If you work in HR or corporate management you have probably come across the term HR Analytics as it has been around for a few years now (similar terms: people/talent/workforce analytics). Better yet, it has already been implemented in your organization. As I still get related questions from clients and HR workers fairly frequently, let’s do a quick overview of what it is and why it is good.
We are way past Taylorism when it comes to keeping employees happy. I think we can all agree on that. And even though most modern corporations have sophisticated their employee engagement strategies and their ways to be attractive employers, most still struggle with recruiting, retaining and motivating top talent.
This is where HR Analytics comes in. Because when we turn to data – and not just surveys or even worse: gut feeling – we gain insights that can help us transform business and drive change and success. Because data doesn’t lie. This has been well-known in business intelligence and analytics for years, so it’s only natural that it’s also applied in HR. HR is unfortunately often regarded as soft and old-fashioned by the rest of the company. We also struggle with quantifying and measuring our success, unlike other departments. HR Analytics helps solving these challenges. You will get a stronger voice if you can back up your arguments with data insights, so it’s time to become a data-driven HR worker if you are not already.
The purpose of HR Analytics is to give the organization the ability to analyze HR data with other business data and external data in order to understand the context, see trends, find deviations and create a common picture of the business and predict events.
Some benefits of using HR Analytics:
- Make better decisions using data.
- Create a business case for HR interventions
- Test the effectiveness of these interventions
- Move from organizational to strategic partner
First step is to determine what you want to analyze. Any area can be analyzed, for example employer branding, employee turnover, talent management, recruitment, performance, or something else. Next, you choose BI tool. There are a few to choose from on the market, so it’s good to do some good old research beforehand. Third step is you collect and structure existing data for the future so that all new data that is collected updates your KPIs, reports and analyzes automatically (Data Warehouse). Last but not least, you visualize the findings in an HR Analytics Dashboard, presenting relevant KPIs, statistics etc, and make it accessible and digestible to stakeholders.
This was a very brief introduction to HR Analytics. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want more advice about how you can be successful with HR Analytics in your organization.
Nu Creatives 