Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The New Department: People Analytics

People Analytics

In a previous post I mentioned the need to move to data driven recruiting.  While this is absolutely true, all of our HR functions should be moving to a data driven approach.  In fact, there is an entire trend and movement within the industry which has been named People Analytics.  At first the name feels almost insulting one might think, people are more than a data point, haven’t we been pushing organizations to value their people and not treat them like a number?  The answer is yes, and people analytics helps us do that.  As Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends’ people analytics section points out companies are starting to heavily use data for workforce planning, talent management and operational improvement.

People analytics is being applied to a wide variety of business problems including recruiting, performance management, workforce planning, compensation, and retention (and all that goes with it such as training, engagement, and benefits).  Recruiting is the highest area using analytics but the others are gaining as well.  There are many benefits to using analytics when it comes to each of these areas, which I will discuss further in later posts.

Over the coming years we will see a huge shift to relying heavily on people analytics for assisting with business decisions.  Right now 71% of companies see people analytics as a high priority for their organizations.  Unfortunately, only 8% of companies say they have usable data.  There is a long way to go but the technology has come a long way.  There are now HR software that does predictive analytics for people data.  According to Deloitte “Predictive analytics tools from many HR technology vendors have arrived, making it possible to analyze data regarding recruitment, performance, employee mobility, and other factors. Executives now have access to a seemingly endless combination of metrics to help them understand, at a far deeper level, what drives results.”


Stay tuned over the coming weeks as I take a deeper dive into more areas related to people and talent analytics.

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