From Data Strategy To Measurable Impact​

As someone constantly looking for real-world examples of these principles in action, I was struck when I came across the Utility Analysis initiative at Bank of Ireland, one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in Ireland, with a history spanning over two centuries and a central role in the country's economy. Here was something rare: a concrete, rigorous effort to measure the economic value of employee training, an activity that is fundamental to any organization yet notoriously difficult to evaluate, that, almost by design, brings all four pillars to life at once.

To learn more, I had the chance to speak directly with the people behind this initiative: Carl Kane, group data culture lead, and Tom Healy, employee analytics and insight manager. Hearing from them firsthand revealed the true complexity and sophistication of the analysis they built. But beyond the technical details, this case is above all a powerful demonstration of how data, when driven by a specific need and applied with rigor and method, becomes an extraordinary instrument of innovation.

Measuring The Financial Value Of Learning

​The Bank of Ireland case revolves around a question that HR professionals have struggled with for decades: How do you measure, in concrete financial terms, the value of training? To answer this, Tom from the people analytics team, in collaboration with Carl, applied utility analysis (UA), a framework with academic roots dating back to the late 1940s but rarely used in practice due to its complexity. At its core, the approach is built around a formula originally developed by Schmidt, Hunter and Pearlman in 1982, which estimates the monetary value of a training intervention by combining four key variables: the number of employees trained, the measurable improvement in their job performance, the standard deviation of job performance expressed in monetary terms, and the total cost of the program. The result is a figure that answers a deceptively simple question: For every euro invested in training, how many euros does the organization get back?

What makes the Bank of Ireland application particularly sophisticated is how the team adapted the standard model to reflect the organization’s specific context. Rather than relying on self-declared proficiency, a subjective measure, they chose to track the time employees spent on data-related activities before and after completing the Advanced Data Pathway program (further information), treating time as a more reliable and objective proxy for performance improvement. They also introduced a proprietary variable called the role impact factor (RIF), which adjusts the output based on seniority: As an employee's level increases, the direct in-role application of a technical skill tends to give way to a more strategic, enabling function, and the formula accounts for this shift. The overall design philosophy was one of deliberate conservatism; at every methodological decision point, the team chose the more cautious estimate, ensuring that the final numbers would be credible and defensible rather than optimistic.

Looking ahead, the team has also explored a complementary approach: rather than calculating return on investment directly, reframing the output as a breakeven point. This means asking: At what salary level would this training program at least pay for itself? The answer, in their example, turns out to be surprisingly low, making the case for investment even easier to communicate to business stakeholders who may be skeptical of more complex ROI figures.

A Blueprint For Data Valorization

​What I find most compelling about this story is the way it reflects all four pillars, not as abstract principles, but as living, operational choices. The holistic discipline is visible in the way HR, analytics, finance and learning functions converge into a single, coherent framework. The strategic mindset is evident in the team's deliberate decision to start with a specific business question, to define the value of the training and to build the methodology around it, rather than the other way around. Value is not an afterthought here: It is literally what is being measured, in euros, with rigor and accountability. And the human factor runs through everything, because the subject of the analysis is people, their growth, their performance and their contribution to the organization.

This alignment is not accidental. It is the natural result of an organization that has genuinely internalized a data-driven mindset at every level. And that is precisely why I see this case as something more than an interesting HR initiative. It is a working example of what the future of data valorization looks like in practice, not data as a by-product of business operations, but data as an active, multidirectional force that shapes decisions, validates investments and drives accountability across the entire organization.

It is no coincidence that one of Bank of Ireland’s strategic pillars is Resilient Company, which promotes a strong performance culture, underpinned by innovation, enterprise thinking and faster delivery.

We often talk about the future of data management in abstract terms. Bank of Ireland's utility analysis reminds us that the future is already being built, one rigorous, people-centered use case at a time.​

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?