How relational intelligence adds nuance to people analytics

Quantitative data becomes even more powerful when paired with qualitative insights. While numbers and metrics provide clear, objective information, qualitative data adds depth and context, helping businesses understand the nuances of human behavior and emotions. This data-driven duo enables businesses to make more informed decision-making and foster a more effective and empathetic approach to enhancing the employee experience.

“They give businesses a more comprehensive understanding of their people and workplaces,” says Esther Perel, renowned psychotherapist celebrated for her work on relationships and relational intelligence and Culture Amp’s external advisor.

In this article, we explore how relational intelligence and people analytics can work together to build and sustain high-performance workplace cultures. We’ll also share examples of how businesses can use these two approaches to make people-first decisions.

Why workplaces need both relational intelligence and people analytics

Like cookies and milk, qualitative and quantitative data are just better together. To understand how they work together, we must first understand them separately:

• People analytics combines a business's employee and HR data, providing organizations with deeper insights into their workforce and empowering them to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
• Relational intelligence, as defined by Perel, is “how you connect, establish trust, and manage the interpersonal relationships that you have with other people.”

Why do you need both? The modern workplace is experiencing intense change – remote work is making it harder to connect with colleagues, soft skills are in high demand, and employees expect more out of their workplaces than ever before. In fact, today’s workers seek more than just a paycheck from work.

“Today, there are two places people turn for their basic human needs of belonging, meaning, and identity; that is their relationships and their workplace,” Perel explained in a conversation with Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga at Culture First 2024.

Businesses need to marry numbers with narratives if they want to make people-first decisions that drive meaningful results. Relational intelligence complements people analytics by providing context and guidance that helps businesses understand not just what is happening but why it’s happening. Together, the duo can empower more effective and empathetic decision-making that leads to more human-centric and productive workplaces.

3 ways to blend data with empathy

To show this symbiotic relationship in action, here are three examples of how organizations can use people analytics and relational intelligence together to drive better outcomes for both employees and businesses:

1. Resolving workplace conflicts

When workplace conflict inevitably arises, it can jeopardize team productivity, engagement, and overall morale. Employee surveys and poor team results can quantitatively identify cross-functional relationships as an area needing improvement, but repairing these relationships takes more than data. It requires strong relational intelligence to understand what’s not working and determine how to fix it. Since avoiding conflict won’t get you anywhere, this is where a people leader can step in.

Managers can mediate conflicts by catching them early on, being active listeners, and developing a plan with the affected parties to help improve communication and foster a harmonious work environment.

“If the manager can lend themselves as a facilitator of reconciliation or a clarification process between the others, they should do it. They hold the space for people to duke it out,” shared Perel on our Culture First Podcast.

By helping employees understand each other’s perspectives, managers can facilitate compromises that address the needs and concerns of all parties involved. Done respectfully, these conversations can lead to better mutual understanding, build trust, and lay the groundwork for effective collaboration in the future. This approach not only resolves immediate conflicts but also fosters a culture of open communication and mutual respect moving forward.

2. Building trust and stronger teams

People analytics can reveal opportunities to improve team bonds and trust. For example, let’s say a company’s remote employees are feeling disconnected from their peers, which could hinder their productivity and engagement.

“A major challenge is that we don't have enough contact with the people that we work with. What stands in the way of this? The fact that the majority of the people these days don't meet, don't see each other, and don't have proximity with each other,” says Perel.

Using survey data, leaders can identify which teams are seeing lower scores in these areas and decide which teams could benefit from relationship building. Then, Perel suggests taking a few minutes at the start of virtual meetings to ask personal questions that breed connection like, “What's going on in your life?” or “When was the last time you were really generous?”

“Don't be so afraid to lose 20 minutes,” she adds. “That time is going to gel your team in a way that's going to make them work faster. Think about how I'm much more likely to respond to your email if I like you and I care about you. The only way to achieve this though is by getting to know you.”

Over time, even small changes can strengthen team relationships, enhance collaboration, and improve team productivity and engagement scores.

3. Enhancing leadership effectiveness

Engagement surveys are valuable for quantifying the intangibles that make up workplace experience and for identifying areas of improvement. However, they don’t always provide the full picture.

For instance, a people leader might receive word that their team’s engagement scores have dropped and that their own manager effectiveness scores are trending downwards. Unfortunately, employees often hold back negative feedback on such surveys for fear of retaliation or revealing their identity so they haven’t written much additional context behind their survey scores.

While the quantitative data shows that something needs to change, the question remains: how can this manager learn how to become a more effective leader? Let’s try asking their employees directly. While survey data can highlight problems, it often falls short of identifying solutions. This is where relational intelligence can shine.

“You need to create an environment where difficult conversations can take place,” explains Perel. If managers can foster a team where employees feel safe to speak up and share their opinions — even those that are hard to hear — they can create a more open and trusting environment that has better communication, stronger team cohesion, and more effective problem-solving.

Perel suggests managers conduct a 360-degree feedback session with their direct reports, encouraging employees to frame feedback not as complaints but as suggestions for improvement.

“Employees shouldn’t frame their feedback as ‘What am I unhappy with,’ but as ‘What could make you a better manager.’ It’s not easy to listen to, but when it's done respectfully, you know exactly what to do afterward,” adds Perel. By having these frank and open conversations, the manager can collect clear, actionable insights they can incorporate immediately to be a better team leader.

Understanding the emotional and relational aspects of engagement is crucial. Surveys are a key first step to identifying underlying issues, but having strong inter-team relationships and ongoing feedback mechanisms can help capture the nuances of employee experiences and unlock actionable feedback that can improve engagement.

People analytics and relational intelligence: A powerful combination

To make better, more informed decisions, people leaders need more than just data; they need insights that consider the complexity of human behavior and relationships. Culture Amp’s people analytics platform combines your business’ unique employee data in one place to deliver targeted recommendations to help you improve your business.

Rather than making assumptions based on raw data alone, Culture Amp empowers your company to integrate people analytics with relational intelligence so you can unlock the full potential of your employees and workplaces. Together, these tools can help your organization deliver more human-centric initiatives, fostering a more engaged, productive, and connected workforce.

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