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18 min read
Lauren Canada
Human resources (HR) departments play a crucial role in shaping a company's success by managing its most valuable asset — its workforce. But traditional HR practices often rely on gut feelings, intuitions, and subjective observations, which can result in bias and poor decision-making. People analytics, also known as HR analytics, offers a data-driven approach to understanding and optimising the workforce's performance, productivity, and engagement. What Is People Analytics? The people analytics definition is essentially the process of collecting, analysing, and interpreting workforce data to gain insights into HR practices' effectiveness and improve decision-making. What does people analytics involve? It involves using various data sources, such as employee surveys, performance metrics, turnover rates, and other HR-related data, to measure and analyse different HR aspects. HR professionals can leverage this data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships that are otherwise invisible, enabling them to make informed decisions that positively impact the workforce and the organisation's bottom line. While the terms "analytics," "reports," and "business intelligence" are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not synonymous. Analytics involves the systematic analysis of data to uncover meaningful patterns and insights, whereas reports refer to structured presentations of data in a summarised format. On the other hand, business intelligence encompasses a broader scope, including the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to support strategic decision-making. So, what is people analytics? The people analytics definition goes beyond general analytics, reports, and business intelligence by focusing specifically on the analysis of HR-related data and the extraction of insights pertaining to the workforce. Unlike generic analytics, people analytics centres around human-centric data, such as employee demographics, performance metrics, and engagement surveys. It delves deep into the behavioural aspects of work, uncovering correlations and patterns that provide valuable insights into talent management, employee engagement, and workforce planning. With people analytics, you can gain a more holistic understanding of your workforce and make data-driven decisions tailored to HR needs. What Does People Analytics Involve? Data Collection What does people analytics involve? People analytics involves the seamless collection of relevant HR-related data from a multitude of sources, including HR systems, employee surveys, performance evaluations, and other pertinent data repositories. Other data sources include employee benefits, employee turnover rates, and workforce demographics. The goal is to collect as much data as possible from various sources for a more comprehensive and accurate view of the workforce. Data Cleansing The data collected from various sources often contain errors, inconsistencies, and missing data that can lead to flawed insights and ill-informed decisions if not addressed. Once the data is collected, people analytics software will clean, validate, and transform it into a format suitable for analysis. This process can also include consolidating data from multiple sources, standardising data formats, and filling in missing data. Data Analysis In this step, data is analysed using statistical methods, machine learning algorithms, and data visualisation tools. This enables HR professionals to identify patterns, trends, and relationships that are critical to understanding the organisation's workforce and answer important HR-related questions, such as: What factors contribute to employee turnover? What skills and attributes are required for high-performing teams? What training and development programs are most effective in improving employee performance and productivity? Through this analysis, HR professionals can identify potential issues and opportunities, allowing them to take proactive measures to address them. They can also explore different scenarios and test hypotheses to make more informed decisions about the workforce. Data Visualisation Data visualisation tools are crucial in this process, allowing HR professionals to communicate insights to stakeholders effectively. These tools can take many forms, from simple charts and graphs to complex dashboards that display a wide range of data. HR professionals can use visualisation tools to identify patterns and trends in the data, spot anomalies, and explore correlations between different variables. They can also use them to compare data across various departments, locations, or time periods, tell compelling stories, and generate persuasive reports. Effective data visualisation can be an essential factor in the success of people analytics initiatives because it makes data digestible — enabling stakeholders to grasp complex concepts and insights quickly and easily. Get the Ultimate Download Whether you're new to people analytics or ready to enhance your existing program, this eBook covers everything you need to know about establishing a strong foundation for a successful people analytics function that leads to smarter HR strategy and meaningful change across your organisation. Four Key People Analytics Trends 1. Revolutionising the Role and Function of HR People analytics is reshaping the HR function from being primarily administrative and operational to becoming a strategic partner in driving business outcomes. By leveraging advanced analytics tools and techniques, HR teams can extract valuable insights from data, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that align with organisational goals. This transformation empowers HR professionals to shift their focus from transactional tasks to strategic initiatives, such as talent acquisition, retention, and development. 