4 Powerful Ways HR Analytics Is Changing Workforce Management

Around 61% HR professionals are looking to reduce costs and increase efficiency in processes and operations. A lot of these budgets are aiming to be invested in business analytics tools, technologies, and personnel.

From operations to people, human resource professionals manage a variety of tasks across several sectors and industries. With the rise in data generation, data analytics, and HR analytics, has become significantly important. HR analytics is a data-driven approach to managing people at work, and a much more efficient process at that. With the help of data, HR professionals can gain deep insights into their workforce, in terms of demographics, performance management, etc., and change workforce management strategies accordingly.

The onset of new trends and applications of business analytics in the human resource sector is quite promising. Let’s look at ways in which HR analytics will revolutionise the workforce management:

How HR Analytics is Transforming Workforce Management

HR professionals juggle many tasks at the same time, from task management, performance evaluation, employee management, logistical operations, etc. Together, these efforts boost organisational performance and success, which is why these processes need to be made more efficient. With HR analytics, organisations can optimise their time and tasks better with data-driven insights and operations. Mentioned below are some ways HR analytics will change workforce management and drive organisational success:

1. Understanding workforce

Frequent interactions with people fare better when the HR professionals understand their employees in the best capacity possible. It is especially crucial because people come with many different strengths and weaknesses, each that need to be evaluated and worked on. To help employees explore their full potential, HR professionals can show the right way that fits the employee best, based on their experience and talents.

• • Workforce demographics

To begin with, the workforce demographics need to be identified to categorise people based on similar demographics. For example, age, gender, and tenure are some common segments to segregate the workforce into. This distribution helps analyse age distribution, gender diversity, potential skill gaps, etc., and work for a successful balance of each.

• • Employee sentiment analysis

Communication is key, even at the workplace. Employees find the need to be heard and understood. By conducting regular employee surveys, HR professionals can gauge an understanding of their overall job satisfaction, morale, engagement, etc. Such surveys help check the pulse of the workforce, and identify any gaps and opportunities to retain at-risk employees.

2. Talent acquisition and retention

HR professionals usually get a plethora of resumes, CVs, and cover letters to skim through, in order to find the perfect candidate. Accurate hiring requires long processes of proper screening, based on the roles and responsibilities required for a particular position. With the help of HR analytics in place, this process becomes far easier and quickly finds their way to profiles that best suit the role.

• • Predictive analytics

One of the four types of analytics, predictive analytics is the use of historical data to predict future outcomes and strategise accordingly. HR professionals can predict future hiring needs based on attrition rates, business growth, team size, etc., and other relevant factors. Planning hiring drives based on the insights received by forecasting future needs becomes a lot smoother for the team and the business.

• • Employee retention strategies

Based on employee surveys and performance, HR professionals can gauge where an employee stands, and whether they are at risk of leaving. In such cases, identifying these employees becomes easier with HR analytics, and implementing targeted retention strategies helps to retain good talents. Analysing necessary touchpoints such as job satisfaction, engagement, etc., build a solid foundation for retention strategies.

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3. Elevating employee performance

Employees gain qualitative and quantitative outcomes as a result of their work. Such results enable organisations to gain insights about the employee’s performance, the top performer, any performance gaps that need to be addressed, etc., which can be easily identified with the help of HR analytics. Analysing performance at every stage and taking necessary measures to optimise performance is what HR analytics aims to accomplish.

• • Performance management analytics

To analyse the quantitative results, there are several metrics such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which can be monitored and analysed to understand an individual or team’s performance. Performance distribution analysing focuses on top performers, average, and under performers, and the measures to close the gaps in their skill set and help elevate their performance.

• • Learning and development analytics

To continue improving employee performance and pushing them to scale, it is important to assess skill gaps and develop targeted training programmes for the employees. Furthermore, with the help of HR analytics, professionals can track learner engagement, knowledge retention, completion rates, etc., to fully optimise the learning experience.

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4. Fueling organisational success

The goal of all business analytics applications, including HR analytics, is to boost organisational growth and success. With the help of data, organisations can make more informed decisions and optimise workforce performance, planning, and engagement to a great degree. The use of HR analytics will result in reduced costs, streamlined processes, improved productivity, and overall increased organisational efficiency – all of which lead to growth and success of the business.

• • Workforce optimisation

By analysing data on employee productivity, resource allocation, time spent on tasks, etc., HR professionals can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in employee performance. The improvement process can be data-driven, such that it optimises workflow and streamlines operations. Resource allocation too, can be optimised by allocating resources effectively based on work load and skills, to delegate work efficiently and fairly.

• • Workforce planning

With the help of demand forecasting, organisations can analyse market trends, strategic initiatives, and business growth to predict future workforce needs. Future workforce planning can be put in place based on these metrics, and identifying high-potential employees can solidify the future shoes that they can fill. And finally, by addressing the skill gaps, HR professionals can introduce learning and development initiatives to help elevate employee performance.

