When Beginning a Workforce Analytics Journey, Address Organizational Performance

January 1, 2024

In the realm of strategic human resource (HR) management, decisions find their nexus at the focal point of corporate and employee strategy, encompassing all areas of the talent management lifecycle from attraction to departure. The efficacy of these decisions, however, is contingent upon the underpinning robustness of the data informing each strategic HR decision.

Workforce analytics, in essence, constitutes a systematic process involving the gathering of HR data, its contextualization within the broader business strategy framework, and its subsequent utilization to optimize strategic HR decisions. This method empowers HR professionals and business leaders, facilitating judicious decision-making that actively contributes to and enables organizational success. The comprehensive and real-time application of a workforce analytics strategy can be a pivotal element for organizational sustainability and a source of competitive advantage.

However, initiating a workforce analytics strategy can prove challenging. The complexity often lies in grappling with the initial task of assembling and organizing workforce data from multiple systems so that it can be analyzed. Furthermore, the implementation of a sustainable workforce analytics strategy necessitates a cultural shift within the organization, prioritizing data-driven decision-making and instilling an analytics-driven mindset.

In light of these challenges, we propose that organizations new to workforce analytics, begin their journey in three key areas: employee onboarding, workforce productivity, and turnover. These focal points offer organizations the opportunity to pinpoint inefficiencies, enhance performance, and strategically address retention challenges, thereby establishing a solid foundation for workforce optimization while focusing on key organizational outcomes.

Enhanced Employee Onboarding

Leveraging workforce analytics, HR professionals and individual managers can improve and refine the employee onboarding process. Comprehensive insights into new hire experiences can be garnered through data collection methods such as employee listening campaigns tailored specifically for new hires. This involves capturing firsthand experiences through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Additionally, incorporating data on time-to-productivity and new hire turnover further provide unbiased, quantitative insights, crucial for assessing the effectiveness of the existing onboarding experience.

Optimized Workforce Productivity

Workforce analytics can also serve as a valuable tool that provides insights into workforce productivity that empower HR and business leaders to formulate initiatives to enhance and optimize performance outcomes. Metrics such as Total Cost of Workforce (TCOW), revenue-per-employee, span-of-control, and absentee rate offer a comprehensive view of productivity. Paired with qualitative data on employee experiences, organizations can identify the factors influencing performance, enabling the development of solutions that foster optimal organizational performance.

Elevated Employee Retention

A salient concern for organizations is high employee turnover, signaling potential issues for both the organization and its strategic HR function. Understanding the reasons behind employee turnover is paramount, and workforce analytics can play a pivotal role in uncovering the leading indicators for turnover. Further turnover trends can be analyzed to determine key employee segments that are more likely to leave the organization. Extracting and analyzing data from exit and stay interviews, employee surveys, and team assessments yields data-driven insights into the core reasons behind employee turnover. Armed with the right data, HR and business leaders can leverage data to develop effective problem-solving strategies and result-oriented retention programs that are more likely to resonate with employees.

Final Thoughts

The adoption of workforce analytics as a strategic imperative propels organizations into a future where workforce decisions are not merely intuitive but thoroughly data-driven. As the landscape of HR continues to evolve, a steadfast commitment to employing a comprehensive and real-time workforce analytics strategy will be key to organizational success.