Reference: Choosing and Creating Specified Groups
A specified group is a group that ideally consists of employees representing various demographics and characteristics across workforce composition. A specified group is a field or a group of fields that represent the dimensions you want to analyze in the VIBE Index™.
We strongly recommend that you use a minimum and maximum of 2 fields to define the specified group.
Examples of fields used to define a specified group can be Region and Gender.
Example of an intersection: Gender and Ethnicity.
The values of the fields used to define the specified group determine the specified group values. Each of the values within the specified group is an individual people group.
Choosing a specified group and creating a specified group are prerequisites to configuring the VIBE Index topic in People Analytics.
Getting Started
Review all details for choosing specified groups to determine which fields and conditions meet the business and development needs of your organization. Afterward, review the details for the default specified group field and the field specifications for specified groups. You can then determine if:
- Using the default specified group field or an existing field in your tenant is a suitable choice for an specified group.
- Creating an intersection is the best choice for your organization.
The specified group you choose or create must meet the requirements listed in the field specifications for specified groups .
Choosing Specified Groups
We strongly recommend that you use a minimum and maximum of 2 fields to define the specified group.
The best specified groups are specified groups that align with the general (more broad) business and development strategy of your organization. This enables you to connect insights that are surfaced in the VIBE Index topic in People Analytics with other internal findings that you can act on.
The VIBE Index is a great tool for diagnosing areas for targeted intervention. Therefore, the fields you choose for the specified group should consist of dimensions in which you can dig deeper into using other data sources (VIBE Central dashboard or other reporting sources).
Expected Baseline
The VIBE Index evaluates baseline consistency in several outcomes across specified groups. The specified group you choose should have a reasonable expectation of meeting the baseline across all outcomes (Attrition, Hires, Leadership, Promotions).
Examples of choices that meet this criteria:
- Gender / Ethnicity - Gender / Ethnicity - Organizations often look at gender and ethnicity to measure consistency of outcomes such as hires and promotions. We expect that the gender or ethnicity of an employee shouldn't have an influence on the rate at which the employee is promoted or on the probability of the employee being included in leadership composition, and so on.
- Sexual Orientation / Disability Status / Veteran Status - Organizations often look at these dimensions to measure consistency across different outcomes. Therefore, we expect that these employee attributes shouldn't have an influence on certain outcomes, such as employee promotions. Before choosing a specified group with 1 or more of these fields, determine if you have:Before choosing an intersection with 1 or more of these fields, determine if you have:
- Accurate and relatively complete data among the chosen dimensions.
- Sufficient headcount in each specified group (minimum 10 workers). Example: The specified group Disability Status and Veteran Status includes the specified group value NotDisabled - IsVeteran, which consists of 10 workers.
Example of choices that don't meet this criteria: Age Group / Generation
Although organizations often look at age and generation as important variables in business and development work, they aren't dimensions that you would expect parity in for some of the outcomes included in the VIBE Index.
Examples of outcomes where we don’t expect baseline consistency for age group and generation:
- Hires - Hires - This outcome usually skews in volume towards early-in-career roles, which results in uneven composition by age group or generation. Therefore, we expect inconsistency across specified groups for this outcome.
- Leadership - This outcome often has a higher composition of older age groups. We expect that the percentage of leaders should vary by age group or generation. Therefore, we expect inconsistency across specified groups for this outcome.
- Promotions - For the same reason job levels and management levels skew by age group, promotion rates are often lower as you move higher in an organization (longer time to promotion). We expect that the percentage of promotions should vary by age group or generation, and therefore expect inconsistency across specified groups for this outcome.
Example of dimensions that might or might not be a good choice for a specified group, depending on your organization: Region / Location.
If your organization is mostly US-based with only certain types and levels of specific roles that are subordinate to other locations or regions, you might not expect there to be consistent composition in leadership across regions, consistent promotion rates, and so on..
If operations in your organization are currently more homogeneous across regions or are intended to be more homogeneous across regions, you might expect baseline consistency across leadership opportunities, hiring, and promotions.
Attributes
Unlike some personal attributes (mentioned in the section Expected Baseline), job-related attributes almost always have an impact on other job-related outcomes and don’t make good choices for specified groups.
Examples of job-related attributes:
- Job Level or Management Level - We don’t recommend using these attributes for a specified group because we expect they are:
- Directly related to the outcome Leadership.
- Highly correlated with promotion rates.
- Skewed along Hiring.
- Performance Rating - We expect this attribute to have a negative impact on the outcome metric Hiring because it's often:
- Highly correlated with promotions.
- Highly correlated with differences in belonging and attrition.
- Skewed by job level.
- Tenure or Time in Role - We expect that tenure has strong correlations with promotions, attrition, and leadership composition. Therefore, we don’t recommend using these attributes for a specified group because they might negatively affect the outcome metric Hiring.
Populations
The specified group that you use for VIBE should include the right populations. If a field that is included in the specified group returns a blank or null value for a worker, Workday doesn't include the associated worker in the VIBE calculation.
