Analytics is becoming a key driving factor for every industry and every area. It is the time for HR Specialists and companies to realize that the workforce is changing. Businesses have more than one generation working for them at a single time. When the companies look at Generation Y and the Millennials, they both have entirely different desires and potential than the Baby Boomers. So, the approaches those companies have historically to run the businesses will be no longer effective. Operating in the traditional way will lead to missing out the business targets.

In this modern era of digitalization, companies are embracing the power of HR Analytics as the lifeline of their business. The rapidly evolving businesses now require data-driven, open and flexible practices. HR analytics facilitates HR Specialists and Employers to gauge the effectiveness of their workforce, policies and practices; with a core focus on evidence-based decision making.

Data Analysis is not merely sufficient for making a decision; interpretation of data analysis and corrective measures to fill the gaps is what makes your decision right. Data Analysis thus forms a decision support system for HR practitioners to drive the business. Experts think that using analytics to make decisions on people, learning and development, culture building; will revolutionize the process with improved revenues.

It is time for co-designing business solutions through a data-driven approach of Analyse-Align-Achieve model that helps in achieving process excellence, motivated manpower and business objectives.

ANALYSE

The most important step to take in energizing your HR analytics strategy is to identify/ diagnose the gaps in HR Processes, Skill Sets, Role Ambiguity and Culture Building. The primary goal is to assess/ analyze where your HR strategy currently is, and then identify ways of developing and influencing data sources to reach the business goals.

ALIGN

Define Business Vision, Core Competence of Business and translate Vision into SMART (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound) Goals. Defining functional objectives, planning month-on-month business target and communication of business goals across all levels aligns the workforce in achieving organisational goals. Co-designing the HR Policies, On-Boarding & Employee Engagement programs, Learning & Development initiatives (including soft skills, core skills and business excellence skills), with periodic Rewards and Recognition programs, etc; based on the age groups of employees, contributes in enriching the team and aligning the workforce with the business objectives.

ACHIEVE

Organizational Performance and Proficiency is achieved by continuous review of functional progress as per business objectives, along with evaluation and development of strategy to enhance core competence and competitive advantage. Re-focus on people, process, performance and culture helps the HR practitioner to bring organisation to the next level.

The goal of the HR practitioners should be to reinforce the degree and influence of analytics in the organization. The usage of data in the industries for streamlining the Business HR Operations is increasing exponentially with every passing year. With the technological advancement, the management and the team/ associate members have started using several different devices to interact, and eventually the overall volume of communication have grown. Increase in the volume of interaction is directly adding to the growth of volume of data. With the continuous growth in the volume of data, there is a need to break the macro analysis into micro ones to achieve the business objectives.

The business goals of an organization determine how extensive and deep HR practitioners need to get in their data collection. It is important for the organization to narrow down some of the critical challenges they are currently facing.

They should also set goals with a plan on reaching ROI (Return on Investment) and how it will be measured. Narrowing the focus on the HR data will provide a foundation to decide which data sources from different departments will be needed to help in decision-making. The usage of technology here will simplify data into easy-to-absorb BI (Business Intelligence) reports, visualizations, and dashboards.

With an in-depth discovery process, analysis and transforming business through a data-driven approach, the data analysis can offer the following benefits:

Implementation of a centralized data collection process will contribute to make data-driven (statistical) decisions in the organization, free from human bias and the quality and quantity of data that an organization collects over the years will improve, which will ultimately result in strongly influencing its competitive improvement and sustainability. Many organizations are now investing their time and resources on this digital transformation by discovering the details of all areas of HR and operations; with amazing findings on improvement opportunities. Effective Data Analytics is a powerful tool that can energize your human capital to achieve your business goals.

Mr. Hitesh Kumar Gulati is an Organisational Development Facilitator. He is Founder & Executive Consultant at DiversityAce Business Consulting and a Certified PPA Practitioner in Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) & Human Job Analysis (HJA), by Thomas International. He could be reached at hitesh@diversityace.com