Too many people decisions still come down to instinct. 71% of senior HR leaders rely on gut instinct instead of talent data. That happens because your data likely lives in different systems, owned by different teams. Piecing it together can take weeks or even months, so instinct fills the gap.
You can make confident people decisions with the data you already have. You do not need to collect more. When engagement, performance, development, and recognition signals sit side by side, your HR decisions become faster, clearer, and easier to defend.
I shared this idea recently on stage at Gartner HR Symposium alongside John Spehn, Sr. Manager, Talent and Organizational Development at Scooter's Coffee. In this blog, I'll share what confident people decisions look like in practice and how Scooter's turned connected data into action.
Four costs show up when your data stays disconnected.
|
Cost of disconnected data |
What it looks like for you |
What leaders report |
|
It is slow |
Someone pulls and merges reports by hand. |
1 in 4 leaders say it can take weeks to access connected talent insights. |
|
It lacks context |
You have the numbers, but not the story behind them. |
Only 40% of HR leaders say they can gain actionable insights from their talent data. |
|
It is reactive |
You see risk only after it becomes a problem. |
73% of HR leaders say the work feels administrative and burdensome. |
|
It is subjective |
Assumptions fill the gaps. |
71% of senior HR leaders rely on gut instinct instead of talent data. |
None of this means you are doing something wrong. It means you don't have the right tools to see the full picture.
AI is changing how easy it is to gather and summarize information. But the decision itself still needs your context, your judgment, and a clear sense of what a good outcome looks like.
Picture this scenario. Your vice president of customer success has just resigned. You owe your C-suite and board a recommendation for who steps in next.
Two candidates are on your shortlist. Both sit in the top right of your talent review grid.
Decision one: based on talent review and employee records only
David has been in the top right of your talent review grid for years. That means he is both a top performer and ready for growth. His employee records add to the case. He has long tenure and has completed your leadership development program. He knows the business, the customers, and the processes.
Maria is also in the top right, so she is a top performer who is ready for growth. She has been there for less time. Her records show shorter tenure and no leadership development program.
On paper, David is the more defensible choice. So you promote him.
A year later, engagement on David's team drops. Communication slips, and customers speak up and complain more often. Turnover on David's team triples, and you lose a star player. Other executives are quietly working around him.
Decision two: the same candidates, with more connected signals
Now add peer feedback and recognition data to the talent review. A different story appears.
|
Signal |
David |
Maria |
|
Talent review |
Top right, ready for growth |
Top right, ready for growth |
|
Peer feedback |
Brilliant at his craft, but hard to collaborate with. He loops people in late. |
Makes everyone around her better. She is the go-to problem solver. |
|
Recognition |
Receives plenty because he hits goals. Rarely recognizes others. |
Receives it, and also gives it when she sees strong impact. |
These signals also help predict the impact on engagement and retention. David's pattern suggests colleagues would be looped in late and rarely celebrated. Maria's pattern suggests the opposite. The people who work closest with her already show some of the strongest engagement and retention in the company.
None of this data was hidden. It simply was not connected when you needed it most.
The connected view confirms David is a strong performer in his original role. It also shows a senior role with people leadership responsibilities was probably not the growth he was ready for. Maria was already acting as a leader, just without the title.
Four questions now have clear answers:
Scooter's Coffee is a family-founded, drive-thru beverage business based in Omaha, Nebraska. It operates in more than 35 states and is on the path to 1,000 stores. Its values are integrity, love, humility, and courage.
As the company grew, John Spehn and his team faced a question you may know well. How do people and performance stay at the center when your people are spread across the country? Quantum Workplace helped connect the data behind the answer.
Their story unfolds in four steps.
Love is one of Scooter's values. It is easy to practice in a single building. It is harder across numerous stores, a support center, and six distribution centers.
Recognition tied to company values gave employees a visible way to share Scooter's values through town halls, huddles, and screens across our distribution centers.
Rapid growth meant priorities shifted often. Employees could not always tell what mattered most.
The team made three changes:
The new process looks forward instead of backward. It also stays tied to business goals.
This is where Scooter's started leaning into connected data. Three sources came together for the first time. Surveys showed who could see a future at Scooter's. Talent reviews showed who leaders believed was ready to grow. Retention risk showed where people might leave.
The team focused on its "stretch and grow" group, the future leaders of the company. The combined view revealed opportunities these employees could not see for themselves. It also exposed a gap between where the development team spent its time and where this group needed support.
Individual contributors in the group added to the picture. They said development options focused on leaders, with little for them.
The data pointed to two places to invest:
The 2026 engagement survey showed these targeted investments were working.
|
Development result in the 2026 engagement survey |
Change |
|
Opportunities for advancement |
Up 17% |
|
Opportunities to learn new skills |
Up 12% |
|
Elevate participants promoted |
More than half |
Good news came with a catch. In 2025, Scooter's went through a significant restructure. Trust in senior leadership fell afterward. The survey items on senior leaders acting with integrity and valuing people each dropped by more than 12%.
The team sliced the survey results. It compared them with comments, retention risk, talent review data, and exit surveys. The pattern was hard to hear.
The stretch and grow group showed specific concerns in the trust in leadership category. More than 61% of this group signaled a high risk of leaving. These are the people Scooter's most wants to keep.
Based on the data, leaders launched three new initiatives:
One year later, trust in the support center had rebounded. Several trust measures rose by double digits.
|
Trust and engagement result one year later |
Change |
|
Leaders value people |
Up 26% |
|
Engagement |
Up 10 points |
|
Intent to stay |
Up 17 points |
John is clear that this did not happen overnight. Scooter's does not have all the answers, and the work continues. A few lessons stand out for you.
Start with the decisions you need to make, not the data you already have. A clear decision tells you which signals to connect.
Quality beats volume. You do not need to collect more data. You need to slice what you have and connect it in a way that leads to action.
Keep listening, and keep your actions simple. Scooter's replaced a full-year performance review with four questions, and the simpler process worked.
You do not need new dashboards or more data. Here are five simple steps to begin.
Quantum Workplace is built around this idea. Our talent platform brings your engagement, performance, development, and recognition signals into one connected view. Insights Hub links those signals to surface the deeper story in your people data. Retention Radar layers in talent reviews, succession planning, and performance data to flag top talent at risk.
You do not need more data to make better people decisions. You need the data you already have to work together. With connected signals, you can choose with clarity and share your reasoning with confidence.
You already have the data. Now see how to link it. The free eBook shows you which signals to connect first, how to pair people data with business data, and how to turn insight into action.
Get the ebook: Connecting Your Talent Data for Stronger People Decisions