2. Transforming HR Business Interactions People analytics provides HR teams with the ability to deliver data-backed insights to business leaders, fostering more meaningful and impactful conversations. HR professionals can then effectively communicate the impact of HR initiatives on key business metrics, such as revenue, productivity, and profitability. This transformation strengthens the partnership between HR and other business functions, positioning HR as a valuable contributor to overall business strategy and success. 3. Elevating the HR-Employee Connection People analytics is also driving a transformation in the HR-employee relationship. By analysing employee data, organisations can gain deeper insights into employee sentiments, preferences, and needs. This data-driven approach enables HR teams to personalise employee experiences, tailor development programs, and create a more inclusive and engaging work environment. The result is a stronger bond between HR and employees, as HR professionals can better understand and meet the individual needs of employees, leading to higher levels of engagement and satisfaction. 4. Enhancing the Quality of People Analytics With the advancements in AI and machine learning, HR teams can unlock more sophisticated and accurate insights from complex data sets. Predictive analytics models can forecast future workforce trends, identify potential attrition risks, and even recommend personalised learning and development opportunities for employees. These enhanced insights enable HR professionals to be more proactive and strategic in their decision-making, optimising talent management strategies and improving overall organisational performance. Embracing these four trends empowers HR teams to become strategic partners in driving organisational success, creating a more data-driven, agile, and employee-centric HR function. Choosing the Right People Analytics Tool: 3 Key Metrics When selecting the right people analytics tool for your organisation, it's essential to consider three key metrics to make an informed decision. These metrics will enable you to evaluate the effectiveness, usability, and compatibility of the tools with your HR objectives. 1. Data Integration Capabilities Ensure the tool can seamlessly integrate with your existing HR systems, such as your HRIS, performance management software, and learning management system. The ability to aggregate data from various sources is vital to obtain a comprehensive view of your workforce and maximise the insights derived from the analytics tool. Look for a tool that offers flexible and efficient data integration capabilities to support your data-driven decision-making processes. 2. Analytical Capabilities Evaluate the tool’s capabilities in data analysis, statistical modelling, and predictive analytics. Consider the range of analytics techniques and algorithms it offers, as well as its ability to generate actionable insights. Robust analytics capabilities enable you to uncover patterns, trends, and correlations within your HR data, facilitating strategic workforce planning, talent management, and employee engagement initiatives. Look for a tool that aligns with your specific analytical requirements and provides advanced analytics features to address your organisation's unique challenges. 3. User-Friendliness and Accessibility Consider the user interface, ease of use, and the availability of user-friendly dashboards and visualisation features. The tool should empower you to navigate and extract meaningful insights from the data effortlessly. Accessibility is equally important. Ensure the tool is accessible across devices and provides secure data access to authorised users. Look for a tool that prioritises user experience and provides intuitive interfaces to maximise adoption and utilisation across your HR teams. One Comprehensive Solution for Data Integration One Model offers a comprehensive people analytics platform that integrates data from multiple sources, making it easier for HR professionals to gain insights into their workforce. The highly customisable platform allows organisations to tailor their HR data needs to their specific requirements. One Model's platform can also save organisations significant amounts of money. For example, Paychex, a leading provider of HR outsourcing solutions, used One Model's platform to expand its people analytics capabilities, resulting in an 800% savings over the cost of an internal build. Why Is People Analytics Important? Why should you invest in people analytics? Why is people analytics important? At the core, HR analytics means driving better, faster talent decisions at all levels of the organisation. You need to invest resources in HR data to drive and accelerate this mission. The value of people analytics should be judged by the quality of talent decisions that are being made across the organisation and the ROI of those decisions on the business. With the right people analytics tool, users can quantify and measure the ROI of people analytics on an organisation, including cost savings, employee retention, new hires, and more. Below are several core benefits of people analytics: Improved HR Practices: People analytics tools enable HR professionals to make informed decisions based on data rather than subjective observations or intuition. HR analytics means more effective HR practices that are aligned with the organisation's goals and objectives. Better Workforce Management: By analysing workforce data, HR professionals can identify skills gaps, training needs, and performance issues, allowing them to take corrective actions to improve workforce management. Increased Employee Engagement: HR analytics can help identify factors contributing to employee engagement, such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, and career growth opportunities. By addressing these factors, organisations can improve employee engagement and reduce turnover. Higher Return on Investment: By optimising HR practices and improving workforce management, HR analytics can help organisations achieve a higher return on investment (ROI) and improve their bottom line. The Role of AI in HR According to Bersin’s research, a mere 2% of HR organisations actively utilise people analytics. This presents a significant advantage for innovative businesses looking to tap into this field and leverage its potential. People analytics profoundly impacts how HR functions by transforming recruitment, performance measurement, compensation planning, growth mapping, learning, and retention management. In fact, studies by Deloitte indicate that people analytics is rapidly becoming the new currency of HR, providing benefits such as increasing job offer acceptance rates, reducing HR help tickets, and optimising compensation. As the new currency, people analytics brings a wealth of benefits to HR professionals, enabling them to enhance key aspects of their work. HR analytics is evolving from a one-time initiative to becoming a real-time, easily adaptable tactic that offers immense benefits for HR as processes scale with business needs. HR analytics means HR teams can make data-driven decisions that result in more successful recruitment outcomes, streamlined HR processes, and better alignment of compensation practices with employee performance and market trends. This shift towards people analytics as the new currency signifies its increasing importance and its pivotal role in shaping the future of HR practices. At the core of people analytics is artificial intelligence (AI). AI allows HR professionals to analyse vast amounts of data quickly and accurately. AI-powered HR analytics can even inform candidate screening, performance evaluation, and workforce planning, freeing HR professionals' time to focus on higher-value activities. AI can also provide predictive insights, allowing them to anticipate workforce trends and take proactive measures to address them. How People Analytics Has Evolved People analytics has evolved significantly over the past few years, thanks to advances in technology and data science. Although managing humans may be the most complex aspect of work, other humans have been the primary means of interpreting and managing them thus far. But this is gradually changing, with computers beginning to provide more nuanced and targeted support for managing humans. People analytics is now becoming an expected way to enhance HR teams' decision-making, with more and more teams relying on this function daily. Initially, HR analytics primarily focused on HR reporting and compliance, such as tracking headcount, turnover, and diversity metrics. But as technology and data science advanced, it’s now more sophisticated, enabling HR professionals to gain deeper insights into the workforce's performance, productivity, and engagement. As a result, organisations that embrace HR analytics are gaining a competitive edge by making data-driven decisions that positively impact their bottom line. As more HR leaders become aware of the advantages of people analytics and these teams learn to integrate it into their function, they will recognise its benefits and embrace it as an essential part of their work. The Stages of People Analytics Maturity To truly understand the question, “What is people analytics?” you also need to know that people analytics is a journey, and organisations can be at different stages of maturity. The spectrum of people analytics maturity consists of four stages: Descriptive Analytics: Organisations at this stage use basic HR metrics to describe what has happened in the past, such as headcount, turnover, and time to fill vacancies. Diagnostic Analytics: At this stage, organisations use data to diagnose the reasons behind HR-related issues, such as high turnover or low productivity. Diagnostic analytics involves identifying patterns and relationships in data to understand the root causes of problems. Predictive Analytics: Organisations at this stage use data and AI to predict future HR trends and outcomes, such as workforce demand and supply, turnover, and performance. Predictive analytics enables organisations to take proactive measures to address potential issues before they occur. Prescriptive Analytics: Organisations at this stage use data and AI to prescribe specific actions to improve HR outcomes. Prescriptive analytics involves recommending specific HR interventions to achieve specific goals and objectives, such as training and development programs or employee engagement initiatives. Leveraging the Latest People Analytics Solutions The latest people analytics solutions enable organisations to delve deeper into the behavioural aspects of work, better understand the cause-effect relationship between various human and non-human aspects at work, and make data-driven decisions. There are three key points to make the most of a people analytics solution: Identify and quantify the relevant data to be analysed. Stay updated on the latest industry trends. Create clear end goals when implementing these solutions. Additionally, HR professionals must continually update and upskill their knowledge and capabilities to ensure that the organisation can optimise the latest people analytics offers and effectively leverage the latest trends for a more productive and satisfied workforce. Why One Model Beats The Competition One Model stands out as the best-in-class people analytics solution on the market. With its comprehensive platform, organisations gain access to a robust suite of tools and features designed to streamline data collection, analysis, and visualisation. The customisable nature of One Model empowers HR teams to tailor their analytics needs to fit their unique requirements, enabling them to extract actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making. Unlock the full potential of your HR analytics capabilities with One Model. Book a demo today to discover how One Model can revolutionise your people analytics journey, helping you uncover valuable workforce insights and propel your organisation towards greater success. Request Your Time to Meet with Us.
