Moneyball and People Performance

Performance analytics goes Hollywood... Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, is coming out next month and it seems performance analytics will finally get the red carpet treatment it deserves.  The movie is based on the story of Billy Beane,  the general manager of the Oakland Athletics,  a Major League Baseball team. Beane turned  baseball on its head by throwing out a century of hallowed collective wisdom about baseball statistics, instead using performance analytics to assess players and put together a winning team on a not-so-winning budget.
Enshrined statistics, such as stolen bases, runs batted-in, and batting average were tossed aside in favor of demonstrated statistical indicators of success, like on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Other teams were looking for players with speed and style, but Beane stuck to his analysis and the players that the data told him to recruit. It turned out to be a winning strategy—in 2002 the Athletics remained competitive with other MLB teams who spent three times as much on player salaries.

Baseball teams aren’t the only organizations that fall victim to chasing old and out-dated statistical measures of employee performance.  A lot of organizations are still measuring employees by their attendance and how many internal training classes they attend. These metrics measure only the most routine aspects of individual performance and don’t capture how strategic individual efforts can move the entire company forward. Just as on-base percentage can capture the critical first step of getting on a base – a simple metric like customer calls returned can capture a critical driver of lifetime customer value. There are so many other and better ways to measure employee performance, and companies that learn to use them can be just as successful at winning at their own industry’s Moneyball as Billy Beane was in his.