Insights and applications of HR Analytics are required in the field of statistics, analysis and modeling of employee-related factors to improve business results.
HR analytics is also often referred to as :
- People analytics
- Talent analytics
- Workforce analytics
The graph below provided by Google Trends shows search interest for these terms. Both the terms HR analytics and personal analytics have grown in popularity and continue to gain interest.
These terms are often used interchangeably, although some discuss the differences. Definitions of HR analysis tend to include a larger scope of data while personal and talent analysis refers to data points that are specific to people and their behaviour. Some prefer the concept of workforce analysis because of the growing tendency to automate tasks with robots which can be considered as part of the workforce
Now we discuss here
Insights and applications of HR Analytics :
HR analytics allows HR professionals to make data-driven decisions to manage, attract and retain employees, improving ROI. It helps managers make decisions about creating better work environments and maximizing employee productivity. It has a big impact on the finish line when used effectively
HR professionals collect data points across the organization from sources such as :
- Employee surveys
- Telemetric Data
- Attendance records
- Multi-rater reviews
- Salary and promotion history
- Employee work history
- Demographic data
- Personality/temperament data
- Recruitment process
- Employee databases
HR leaders must align HR data and initiatives with the organisation\’s strategic goals. For example, a technology company might want to improve collaboration between departments to increase the number of innovative ideas built into their software. HR initiatives such as shared workspaces, collaboration tools, corporate events and employee challenges can be implemented to achieve this goal. To determine how successful initiatives are, HR analyzes can be used to examine the relationship between initiatives and strategic goals.
When data is collected, HR analysts feed labour data into sophisticated data models, algorithms and tools to gain actionable insights. These tools provide insights in the form of dashboards, visualizations and reports. An ongoing process should be implemented to ensure the continued improvement
- Benchmark analysis
- Data-gathering
- Data-cleansing
- Analysis
- Evaluate goals and KPIs
- Create an action plan based on analysis (continuously test new ideas)
- Execute on plan
- Streamline process
Applications
- Retention
- Employee Performance
- Recruiting
- Employee Development
- Workforce Planning
- Employee Engagement
- Compensation and Incentive Programs
Retention
The cost of replacing an employee can be over 200% of their annual salary, according to AmericanProgress.org. Actual costs may even be higher due to training/onboarding, lost productivity, recruitment and reduced morale among other employees. Losing an employee who is in the top 1% of the artists can mean the difference between growth and decline. For this reason, reduced fatigue and improved employee engagement are often the highest priorities for HR departments. HR analysis can help improve retention through a core analysis that looks at data points such as
- Current churn rate
- Attrition by department
- Attrition by estimated commute time
- Similar attributes of employees with longer tenure
- Similar attributes of employees who leave within 1 year
- Onboarding experience
- Survey data
- Qualitative data such as employee interviews
- Employee performance data to forecast future attrition
Through this data-driven strategy, HR analytics can highlight the major causes of fatigue and new policies along with training programs, can be introduced to mitigate the problem. For example, data can show that employees with high ambitions are not challenged or that employees are frustrated by a certain management style. Human resources analysis will reveal these issues and then it is up to the leadership to act. It is also possible to detect an employee in the risk zone before leaving so that preventive measures can be taken to solve problems. For example, once high performance may not be as productive as he or she feels he or she is underpaid. An analysis of productivity along with a comparison of market value wages can help detect this.
Employee Performance
When qualified candidates become more difficult to find and retain, performance evaluation improvements can prove to be extremely valuable. HR analysis utilizes your employees’ data to determine who your best and worst performers are, based on factors such as past work experience, length of employment and to whom they report. Common characteristics between groups of employees can arise which can be used to motivate employees properly and ensure that they receive the right rewards. Career development is also an important component of monitoring because employees are much more likely to leave if they are not satisfied with their career plans.
Analysis of marketing degrees, campaign waiting times and qualitative data from employees helps HR to meet employee expectations and keep them motivated. Leadership characteristics may arise with some employees and companies can determine which characteristics correlate with future leaders. HR can then promote this potential, resulting in long-term ROI for the organization.
Recruiting
Organizations must first determine who their ideal candidate is and what skills are required for the job. This can be discovered through discussions with hiring managers, analysis of previously successful positions and available market data. Organizations can then match their needs to where the largest pool of applicants with that competence is located. For example, the best cities for public relations jobs are according to Forbes Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., so a recruiter may want to focus efforts in those cities if they can’t find local talent for the job. Similarly, a recruiter can look at college-graduated tasks to see where the best new talent is if they need to fill a starting position. Talent acquisition teams must also adopt channel optimization strategies based on recruitment analysis.
