Using People Analytics to Create a More Effective Workforce

People analytics, also known as talent analytics, are metrics that tell managers about their workforce. This can help them to make informed, important decisions and form a sustainable HR strategy. Because of its inherent benefits, the method has been gaining popularity in more and more large organizations.

As cloud-based systems and the need for big data grows, this type of data analysis will continue to provide valuable insights. Because organizations have traditionally focused their analytics resources on sales departments, clients, and production processes, people analytics is an area that has typically been overlooked.

The success of your employees will impact your business, so being able to negate risk and identify gaps in performance will help enable employees to work more efficiently. Not only will have a direct impact on profits, but it could also boost employee morale in the process.

What Are the Benefits of People Analytics?

From a business perspective:

• Businesses become smarter when applying their strategies.
• Employee issues and needs can be quickly identified, leading to decreased turnover rates.
• Employee performance can be monitored.
• Succession planning strategies can be improved.
• Top performing employees can be easily identified and rewarded.
• HR departments will be able to improve their ROI and increase their value to their organization, helping to shape company initiatives.

From an employee perspective:

• Identifying training needs will aid in the design of tailored employee development plans.
• Learning what motivates and helps employees can lead to increased well-being and a happier, more productive workforce.
• Needless tasks can be eliminated, allotting more time for more important projects.
• Companies will be able to get to know their employees better, which can facilitate improved employee engagement and support services.

Is There a Downside?

There are a couple hinderances, but they are well worth dealing with. HR departments will need to be ready to fully implement people analytics. Those HR practitioners must possess the right skills with the right analytical acumen. The data-led approach of people analytics reduces the human ability to be subjective.

A Clear Plan is Required

HR departments can help shape the use of this technology by having a clear plan regarding people analytics. This might include making the hiring process more streamlined by using the information acquired. It could also include removing unconscious bias from the process.

With a refined algorithm, your organization can obtain the best-suited candidates for your open positions. For example, Google uses an algorithm to sift through rejected applications so that they don’t miss talented candidates. Use your people analytics to improve employee retention and engagement.

Wearable tech can help facilitate people analytics. This kind of analysis may be more useful in some industries than others. For example, a building site could gain useful data by closely monitoring the building projects that their workers are assigned to and store it on a secured cloud server for further analysis. Data on the size of the project, how long it takes, and how many people are required could all be extracted.

However, other industries might collect data differently. Some may see the collection of location, age, gender, and personal likes and dislikes data as too intrusive. This raises the question of just how transparent people analytics and data storage should be.

The Next Steps Need to be Defined

Many companies have real-time data at their disposal, but they’re still not utilizing it properly. There are some key data sources that those who embrace people analytics should invest in further to improve manager effectiveness. These include but are not limited to:

• Participation in leadership programs
• Outcomes of key projects
• Participation in training and development
• Personnel demographics
• Employee skills
• Engagement levels and performance ratings
• Business labor costs vs profit

People analytics can play a huge role in an organization’s future growth. With the ongoing digital transformation of our society, the concept and implementation of people analytics is set to drive business decisions. This will result in an increase in the demand for the technology and for the people who understand it.

If you would like any more information about people analytics, or to discuss how we can help with your recruitment processes, get in touch with one of our specialist consultants today.