What's Coming Next? How HR Is Using People Analytics

Recruiting, hiring, and retaining the right employees are key goals for any human resources department. Helping employees achieve their best possible performance, which aligns with business goals, is where = analytics comes in. People analytics is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data to assist in making informed decisions.

Digital graphic with three icon people

Analytics offers insights into how employees behave, perform, and engage in the workplace so that HR can better anticipate their needs, areas for improvement, and ways to enhance the corporate culture. Rather than relying on instinct, HR professionals have the added benefit of data to drive their decisions. Essentially, there are several categories of people analytics that provide management with valuable employee insights:

Descriptive analytics relies on historical statistical data to identify past patterns, trends, and relationships. This would include monthly employee turnover rates.
Diagnostic analytics takes a deeper dive into the data to determine what happened and what contributed to any unexpected trends. This could mean carefully examining why employee turnover rates were high in a particular department.
Predictive analytics considers the data gleaned from previous assessments to forecast future outcomes and events. Statistical modeling, machine learning algorithms, and data mining techniques are some of the analytics employed. Analysis at this stage can identify employees who are likely to quit and devise ways to possibly prevent it.
Prescriptive analytics regards future organizational goals to predict what the best course of action will be to achieve these goals based on past information. This allows HR to predict turnover rates for key personnel and what steps should be taken to intervene.
Real-time analytics involves examining HR data as it happens to monitor emerging trends and take corrective action quickly. Here, HR can predict employee burnout, project staffing, and areas for immediate training.

As you can imagine, people analytics is being successfully employed by major corporations around the globe as well as by small businesses right in your own community. For example, Google leans on analytics to identify which of its managers would make the best leaders. Rather than rely on anecdotal information, Google's HR department tracks the habits of its strongest performers to identify them for additional management training.

How it works

Similarly, Fam Brands, an apparel company, used analytics to discover where its employees were most productive. It turned out that those who worked remotely were more productive than their in-office colleagues. This insight helped the company initiate better employee training, hiring, and communication strategies. When preparing for future missions, NASA uses people analytics to see whether its current workforce has "the right stuff" to complete the missions. The agency maps employee skills, work history, and training to decide whether they have the qualities to get the job done.

Workforce analytics provides HR with actionable insights to help personnel make better decisions. For smaller companies, there is no need to purchase expensive software, although it is available to them. Instead, collect data such as performance appraisals, absenteeism, and turnover rates from existing sources. Look for trends that might need immediate attention and take corrective action as soon as possible.

Interested in learning more? Chat with a Connectify HR expert today.