A continuous process for evaluating which channels drive the best candidates at the most effective price is extremely important. Data analytics can reveal that one source has a lower cost per applicant while another can provide the best talent. HR analytics can also be used to create the best recruitment message for the right candidate based on internal data, open-source and third-party data. This is all data that HR analytics platforms can consume and convert into easily digestible formats such as dashboards and charts. Recruitment is strongly based on metrics collected during the interview process. Important statistics include :
- The average number of applicants
- Number of applications to offer
- Scheduled maintenance windows for system patching, security updates and AWS infrastructure management
- Number of final rounds to offer
- Offer acceptance rate
Over time, HR analysts can see which candidate characteristics predict the best employees. Previews are often used to test candidates, and analysis can help determine what types of questions this exam should include. For example, a candidate who applied for a Python developer role can be asked a series of questions to assess competence within the program.
Employee Development
Nearly 40% of American employers say they cannot find people with the necessary skills for employment levels and almost 60% say entry-level candidates are not professionally prepared.
HR analytics also play an increased role in the evaluation of employee development programs to close the skills gap. Analytics tools can help human resource management assess the needs of the company, allocate resources to train employees who are most likely to meet those needs and then evaluate the results. The goal is to close the skills gap so that a company can compete with ever more agile global competitors.
Data visualizations that are fed by employee and customer feedback data can show the evolution of staff professional growth. For example, a retail clothing chain may discover through customer feedback that sales companies are friendly but have trouble offering excellent customer service when goods are not in stock. A staff development program can be set up to educate employees on the keys to customer success. This can take the form of a pilot training program for employees in those places of low performance.
The best employee development and talent management programs align the employees\’ goals with the business goals and investments are often dependent on the ability to tie these to revenue. The process is successful when ROI is achieved and creates a feedback cycle where success increases the revenue and investment in development.
Workforce Planning
Not only do organizations need to ensure that they have employees with the right skills at the moment but they must also be able to anticipate future departures or changes in the organization\’s needs, especially for business growth. HR needs a data-driven strategy to successfully navigate the ever-changing composition of the organization\’s talent. This ensures that staff strength and capacity planning are optimized.
For example, an electronics OEM may need to anticipate a greater need for call centre support with the launch of new products in the next quarter. Again, HR must be adapted to the company\’s goals and future changes. Predictable analytics and data analytics platforms are changing how HR can use and anticipate these changes.
Employee Engagement
A committed workforce is crucial to attracting and engaging talent. The challenge is to determine what factors will result in revenue for the company. This makes employee engagement a very difficult metric to quantify and take action.
How can HR analysis help with employee engagement?
- Statistical analysis of survey data for employee engagement
- Discriminatory analysis to identify the needs of different segments within the organization
- Factor analysis to correlate engagement initiatives with retention and productivity
- Inform testing of new ideas to measure lifting in engagement
Google is a perfect case study of how people analytics can be used to increase employee engagement. They are one of the most computer-driven cultures in the world. Its People Operations team uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to measure what employees value most and what keeps them engaged.
They discovered through a combination of employee surveys and productivity analytics that great managers tend to have the following qualities:
- Coaching skills
- Does not micromanage
- Is genuinely concerned for the well-being of employees and expresses this
- Results-oriented
- Excellent communicator (listens and shares)
- Develops employees
- Clear vision and strategy for the team
- Possesses key technical skills to help guide team
Compensation and Incentive Programs
Compensation is often the largest business expense which underlines its importance in the organization\’s decision-making. Data analysis platforms can help analyze large volumes of employee and market data to achieve a competitive advantage. Smart HR analysts will keep track of what competitors offer to employees to ensure that the highest talent is drawn to the company. They can also look at exit surveys during the recruitment process and rejected offers to better understand the compensation and incentive landscape. HR analytics can provide:
- Incentive programs to motivate employees to maximize productivity. Data analysis can provide insights into the most influential monetary and non-monetary benefits. For example, the HR department may implement a referral program where employees receive a bonus for referring new hires. With enough data, HR can determine what the perfect bonus amount is and cross-references this to the increase or decrease in the quality of employment.
- Sales team motivation is another application. What quota should be allocated to each seller and what should their bonus structure look like? This may vary by law, region and products sold.
- Executive compensation analysis is needed to attract and retain top executives. HR analytics can analyze the market prices of managers at similar companies, bonuses that motivate properly and benefits to provide. This is crucial to the direction of the organization and can either make or break it
What are the Benefits of HR Analytics?
In summary, HR analytics will move from an operational partner to a more strategic center of excellence. The companies now realize that the company\’s success is based on people and HR analysis can light the way from intangible theory-based decisions to real ROI by:
- Better employment practices
- Reduced retention
- task Automation
- process improvements
- Improved staff experience
- More productive labour
- Improved workforce planning through informed talent development
What are the Biggest Challenges of HR Analytics?
The path to useful HR analytics is not always easy. There are several challenges that organizations need to overcome in order to reap the benefits:
- Find people with the right skills to collect, manage and report on data
- Data Cleansing
- Data Quality
- Too much data to analyze or not know which data is most important
- Data integrity and compliance
- Prove their value for executive leadership
- Binding measures and insight into ROI
- Identify the best HR technologies to keep track of the information
If you want to learn more about Insights and applications of HR, then HR Training in Chandigarh is the right place for you.
