HR analytics isn’t a new or unknown concept. Most people working in HR will know what it’s about. But there is only a small amount of HR departments that use the available HR management information to its full potential. Even though they collect vast quantities of data, they hardly ever use these data in the right way. That’s a shame because with HR analytics organizations can make better, more informed and more substantiated choices when it comes to recruitment, talent development, strategic personnel planning, and employee retention.
What is HR analytics?
HR analytics can best be described as a data-driven approach to identifying and analyzing human-related problems. HR professionals can use it to collect, analyze and combine data to come to new and useful insights. This allows them to make better and more informed decisions, especially since these decisions are based on objective data instead of their gut feeling.
Their gut feeling and experience is what most HR professionals nowadays still base their decisions on. HR analytics allows organizations to make more substantiated choices when it comes to human capital. It also gives them the opportunity to analyze the results of HR-related advice. It provides HR professionals with the proof they need to convince management of certain decisions that they think should be implemented.
What is it that HR analytics has to offer?
You might be wondering what it is exactly that HR business information has to offer. A lot more than you might think. Let’s have a look at some examples:
- Let’s say that you’ve noticed that the employee turnover in your company is quite high. In fact, you probably know exactly how high this turnover is. What you probably don’t know is the exact reason for this turnover. By using HR business information, you can find out why employees are leaving, and you might even be able to predict when they will leave. Knowing why employees leave as fast as they do will allow you to come up with a plan to prevent this from happening in the future.
- Another thing that you probably already monitor is the absence of employees due to illness. What’s interesting to know is if there is a work-related reason for their absence. Analyzing HR business information can help you find out if there is a peak in absenteeism in certain periods, as well as what factors might influence this absenteeism. Perhaps an absence during certain periods is stress-related and there is something you can do to reduce the pressure people feel they are under.
What’s your next step when it comes to HR analytics?
HR analytics has a lot to offer your organization. That’s why it’s a shame not to use the HR business information that’s available in your organization. Especially since most of the information is already readily available within your organization. Data on employee turnover and absenteeism are things you probably already monitor. If you want to have more data ready to analyze, it’s time to take the next step. You could, for example, use questionnaires to monitor the satisfaction and involvement of employees. Yearly questionnaires give you a wealth of HR business information to analyze and act on. It’s an easy way to collect useful insights for your recruitment strategy.
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