Article: Cloud technology and analytics to shape the new era of HR

HR Analytics

Cloud technology and analytics to shape the new era of HR

Technology has brought about paradigm shifts in the way analytics work in the HR space Find out how!
Cloud technology and analytics to shape the new era of HR
 

The human resources function is rapidly transforming and becoming an increasingly important enabler of business success

 

The age of data is here! Like every other industry, ranging from e-commerce, finance, healthcare and education, big data also has become the cynosure of attention of human resource managers who now can analyze volumes of structured and unstructured data to answer important questions regarding workforce productivity, the impact of training programs on enterprise performance, predictors of workforce attrition, and how to identify potential leaders. In fact the scope is exponential.

The primary goal of talent analytics is to provide an organization with insights for effectively managing employees so that business goals can be reached quickly and efficiently. The challenge of human resources analytics is to identify what data should be captured, kept and how to use the data to model and predict capabilities so the organization gets an optimal return on investment on its human capital.

Technology has brought about paradigm shifts in the way analytics work in the HR space. HR professionals have gathered noteworthy amounts of data for years. Technology now allows them to analyze that information meticulously and use the gained insights to make better, more strategic decisions for their organizations which are closely tied to the overall business objectives.

Fast, cost-effective and easy access to this information is all made possible by cloud-based technology, which allows HR teams to transition analytics processes into a service. HR professionals now have the ability to engage through cloud services to get the capabilities that they want in a consistent fashion, over a defined period of time.

The human resources function is rapidly transforming and becoming an increasingly important enabler of business success. Clients demand the best solutions as they move to the cloud embracing social and applying predictive analytics to the vast amounts of human capital-oriented data they have.

To grasp the true potential of HR analytics, HR managers need to become data interpreters. The key to analytics is interpretation as one can have all the data in the world and still not know how to use it in the best possible way. For example, suppose a company is receiving lots of resumes from job-seekers and business is also doing considerably good in terms of revenues and profits but at the same time attrition rates are quite high with an average of 10% people quitting in a year’s time. Surely, it means there is an issue culture-wise because they are eager to join the organization, but once they're in, they want to get out.

An HR manager who has good data interpretation skills is more able to spot trends. After trends are identified, he or she can then come up with a course of action based on the data.

Similarly, when there is an issue pertaining to retaining existing employees, one can look at the characteristics of the team or manager that's causing people to quit, or maybe it could be the compensation, or the way the work is organized. Organizations can then look at skills gaps, and where people are untrained. Several software are making predictive analytics efficient, which can help HR functions make wiser choices based on historical data collected over time.

Holistic analytics of data can also help HR professionals to predict who the right hire is and who is not. Like for instance, out of the 20 odd people the HR hired over a year, 3-4 people with a certain background failed - naturally they are not going to hire any resource with that  particular background again.

Lastly, Organizations which have started to invest in some HR information software or HR management tools will be in a position to generate data and share that data much more readily, which will be the kind of data which is relational in that it’s well-structured, relatively reliable and can be exploited and tapped using data warehouses. Only a handful of larger firms will be in a spot to start asking questions related to complex analytics and big data.

Premier organizations are using people analytics (analytics that fuses HR and business data) to predict retention, improve employee engagement, perk up quality of hires and profile high performers, thus outperforming their peers in this highly competitive landscape.     

Disclaimer: This is a contributed post. The statements, opinions and data contained are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of People Matters and the editor(s). 

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Topics: HR Analytics, #HRMetrics

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