People analytics also known as HR analytics and workforce analytics, is the use of people-data in analytical processes to solve business problems. People analytics uses people-data, collected by HR systems (such as payroll, absence management) as well as business information (for example, operations performance data). People analytics provides people professionals and their stakeholders with insights about their workforce, HR policies and practices. Ultimately people analytics can help to improve evidence-based decision making and ultimately the bottom line.
HR analytics holds enormous value for an organisation, and enables companies to measure the business impact of people policies. By applying complex statistical analyses, HR can predict the future of the workforce, which in turn, helps managers to measure the financial impact of Human Resource practices. It helps HR to align its strategy with business goals and to quantify the value it adds to the business. In basic form, it takes the guess-work out of HR. Here are some examples:-
If your company has a high turnover of staff, you have every reason to be worried. This shows that there could be something wrong with the way you are running your business. By using people analytics, you are able to identify the reason behind the employee exits and figure out how to reduce the turnover. People analytics also help you find ways to solve these problem areas so that your employees can be comfortable using their talents at your company and not offering them to your competition. In the same breath, the data analytics identify the areas of your setup, structure and culture that make your company so appealing to employees. You can then focus on amplifying this factor so that you can improve employee retention, engagement and productivity.
Hiring the best talent and getting them settled into the company setup is only a small part of the journey. You need them to grow and become a part and reflection of your organisation’s corporate culture. This also enables them to carry out their duties just the way you want. Usually this is done through various employee training programs but you might have a hard time determining just how much was learnt. By using people analytics, you can find this out and devise methods to score the training outcomes. People analytics can also show you if the training courses and methods are ineffective, enabling you to pivot to those that offer better
results.
The costs of sickness to a business is extremely high and can cause a loss of productivity, poor quality of goods and services and an excess in admin time, plus a decline in morale for the entire company. Absenteeism is already measured quite extensively in most companies and is usually a major KPI for HR. The reasons for absenteeism, though, are manifold and hard to determine. Analytics can be a great way to start countering absenteeism by attempting to find the underlying reasons and understanding the split between long term and short term sickness. When we start to analyse the data, we are then able to put measures in place that can help your company move towards a lower absenteeism figure.
There are so many other metrics that can really help you understand your workforce which can also develop your competitive advantage, corporate social responsibility, attraction and retention and general staff engagement:
We, at Centric HR use Breathe HR software to make sense of employee data with the use of Breathe’s insightful HR reporting feature. Storing people’s data securely is important, but Breathe software can help you do much more than that. Their comprehensive reporting tool interprets your data in a way that lets you understand it, empowering you to make smarter decisions and take control over your HR admin.
For further information on People Analytics and Breathe HR software, please contact us here or call us on 03333 660567.
