How Analytics Can Give HR Professionals a Seat at the Table

Analytics isn’t just for marketing anymore.

More technical solutions are now available to provide companies of all sizes with critical data and insights to better understand their teams. By leveraging new tools, Human Resources professionals now have the opportunity to thoroughly understand critical business operations and help drive their companies forward.

But not every organization harnesses these insights; between managing day to day processes and the challenges associated with implementing results from data, it’s easy to understand why so much insight gets lost among the noise of your responsibilities and initiatives.

Taking advantage of analytics as an HR pro can get you ahead of the curve when it comes to team management, employee insights and organizational culture. By leveraging the data that is available to you, you will be able to dazzle and amaze leadership with your insights and make informed recommendations and business cases to prove HR programs are making a difference to the culture and bottom line. Data is your ticket to grabbing a seat at the leadership table. Let’s dive in.

Don’t just make informed decisions; make strategic ones

Historically, companies haven’t focused on HR data and analytics to the same degree as they have in other departments, like marketing or finance. Data has given these departments power and budget.

Meanwhile, most HR functions remain very manual and process driven with the key objective of streamlining processes and programs. To management, this can often seem like an expense rather than an investment, which has typically limited HR’s ability to play a larger strategic role.

When you have access to these insights, like predictive or performance analytics, you can better determine what motivates your top talent and programs or benefits matter most to your teams. In doing so, you can ensure your approach is proactive as opposed to reactive, and help create a work environment that attracts and retains the right employees.

For example, real-time feedback into the goals and achievements of employees can allow you to make strategic decisions as to how you can promote employees, evaluate benefits, provide development opportunities, and more. Those same insights can help prevent churn by helping you predict turnover in critical roles with higher degrees of efficiency.

Get ahead of the curve

Economies may improve, company profits may increase, and more jobs can be created, but how often does your organization innovate?

Many HR teams still deal with the same challenges (in addition to new ones), and even with a breadth of insights available to them, will feel the ever-familiar pains of dealing with recruiting, onboarding, retention, employee engagement...the list goes on!

But dealing with change means leveraging the data available to us to further leverage human capital and top talent. That’s where insights and analytics come into play.

A lot can be taken from data - think performance, recognition, attrition, engagement, passive candidates, job performance, and more.

When you use data to analyze these elements carefully, you can establish patterns and synchronicities that ultimately provide you with the power to put forth real solutions that change the game for your company.

Think of it this way: the more you know, the more you can do, and for HR pros, that can mean putting Human Resources at the forefront of an organization’s success strategies.

Create an employee experience that drives business objectives

The data available to HR teams today means more opportunity for driving change within their organization, and a large part of that change is performance.

You’ve heard the adage that happy employees make happy companies. Still, if you don’t know what makes your top talent truly happy and engaged at work, chances are other aspects of your business operations will be affected, like customer experience and satisfaction, for example!

One solution is to look at people and performance analytics within your organization to better understand what drives your employees, which workplace culture factors contribute to their success, and what may be holding them back from doing their best work.

By understanding those key insights, you can implement necessary changes to modify the employee experience in your company, which ultimately has a positive impact on the entire company.

Let’s say, for instance, that your data tells you employees would benefit from skill or development opportunities; that data can help you determine which skills or competencies your core teams need to support their roles. In this way, you’re using data-driven insights to tweak the training or development offerings that support your business goals.

Drive strategies from a single source of truth

The most effective way for HR teams to drive their strategies forward is to look to a unified source, and in today’s organization, that’s analytics.

This single source of truth is crucial not just for the operations of your Human Resources department but across the entire organization. It reinforces the relationships your department or team has with others and ultimately guides the strategic business decisions to which your team contributes.

The best place to start is with a user-friendly and organized HR platform, like Humi, because nobody has time for data warehouses or cluttered spreadsheets! The more accessible the data is, the easier it will be to gather the most pertinent insights that help you improve workforce planning and drive the right business results. You can then complement your HRMS system with other tools for every need, from surveys, recognition and rewards, to learning and development, to name a few. Each will give you a unique view into your teams and organization.

Understand your organization and its progress

Uncovering what motivates teams and the elements which lead to critical business decisions can help shape your HR strategy, but it goes far beyond that.

The reason more HR pros are harnessing analytics and key data is to give their teams a seat at the perpetual table, allowing others to take HR just as seriously as other roles and departments, like the C-suite.

Just look at your company culture, team dynamics, employee performance or even workplace sentiment as critical points for how you can use analytics to understand your organization. Insights allow you to compare and contrast the health of your organization and its working teams, which in turn means better understanding the path your company is on.

And with that type of insight, you can make more informed decisions (and predictions) as to the operations, objectives and goals your company needs to improve upon for serious organizational success and HR impact!