New research shows the key problems that are currently facing HR and how People Analytics can work towards solving these issues.
According to a new report by TrueCue, there are many areas that HR can improve through a renewed focus on data and People Analytics.
Research by LinkedIn has shown that skills linked to analysing data has become more desired within the HR industry. Over the last five years, the research showed a 242 per cent increase in HR professionals with data analysis skills.
However, over half of businesses (55 per cent) still said they need help with putting basic people analytics into practice.
The first major challenge identified for businesses within TrueCue’s report was tracking Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) progress. Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of firms indicated that they found tracking progress towards these goals challenging.
This insight can be particularly worrying for businesses, the research suggests, as organisations which display diversity and inclusion are much more likely to attract and retain top talent as well as perform better financially.
Rupert Morrison, CEO of Concentra Analytics, stated that tracking progress of D&I goals is an “end to end journey” which involves looking at the flow of all the data including the CVs and applications, to how this goes through the recruitment funnel, who is being promoted, who is being trained etc. He further suggested that this is a “dynamic process” which needs to extend past data showing a snapshot in time.
The second issue for businesses includes understanding formal and informal employee networks in a remote or hybrid working environment.
Over two-thirds of respondents (67 per cent) stated this was a challenge for their business – one which is fairly new but also likely to persist as the world moves into new ways of working.
In this area, TrueCue stated that Organisational Network Analytics (ONA) are extremely helpful as it helps organisations to understand how knowledge flows within and between their employee networks, identifying risks and showcasing opportunities.
The third and final biggest challenge for businesses was staying on top of employee sentiment. This was also shown to be a problem arising from the new way of working, with employees now dispersed over various locations instead of an office-based environment.
Over three-fifths (64 per cent) of respondents are currently struggling to monitor and manage employee sentiment in the new hybrid-remote working world. In addition, only a fifth of companies (20 per cent) said they found this task easy or straightforward.
As such, the report suggests the onus is on HR to track and measure and understand employee sentiment. This is especially true as people are working from home which means potentially working longer hours with an increased risk of feeling isolated or overwhelmed.
Neda Scrini, Chief People Officer at orgvue, suggested that understanding sentiment and engagement levels involves
rethinking the whole employee experience from a hybrid or virtual perspective.
Ms. Scrini further stated:
Certainly, one area I can see people are thinking much more carefully about is performance management. Which is moving more towards a dialogue of performance development: and thinking more about how you do this in a hybrid world, where you are doing more checking in on how people are doing (as opposed to checking up on how well they are working). That’s far more outcomes-based, employee-driven and delivers much more dynamic and real-time feedback than a quarterly or end-of-year review.
*This research was obtained from TrueCue’s report ‘Overcoming the Top HR Challenges through Data’ which surveyed 222 senior HR professionals.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
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