can respond by identifying the reasons behind the sick leaves, which may indicate a health concern like COVID or seasonal flu, and then taking appropriate precautions or special measures.

What is the client's plan regarding the migration to a new system?

The client plans to migrate to a new system by next month, and the data analyst is advised to create the database in a pattern that matches the new system to facilitate a smooth transition.

Why is it beneficial for the HR manager to learn how to analyze data?

It is beneficial for the HR manager to learn data analysis to become more self-sufficient, not needing to rely on others for insights, and to use data as a powerful tool for decision-making.

What tool is the data analyst planning to use to import and analyze the data?

The data analyst is planning to use Power BI to import the data and clean it, shaping it to derive the insights that the client wants.

Outlines

00:00

📊 Engaging with Clients and Understanding Data Insights

In this segment, the focus is on the importance of client engagement for a data analyst, emphasizing the need to listen and ask the right questions to align solutions with the client's short and long-term plans. The analyst is working with an Excel sheet provided by HR manager Pinali to understand the company's attendance data. The discussion revolves around combining three months of data to gain insights into employee work preferences, such as working from home (WFH) or in the office, and attendance patterns. The HR manager is interested in understanding the reasons behind frequent work-from-home arrangements, especially on Mondays or Fridays, and the overall attendance percentage. The data analysis aims to inform strategic decisions like team building activities and capacity planning in a potential hybrid work model. The conversation also touches on the need to identify patterns in sick leaves, possibly indicating larger health concerns like COVID-19 or seasonal illnesses, which could prompt additional precautions or actions by the company.

05:00

🔄 Preparing for System Migration and Data Analysis

This part of the script discusses the client's intention to migrate to a new system and the analyst's strategy to create a database that aligns with the upcoming transition. The analyst assures the client that they can learn to perform data analysis independently, which will be a powerful tool once they grasp the basics. The conversation highlights the client's eagerness to learn and the analyst's commitment to teaching them. The analyst then moves to demonstrate how to import and clean the data in Power BI, with the intention of shaping the data to provide the desired insights. The process includes considering the client's future needs and the potential for the client to perform similar analyses in the future without external assistance.

Keywords

💡Data Analyst

A data analyst is a professional who collects, processes, and interprets data to help businesses make decisions. In the script, the data analyst is critical in understanding the HR manager's requirements and aligning solutions accordingly, which is central to the video's theme of data-driven decision-making.

💡Engagement

Engagement in this context refers to maintaining active involvement with the client to ensure their needs are met. The script emphasizes the importance of keeping the client engaged by asking the right questions, which is key to becoming a strategic partner rather than a one-off solution provider.

💡Strategic Partner

A strategic partner is someone who works closely with another to achieve long-term goals. The video discusses the transition from being a mere solution provider to becoming a strategic partner by understanding and aligning with the client's short and long-term plans.

💡Insights

Insights are the understanding or knowledge gained from data analysis. The script discusses the need to derive insights from the HR data, such as work preferences and attendance patterns, which are crucial for making informed decisions.

💡Fiscal Year

The fiscal year is the period used for accounting purposes and can differ from the calendar year. In the script, the discussion about the current fiscal year starting from April signifies the time frame of the data being analyzed.

💡Work from Home (WFH)

Work from home (WFH) is a work arrangement where employees work from a remote location, typically their home. The script mentions WFH as a key variable in understanding employee preferences and attendance patterns.

💡Hybrid Model

A hybrid model in the workplace refers to a combination of working remotely and in the office. The script discusses the potential of using a hybrid model to optimize office space utilization and cost savings.

💡Capacity Planning

Capacity planning is the process of estimating and managing the resources needed to meet demand. The script mentions capacity planning in the context of a hybrid work model to determine how many employees need to be in the office on any given day.

💡Sick Leave

Sick leave is a period of absence from work due to illness. The script discusses the importance of understanding the reasons behind sick leaves, which can indicate broader health issues such as COVID-19 or seasonal flus.

💡Sanitization

Sanitization refers to the process of cleaning and disinfecting to maintain hygiene. The video mentions the need for better sanitization as a preventive measure when patterns of employee illness are identified.

💡Power BI

Power BI is a business analytics service by Microsoft that provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities. In the script, Power BI is mentioned as the tool to import, clean, and shape the data for analysis.

Highlights

Importance of listening and engaging with the client by asking the right questions to become a strategic partner.

Understanding the client's short and long term plans to align solutions accordingly.

Learning the skill of asking the right questions through the video.

Combining 3 months of data to gain insights for the current fiscal year.

Identifying the working preference of people between work from home and work from office.

Understanding the reasons behind frequent work from home, especially on Mondays or Fridays.

Using the attendance key to denote work from home (WFH) and half work from home.

Calculating the percentage of people present on a given week or month for attendance analysis.

Addressing situations where employees join the office but leave due to illness and plan to work from home the next day.

Using insights to plan team building activities and lunches on days with majority presence in the company.

Considering a hybrid work model for better capacity planning and cost savings on infrastructure.

Understanding the reasons behind sick leaves, especially if it indicates COVID or other health issues.

Identifying patterns in sick leaves to enable better sanitization or take special precautions.

Considering external factors like cricket matches that may influence work from home preferences.

Planning to migrate to a new system for better data management and analysis.

Creating the database in a pattern that matches the new system to minimize changes.

Learning data analysis skills to become more independent and powerful in work.

Using Power BI to import, clean, and shape the data for the desired insights.

Transcripts

In this session, we are using the Excel

sheet provided by HR manager Pinali and

trying to understand their requirements.

As a data analyst it is critical for you

to listen more than you talk. In this

particular stage of the project,

this is the stage where you also keep

the client completely engaged by asking

them the right questions.

