How HR analytics can boost your career options

The recent disruptions brought on by new digital technologies have led to new Digital Lifestyles at work. The Covid-19 crisis, which has been considered a once-in-a-century tragedy, has also caused a tremendous wave of upheaval in society at large, particularly at workplaces.

HR functions have been the most severely affected by Covid-19 and digital disruptions of all organisational verticals. The evolution of HR function has been greatly accelerated by Covid19. CHROs can no longer choose to implement a digital transformation of HR. Transformation is essential to navigating the complexity, turbulence, and fluidity brought on by these massive upheavals.

It is important to recognise that the digital transformation of HR is more than just a technical advancement. Instead, it requires a shift in the attitudes, behaviours, and behaviours of employees to embrace data-driven decision-making and new generation digital technology in the HR department. As a result, it is important to understand HR Analytics' function, which is quickly becoming a crucial sector in the HR ecosystem. The idea that HR Analytics is solely about computation and the use of algorithms is one that HR professionals frequently hold. A balanced picture of employees' aspirations, emotions, experiences, and the culture of the firm as a whole must be taken in order to properly perform HR analytics. Employee outcomes are essential to driving organisational outcomes, which in turn affect financial and market outcomes in an HR value chain. HR analytics and employee outcomes are closely related. Given that everything starts with employee outcomes, it is also possible to state that HR Analytics is a crucial component of the overall HR value chain.

There is a peculiarity in the HR function that affects the nature of HR Analytics (to be viewed differently from Business Analytics). HR data is not only about numbers; it is also entwined with behaviours, emotions, objectives for one's job, anxieties, etc. Let's look at how HR Analytics aids in the digital revolution of HR while keeping its distinctiveness in the spotlight. In an HR ecosystem, the following are the main use cases for analytics:

Personnel acquisition

Finding the best talent to hire is essential to creating a solid human capital. This is critical from a strategic perspective for an organization since the availability of human capital strongly influences its business strategy. A massive amount of data on the talent that is accessible in the market is used to help find the right people using HR analytics.

Learning and development

Learning, relearning, and unlearning are essential for an organisation to be future-ready. Employees can create personalised learning portfolios with HR Analytics that are focused on future capabilities as well as their present learning requirements. Analytics are used by AI-driven adaptive learning platforms to pinpoint fast- and slow-learners and assess employee skill gaps.

Performance evaluation

The most recent models for HR analytics place equal emphasis on an employee's potential and existing performance. Thus, smart HR managers may see performance and potential from both sides. In order to distinguish between high potential and critical talent, HR Analytics focuses on the current business demands (focus on the future business needs).

Employee expression

In the current digital era, real-time sentiment analysis of employees is a prominent use case for HR Analytics solutions. This is crucial for staff retention, which is currently (in the wake of the current resignation tsunami) a major source of frustration for any CHRO. The HR Analytics assists in slicing and dicing information obtained on employee feelings, which helps focus attention on workers who may be about to leave a firm.

Process effectiveness

HR, like any other function, includes a number of interconnected processes that use resources. Focusing on effectiveness and increasing productivity is possible with HR Analytics. This implies that the HR department can work more effectively or "more with less" than before. The effectiveness of the talent acquisition ecosystem will be greatly improved, for instance, if an hour-long "application screening process" powered by HR Analytics can provide more shortlisted profiles.

As businesses accelerate the digital transformation of their HR ecosystems, HR analytics is seeing tremendous application. The HR Analytics engine is becoming smarter and more prescriptive thanks to AI-powered smart algorithms. To successfully navigate a challenging business climate, volatility, and fluidity, it is essential to have "Augmented Intelligence"—intelligence from the HR Analytics engine and human intelligence—along with the motivation supplied by leaders. HR analytics aids in ensuring that a company is always future-ready.

(The author is the Professor of Practice (OB & HR) Head, Centre for Digital Innovation FORE School of Management, New Delhi)