The Meeting Point of Human Resources and Analytics

Gone are the days when the human resource department of an organisation was just an operational partner in an organisation. They are now expected to be strategic partners and that involves coming up with initiatives that improve the workforce of an organisation.

HR professionals are now leveraging analytics to make data-driven decisions concerning attracting, managing and retaining their employees. With HR Analytics, you can now make better decisions on how to create a better work environment as well as how to maximise your employee productivity. Overall, HR Analytics can make a major positive impact on an organisation’s result when used effectively.

In recent times only HR Leaders with the ability to align HR data and initiatives to the organisation’’s strategic goals can gain a seat at the big “C” table. Unfortunately, an old saying describes the data skills of most HR Professionals which is “The Shoemaker’s children go barefoot.”

Let us examine certain applications of HR Analytics:

• Retention and Turnover
• Performance Management
• Recruiting and Talent Sourcing
• Training & Development
• Strategic Workforce Planning
• Compensation and Incentive Programs
• Employee Engagement

What are the Benefits of HR Analytics?

HR Analytics can impact an organisation’s process and produce real ROI through the following:

• Improve hiring practices
• Increase employee retention
• Improve organisational Processes
• Improve employees experience
• Improve the productivity of the workforce
• Improve workforce planning
• Track key problem areas in an objective manner

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Descriptive and Predictive analytics

•   Descriptive Analytics

This involves gathering and analysing data points that represent the current state of things or past events. For example, with descriptive analysis, one can define causes of attrition, compare performance across the departments, etc.

•   Predictive Analytics

This involves forecasting future outcomes or events based on insights gotten from the analysis of both current and historical data points. With predictive analysis, you can answer questions like “What might happen if ...?” Predictive analytics requires numerous statistical techniques, including data mining (detecting patterns in data) and machine learning.

...But for beginners in HR Analytics skills like data mining, statistical techniques, machine learning can take a long while to be learnt or even far fetched. How Can you then gather useful data as well as make informed decisions from the data gathered? Not to worry!!!

The intersection of data and human behavior has led to the consumerization of human resources software applications. You can get the data needed from user-friendly human resources software applications. But simply gathering data doesn't help when it does not tell a story.

That’s where modern dashboards and reporting systems play a huge role. Dashboards and Reports help organisations aggregate and present workforce data in a way that makes meaning and usable to make data-driven decisions.

HR Dashboard & HR Report

HR Dashboards and reports now play a critical role in data-driven HR Departments. They provide management and stakeholders with important information at a glance as well as provide the quick insight needed to make crucial workforce management decisions. Nowadays, a lot of HR Software applications have dashboards and reports that don’t require business intelligence to use.

HR Dashboards collect the most relevant data you care about and present it in a manner that helps you spot trends easily. All of these are presented on one screen. Data is converted to information and presented in different visual formats like charts, graphs, and analytics. Dashboards present this information graphically to enable you to monitor everything at a glance. You can also interact with dashboards to narrow or drill down when you require more information. Dashboards too can be customised to show information that matters most to your team, department or organisation the most.

A Good Dashboard

Below are a few points to consider for your dashboards when selecting a HR Software:

•   Streamline what you want to measure

The fact that you can measure dozens of performance indicators does not mean you should. Select your 8 to 12 most important indicators for effectiveness.

•   Measure Useful and valuable Data

Useful and valuable data is what is needed to carry out a predictive analysis. Therefore, monitor data that can give you important insights for better decision making

•   Always Dive Deeper into the data

Point to note is that a dashboard is just a means to an end. Do not stop at just monitoring your company data. Take actions to implement decisions made from the insight the data provided you. Also, don't be stuck on the same data point you are measuring. Keep iterating the data points to match your organization's current realities. Note that continuous advantage comes from continuous improvement

..Finding the right HR software with data driven analytics and infographic metrics can feel frustrating but it doesn’t have to

TAMS is an attendance focused human resources application that can help you uncover the meaningful stories inside your data. If you have any questions about how TAMS can improve the performance of your organisation , please contact us at info@tams.com.ng — we're happy to help!

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