The HR department typically gets a bad rap; regularly associated with unpleasant news such as punishments and pink slips. These associations can be avoided by adopting the game-changing practice of people analytics, which helps puts numbers to the nuances of the HR profession.
Many HR departments probably know offhand the height of a company’s turnover on an annual basis, but just how many of those losses are considered regrettable by the organization? That percentage may be a bit harder to quantify.
The fact of the matter is that many HR departments do a considerable amount of data wrangling – but those stats and figures end up collecting dust instead of being put into motion to benefit the business.
People analytics – or using data to drive Human Resources and its strategies – eliminates a traditional overreliance on instinct, and it also helps to gauge the efficacy of new policies and practices.
Initially, such practices were met with skepticism – as insiders wondered if this tool would be just one more way to treat people like numbers. But over the last several years people analytics has grown to be seen as a pivotal tool.
Common internal sources for gathering people analytics include:
- Employee demographics
- Payroll
- Social network
- Performance
- Engagement
External sources might include:
- The labor market
- The local population
- LinkedIn resources
- And more!
Almost any data can be leveraged if it is somehow relevant to the project at hand, however.
“People analytics” and “HR analytics” are often used as interchangeable terms – but the former is a far more direct translation, because it doesn’t bury the lead: using this tool will ultimately revolutionize your recruitment and performance management practices, and when used properly can be leveraged to:
- Predict churn
- Evaluate performance
- Calculate an ROI
- Boost acceptance rates
- Reduce help tickets
- Establish workforce planning practices
- Establish a business case for an HR intervention
Once you can predict the hires that will leap to the head of the class – or determine who will abandon ship within a year’s time – your decision-making will be all the better for it.
How it Works
- Mining data begins with formulating a question regarding a business concern that you have the power to change.
- Data is gathered in response to the question.
- Personnel comb through the data to analyze it.
- Actionable insights are revealed.
As offices continue to open, and teams return to the workplace, people analytics will be a valued tool, implemented in a number of new ways, for a number of new work environments.
Has productivity been maintained while employees worked from home? If not, why? People analytics can be used to mine information regarding the circumstances in which your employees work best and allow you to make sure they have what they need to excel.
Other post pandemic intel to be analyzed and leveraged could include:
- Staff levels
- Engagement
- Wellness
- Inclusion
- And more
Using people analytics does require certain skills that may serve as obstacles for some companies, such as the ability to analyze raw data, and the visualization skills required to share results with an audience in a clear way.
Maslow Media Group can operate as your outsourced HR department, handling the day-to-day responsibilities such as payroll, insurance, benefits, and more, while allowing your on-site team to focus on bolstering their people analytics skills. Contact us today to get started and begin mining the data that will serve your company well, well into the future.