Importance of Analytics in HR

Originally Published at: https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/strategy-and-management/importance-of-analytics-in-hr/78356797

Today Data Analytics has moved from being perceived as a tool for performance management to being critical to business management and stakeholder influencing. Appropriate sample sizes offer rich, intelligent data that can help HR teams derive / reach better conclusions and sharpen focus on course correction as required.It helps the HR team to analyse and correlate seemingly varied attributes and draw up meaningful programs. Focus on HR Analytics has helped the HR professionals to have compelling arguments with internal stakeholders and business leaders. More importantly, organizations are appreciating that people data is core to any organization’s analytics strategy. People Data which is clean, rich and relevant makes the discussions more focused, more productive and more meaningful.

The current Covid-19 crisis has exposed the workforce to times of volatility, uncertainty and unpredictability. The pandemic has fast-tracked the “future of work” and brought it to the doorsteps of our workplace. Companies have been pushed to revamp and re-evaluate their current workplace scenarios. Resulting in ‘People Data’ and ‘People Analytics’ taking the centre-stage in the “new normal” landscape.

The People Analytics space could be further divided into two broad buckets (a) Data Analytics ‘about’ your people and (b) Data Analytics ‘for’ people.

Data Analytics ‘About’ People

• Analyse Data about people to build winning teams: In the movie Moneyball (based on a true story), the characters of Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill use the sophisticated sabermetric approach to analyse players’ strengths, scout them and eventually build a team of winners out of otherwise undervalued players in the baseball universe. It is an example of how analysing multiple variables could be core to composing stronger and relevant teams.
• Share relevant people analytics with managers for better decisions: There is a strong case for sharing relevant data about people with managers to aid decision making. For example, analytics about performance trends, coefficient of variation about employee-customer relationship, predicting probability of stay of an employee based on lead indicator analysis, drawing correlation between learning initiatives and performance outcomes, etc.
• Correlate People data to augment collaboration across teams: Due to Covid, we see an increased decentralization of the work force and an emergence of a new ecosystem of collaboration of new workplace partnerships.

Various data aspects of these collaborations need to be captured, gathered and analysed to draw meaningful correlation between several factors. Strategies formulated by understanding these data correlations can help companies build a sustainable work eco-system. A great example in this space is the organizational network analysis. It helps an organization to identify the strong web of informal and sometimes invisible networks and capitalize its power to push forth organizational transformation.

• Make teams future ready by collecting and analysing data on future skills: Formulate the upskilling and reskilling agenda by analyzing the skill gaps, the probable time taken to bridge the gap with existing employees. Make analysis about shifting skills at work available to the decision makers so that the company can efficiently manage its resources and be future ready.
• Analyse and share employee data on changing perspectives / needs: While this is done by mostly all organizations, it’s time to take the next big step. The organizational network analysis helps identify the positive and negative energy clusters so that interventions could be implemented to either make the positive energy more contagious or diffuse the negative energies. Here again data analysis about individuals would play a key role – by identification of “Energisers” (ref: Michael Arena) and placing them strategically in the company. 
• Hiring the right profile: Our organization has implemented an AI based hiring program called ‘Project Ayushmaan’. It aimed to increase overall retention in Front Line Sales & align employee success profile algorithm to the hiring ecosystem, thereby achieving a better first six months’ retention target.

Data Analytics ‘for’ the people

• For strengthening transparency and trust amongst employees: A culture of combining analysis about organizational performance or operational performance and regularly communicating the same to the employees leads to instilling a high degree of organization trust in the minds of the people.
• For Creating a Healthy Peer Competition: At Future Generali India Life, a ‘People Manager Scorecard’ is published quarterly, outlining individual’s performance against his/her peer set on critical performance parameters. It is a constructive way to engage with our people by instilling healthy competition and nudging them towards achieving higher standards.
• For customizing solutions, based on employee needs and not own biases: Every organization is a mix of several generations co working together. Many times HR falls prey to perceptions about generations and get driven by their own personal biases. Data collected and analysed about individual likes and preferences helps mitigate that bias. It also leads them to appreciate different requirements, different capabilities and different mind-sets and thus offer customized solution to different cohorts.

HR’s role in this transformation

Today Data Analytics has moved from being perceived as a tool for performance management to being critical to business management and stakeholder influencing.

Appropriate sample sizes offer rich, intelligent data that can help HR teams derive / reach better conclusions and sharpen focus on course correction as required.

It helps the HR team to analyse and correlate seemingly varied attributes and draw up meaningful programs. Focus on HR Analytics has helped the HR professionals to have compelling arguments with internal stakeholders and business leaders. More importantly, organizations are appreciating that people data is core to any organization’s analytics strategy. People Data which is clean, rich and relevant makes the discussions more focused, more productive and more meaningful.

The author is Chief Human Resources Officer, Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Ltd.