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4 Emerging Trends in HR Analytics

Several new tools and technologies have been developed which will revolutionise the way organisations manage their workforce. These methodologies will not only shape the future of businesses, but also the bright future of HR analytics:

1. People Analytics

While there is a lot of data cooking, the focus continues to remain on people and experiences. Newer tools and technologies are developing to measure employee engagement, satisfaction, and experience, as accurately as possible, for organisations to understand their employees better. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) analytics help track DEI metrics in an organisation to promote building a more inclusive workplace.

2. Real-time Analytics

To identify emerging trends and issues and catch them early on, real-time analytics will monitor workforce data and yield effective results. The consequential decisions can be much more quick in addressing challenges and capitalising opportunities, since these decisions will be data-driven.

3. AI and ML

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will be extremely helpful in HR analytics as well. While AI and ML will be leveraged to predict future workforce trends, its major contribution will be via chatbots and virtual assistants. These robo assistants can automate routine HR tasks and provide solid support to employees in completing several tasks… even at the same time!

4. Ethical Considerations

HR analytics relies a whole lot on employee data. However, with the rise of data technologies, data security and privacy have become more important now than ever. Employee data should be secure and private, free from any breach of privacy. And while algorithms are easy to manipulate, it remains an ethical concern to avoid biases in algorithms and models to ensure fair outcomes.

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3 Real-Life Applications of HR Analytics

The field of human resources goes beyond people, and covers several different types of applications. Apart from workforce management, HR analytics has proven to be super useful in different areas, as we’ll discuss next:

1. Enhancing Employee Performance

By implementing performance analytics, HR professionals can identify top performers and areas of improvement for average performers to enhance their performance. Training data can also help identify skill gaps and curate targeted training programs to aid the employees in doing better.

2. Optimising Hiring Processes

Screening through numerous potential candidate profiles can become a tedious task. With the help of HR analytics, candidates can be filtered based on specific roles and requirements that the job demands. The hiring process can be streamlined with recruitment data and by tracking key metrics like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, etc.

3. Improving Employee Experience

Several factors contribute to making the employee experience good and memorable. HR analytics helps identify these factors, and implement strategies to improve the level of job satisfaction and engagement to improve the overall employee experience.

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4 Challenges in Implementing HR Analytics

Every organisation aims to implement HR analytics to enhance employee performance and streamline business processes. However, there are some challenges that may come in the way of implementing HR analytics, which restricts them from boosting organisational growth, as mentioned below:

1. Data Quality and Integration

HR data is usually scattered across various platforms and systems, which makes it difficult to accumulate, integrate, and analyse. Moreover, inconsistent data formats, errors, and missing data can compromise the accuracy of data, leading to improper results and inefficient outcomes.

2. Measuring ROI

The process of HR analytics is quite long-term and intricate, measuring its direct impact can be difficult. It shows results over time, after continuous implementation of HR analytics, in small and big ways alike. Quantifying such an impact is challenging, and may not show direct ROI.

3. Resistance to Change

Relying on data to make important organisational decisions is not easy to adapt to. This resistance of change needs to be overcome, in order to foster a data-driven decision making culture. Some employees also fear that accepting a data-driven culture would lead to reduced autonomy or job cuts, making them all the more resistant to accept it.

4. Lack of Analytical Skills

Many HR professionals lack the necessary data analytics and statistical skills to implement HR analytics. HR professionals can come up with strategies based on the insights, but they also need to understand the data, analytical processes, and what led to the yielded results. A qualification in HR analytics, from a reputed institution, will empower professionals to make better decisions with HR analytics.

How to Master HR Analytics with IMS Proschool

Finding the perfect institution that covers all aspects of a program is difficult. Sometimes theory weighs more than practicals, or the other way around. Lucky for you, the Business Analytics program at IMS Proschool takes a holistic approach to introduce business analytics in all its entirety to every learner. Here are 8 reasons to choose IMS Proschool to pursue the best business analytics course:

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5. Easily upgrade your course to domain-specific analytics, in this case, HR analytics, and master your knowledge about a particular domain you want to build a career in.
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8. IMS Proschool is ranked among the top 10 analytics institutes in India, so you really are learning from the best!

Frequently Asked Questions

• How can HR analytics transform workplaces?

With the help of HR analytics, organisations witness a complete transformation because they make more informed, data-driven decisions that can help optimise processes and drive business growth and success.

• Does HR analytics improve employee engagement and performance?

By analysing employee feedback with surveys and a variety of metrics, HR analytics helps organisations gauge employee engagement and performance standards, and implement various strategies to boost them.

• What are the other applications of business analytics?

Business analytics has many widespread applications, in the field of finance, marketing, manufacturing, CRM, human resources, etc., where the applications may be different but the goal remains the same: to help organisations grow and run smoothly.

• What are some emerging trends in business analytics?

Many new trends have emerged in business analytics, like the advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented analytics, data democratisation, real-time analytics, ethical AI, data privacy, and more.

Conclusion

At the core of any organisation are its people. HR analytics is the key to enhance people’s experience at the workspace, improve processes, operations, and boost organisational growth and success. Since HR analytics focus on the integral processes of the organisation, it is bound to show wonderful results post successful implementation!