Today, AI-powered technology is integrated into every aspect of HR management. It generates millions of data points that can inform the decisions of your workforce. You need a people analytics strategy to get the most out of this data.
People analytics refers to using HR datasets to generate insights and quantify your workforce's effectiveness. You can get data from people processes, such as performance management, or acquisition processes, such as the applicant tracking system.
When combined with organisational data and interpreted accurately, this information can help your organisation take a data-driven approach to solve workforce problems. People analytics requires specialised HR systems and processes to generate useful and actionable insights.
Careful planning, openness, and the flexibility to change course greatly ensure that a company's HR team can fully utilise the insights gained from people analytics.
Step-by-step Guide For Organisations To Get Ahead With People Analytics For Better Employee Performances:
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Define the employee and HR problems you want to solve
Start by determining where you want to end up. Define precisely the goals you want to strive for with people analytics in place. You can do this by identifying challenges or strengths your organisation has. Then figure out how the data could inspire potential solutions and what data points you could use. Start small; you don't have to fix all issues on day one.
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Link your people analytics to business goals and results
If you want your existing people analytics strategy to be successful, you must ensure it contributes to the organisation's business goals. It must generate the value that leadership can sustain and be consistent with business strategy.
Call on leaders to get feedback on areas they want to see improved. Explain how people's analytics can provide the insights needed to support methods to create a better outcome. Once you have their support, you can get the support and resources to execute your strategy.
Also Read: 6 Tips for Writing an Effective Performance Review
For example, if you can link people analytics with the ability to improve employee performance, the process has a clear advantage. Data analytics can show areas where employees are hitting or falling short. With this information, you can more accurately assess where more coaching is needed to enable employees to work more efficiently and at a higher level.
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Review data sources and look for gaps
Reliable, high-quality data is a prerequisite for sound business decisions. You must identify the appropriate data types and authentic sources and determine how to collect them consistently. Then you can spot patterns and retrieve actionable facts and figures.
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You can solve the problems you've identified with access to all available information. But getting the right data for people analytics can be a challenge. Here are some dangers to watch out for:
- Don't focus on non-trackable data - You should aim for what matters and can be tracked. When you start, you leave the discussion of what to follow next.
- Not tracking the most important material - You should have clearly defined goals and requirements for exactly what information is needed.
- Tracking too much information: Features that track non-essential or redundant information complicate the data with little or no benefit.
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Overcome barriers to effectively using people analytics
Building a people analytics strategy comes with hurdles, and some companies struggle to get through the initial stages. Common challenges you may encounter may include the following:
- Focus on the wrong issues – As we mentioned earlier, your HR analytics strategy should focus on issues related to business goals. It creates a sense of urgency, allowing you to focus your time and resources on a relevant challenge where the solutions have a significant impact.
- Difficulty communicating the value of data – You need to explain people's analytics in a way that business leaders without statistical or technical expertise can understand. Otherwise, you risk not holding the interest of the lead enough to capture its value.
- Data limitation and quality issues - If you are on a budget, you may need to work with the company's current technology, which may not have optimal capabilities. You need to be realistic about the data you have access to, and the time it will take to pull it from multiple non-integrated systems.
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Turn insights into action
There's no point in collecting data if you don't use it. Once you've collected and analysed the data, share your findings with stakeholders and act on your conclusions. Make sure your report is logical and direct. If everyone can clearly understand the results, they will be more open to adopting them.
Also Read: Why should you automate your HR Reports?
When you explain data in the context of your business goals, you can see the difference it can make. For example, you can show what it would mean to reduce employee turnover by 5% and suggest actions your business can take to reach that point. You could focus on a department with high employee turnover and develop strategies to retain top-performing employees.
Conclusion
While ingrained in human resources, the data and processes that emerge from your workforce have a pervasive effect across all levels of a business. The science of people analytics informs you that the impact can be more with the informed decisions to move your business forward. With uKnowva, the use of people analytics is even more crucial. It helps you to turn intelligent insights into impactful action in no time. Start implementing this solution in your firm if it is growing and you find no alternative to churn the data and make better decisions without delays.
