5 Powerful Ways HR Teams Can Benefit from Using Workforce Analytics

Are you familiar with the challenges of poor employee engagement, lower productivity, and performance issues? These are common issues that every business faces. However, failing to address these issues with effective strategies can harm your business.

Statistics show that office workers are only productive for 31% of their workday, far below the average of 60%.

Now, the question remains: How should we deal with it? Today, businesses rely on data-driven insights to make smart hiring decisions, improve employee performance, and improve business operations.

Utilizing workforce analytics can help identify hidden patterns in work-related data, providing actionable information to improve employee engagement and predict future success.

Let’s dive into this blog and understand how workforce or HR analytics can benefit businesses.

What is Workforce Analytics?

Workforce analytics, or HR analytics, is when businesses collect workforce-related data for analysis and turn it into actionable information. The data can come from internal or external sources.

These internal and external data types can be as follows.

• Employment data: Job title, level of seniority, and department.

• Attendance data: Tardiness, absenteeism rates, and time off requests.

• Performance data: Goal achievement, performance ratings, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

• Compensation data: Salary and bonuses

• Training data: Training completion rates and skills.

Types of Workforce Analytics Processes

Primarily, there are four types of workforce analytics processes.

Depending on the nature of data elements, businesses can develop specific strategies to boost business performance and employee engagement, create an organizational structure that creates a cohesive team, and nurture a healthy work culture.

Is People Analytics the Same as Workforce Analytics?

Workforce analytics differs from people analytics, focusing on employee engagement, performance, and development needs.

On the other hand, workforce analytics takes a broader perspective. Businesses monitor and analyze performance patterns, areas with high absenteeism, shift scheduling, and other aspects to forecast workforce demand and optimize overall business operations.

How Can HR Teams Benefit from Using Workforce Analytics?

Considering the market for workforce analytics, which is projected to be worth $6.04 billion by 2032, the potential for growth and success is significant. It has become crucial for businesses to invest in it. Let’s discuss some ways to benefit from workforce analytics.

1. Grow and Predict Future Success

Workforce analytics empowers HR teams to forecast workforce trends and optimize hiring strategies using big data. It also enables predictive modeling to identify candidates likely to excel in specific roles.

By examining employee performance data and turnover rates, HR can identify the key traits of high performers and adjust hiring strategies accordingly. This proactive approach, enabled by workforce analytics, prevents skill gaps and ensures long-term business growth, empowering HR professionals to take control of their strategy.

Companies like Experian use predictive analytics to forecast turnover and absenteeism. That allows the firm to plan interventions and strategies to boost employee retention, save costs, and perform better HR planning. With the help of its workforce analytics tool, the company saw a dip in its attrition rate by 4%.

2. Enhance Employee Engagement

Like it or not, employee engagement is a key factor in your business growth. Do you know that employees who engage well with their work have an 87% lower chance of leaving their current job?

Workforce analytics tools help businesses track engagement levels through pulse surveys, sentiment analysis, and real-time feedback tools. These insights allow HR departments to launch engagement initiatives such as personalized learning programs, mental health support, or flexible work arrangements, demonstrating their responsibility and care for the workforce.

3. Improve Your Talent Management Strategy

Talent management involves onboarding talent, keeping them happy, and investing in skill development. According to the US Department of Labor, one bad hire can cost a company 30% of the employee’s yearly compensation.

Hence, it is best to build a more brilliant talent pipeline where HR can assess internal talent and recommend career development paths. They can also invest in succession plans and personalized training programs. 

“We believe performance coaching should prioritize adapting to change instead of simply following a plan,” said Justin Watkins, founder of Battle Born Injury Lawyers. “It should focus on measuring results against goals and adjusting based on those results. It’s no longer enough to send someone to a training course to improve their leadership skills.”

4. Manage Decentralized Teams

As the WFH trend persists, workforce analytics can help HR gain insights into employee work patterns, communication gaps, workflow inefficiencies, and other issues. A key part of managing remote employees is engagement. That goes beyond daily check-ins; it involves using the right tools to communicate through their preferred channels in real time. It also means having a clear view of your team's activities.

People analytics tools can help uncover these gaps. These insights can also help optimize meeting schedules, reduce unnecessary virtual fatigue, and tailor remote work policies. Slack and Zoom are other tools that help maintain efficiency without micromanaging employees. Use business emails to have professional and centralized communication.

“A clear communication structure is essential to communicating effectively within your organization. If people do not understand where messages should go, you will likely have a large inbox full of emails and messages,” said David Muñoz, Founder of Mission Personal Injury Lawyers. “To avoid delays, create a clear communication structure that shows everyone who they report to, where information should go, and how to communicate effectively.”

5. Spot Trends in the Workplace

Businesses can use workforce analytics tools to detect emerging trends in workplace behavior, diversity, employee well-being, and satisfaction before they become significant issues. Analyzing employee feedback, absenteeism rates, and internal surveys makes revealing early signs of dissatisfaction easier, allowing for the easy implementation of counteracting strategies.

Conclusion

Workforce analytics software is a business's best investment in promising future growth. With access to massive amounts of data related to employee performance, business needs, compensation, and other factors, businesses can effectively align their workforce initiatives with business goals.