Attracting and retaining quality talent is a pressing challenge, and for now, it’s here to stay. Organizations grapple with hiring the right technical talent in the midst of quickly changing technology, competing with other key players in their industries, and retaining A-players. These challenges can make it difficult to effectively plan for future workforce needs and predict employee behavior.
People analytics is a data-driven approach to understanding every aspect of your workforce. It enables HR teams to utilize concrete data to identify the causes of turnover, analyze performance trends, and even predict employee actions. People analytics data is gleaned from various stages of an employee’s journey, including the recruitment process, employee surveys, and exit interviews. An employee’s absences, promotions, training, and performance can also inform people analytics.
Using people analytics data gives HR teams a leg up when preparing for future workforce decisions. It’s not enough to make decisions based on feelings or past experiences; HR teams need real, accurate data to help grow and retain a healthy workplace. Through employee coaching and training, this data is even clearer and easier to utilize. Here’s how people analytics can empower your HR team to shape next year’s workforce.
Human resources professionals have significant data at their disposal. From employee attrition to hiring trends, people are at the heart of any workforce–and naturally, people’s actions produce data.
There are four main types of people analytics that HR leaders use to make workforce decisions:
Descriptive analytics analyzes the past to understand trends. HR leaders might use descriptive analytics to spot patterns in turnover, hiring demographics, or productivity output.
Diagnostic analytics helps uncover the “why” behind past trends. You might discover why a training program was ineffective, why a certain demographic has high levels of burnout, or why a specific team performs better than others.
Predictive analytics requires HR teams to dig deep into statistics. This approach helps predict future employee behavior, like engagement, sentiment, and turnover.
Prescriptive analytics lets HR leaders prepare for their desired outcome. It helps answer the question, “How can we make change happen?” by testing how decisions will influence future employee trends.
Depending on the size of an HR team or their investment in people analytics, some of these data types are probably already in use. Of course, it’s always most effective when they’re being used together.
Once you’ve learned how to analyze the different types of people data, you can use it to make decisions about next year’s workforce (and beyond). Who should you hire, and when, and why? People analytics answers these questions and more, empowering HR teams to:
Analyze DEIB progress and make hiring decisions to improve DEIB initiatives
Uncover hidden biases in the recruiting process
Address retention risks by identifying who is most at risk to leave and why
Analyze the quality of new hires
Support evidence-based HR practices to remove bias
Make hiring, recruiting, and training decisions for next year
Rather than relying on intuition or opinions, people analytics gives HR teams a clear strategy for maintaining a successful workforce. Implementing a people analytics strategy now can significantly influence your future hiring process, reduce layoffs and employee turnover, and ensure that recruiting resources are directed into the most effective channels.
Employee coaching is a highly effective way to gather detailed data. Coached employees are better equipped to understand their strengths and weaknesses, which in turn enables HR teams to identify skill gaps. HR can analyze coaching data, including the skills employees want to learn, their engagement with coaching, and how coaching efforts contribute to achieving performance goals. This data empowers teams to forecast workforce needs and make strategic hiring and training decisions for the future. People analytics data, especially when it’s accurately assessed via 1:1 coaching, can inform and optimize a company’s entire talent strategy.
People are the heartbeat of every organization, and the right analytics can support their long-term retention and well-being. Investing time in people analytics can positively impact hiring decisions, save costs by accurately assessing your workforce, and provide HR teams with a strategic path forward. Learn more about how TaskHuman can support data-driven coaching for your HR and people analytics teams.