Organisations today are relying heavily on people or workforce analytics as part of their business strategies.
Yet, when we think of workforce analytics, images of large spreadsheets with seemingly endless rows of employees information will pop into mind. Even if organisations have a dedicated team and are able to do their own HR analysis, the insights gathered might not be sufficient to warrant a major overhaul in business strategies or that business leaders feel that it might not be the right time to take action.
These concerns have resulted in organisations coming to the consensus that if they are unable to get people analytics right, there is no need for them to do it at all. However, there are numerous advantages and insights that people analytics can bring about. Furthermore, rapid advancements in technology has significantly impacted the way data is being analysed – making it highly intuitive, straightforward and accessible for those who do not have a background in analytics.
Advantages
Business decisions largely fall back on numbers and analytics provide a black and white reasoning behind business decisions. After all, it is unlikely that numbers lie – unless it is a data entry error of course.
Apart from the clear benefit of basing decision-making on insights gathered from these data, HR analytics also provides the added benefit of being transparent and unbiased – an issue in which HR and business leaders often struggle with. If employees doubt the business decisions made, there are always concrete numbers and data to support the basis of business decisions.
Challenges
One of the key challenges in leveraging HR analytics is data collection and analyses. There are infinite data that is collected by organisations, be it through internal human resource information systems, recruitment platforms or employee engagement surveys. Collecting these data and cleaning it such it becomes a useful database for analysis is a major challenge in itself.
While there is no doubt numerous software today that can help to crunch the data into valuable insights, the real challenge comes in interpreting these data and turning it into actionable solutions. Hence, organisations do not need to worry about the number crunching or management of the data. Essentially, the only challenge that organisations need to focus on is how to use the data – and this will be key in differentiating your organisation amongst the rest.
HR analytics is a powerful tool for all aspects of HR management and beyond. It provides key metrics and insights into various business aspects including attrition rates, employee engagement levels and business profitability. By leveraging on historical data, this can also provide deeper insights on year-on-year trends, propelling organisations towards predictive analytics as the next step. Analytics is, without a doubt, the way forward for organisations to improve and enhance productivity.
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