How Does Data Analytics Inform HR Strategy?
CHRO Daily
How Does Data Analytics Inform HR Strategy?
In the ever-evolving landscape of human resources, leveraging data analytics is crucial for strategic decision-making. From an HR Manager's insights on tracking professional development spending to a Founder's strategies to reduce turnover with predictive analytics, we've compiled eight expert perspectives to illuminate the power of data in HR.
- Track Professional Development Spending
- Analyze Turnover to Improve Onboarding
- Incorporate Employee Feedback in HR Strategy
- Optimize HR Resource Allocation
- Redesign Performance Management with Data
- Tailor Benefits to Employee Needs
- Implement Regular Feedback for Engagement
- Reduce Turnover with Predictive Analytics
Track Professional Development Spending
I work in a university setting. To see if we (as a department) were putting our 'money where our mouth is,' I asked our financial controller to create separate subclass categories for staff, admin, and faculty professional development. That way, we can track the money spent on professional development by each of those groups. That data will help us see if we have aligned our spending with our strategic goal (which is to increase our professional development by 10%).
Analyze Turnover to Improve Onboarding
I remember a time when we were working with a mid-sized tech company that struggled with high employee turnover, particularly among their software engineers. We decided to use data analytics to dig into the issue and inform a more effective HR strategy.
First, we gathered data from various sources: employee surveys, exit interviews, performance reviews, and even social media sentiment. By analyzing this data, we identified a pattern: many engineers left within their first year, citing a lack of career development opportunities as a major reason.
With this insight, we recommended a targeted approach to revamp the company's onboarding and professional development programs. We introduced a mentorship system where new engineers were paired with experienced mentors. Additionally, we implemented personalized development plans based on skills and career aspirations, tracked through an advanced HR analytics platform.
Incorporate Employee Feedback in HR Strategy
Utilizing regular feedback loops and employee listening data, such as employee engagement surveys and listening tours, has been the single most useful tool for connecting back with the workforce and population that often doesn't have their voices elevated. I use design thinking and challenge my executive teams to use design thinking, which includes ensuring that we are connecting with all of the personas across our workforce to co-design anything that is incorporated into the HR strategy (not just the executive team).
This includes gathering quantitative data and qualitative data to understand what is most important and impactful to the populations we are impacting with our solutions. This takes multiple rounds of feedback to incorporate, but it results in higher engagement in the strategy and more relevant solutions that move the needle more quickly on measurable results.
Optimize HR Resource Allocation
As the CEO of a tech company, I recently used data analytics to help optimize the allocation of resources within our HR department. By analyzing various factors, such as employee turnover rate, time-to-hire, cost per hire, and employee performance data, we identified that our HR team was spending a disproportionate amount of time on low-impact tasks. With these insights, we refocused our strategy to automate certain repetitive tasks and allocate more resources and attention to strategic HR improvements. This led to a 25% decrease in the turnover rate and improved job satisfaction scores within a year.
Redesign Performance Management with Data
We used data analytics to redesign our performance management system. By analyzing the performance review data and feedback from employees, we learned that several hidden biases were eroding the fairness and transparency of evaluations. We replaced it with a data-driven performance review system designed with objective metrics and regular feedback loops.
For example, we identified certain performance metrics to track, created frequent check-ins, broadened the evaluation criteria so they were consistent across employees, and trained managers to interpret the data and provide constructive feedback. Rather than gossiping and trying to manipulate evaluations in their favor, employees were more concerned about how to improve their performance given their performance metrics.
Eventually, managers and employees trusted the system, which explained why employees rated the fairness and transparency of evaluations higher than ever: employee satisfaction with the performance review system rose by 25 percent. This, in turn, improved organizational morale and productivity.
Tailor Benefits to Employee Needs
Recently, we were working on strategic benefits planning. In analyzing employee data, we were able to identify key trends in our benefit utilization, as well as employee feedback on our different programs. This analysis allowed us to more closely match our benefits to the often drastically different needs of our associates.
For example, we discovered that our work-at-home associates had an extremely high use of mental health services, and we were able to get these benefits extended by quite a lot. This type of data-driven approach raised employee satisfaction and made our resource management more efficient so that we were able to ensure a happier, more productive work environment.
Implement Regular Feedback for Engagement
We use data analytics to inform our HR strategy by tracking employee performance metrics such as productivity, attendance, and project completion rates. By analyzing this data, we can identify trends and patterns that help us make informed decisions about hiring, training, and performance management.
For example, we noticed a correlation between regular feedback sessions and improved employee engagement, leading us to implement more frequent check-ins with our team members. This data-driven approach has helped us create a more efficient and effective HR strategy that ultimately benefits both our employees and our company as a whole.
Reduce Turnover with Predictive Analytics
We used data analytics to enhance our HR strategy by analyzing employee turnover rates. By examining historical data on turnover patterns, we identified key factors contributing to attrition, such as a lack of career development opportunities or dissatisfaction with workplace culture. Armed with this insight, we implemented targeted initiatives to address these issues, such as introducing mentorship programs and enhancing employee engagement initiatives.
We used predictive analytics to forecast future turnover trends, allowing us to proactively intervene and retain valuable talent. As a result of these data-driven interventions, we observed a significant decrease in turnover rates and an improvement in overall employee satisfaction and retention.
