For those companies that consider their workforce to be their most valuable and expensive asset, HR analytics is the need of the hour. Studies have proved that organizations that use HR analytics to provide business leaders visibility into talent data, have the most engaged and effective workforces, who are productive even in harsh conditions.
Very often business leaders do not give human resources their due. The HR division, is most often, not actively invited to participate in strategy planning and formulation, as the top brass find it difficult to establish business linkages to HR initiatives. This is where HR analytics can make a difference, as it is able to create a single view of all relevant workforce and talent data and use it to arrive at business driving processes and initiatives. Whether it is to analyze employee turnover, or optimize the talent supply chain, analytics provides the big picture that decision makers need to improve and align their talent. Instead of just compiling data into monthly reports that might well be just skimmed over, companies must find a way to use their HR related data to positively impact their business.
Yes, integrating HR analytics within the overall analytics strategy of an organisation will deliver tangible business results, and improve productivity, profitability and performance. It’s success lies first and foremost in it receiving the complete and committed support of all business leaders across the organization. It is also important to align HR data with business data and ensure that business managers not only have access to HR data, but that they also know how to use it effectively.
HR leaders on their part, need to actively engage with the other divisions in the organization and contribute to making the organization more viable, by:
• Accepting accountability for some part of the organization’s financial growth.
• Collaborating with business leaders in all divisions helping them achieve business targets.
• Interpreting data from a HR perspective- showing what’s working best and what’s not, keeping the organizations growth in mind.
• Creating a HR strategy, that is in line with the overall strategy of the organization and ensuring that it impacts the core goals of the organization at every level.
Last of all, it’s important that actual business impact be documented. It’s not enough to use HR data to make predictions. What must be done, is a periodic follow up to show which predictions came true. More importantly HR leaders need to understand that there is an ROI for almost everything they do- and they need to calculate it all!
HR analytics is no longer an option. It’s a must. As our economy continues to evolve and become more complicated, as business expand their international reach and as companies increasingly tackle a global workforce, it’s all the more vital that organizations commit to measuring the most important ingredient of it’s success- it’s people. HR analytics, brings to the business heads a whole new level of visibility, insight and foresight. It also allows the HR division to spread it’s branches across the other divisions, and this most importantly impacts the workforce, making them feel more valued and in tune with the rest of the organization.