Also this is your opportunity to become

their strategic partner, rather than one

off solution provider.

Ask questions to understand their short

and long term plans and align your

solutions accordingly.

Now you might be wondering, "Where do I

learn this skill of asking right

questions?" Don't worry we are going to

cover all of that in today's video.

[Music]

So what I understand

from the data,

is that you have just the the current

fiscal year. Like your

your fiscal year which is starting from

April, May April to march yeah. Okay,

okay.

So you have this 3 months of data

and you want to combine these 3

months of data together to see the

insights, which you said like you want to

understand uh.

So can can you, I saw your email can you

please kind of explain me what insights

you would like to see from this data.

Sure, sure. So first of all I want to

understand

the working preference of people, uh you

know between uh work from home and work from

office.

Okay.

Yeah, so if they are taking uh frequent

work from home, or either on monday or

the friday,

then what could be the reason behind

that. Okay.

So so basically you have uh

you have this attendance key, so in that

work from home is denoted as okay, WFH.

Okay.

Oh and we also have half work from which

means like people work from home for

half a day, okay. Yes. So we need to

consider this and uh

yeah

okay.

Yeah.

And you and you said you want to

understand the presence of people like

how much how much percentage of people

are present on a given week or a given

month. Basically attendance right? Like

attendance of the week.

Okay. Yes,

because sometimes it happens that if

people uh

have you know joined the office, but

suddenly

they are not feeling well and they are

leaving and they said that I'll be

working from home the next day, so we

yeah we have to figure out this thing.

Okay. So also I understand, as an owner of

AtliQ, I can I also look at these

insights and I have a frequent

conversation with uh Pinali on this.

Let's say uh if people are working from

home, if their preference is Monday or

Friday, it could be either the towards

the end or beginning of the week, or it

could be in the middle of the week.

Okay, so if we get some insights from

that then maybe

when we are planning some team building

activity,

or team lunch, we will do it on a day

where majority of the people are

presence in the company.

Okay. Right.

The other benefit of uh knowing this is

let's say if you go in a part hybrid

model, where people work from home on 2

days, then they are available on 3

days, then we can do better capacity

planning. We can have a few people coming

in in the office,

and they we give laptop to everyone at

AtliQ. So

we don't need to have so much rental

space. We can do better utilizations

of the space and save

our cost on

infrastructure. Okay that that makes

sense.

All right and uh do you also want

any particular insights from any other

things here. Like for example maybe.

Yeah.

Like uh if if people are taking sick

leave, that

we we want to understand the reason

because uh

it might be an indication of COVID, then

we have to take some precautions right?

So yes.

So sorry I was just taking notes. Yeah.

Please go ahead. Nah that's fine. So it can be

better if we can get the insights like

the reason they are taking sick leave, so we

can take better plan.

Okay so you want to you want to

understand on a given day if if let's

say 15% of your employees or 10% of your

employees are taking sick leave, which is

a clear indication that you know like

something is not good because

yeah it cannot be a coincidence if too

much too many people take sick leave on the

same day.

Exactly.

Yeah okay.

And COVID is just a special situation,

but we have seen often there are

seasonal

flus

there are

Chikungunya

like little pandemics, little epidemics

where

me like many people in the town are

infected because of like dengue you know,

and if we can find the patterns we can

enable better sanitization or take

special measures. I mean we generally

have good sanitization infrastructure in

the company, but we can take special

precaution, special measures. I have seen

here in U.S. uh in companies they have

doctors coming in, they give a flu shots

before fall season. So maybe we can do

those kind of activities. If we have good

insights on number of people being sick

on on given period of the time in a year.

Okay,

right. Yeah maybe the other reason is

there is a cricket match or something

like that,

you never know!

If you can yes, if you can include that

analytics link it with cricket cricket

schedule, that would be pretty

interesting analytics to watch. I know I

know we have people with integrity in AtliQ.

So, just kidding. Right. All right.

So my first question is like ideally

uh Pinali this should be yeah you know

this should be available in the system

right, because Excel is okay. You can do

it in Excel, I can show you how to do it

in Excel. But I know that this is what

you explained in the email, you told that

you are you are planning to migrate to a

system, a new system. Yes.

When that's going to happen? Um I think

by next month.

Okay.

Uh

All right. So what the reason why I'm

asking that question is that,

I can kind of create the

the database in a very similar pattern,

uh yeah

match with your new system. So you don't

have to make a lot of changes

because my intention is like whatever

you're going to do now, you can do it on

your own.

Exactly I want to learn this stuff. So I

can do it my own, I don't need to ask you

every time.

Yeah, yeah right.

Yeah you can, I know this is this can

become very powerful tool for you once

you learn how to crunch data. Exactly.

Not at a very advanced level that you

can develop uh you know gradually. But I

think with

sessions like 2 or 3 sessions like

this, and if you take some time to

practice on your own, I'm pretty sure

that you will start doing things on your

own. This is something I've seen with

people you know, that I work with, you

know my friends. Once they learn the

basics and they practice, they they

become more powerful in their work. Iike

uh yeah, I've known some warehouse

managers, uh HR people as well you know,

they start doing stuff on their own. So

great! Uh so I'm gonna open Power BI now,

and let's see how we can uh

import this data,

and uh so initially we're gonna clean

the data and understand you know like

how we can shape the data for the

insights that you want. So I'm whatever

I'm going to do it's it's I'm going to

keep the insights that you want in the

mind, and I'm going to build the database

accordingly. So this is a database now,

which is even though it's coming from Excel

so this is going to be in database. All

right. So that's

we'll start doing that!

[Music]