HR leaders no longer need to rely on instincts or past experience to make decisions. Through the use of people analytics, they can make better-informed decisions based on people-centric data. Plus, data helps measure the success of programs to advocate for budgets. Here are four examples of how you can use people analytics to improve processes and strategies.
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Company Culture & Branding
A great company culture helps improve retention and makes attracting top talent easier. For example, 84% of employees surveyed said they would leave their current job to work for a company with a fantastic reputation. But company culture is a complex animal, affected by company policies, individual personalities, and team dynamics. So, how can people analytics help?
Conduct and analyze regular employee surveys to get a pulse on company morale and employee satisfaction. Examine exit survey and interview answers to better understand why employees are leaving voluntarily. Assess the language used in social media posts, news articles, and online reviews to get a sense of public perception outside the building. Once you develop a better understanding of your company’s cultural strengths and weaknesses, strategize solutions for improvement.
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Recruitment
Social media and networking sites give recruiters more channels than ever to reach prospective candidates. But that also means there’s a higher potential for wasted time and resources on channels that provide little or no return. Analytics can help you determine which recruitment efforts are the most successful so that you can replicate those efforts in the future.
Your current employees provide great data. Examine common traits among your highest-performing employees—previous work experience, colleges/universities, college majors—and their recruitment process. See which channels led to the highest number of quality candidates—not just the number of applications, but the number of applications that led to interviews.
Hiring
More than half of talent acquisition leaders say that the most difficult part of the recruitment process is determining which applicants will make the best hires. Analytics tools can help you determine which qualities are most important for a certain position, then sift through applications and find the candidates that best match those qualities.
Analytics can also tell you when a certain quality or data point actually has little to do with an employee’s success. For example, insurance companies have analyzed their top salespeople and determined that college grade point average is not a strong indicator of future sales performance.
The final decision will still come down to face-to-face interviews, but the goal is to streamline the application review process and narrow the interview list to a handful of highly-qualified candidates.
Team Building and People Management
Personality assessments can help HR leaders determine which managers will provide the best fit for a new hire. Managers can also use this data to build teams with complementary skillsets and personalities. This should strengthen the collaborative process and lead to more productive workgroups. And, on a macro level, it should lead to a more positive work environment, which can strengthen company culture and increase retention.
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