HR often gets left in the dust as startups launch out of their starting gates. Small businesses tend to focus on cash flow and intellectual property rights, rather than competitive advantage or the cost of employee churn. And, certainly, HR data is even further from the minds of most Chief Human Resources Officers (CHRO).
Similarly, in medium-sized firms, human resources departments are (ironically) often the last to be fully staffed. They are also more likely than other departments to be working with antiquated programs. In fact, many of these businesses rely on legacy applications that don’t facilitate advanced analysis or collaboration. Their HR managers revert to status-quo, rudimentary analysis time and time again.
However, what’s needed is the type of analysis that helps a company hire the best talent and retain the most productive employees.
MOVING FROM SPREADSHEETS TO DASHBOARDS
HR managers have moved far beyond the “hire and fire folks” categorization, available just to field employee complaints. Many, however, still rely on old-school methods of directing the administrative functions of a business. They carefully amass data in spreadsheets or file folders. Then, they spend copious hours poring over the data to extract valuable insights from it.
Unfortunately, in the age of Big Data, the fast-flowing data stream can quickly overwhelm the ability of any spreadsheet to accommodate insightful analysis. Uploading data to disparate platforms also prevents the enterprise-wide sharing of data.
With customized data dashboards, human resources managers can deploy on-demand analysis to make timely decisions. They can access reports on everything from individual employee performance to inter-departmental productivity. In particular, they can leverage employee utilization data to gain a competitive edge.
THE PARETO PRINCIPLE AND HR DATA
According to the Pareto Principle:
- “20 percent of employees produce 80 percent of a company’s results.
- 20 percent of a given employee’s time yields 80 percent of their output.”
Through data analysis, you can identify which employees are producing the vast majority of the company’s results. Then, you can reward those employees and significantly reduce your churn rate for your top talent. The remaining 80 percent can be offered training or access to development programs to improve their results.
Productivity analysis requires going far beyond the spreadsheet process to develop data-driven strategies for overall business growth. Unquestionably, productivity isn’t simply being busy but producing work that directly affects the company’s bottom line. By helping managers increase the percentage of productive employees, you’ll be affecting the company’s bottom line, as well.
THE HR DATA STREAM IS NOW A RIVER
The entire human resources dataset was once held in a locked filing cabinet in an office. Neatly alphabetized paper files documented an employee’s life prior to the hire date, workplace achievements, and tenure with the company. These files weren’t aggregated, analyzed, or tracked (other than on an individual basis).
With Big Data analysis, you can build employee personas. These are fictional characters with the attributes a historically successful, highly productive employee possesses. With these research-based profiles, you can determine the training path (if any) that will most likely lead to a successful tenure at your company.
You can also answer questions like “What experiences do the most productive employees have?” and “Is military service likely to be an asset to an employee?” Personas allow you to identify which of the thousands of online applicants are most likely to thrive at your company.
Access to data analysis and visualization are two of the potential benefits of working with us. At Helios, we specialize in data integration. In particular, we show you how to harness data analysis to achieve operational excellence — truly firing up your ability as an HR manager to help employees succeed.
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