Human Resource Management has changed a lot in recent years, becoming more strategic and focused on operations. Modern workplaces use HR analytics to make strategic decisions, not based on gut feeling. And indeed, the power of analytics guised as intuition and confidence dominates modern decision-making.
HR analytics is a revolution in the workplace, transforming how experts interpret and analyze HR functions to improve business performance.
What is HR Analytics?
HR analytics is the process of using data to analyze employees and understand how they affect enterprise goals. This information can then be used to assess the effectiveness of HR initiatives. HR analytics can also be defined as the systematic identification of a business outcome’s human drivers.
Organizations use HR analytics to analyze trends in HR data to identify issues and potential solutions. HR analytics investigates factors influencing your organization, such as employee absenteeism, exit rates, etc.
How Does HR Analytics Work?
HR analytics is made up of several components, including:
- Data collection to discover the problem-solving insights that HR analytics promises.
- Data monitoring and measurement against historical data or other data.
- The actual data analysis process uses common data analysis methods such as predictive, prescriptive, and descriptive analytics.
- Application of data-driven insights to organizational decisions.
What is People Analytics?
As previously mentioned, HR analytics and people analytics are used interchangeably. However, for clarity, it is worth noting that most enterprises prefer to utilize what is otherwise known as people analysis. However, with the change in names comes a shift in focus.
On the one hand, HR analytics focuses more on a business, not the actual employees. However, organizations are starting to realize the importance of the human factor in business performance, justifying a shift in focus.
Richard Branson, the celebrated entrepreneur, agrees that looking after your employees ensures they extend the same courtesy to your customers. The employee-centric culture emergence emphasizes the need to focus on employees as a vital element to help achieve business goals.
Is HR Analytics Different from People Analytics?
Despite the versatility of these terms, HR analytics and people analytics bear some differences relatively invisible at face value. HR analytics tends to appear as a subset of people analytics.
HR analytics addresses the functions of the HR team. For instance, it analyzes Key Performance Indicators such as hiring time, employee turnover rates, etc. These analytics relate strictly to the HR team and allows for accountability.
Conversely, people analytics covers HR, the whole workforce data, and customer insights. It supports the approach of comprehensive data measuring and analysis to elevate a business’ decision-making and performance. People analytics helps an organization understand the changing workplace while providing insight to improve customer behavior and engagement.
What About Workplace Analytics?
Also used interchangeably with HR analytics and people analytics, workplace analytics is a separate term encompassing the entire organization’s workforce. Workplace analytics permit the future inclusion of AI and robots likely to replace current jobs within an enterprise. In comparison, workplace analytics is more descriptive when developing a holistic workforce strategy.
HR analytics and people analytics serve the same business goal of improving the organization’s decision-making and performance indices. The main difference lies in the processes and approaches that each adopts. An HR analytics expert can help you optimize your human resources management to better support your company’s needs and goals.
ASAP Payroll – Human Capital Management Solutions
ASAP Payroll provides a feature-rich dashboard packaging essential HCM Software to enable HR departments to carry out their duties efficiently. This includes intuitive HR analytics capabilities to help your business adopt a proactive approach to operations. Contact us for more information or try our free demo here.
