Services
What can Olive Branch Analytics do?
Below are some examples of work we’ve done to address challenges across the entire talent lifecycle.
Organizational Development Initiatives
Happy employees are productive employees, and productive employees are motivated to exceed performance expectations. Below, you will find brief summaries of work we’ve done related to engagement and well-being.
Board Alignment: Clarifying roles and strategy to align board members of a large non-profit (Hempstead, NY).
- 16 Board members of a large Long Island non-profit lacked a shared understanding of roles, expectations, and were misaligned on strategy.
- Olive Branch Analytics conducted a needs assessment and collected additional information via interviews and archival data to diagnose key gaps.
- We established clear project management protocols, enhanced onboarding with a bidirectional learning approach, and facilitated the creation of a team charter to clarify expectations, build relationships, and align contributions.
Impact: Our recommendations led to increased trust, cohesion, and streamlined operations relative to non-profit’s strategic plan.
Engagement Insights: Translating survey data into team-specific action plans to boost engagement for a Fortune 500 pharmacy benefit manager (New York, NY).
- An Annual Employee Engagement & Well-Being Survey presented quantitative data without context. This
made it difficult to know which initiatives were most appropriate for enhancing employee engagement and
well-being. - Olive Branch Analytics led qualitative follow-up interviews with 2000+ employees, including managers, to understand problem areas
and misalignment. - We combined findings into presentations and reports for 10+ teams including strengths, opportunities for
improvement and 6-month action-plan.
Impact: Pulse surveys and bi-weekly follow-ups with managers indicated an increase in employee satisfaction,
commitment, and performance 3-months after our proposed recommendations.
Strategic Planning Overhaul: Facilitating mission-driven planning for a small non-profit (Brooklyn, NY).
- This small non-profit needed a 5-year Strategic Plan and had difficulty integrating new hires.
- Olive Branch Analytics led strategic planning to achieve agreement on and continued commitment to mission, vision, and values. This process included a SWOT analysis, an initial survey to identify primary goals and objectives, the formation of a Steering Committee, and financial implications.
- 4-phases across 3-months led to the development of a 5-year Strategic Plan.
Impact: Follow-ups with leadership via coaching sessions revealed that the non-profit was successfully adopting the Strategic Plan (e.g., low resistance, adopting change initiatives).
People Analytics Strategies
An organization should be able to make data-driven people decisions by translating insights into actionable steps. Below, you will find brief summaries of some work we’ve done related to people analytics.
Performance Equity Analysis: Identifying rating inconsistencies and improving fairness across teams for a Fortune 500 pharmacy benefit manager (New York, NY).
- Prior transitioning to a new performance management system, there was unawareness of performance trends for 2000+ employees across 10+ departments.
- Olive Branch Analytics reviewed 3-years of performance data. A series of exploratory analyses were conducted and results were segmented by role, tenure, and demographics.
- The data revealed rating inflation in certain departments (i.e., some teams were too generous with ratings) and an underrepresentation of high ratings for early-career employees (i.e., younger and low tenure employees weren’t being recognized as often as older and high tenure employees). Patterns were visualized in a dashboard for leadership.
Impact: Manager recalibration training and revised performance management guidelines reduced rating inconsistencies and enhanced promotion equity within 6-months.
Turnover Diagnostics Dashboard: Olive Branch Analytics uncovered the root causes of attrition and drove policy reform for a medium-sized non-profit (Washington DC).
- This non-profit faced high voluntary turnover among mid-level employees. Leadership lacked visibility into the key drivers behind this attrition.
- Olive Branch Analytics consolidated HRIS data (e.g., engagement, compensation) and then built an interactive dashboard for leadership.
- Our analysis identified internal mobility (i.e., lack of career ladder), pay compression (i.e., pay differences between newer and longer-tenured employees), low manager engagement (e.g., lack of support for direct reports) as top drivers of turnover.
Impact: These insights drove targeted interventions that reduced turnover by ~20% year over year and informed new policies on mobility and compensation.
Process Optimization: Reducing process delays through cross-training for a medium-sized insurance company (Myrtle Beach, SC).
- This organization struggled to identify root causes of slow claims processing times, which impacted customer satisfaction and increased operational costs (e.g., labor).
- Olive Branch Analytics aggregated HRIS data (e.g., productivity, time-tracking data) and conducted regression analyses to link staffing patterns and skillsets to processing speed. Findings were visualized via dashboard.
- Our analysis revealed that limited cross-training and an uneven workload were the primary drivers of delays among claims adjustors.
Impact: Olive Branch Analytics recommended targeted training and workload balancing strategies to improve processing times by ~25%. 3-months after the intervention, this company saw a 15% boost in customer satisfaction scores and a reduction in overtime labor costs.
Learning & Development Programs
Learning and development initiatives allow employees to grow personally/professionally, adapt to dynamic environments, and increase productivity; all of which directly contribute to an organization’s success. Below, you will find brief summaries of our experiences related to learning and development.
Emerging Leaders Program: Developing a pipeline of leadership talent for a Fortune 500 pharmacy benefit manager (New York, NY).
- There was a lack of structured leadership development programs to prepare high potentials for future leadership roles.
- Through partnership with external vendors and internal stakeholders, Olive Branch Analytics designed a 12-month development program which included coaching and a structured “capstone” presentation which consisted of real-world business problem devised by leadership.
- Measurements to track improvement throughout this development program included self-report, 360-degree feedback, behavioral observations, and objective HR data (e.g., promotions, performance appraisal).
Impact: Olive Branch Analytics developed 120 emerging leaders across 10+ departments which improved leadership readiness and strengthened the internal talent pipeline for mid- and senior-level roles.
Team-Alignment Workshops: Olive Branch Analytics boosted engagement scores through a series of workshops at scale for a Fortune 500 pharmacy benefit manager (New York, NY).
- Departments within the organization experienced misalignment on priorities, roles, and communication norms that were reflected by low engagement scores.
- Olive Branch Analytics facilitated stakeholder interviews and pulse surveys to identify sources of misalignment.
- We devised a “team-alignment” workshop which consisted of different offerings (e.g., team value proposition, inter-/intra-team communication, decision-making, stakeholder management). Workshops were piloted and tailored to the team’s needs and context.
Impact: We scaled this workshop offering across the organization which led to a boost in engagement scores, increased clarity of individual and team objectives, and improved collaboration.
Research Methods & Design: Curriculum delivery for undergraduate students at a prominent university (Hempstead, NY).
- Olive Branch Analytics created a curriculum to teach undergraduate students statistical concepts and research skills in psychology. An emphasis was placed on applied vs. academic research and hands-on “data workshops” taught students relevant real-world skills.
- We assessed gaps through quizzes and designed interactive lessons to make abstract psychological concepts more relatable. Our “data workshops” taught students how to conduct data analysis, interpret statistics, and report findings (e.g., storytelling with data).
- Per Semester, Olive Branch Analytics delivered 6-hours of class content every week for 16-weeks including exams, resources, and projects to reinforce concepts in psychology.
Impact: End of the semester evaluations from 100+ students highlighted positive sentiment with Olive Branch Analytics” hands-on learning approach, an in-depth understanding of research methods, and an ability to test hypotheses.