Written by Gilles Meurisse

HR analytics offers a wide range of benefits. Drawing on research from McKinsey, Glenn explained how organizations that embrace HR analytics can achieve significant improvements—not only within HR, but across the wider business as well.

For example, organizations can increase recruitment efficiency by as much as 80%. In practice, this means finding and hiring new employees faster and more effectively than before. And the good news? Significant improvements can often be achieved simply by mapping recruitment processes through data—for example, by tracking the duration of each stage in the hiring process—or by monitoring relevant KPIs.

Employee turnover can also be reduced substantially. Organizations that invest in exit interviews and analyze the reasons why employees leave are often better equipped to address underlying issues. One of the use cases discussed during the webinar involved predicting turnover among train drivers and identifying the characteristics of employees who were most at risk of leaving. By acting on these insights, the organization was able to reduce employee replacement costs by as much as €200,000.

Beyond measuring the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of HR processes, HR data can also create value at a broader organizational level. Organizations that gain a better understanding of employee satisfaction and motivation—and take targeted action based on these insights—can achieve significant business benefits. According to McKinsey research, such initiatives can lead to productivity improvements of up to 25%.

HR data is incredibly valuable for organizations, but many struggle to connect HR analytics initiatives with their broader business strategy and day-to-day implementation.

Glenn shared some interesting insights on this topic. He strongly believes that HR analytics delivers the greatest value when it is introduced through atop-down approach. Rather than collecting large amounts of data and searching for insights at random, organizations should apply HR analytics with a clear objective in mind and focus on answering specific business questions.

An additional advantage of this approach is that it helps protect employee privacy. When data is collected and used for clearly defined purposes, it becomes much easier to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations. Organizations can also communicate more transparently with employees about how their data will be used and, importantly, explain the benefits for them. In other words, employees are more likely to support HR analytics initiatives when they understand “what’s in it for them.”

The use of HR data offers enormous benefits, but it must of course be handled thoughtfully and responsibly. During the webinar, Glenn shared several important points that deserve special attention.

It is important to build a solid infrastructure to work with data as efficiently as possible, but organizations sometimes take this too far. They focus on building the largest and most advanced infrastructure, while losing sight of short-term priorities, which are equally important and can also generate highly valuable insights.

A second pitfall is the use of big data. Just as with infrastructure, organizations may assume that bigger is always better. However, when it comes to data, quality over quantity is the right mindset. Information should be collected and used wisely. An overload of data—some of which may be irrelevant—only creates complexity and can potentially put privacy at risk.

If you attended our previous webinar or read our blog post and would like to gain more valuable insights into HR data, we highly encourage you to register for our next webinar.

On April 25, guest speakers Chris De Clippel and Anne Baeten from Randstad Group will share how organizations can align their retention strategy with the needs of their employees using HR data.

Even if you are unable to attend the live session, we recommend registering for this free webinar so you can receive the recording afterwards.

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