People analytics What is it and why does it benefit companies? - Emptor

Human resources analysis and analytics implementation, also known as people analytics, is an analysis of the workforce or talent analysis. This task requires collecting, analyzing, and reporting human resources data.

It allows your organization or company to measure the impact of a variety of human resources metrics: talent acquisition, retention, organizational culture, and diversity. In other words, human resources analysis is a data-driven approach to human resources management.

Human resources analysis is a fairly novel tool. This means that it is still largely unexplored in various industries. Over the last 30 years, human resources management has changed dramatically. It has gone from an operational discipline to a more strategic one. The data-driven approach that characterizes human resources analysis is in line with this development.

By using people analytics, your company no longer has to rely on intuition. People Analytics allows human resources and talent acquisition professionals to make data-driven decisions, not assumptions. Additionally, the analysis helps to test the effectiveness of human resources policies and different interventions.

Common Metrics

Some common metrics include:

Time to hire
Cost per hire
Candidate satisfaction
Applicant-to-hire ratio
Hiring quality

These metrics can provide information on the effectiveness and efficiency of recruitment efforts.

Human resources analysis is similar to people analytics, but there are some subtle differences in how the terms are used.

The ability to use data in decision-making has been growing in importance throughout the global pandemic and the Great Resignation. In 2022, moving towards a post-pandemic world, there are many changes happening in employment, whether it’s the growing popularity of hybrid work or increased use of automation. In this era of disruption and uncertainty, it is vital to make the right decisions to navigate our new realities.

Human resources data analytics

Human resources data analytics changes all of this. Many of the challenges we just described can be solved by becoming more data-driven and more proficient in human resources and analytics.

Example Questions

Example questions include:

What is your annual employee turnover rate?
How much of your employee turnover consists of losses?
Do you know which employees are most likely to leave your company within a year?

These questions can only be answered using human resources data. Most human resources professionals can easily answer the first question. However, answering the second question is more difficult.

To answer this second question, you would need to combine two different data sources: your Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and your Performance Management System. To answer the third question, you would need even more human resources data and also analyze it extensively.

Benefits of people analytics

One of the highlighted trends in Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Survey is the continued focus on people analytics, particularly with the effects of the pandemic and new people data trends. Additionally, the survey found that only 56 percent of respondents say organizations have achieved moderate or significant progress in people analytics over the past ten years. The opportunity for organizations to win the war for talent by having advanced people analytics capabilities is, therefore, tremendous.

People Analytics not only provides organizations with a competitive advantage, but also has multiple benefits, including:

Making data-driven decisions and practicing evidence-based human resources: By analyzing hiring data and improving the hiring process based on that, for example, organizations can increase hiring efficiency by 80% and reduce attrition rates by up to 50%.
Shaping organizational strategy through human resources interventions: People analytics allows organizations to translate data into action and employ evidence-based practices that help improve the overall organizational strategy.
Improved performance: Trends that highlight specific issues, including collaboration, workload, diversity and inclusion, workplace risk assessments, contribute to optimizing performance. In some cases, the use of people analytics has nearly doubled employee productivity and, therefore, performance.
Achieving cost savings: Organizations can achieve this, for example, through reduced turnover and optimized workforce planning. By using artificial intelligence and people analytics, IBM was able to predict with 95% accuracy which workers were about to leave their jobs. This allowed them to address these concerns and work on other areas, such as future hires for at-risk roles.
Closing skill gaps: People analytics allows organizations to understand the current skills of workers, the future skills needed according to business needs, and therefore close the talent gap. In this way, you can build and create development programs based on the future needs of the business.

Frequently Asked Questions about people analytics

Q. What is people analytics?
A. People analytics is the process of using data and analytical methods to better understand and improve various aspects of the workforce, such as employee performance, retention, engagement, and diversity.
Q. What are the benefits of people analytics?
A. People analytics can provide organizations with valuable insights that can lead to better decision-making, improved employee engagement, higher productivity, better retention rates, and more effective talent management.
Q. What types of data are used in people analytics?
A. Data used in people analytics can include employee demographic data, performance metrics, engagement survey results, turnover rates, training and development records, and more.
Q. What are some common methods used in people analytics?
A. Common methods used in people analytics include statistical analysis, machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and network analysis.
Q. How can organizations get started with people analytics?
A. To get started with people analytics, organizations should identify the key metrics they want to measure, collect relevant data, invest in the right technology, and build a team with the necessary skills and expertise.
Q. What are some challenges associated with people analytics?
A. Challenges associated with people analytics can include data quality issues, privacy concerns, and difficulty in interpreting and communicating the results.

The use of efficient technology in your processes

As we saw in the article, the use of data in people analytics represents streamlining your processes through interpretation and analysis.

Similarly, with the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms, Emptor helps you perform background checks and identity validations in the candidate hiring process, ensuring you have the research on references and that the potential candidate has an impeccable record. It performs automatic identity validations with manual reviews by our legal experts.

We invite you to schedule a demo to learn how in just a few minutes you can perform hundreds of verifications with just a few clicks.