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Featured
1 min read
Lauren Canada
This infographic dives into what the IT security risks are in the people analytics space, how they can impact your business financially, legally, or otherwise, and how One Model works to limit those security risks. Click here to view the full infographic! Click here to view the full infographic!
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Featured
0 min read
Lauren Canada
This infographic reveals 4 key HR metrics to strengthen your next data story, so you can prevent costly turnover and retain top talent. Start scrolling to explore the piece!
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Featured
9 min read
Lauren Canada
Effective workforce and employee listening is one of the most critical skills for HR professionals. To address workforce needs, HR team members must be actively and attentively listening to their employees and workers. Gathering information about the workforce is vital, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple. Listening to your workforce means giving each member respect, time, and attention, so you can truly understand what’s going on and identify the best way to respond. This becomes more difficult in a hybrid workplace and can be complicated at scale for larger organisations. So let’s dive into three ways your HR team can practise effective employee listening at scale. 1. Facilitate more meaningful conversations Speaking to the workforce and using their feedback to support decision-making is how HR really began as a profession. Conversations refer to the 1:1 interactions, observations, and ethnographic tools that HR uses to understand the workforce and what your workforce needs. These are very human tools that can be a powerful method for HR storytelling within an organisation. When conducted effectively, conversations allow HR personnel, managers, and leaders to gain a nuanced understanding of their workforce that technology can’t yet replicate. For instance, it will be a long time before computers can comprehend how grief impacts performance, the unsettling chaos of a reorganisation, or the pride of a promotion. Despite recent advances, empathy, connection, and meaning-making will remain distinctly human domains for some time. On the other hand, bias and human error in conversations is a concern, and there are dangers in relying solely on conversations to inform the HR decision-making process. These are issues that must be thoughtfully planned for and mitigated — so you want to use other employee listening strategies to help validate, verify, and correct for bias in information gathered from conversations. There are three types of conversations that HR teams can use to practise effective employee listening: 1. Formal Conversations These include regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and formal checkpoints that ensure the workforce is heard, managed, and supported. These conversations not only help managers and HR leaders evaluate their employees' performance but also provide an opportunity for the organisation to gather information and better understand the employee experience. 2. Informal Conversations This refers to casual chats that take place around the “watercooler” (in person or remote), where employees can share what's really going on. These conversations can lead to surprising insights about the workplace, culture, and organisation. For instance, employees might discuss work-related challenges, share ideas for improvement, or provide feedback on a topic that you wouldn’t expect. Such conversations can help managers and HR leaders identify potential issues before they become problems. Informal conversations can be a great avenue for HR to gain business context that isn’t captured elsewhere. 3. Ethnographic Research The most formalised version of conversation-based information gathering is ethnographic research — referring to scientific and qualitative research techniques such as observation, participation, and immersion in the workplace to gain cultural and organisational understanding. Ethnographic research can provide a validated and scientifically sound understanding of employee behaviour, well-being, and attitudes, and it can also uncover hidden dynamics and cultural norms that might not come to light through formal or informal conversations alone. By conducting ethnographic research, organisations can gain a deeper understanding of their workforce and tailor their strategies and policies accordingly. 