What is People analytics?

The term “People Analytics” was first appeared in Google’s search in 2005. Since then the search interest toward this term has increased significantly. People Analytics also is known as Talent Analytics or Human Resource (HR) Analytics, is a data-driven management strategy. The ultimate goal of the human resource department is to align the employees’ efforts and
outcomes to the overall business goal. Due to globalization, and the rapid technological changes, companies need precise and efficient HR decision making strategies to power up their businesses. People Analytics is a strategic workforce planning, which mines personal and
professional raw data created from e-mail exchanges, chats, and file transfers.

It recruits analytical models and charts as its main tools in human resource management. People Analytics’ reports support businesses to get a better insight over their progress and taking efficient steps toward improving workforce performance.

What are the benefits of HR Analytics?

Applying fact-based HR management decisions result in employee experience improvement and well-being in many ways. Understanding the current situation of the organization, tracking the problems, and defining the actions that should be taken, evaluating the effectiveness of the implemented solution, predicting the outcomes as well as future workforce planning.

According to Nucleus Research, every dollar invested in People Analytics returns $13.01 for the organization.

People Analytics impact on HR management

Understanding employees and optimizing their productivity is the key part of People Analytics. To fulfill this purpose, it applies HR components as analytic parameters to function accurately.

These components include:
• Recruitment and selection
• Succession planning
• Performance management
• Training and development
• Turn-over rate

Recruitment and selection

HR departments prefer to reduce the cost in candidate selection and cut the implicit bias in this process. People Analytics helps to find the required capabilities for the vacant position and find the best match among candidates for it.

Succession planning

To have a good succession planning strategy, People Analytics mainly focuses on employee attribute data. This data includes traits (unchangeable individual facts like gender and working experience) and states (changeable individual facts like age, education received bonuses, and days absent). The end results help to find the best replacement for the retiring personnel.

Performance management

Periodic individuals’ and groups’ performance assessments to ensure they are aligned with organizational goals is the other use case of People Analytics. Management policies thrust their culture to a competitive edge to
maintain their standards and reach their specified targets as fast and accurately as possible.

Training and development

Predictive analytics are employed to identify future changes and associated needs and training. Well-trained employees can handle the ongoing changes and their productivity rate sustains at an adequate level.
On the other hand, the employee’s performance analysis reveals his/her deficiencies and needs. Training their needs to improve their performance and increase organization revenue as a result.

Turn-over rate

Focusing on gender pay equity, real-time feedback, or retention rate can make the working culture appealing. Periodic analysis can find an appealing factor in the eyes of employers. Applying strategies to amplify those factors can decrease the rate of turnover.

People Analytics at Google

Google HR management is based on academic researches. They claim that it is better to arm the personnel with much more relevant information so they can be capable of making better decisions. That’s why they launched “Project Oxygen” to identify and rank leadership traits of managers, hold managerial training and development programs, define criteria for
promotions and candidates for people manager roles, and sustaining the sense of gratitude in working for a long period.

Project Oxygen was developed in the People and Innovation Lab by a group of psychologists, decision scientists, and researchers to align organizational
HR practices with academic research and back-up decisions with data. It is considered as a leading example in People Analytics that relies on data and analytics rather than consulting firms, opinions, and feelings.

With the growing demand toward big data analysis, human resource management strategies applied statistical insight on their collected data to automate the process of decision making.

People Analytics mainly works with people’s collected data to improve
organization revenue and fulfill all their targets in the intensely competitive business field.

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By: Yassaman Djafari . June 2020