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Workforce analytics is transforming the way we look at HR strategy. The C-suite is increasingly focused on analytics such as employee engagement, recruiting strategy, learning and development, and performance in order to better understand their employees – and therefore their business – as a whole. Regardless of your company’s vertical, workforce analytics is an essential tool to improve HR strategy execution.
What Is Workforce Analytics?
Workforce analytics is a method of monitoring and examining employees’ work productivity to improve workflow. This focus has grown exponentially over the last decade as companies increasingly rely on big data to make decisions. As companies consume more data on their customers, it only makes sense to apply those same principles to their employee population. A strong HRIS system assists HR and managers by providing dashboards to easily organize and distribute these data points.
Collecting HR data used to only happen at strategic touchpoints throughout the year. Perhaps there were quarterly reviews and a single year-end presentation to wrap things up. However, the current business world moves so quickly that these outdated schedules don’t provide the same value. The trend of collecting HR data is moving more towards real-time responses instead of static checkpoints through surveys and feedback.
A more frequent cadence increases transparency throughout the organization and helps leadership make more proactive decisions. It also helps leaders and managers to pivot as needed towards different initiatives. This has numerous short- and long-term benefits for the business and employees, including increasing productivity, efficiency, and engagement.
If you are building out your workforce analytics function, the following areas will provide valuable insights to managers at every level.
Recruiting and Retention
This is a particular area of interest in the world of workforce analytics and could be seen as the most important benefit. Recruiting and retention are at the core of any HR strategy. The company needs to find and hire the right people and retain high performers in order to successfully execute its business strategy.
Analytics such as time to fill, cost to hire, and average tenure helps the recruiting team understand if they’re focusing their efforts in the right place. Having this information on hand gives the business a key advantage in their market and allows them to adjust their strategy to fit team priorities.
Retention data is another critical piece of information. By analyzing which employees are leaving and whether it was a regrettable loss, you can diagnose other issues around the company such as lack of engagement, bad managers, or lack of career development opportunities.
Employee Engagement
Actionable data on the employee lifecycle, including onboarding and engagement surveys, helps to improve the employee experience by creating better working environments and providing employees with the resources they need to succeed.
Onboarding surveys measure the efficacy of onboarding initiatives, helping managers pivot as needed to meet newly expressed needs. They also proactively call out problems – if an employee is not happy within the first 30 days of their employment, that’s a red flag for further unhappiness.
Engagement surveys help us understand the workforce on a macro and micro level, which lets us see the direct reaction to already existing strategies. By digging into results from a department, tenure, or gender level, we’re able to better understand people’s experiences at the company and create action plans to continuously improve.
Learning and Development and Performance
Another area where workforce analytics can make an impact is learning and development, and performance. Data on how well team members are performing and where skill gaps exist helps managers better utilize the skillsets on their team while creating a culture of growth and development.
Certain roles or teams need specialized knowledge, and any gaps can negatively affect team productivity. These gaps will make themselves apparent in day-to-day performance, which then becomes an opportunity to upskill either the individual or the entire team.
By setting goals related to department and company objectives, individuals can ensure that they’re working on career development as they complete their work. It’s crucial for employees to have personal development goals as well as work-focused goals. Measuring how people are achieving their goals gives insights into the type of resources that are widely available.
Build High-Performing Organizations
The ultimate goal with workforce analytics is to share insights that seamlessly incorporate data with company objectives. Having ongoing access to this information in a digestible format helps HR and managers bring out the best of their talent and create a strong workplace environment facilitated by workplace strategy.
A skilled management team will be able to look at all of these pieces individually and piece together a story about the people at their organization. If productivity is high, what are the factors that might be directly influencing that? Alternatively, if it is low, where are the gaps? Being able to read this information will help teams better understand if they need to improve their recruiting strategy or upskill certain team members.
Using this information wisely helps managers bring out the best of their talent and enables them to create strong workplace environments. Rather than just reporting numbers, data should serve as evidence to support a cause.
The success of every business depends on its people, and having a strong HR strategy is paramount. As the right people come into the company and are given a space to grow and feel empowered, the business is undoubtedly growing alongside them.