Additionally, if the headcount for a given specified group falls below the minimum requirement of 10 workers for the respective month, we don't include the specified group in the VIBE calculation.
If the fields that you choose for the specified group consist of both correct and incorrect populations, you can use condition functions to exclude the incorrect populations.
Specified Group Headcount
The minimum headcount requirement for each specified group value within a defined specified group is 10 workers.
The minimum headcount enables us to derive aggregate-level insights. The VIBE Index relies on the expectation of baseline consistency across groups, not individuals. By having a sufficient population in each specified group, there's a reasonable expectation that individual-level variances cancel out, and we can make comparisons on group-level outcomes where we would expect baseline consistency.
The minimum headcount enables the VIBE Index to be stable and actionable. Otherwise, there would be extreme fluctuations in results from time period to time period.
Example: If an organization has a headcount of 5 in a specified group and has a 10% annual attrition rate, the expected number of attrition events for that specified group in a 12-month period is 0.5. Because you can’t have 0.5 attrition events, an organization can be perfectly at baseline by having 0 attrition events in one period and 1 attrition event in the next period. However, in the first case (0 attrition events), the specified group with a headcount of 5 would be 100% below baseline for the corresponding time period. In the second case (1 attrition event), the same specified group would be 100% above baseline for the corresponding time period.
If the headcount for a given intersection falls below the minimum requirement of 10 workers for the respective month, we don't include the intersection in the VIBE calculation.
Field Specifications for Specified Groups
This table lists the requirements for specified groups and provides guidance on key configuration elements of specified groups.
Specification | Details |
|---|---|
Number of Fields |
We strongly recommend that you use a minimum and maximum of 2 fields to define the intersection. |
Field type when the intersection field includes concatenated functions |
The only allowed field type is Text.
The field can also be a calculated field.
The field type requirement doesn't apply to fields used as conditions or other components of the intersection field. |
Field type when the intersection field doesn't include concatenated functions |
The allowed types are Single Instance and Text. |
Business Objects of Fields |
People Analytics only supports using the primary business object for a given pipeline or a related business object to the primary business object of that pipeline.
The target field that you map for the VIBE Index is in the field mapping for the Worker pipeline, which uses the primary business object Worker.
Ensure that the intersection field is in the business object Worker (or a related business object).
If the intersection field contains more than 1 field, ensure that all fields use the same business object.
This includes fields that are used as conditions or other components of the intersection field. |
Minimum Headcount for Intersections |
The minimum headcount requirement for each intersection within a defined intersection is 10 workers. People Analytics evaluates active headcount at each recurrent data refresh.
Example: The intersection Gender and Ethnicity consists of the intersection Female - Asian, which has a minimum headcount of 10 workers for the respective month.
If the headcount for a given intersection falls below the minimum requirement of 10 workers for the respective month, we don't include the intersection in the VIBE calculation. |
Conditions for Fields |
If you use conditions in the intersection field, be mindful of blank or null values.
Ensure to exclude populations where appropriate to avoid blank or null values returned from fields.
If a field returns a blank or null value, Workday doesn't include the worker associated with the blank or null value in the VIBE calculation.
Additionally, if the headcount for a given intersection falls below the minimum requirement of 10 workers for the respective month, we don't include the intersection in the VIBE calculation. |
Specifications for People Analytics | All requirements and considerations for configuring People Analytics apply to the intersection you use for the VIBE Index. Example: People Analytics only supports tenant-wide calculated fields. When creating calculated fields to create an intersection or using an existing calculated field in your tenant, you can’t use report-specific calculated fields. |
Security for Fields |
Be mindful of your security configuration in People Analytics when choosing the fields and conditions you want to include in the intersection. Consider the target audience of the application: the HR Business Partner and executives within an organization. |
Default Specified Group
The default specified group for the VIBE Index is the Workday-owned, text field Specified Group. To view the setup and details for the default field, access the
Business Object Details
report (secured to the Custom Report Administration
and Custom Report Management
domains in the System functional area) and search for the business object Worker.The table lists the components of the default field Specified Group.
Component | Details |
|---|---|
Included in VIBE |
Calculated field that is used as the condition for the default intersection. |
Gender (text) | Calculated field that is used in these fields, which are also components of the default intersection:
|
Ethnicity (text) | Calculated field that is used in these fields, which are also components of the default intersection:
|
Concatenate Ethnicity and Gender |
Calculated field that is used as the value if the condition Included in VIBE is true.
This field consists of the concatenated fields Gender (text) and Ethnicity (text). |
You can’t edit the Workday-owned, default intersection field or the components within the default intersection field.
If you want to use a similar setup for your intersection, review the field specifications for intersections and the details for creating intersections.
You can then determine if you can use an existing field in your tenant for an intersection or if you need to create an intersection.
Creating Specified Groups
When creating an specified group field, you can:
- Use an existing field or fields in your tenant that meet the specifications for specified groups.
- Create a new field that meets the specifications for specified groups.
A specified group field can consist of other fields.
For examples on creating specified groups, you can view the setup of the default specified group fields and the example topic on creating an specified groups.