2. Collect information through surveys and forms Engagement surveys and other forms, like performance or training reviews, capture new data that might not be otherwise captured by conversations or other avenues. Surveys are a great method for gathering information from a large number of people quickly. You could spend 30 minutes speaking to every person in your organisation, or you could send a survey that everyone completes on their own time. Surveys can provide a structured, valid, and reliable method to collect information about workforce needs, attitudes, opinions, behaviours, and demographics. Here are three elements you might include in your next HR survey to improve your employee listening strategy: 1. Structured survey questions This includes questions that are answered by a multiple-choice scale like, "How satisfied are you with your current role?" and "Do you feel valued by your employer?". With numeric responses, it’s much easier to parse through and analyse the responses. 2. Open-ended survey questions These questions provide a prompt with a text box for a response. These could include a variety of open-ended topics like “Please tell us about your onboarding experience.” or “Do you have the tools you need to succeed in your role?”. The volume and variety of data that is brought back through open-ended surveys is much higher than structured surveys, so these require further coding or understanding before they can be used in decision-making. 3. Psychometric surveys Psychometric surveys gather information about employees' psychology, attitudes, and sentiments, which can be helpful in understanding variations in trends such as retention and attrition. These questions can be either structured or open-ended, depending on the desired results. 3. Use data from your technology systems As technology is increasingly integrated into workplace operations, your workforce’s interactions with technology can generate a wealth of data about people, processes, and work habits — making your tech stack a powerful employee listening tool. Skilled data engineers, analysts, and data scientists can process this data to extract valuable insights about the workforce. Systems data exists already for nearly every aspect of the work experience today, from hire to termination and from performance management to learning. And it can be collected quickly, passively, and with less bias than conversations or surveys. Plus, when handled correctly, this dataset allows for more sophisticated data techniques and broader perspectives of the organisation as a whole. For an end-to-end approach to employee and workforce listening, which is needed for workforce planning, workforce readiness, or skills gaps analysis, you can use the data within your technology systems. But today’s organisations use so many different technology systems, making it difficult to aggregate this data into an understandable format that can help inform HR decisions. Here are three types of technologies that offer systems data HR teams can use for better employee listening: 1. HR tech This is the traditional tech stack managed by HR tech teams, including systems that handle HR-related processes and programmes (e.g., Core HRIS, ATS, Performance Management, LMS). For example, when a worker is hired, the applicant tracking system (ATS) captures data about their demographics, prior experiences, and the interviewing team's assessment. 2. Collaboration tech Systems capturing collaboration (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Docs, etc.) can be powerful tools because they produce information about teams, interactions, and how work gets done within an organisation. Techniques like organisational network analysis can reveal how information flows through an organisation or identify influential individuals. 3. Work tech Work tech refers to technology capturing broad work data outside of HR tech (e.g., procurement systems, code tracking, or attendance). Systems like intranets, timekeeping, expense systems, and ticketing systems fall into this category. These work tech systems also produce data that can be used to recreate, model, and analyse the flow of work in the workplace. By associating these systems with HR tech systems, we can build powerful stories connecting HR data to work outcomes. How One Model supports employee listening at scale One Model is an AI-powered people analytics platform that empowers HR teams to centralise data from multiple technology sources into a single place — for easier analysis and better HR decision making. By bringing all HR data into One Model, HR leaders can get deeper insights into their workforce and perform more effective employee listening at scale. This allows you to listen to your entire workforce from every possible angle, so you can uncover workforce needs, increase engagement, reduce burnout, and address issues in a timely manner. Plus, you can refocus valuable HR time from building dashboards and aggregating data to analysing reports and improving the organisation. Discover how Colgate uses One Model Colgate shares how they used One Model to improve their employee listening strategy, understand their current workforce, and adjust their HR approach to meet their DEIB goals. 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