Today more and more companies use advanced technologies to analyze employee data to get answers to such questions and create a culture where data-driven decision making is a must.
Before HR was perceived to be based on gut-feeling and intuition. But actually, like in every other sphere, in HR to data plays a huge role, and besides helping in decision-making processes also enables to measure both the employee experience and the effectiveness of interventions.
So, data-driven decision making should become a standard for human resources processes. Taking gut-feeling-based decisions out from HR and preferring analytics over intuition takes the business a huge step towards increased business outcomes, and achieving company goals.
HR Analytics and Strategic Decision-Making
Strategic HR has become vital for a company’s success. Today most of the executives want to see more detailed reports from their HR teams and make sure that the company operates at its full productivity.
Analytics empowers HR professionals enabling to support the implementation of business strategies․ It is the process of analyzing the collected data to improve HR functions and workforce performance.
When used strategically, HR data reshapes HR processes giving full insights into the overall employee experience. It allows to identify what’s working well and where there is room for improvements, helps to find patterns and make predictions.
In order to get data HR leaders monitor everything from recruitment up to engagement and retention to measure metrics such as:
- time to hire
- employee satisfaction
- total turnover rate
- performance and potential
- absenteeism, etc.
These are only some of the metrics that are being measured to make necessary improvements. So, HR analytics enables data-driven decision making and drives better business outcomes by improving employee performance, engagement and retention.
Measuring Employee Engagement
Talking about HR analytics it’s impossible not to go deeper into employee engagement and big data we acquire by measuring it. It comprises one of the most important parts of HR data and affects most of the HR functions.
Today many CEOs and managers know the real value of enhanced employee engagement and can easily see its impact on business outcomes. The levels of employee engagement directly affect employee performance and retention and can be a key to organizational success.
Engaged employees are productive and show commitment to work, they are proud to be part of the team and do their best to succeed. While disengaged employees do not feel connected to their job and do the bare minimum. No statistics needed to understand how negative it can be for the execution of business strategies. However, here is an interesting statistic by Gallup:
That is why measuring and collecting data on employee engagement is vital for HR professionals.
Employee engagement is connected to various factors and data is collected based on key metrics: relationship with manager, happiness, satisfaction, recognition, wellness, etc. All these metrics need to be measured separately and help in understanding the overall levels of engagement.
Acquiring data on employee engagement has many benefits. Most importantly it helps to get answers to questions like what areas you should focus on to make necessary changes. It enables to uncover employee problems and see whether there is room for improvement. Once you collect data and reveal strong and weak sides, you can easily address the problems and make necessary interventions. Maybe a good team-building activity is needed or the problem lies in the lack of personal growth opportunities.
Most HR professionals conduct engagement surveys to measure employee engagement and identify real problems. They enable to make data-driven decisions, invest in what needs improvement and later test the effectiveness of those interventions.
By adopting measurement practices HR professionals will be able to enhance engagement and have their positive impact on workforce productivity and retaining top talents.
Use Lucky Carrot’s pulse survey to measure employee engagement of your company
Predicting Employee Turnover
One of the challenges faced by organizations is to predict which employees are more likely to leave the company. Knowing beforehand and identifying those in the risk zone will enable to make interventions and retain top talents.
A high turnover rate is another factor that prevents the company from operating at its full productivity.
The interesting part of HR analytics is that it not only allows to get a full understanding of employee experience but also helps to find trends and patterns in data, to make predictions and plan effectively for the future.
Sometimes the top-performing employees become disengaged and appear in the risk zone of leaving the company. Without HR analytics, this may go unnoticed․ So, what can HR professionals do?
- Analyze past data and find symmetry,
- measure engagement and productivity of current employees,
- find correlations and create a model for tracking employees that might be in the risk zone,
- create strategies to boost retention rate.
So, the strategic use of HR data ensures the retention of top talents and boosts company productivity.
Have a look at how Lucky Carrot predicts employee turnover
By taking the guesswork out of HR, data and analytics enable to be strategic, make data-driven decisions and optimize human resources processes. It helps to understand the employees, the problems they may face and make necessary improvements to create a healthy company culture with an engaged and productive workforce.
