Workforce Management Featured Article
Five Questions You Can Answer with Workforce Analytics
The success of an organization depends largely on the recruitment and retention of its single most valuable resource: its employees.
Workforce Analytics puts HR managers on the front lines of decision-making, and provides organizations with the facts and data they need to make strategic decisions about prioritization and investments in their employees.
In order for analytics to be effective, business must first know what problems they are trying to solve. In HR, data can be applied to answer important questions about areas such as predictors of turnover, employee engagement, talent gaps, the ROI of training, and factors related to top performance of employees.
Here are 5 commonly asked questions that Workforce Analytics can help answer.
1. How Do We Reduce Turnover Rates And Increase Employee Retention?
A retention problem, as reflected in high turnover rates, can have a huge impact on revenue, particularly if it is focused in essential positions.
HR data can point to leading indicators of turnover, and provide insight into which employees are leaving and why.
Predictive analytics can help pinpoint trends indicating which groups of employees in various positions, geographic locations and under which supervisors may be at risk of leaving the company.
In order to narrow down the who and why, we can look at the following…
- Turnover segmentation (voluntary and involuntary resignations)
- Drivers of turnover (low morale, lack of growth opportunities, poor leadership)
- Turnover rates by region or division
- Tenure at the company
Data can reveal reasons behind turnover and help to develop appropriate and effective strategies to retain mission-critical talent and improve retention
2. How Can We Better Manage Our Overtime Costs?
While there may be times when overtime is necessary and cost-effective, overtime pay can begin to drain a company’s bottom line if not managed correctly.
Understanding why overtime is happening is the key to knowing how to resolve it. Having real-time access to overtime hours during the pay period can help reduce labor costs.
Workforce analytics allows managers to zero in on trends in overtime and uncover the root causes of excessive hours, so that action can be taken to solve the problem.
For example:
- Which employee is the biggest OT offender?
- When is OT occurring most frequently?
- Is there a time management issue?
- Which department is responsible for high OT
3. What Factors Are Associated With Higher Employee Engagement?
It goes without saying that a happy employee is a more productive employee.
Employee engagement can be defined or measured in terms of emotional commitment to an organization and it’s objectives, meaningful work, and having strong sense of personal accomplishment.
Elements that drive employee engagement include:
- Leadership performance
- Recognition for work
- Work/life balance
- Input on decision-making
- Job growth opportunities
- Pay/benefits
Analytics can identify workplace attributes such as absenteeism, attrition, declining performance ratings, and lack of promotions, which correlate with employee disengagement.
Having access to this information enables managers to adjust compensation, rewards, and responsibilities to keep top performers engaged.
4. Which of Our Talent Gaps are Most Critical and How Successful Are We Addressing Them?
Talent drives business. Gaps in important positions and skills can lead to business inefficiencies and lost revenues.
Analytics can address how to best meet the demand for labor required to execute the strategy of the company. Organizations must have a firm understanding of what skills and capabilities they have in-house, where gaps exist, and the best ways to fill those gaps.
Having an assessment of the gaps in a company’s workforce enables managers to
target recruiting and selection to fill current and future gaps, improve the integrity of succession planning, and evaluate the value of current employees.
Data can tell the story of how well a business is managing its candidate pipeline, how effectively it is on-boarding its new hires in both the culture and skills, and what productivity and retention look like at the end of their first six months.
5. How successful is our employee training program?
Organizations that invest in the development and training of their employees enjoy a more motivated and committed workforce, which is evidenced by increased job satisfaction, work productivity and improved business outcomes.
Organizations can use analytics to evaluate the impact of various employee-training programs, through measurements such as performance, retention, return on investment (ROI), and customer satisfaction. This can allow an organization to invest in the programs that have the most impact on goals.
The training evaluation process can provide opportunities to determine how competencies are being applied on the job. The information will assist organizations in making sound business decisions and determining training priorities.
Workforce analytics moves beyond the narrow boundaries of the HR function and transforms basic data into intelligence, which can be used to answer important strategic questions and drive critical business decisions.
Mark DaBell, CPA, is President of HigherUp and has been working with small and medium-sized businesses for over 20 years. Mark began his career at Deloitte (News - Alert), one of the world’s foremost consulting, and financial advisory companies, where numbers, data, and reports are everything. While working with small businesses at Deloitte, he saw firsthand how flawed data leads to faulty decisions and how effective and appropriate data spells success. Mark has utilized his previous experience to help lead the development and release of HigherUp’s Workforce analytics dashboards and reporting tools.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi