The HR & OB Society
HR Analytics is rising at such a massive pace that it is becoming an essential aid to
businesses. Even Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends report states – “71% of companies
see people analytics as a high priority” which in itself speaks the value of such technology.
It surely gives companies a fast and comprehensive view for making efficient decisions
HR analytics majorly happens at two fronts - Descriptive Analytics and Predictive
Analytics. Even predictive analytics is later enhanced by Prescriptive Analytics. Presently a
lot of companies are stuck in the
Descriptive Analytics and are just
doing the reporting of
various data from different HR
processes - they are like mere
showcase dashboards which tell
the health of the organization and
nothing more. Companies are still
struggling with the challenge of
transitioning into the Predictive
Analytics field. With this a concept
of “HR Intelligence is Hitting
the Wall” comes into picture
which
describes
on
how
organizations have limited HR intelligence to break the wall and become fully matured
analytics organizations.
All this is happening because of the root cause of no standardization in data collection of
employees and data of various factors related to employees. The data systems are still not in
place and even if they are, the concerned HR analytics team isn’t trained well enough to
interpret those data either due to lack of skill of errors in data. But to be HR analytics ready,
various hygiene factors need to followed, like –
1. Proper data capturing free from errors
2. Add more data variables to various dashboards
3. Train employees for data management
The need of making HR - A data driven function has certainly become imminent. This has truly
been recognized by various companies of different sectors all around the world and one would
be amazed by the extent to which these companies have gone into HR analytics. Few of such
companies are –
1. Virgin Atlantic – Reduced absenteeism: Analytics helped in uncovering factors of 9%
absenteeism and saved about £750,000, or $1,150,252.50
2. Wells Fargo – Predictive hiring: Model based on using analytics to identify qualities of
high performers
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi
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