Getting insights of people analytics with software

Over the years, human resource professionals have faced great challenges in an attempt to use analytics to make proper decisions. Oftentimes, they have been compelled to put together data from various spreadsheets to determine metrics such as turnover rate, cost per hire, training return on investment, etc.

While the traditional practices and technology hurdle still exists, they are slowly becoming outdated as with the arrival of more-sophisticated, cloud-based analytics tools that allow HR leaders employ people data in a more timely and effective way to support organizational decision-making.

People analytics previously known as HR analytics is a more often used term because the latter describes a more general category of tools while the former makes use of statistical models, data set and analysis to improve people related HR practices. These insights are further integrated into business practices through data driven tools to make informed decisions by management.

The metrics that HR leaders in progressive organizations report on have grown beyond the standard measures such as turnover rate, employee headcount etc. because analytics software has become more sophisticated, versatile, and easy to use.

Concepts such as employee engagement, experience, and HR provides a basic understanding of people analytics:

1.   Workforce planning platforms:

This involves carefully analyzing a company’s current, and future workforce needs using quantitative & predictive approaches. Talent acquisition programs can be integrated with financial forecasting which would help companies analyze and prepare for future changes in workforce before they occur.

2.   Talent Sourcing tools:

With the job market becoming increasingly competitive and companies seeking to hire the best talents who are capable and a good fit, people analytics like talent sourcing helps highlight top talent from a pool of candidates hence improving recruitment. Analytics highlights traits, and qualities of current top performing employees which is in turn used to build personas that would be used to evaluate potential recruits and choose the best person for the job.

3.   Talent Acquisition:

While talent sourcing helps you find the best candidates, this helps optimize the entire interview-hiring process by creating tools that help skip the repetitive processes. People analytics helps in setting standards that will be used to develop questions & answers for interviews, that automatically assesses candidates and negates the need to interview and review every candidate separately.

4.   Onboarding and Employee Engagement:

People analytics can be used to simplify the onboarding processes by automating exercises, tasks, surveys, and paperwork. Successful employee engagement is achieved when an employee starts work with a productive mindset.

5.   Performance Management and Employee Lifetime Value:

employee lifetime value helps assess how much an employee can contribute to the company. This combines performance management with employee lifetime value metrics to provide consistent updates on employee performance. Other feedback tools can be added to obtain insight such as employee strengths and weaknesses as well as ensuring that their personal and company goals are being worked upon.

6.   Employee Retention:

People analytics help companies mitigate this age long problem by identifying high-performing employees, and the potential reasons why they might jump ship to swiftly deploy measures to retain these employees.

7.   Employee:

People analytics can be used to improve employee well-being, as well as create a conducive environment for them to thrive. Programs such as pulse polls and “employee appreciation ideas”, can be used to identify disengaged employees and propel companies to deploy appropriate engagement measures which will in turn increase engagement, and overall experience.

Types of People Analytics

•   Prescriptive Analytics:

This involves the use of complex simulation and algorithms to determine the best possible action.

•   Descriptive Analytics:

This provides a detailed analysis of past events/occurrences through data mining, descriptive analysis is derived to make sense of the data.

•   Predictive Analytics:

This uses fact based data, forecast and statistical models to predict most likely outcomes.

•   Cognitive Analytics:

This involves using unpredictable and unstructured data sets from any source to get insight on problems that have no premeditated solution.

Implementing People Analytics

On one hand is implementing people analytics, while on the other hand is processing the data to get actionable insights. The six stage IMPACT cycle helps process insights into data driven result through an accurate statistical approach

• Identify the question
• Master the collected data
• Provide the meaning for the said data
• Actionable recommendations through brainstorming
• Communicate the insights after analysis
• Track the results of using these insights

Benefits of People Analytics

• Increases transparency
• Better decision-making
• Ease Cloud migration
• Improves organisation culture
• Saves time and money
• Better employee retention

In conclusion, people analytics is an evidence-based process that helps organizations make better decisions. Companies need to focus more on their relationship with employees and focus less on individual attributes. Relational analytics can further enhance the entire process and build healthier, happier, and more-productive organizations.