The Power of People Analytics in HR

Employee disengagement remains a serious issue for organizations all around the world, with it reaching a record nine year high in 2023, according to Gallup. There are however many factors that contribute to employee disengagement that can be analyzed and avoided thanks to the introduction of data analytics in HR. It is becoming increasingly important to ensure that your employees are engaged in the workplace as employee engagement has proven to increase productivity, job satisfaction, customer loyalty and overall profitability. With people analytics transforming the HR space, organizations can now use data to understand certain employee behavior, improve employee satisfaction and ultimately increase retention, to ensure a successful, winning team!

From Traditional HR to Data-Driven HR

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HR has typically relied on intuition to drive decision making, however with the rise of AI and people analytics, we have seen a shift from these traditional methods to data-driven HR. With the introduction of data in HR, it has allowed organizations to take a proactive approach to employee engagement, enabling increased productivity, lower turnover and fostering a stronger company culture. By using people analytics, organizations can better understand employee behavior based on historical and real-time data, delivering objective and unbiased reporting.

How People Analytics Improves Employee Engagement

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Making use of people analytics has the potential to improve employee engagement in a number of ways, whether it be using historical data to better understand potential future trends or using analytics to proactively address issues. Here are some ways people analytics can improve employee engagement:

Early detection of disengagement among employees
By using people analytics, you can look at historical data to identify patterns and trends in employee engagement. Certain indicators like drop in performance, reduced collaboration and increased absenteeism can all indicate that there may be engagement issues in the organization. By having this information available and creating future trends, you’re able to adequately prepare for the situation and potentially avoid it, essentially saving the organization time, people and money.

Anticipating and reducing attrition
People analytics can also be useful when it comes to perceiving attrition rates and more specifically, which departments or groups of employees are more likely to leave. When you look at feedback received from employees such as lack of career development, low satisfaction scores and bad work life balance, these are all key factors that contribute to attrition and can be avoided if acted upon when the feedback is received.

Customized engagement strategies
Organizations can also use people analytics to create tailored strategies to address employee needs, from personalized development plans to workload adjustments, ensuring employees remain engaged and have a good work-life balance.

People Analytics in Action

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People analytics can be used in multiple ways in the workplace. Whether it be real-time feedback tools that enable HR to continuously monitor engagement and provide proactive solutions to problems, or using models based on eNPS scores to suggest actionable improvements before issues become serious and widespread throughout the organization, people analytics can be extremely helpful for HR teams.

Using Qualee for People Analytics

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Qualee’s platform uses people analytics through real-time and AI driven solutions that help HR teams continuously analyze, interpret and track feedback. Qualee makes interpreting this information simple, by providing a variety of insightful charts and dashboards. Qualee’s platform has been developed on the foundation of decades of workplace psychology, ensuring you ask the correct questions when it comes to engaging employees. Last but not least, Qualee can also suggest improvements at the click of a button, enhancing overall employee engagement and retention.

Benefits of Using People Analytics for Employee Engagement

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There are a number of benefits to using people analytics for increasing employee engagement in the workplace. Here are a few ways people analytics can benefit employee engagement:

Proactive problem solving
People analytics allows HR teams to address potential engagement gaps before they escalate and worsen, essentially reducing turnover and increasing engagement.

Enhanced decision-making
By using people analytics it enables leadership to make informed decisions about employee experience, such as what training, learning and development or culture initiatives are needed to increase or maintain employee engagement in the organization.

Long-term growth and profitability
By making use of people analytics, your organization also has the potential to improve long-term growth and satisfaction by understanding and responding to employee needs. This ultimately leads to a more engaged, loyal workforce, which essentially drives organizational growth and profitability.

Challenges and Considerations When Using people analytics
Although people analytics can be incredibly useful and beneficial in the workplace, it is important to understand and consider the challenges associated with data in HR. Here are a few things that need to be considered before implementing an analytics solution in your organization:

Data privacy
When implementing an analytics tool, you will be making use of some private employee data to understand future trends. It is important to address these concerns with employees and have the necessary privacy policies in place to protect sensitive information. It is also key to conduct anonymous surveys to get the highest participation and inform employees that their identity will be protected.

Over-reliance on data
Another aspect that needs to be considered when integrating an analytics tool in your organization is the idea of over relying on data and overlooking the human element in certain situations. Human resources will always need to maintain some form of human touch and emotional intelligence to ensure fairness and equity. It is good to have objective information from data, but the subjective element that humans provide cannot be replaced.

Set up costs
While there is a cost related to implementing a people analytics solution, you should see a great return on investment soon after implementing the solution. To get an understanding of the ROI on Qualee’s employee experience platform, use this calculator.

Conclusion

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In conclusion, organizations around the world are facing an employee engagement crisis and in order to combat this, HR has evolved from traditional methods to more of a data-driven approach in an effort to learn from historical events and better anticipate future trends around employee engagement, retention and general satisfaction. People analytics can be incredibly beneficial in the workplace, whether it be proactively solving a problem, enhancing strategic decision-making or improving long-term growth by responding to employee feedback. In addition, organizations should also carefully consider using people analytics in the workplace as issues around data privacy, and overlooking the human element in the workplace need to be addressed. In general, having a people analytics tool in your arsenal will significantly benefit your organization, providing you with the data to power your winning team!

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