The Power of Analytics in HR Software: Driving Employee Insights and Efficiency

‘Data’ is the word of our new tech epoch, as the overwhelming and dramatic power of modern technology has ushered in a loud world of big data and bigger cross-industrial impacts. Data and analytics play a huge part in business development, financial investment, market infiltration and industrial longevity – so it only stands to reason that data plays just as well within a business as without.

While Human Resources are often considered with emphasis on the ‘human’, and rightly so (given the often personal nature of HR dealings on a day-to-day basis), data presents incredible opportunities for departmental productivity and business-wide benefits besides. But how exactly can HR departments leverage analytics for such benefits?

1. Introduction to Data-Driven HR

First, let’s define our topic. The combination of analytics, HR and software is often easily referred to as ‘data-driven HR’: HR processes driven by data, whether in pursuit of refinement, consolidation or improvement. Various different metrics can be used by HR departments to more effectively track employee trends, catch issues before they escalate and guide the business internally to longevity and success.

Of course, this isn’t possible without the right brains for driving the data in the first place. Here, HR software equipped with advanced analytics capabilities is pivotal in driving such change, giving HR professionals and their seniors the tools necessary to make informed decisions.

2. Key HR Metrics to Track

In a world of big data, there are a great many different data sets that a HR department can focus on – but some are naturally not as worthwhile as others. From an overarching business perspective, some key HR metrics include general employee turnover rates (or employee ‘churn’), and time-to-hire averages – both of which can give a clear picture of a business’ successes or failures in recruitment and retention. Employee churn is a particularly important metric to track, even if only for the high costs that fast turnover can represent.

On the individual employee basis, metrics relating to employee KPIs can be tracked with consummate ease using an interconnected HR portal system. These metrics make it possible for department managers to better instruct their charges, and for the business to better audit the productivity and professionalism of its cohort.

3. Implementing HR Analytics Tools

Implementing analytics tools on a business-wide basis is only rendered easy by the existence of purpose-built software systems, and is only getting easier. Since the coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdowns, the resilience of cloud collaboration software has only increased, making for a new era of interconnectivity and digital communication.

This is also translated well into the world of HR, where unilateral cloud access to resources makes it far easier for department heads to input, receive and understand data. The only real roadblocks to a future of complete integration relate to user-friendliness and certain shortfalls in IT training amongst older managers. In spite of such challenges, HR analytics represents a key chance for a given business to find its quality.