It’s a complex and challenging time in HR.  The need for high performing talent is the greatest it’s ever been in the history of business.  It’s for that reason leveraging data in human resources is paramount to success.  Growth is linked to the data function and its existence across all dimensions of HR from talent acquisition to retention.

People Analytics Stats

According to Deloitte’s 2018 Human Capital Trends report, 85% of companies see people analytics as a high priority, but only 42% believe they are either 'very ready' or 'ready' to meet expectations. 

Why is data so important?

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“Organizations today realize that good HR practices are no longer enough as we need a more data driven approach which can lead to evidence based HR, thus reducing human bias and subjectivity. When HR is able to make impact through analytics, they take on a more strategic role and are able to help their organizations gain a competitive advantage through clever use of data,” Jaclyn Lee said.  She’s the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Singapore University of Technology and Design. 

“Analytics,” she continued, “also have a huge potential to increase return on investment when the numbers are tied to business outcomes and when predictions point to a range of possibilities that companies can plan for.”

So, how are companies driving growth with people analytics?

The following is a series of case studies in which people analytics was applied as part of a strategy with a particular HR function.  We begin with talent acquisition.

Talent Acquisition

LinkedIn⁰ provides a fair share of resources to the HR professional, but it is also company in need of solutions.  The social media platform for professionals has been faced with a great demand for its services, but not enough manpower to provide those services.  At one point, the company was growing at 40% every year and the talent acquisition team was struggling to accurately forecast the number of hires needed to address the demands on the company.

That’s when they employed people analytics as part of their solution.  In just one year, LinkedIn was able to predict hires within 5% of its actual hires.  That translated into money saved for the social media giant.  Also in that first year, the company saved 15% of its recruiting budget.

ISS and Employee Engagement¹

ISS has more than 510,000 employees across the globe, and the facilities company had a problem.  Leaders wanted to know if it was possible to improve the customer experience and increase profits through higher employee engagement.  To figure out a solution, ISS used people analytics to:

1. Analyze the link strength between employee engagement, customer satisfaction and profitability
2. Analyze data to identify HR processes that would have the biggest impact on improving employee engagement and customer experience, focusing on motivation, service quality, knowledge and responsiveness of service staff as key drivers.

In the process, ISS also found a strong link between high customer Net Promoter scores and contract profitability.

Courtesy:  Pexels

Once the company had its findings, it changed its training programs for supervisors and employees as well as onboarding programs.

Conclusion and Looking Forward

People analytics is not a substitute for strategy or critical thinking.  It is, however, another tool in the HR professional’s tool box.  With the right measurements in place, companies can use data to improve and grow the business on every level from talent acquisition to cyber security.

In the coming weeks, I will discuss other areas in which people analytics prove to be powerfully useful.  Those include:

• Retention
• Compliance & Cybersecurity
• Performance
• Organizational Network Analysis

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*Images courtesy Stock Photo Secrets & Pexels.