How to Build a Data-driven HR Effectively?
How should a company build an HR team that is highly data-driven? Read this to know.
In this modern era of automation, almost everything is based on some or the other form of data and statistics. All the businesses, whether large or small, have teams that are highly driven by data and analytics- from sales to marketing departments. It is high time now that the HR teams are based on data too. What does it mean to be a data-driven HR team? This implies that the data is integrated into the functioning of the HR and that the data obtained from current and prospective employees are used to obtain some significant insights into the organization.
Almost all big businesses, including Google, Microsoft, and Xerox have highly data-driven HR teams. By using current technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), an organization can incorporate data and analytics into its work culture. Analyzing candidate data and comparing their attributes to the current workforce can enable an HR team can predict the success and future of the new employees. It facilitates recruitment, employee engagement, talent retention, and learning.
Some of the ways to inculcate data-drivenness into the HR team are explained hereunder:
Identify important and unimportant data
Every organization has certain goals and cultures. Not every form of data is important to the HR team for their future projections. The HR organization needs to identify which sets of data to store that can be used to their advantage. Typically, an HR team needs to store a unique set of data that can be used for the functioning of all the other departments of the organization and on how to use them to understand the capabilities of their workforce.
Look internally and externally for data lovers
An important way for an HR organization to leverage the data available with it is to identify the employees within the organization that has a craze for numbers and have a versatile history for conducting significant research and analysis work with huge data sets. Luckily, HR people are in the best position to identify such talent pool within the workforce.
Train everyone in HR on basic people analytics
A smart move is to train people within the department on a basic understanding of analytics and show them how it can be used to the benefit of the company if used efficiently. With time, this will drive the people in the organization to consider data analytics when implementing a new system. Any new hires in the organization should be made aware of the analytics of the company and it should be made sure to have some data-savvy people in the team.
Don’t wait for the perfect data, create it
It is widespread practice for a lot of companies to wait for being data-driven unless they have the proper set of organized data available. If you are one of them, it is a BAD move! Because once you start waiting, you keep waiting for the perfect data. It is advisable to start organizing the data from Day1 and develop a system for shaping the data. You can progress and make changes later on as you move ahead. Show progress, and it will start to build momentum!
Promote data-driven work culture organization-wide
For employees of the organization to adapt to the data-drivenness, it is important for them to be data-literate. All the employees must have some basic understanding of the data available, ways to collect and organize data, and how to analyze it using various tools. Data literacy is not a one-day thing. It needs to be inculcated within the workforce, with small achievements every day.
Understanding the team’s comfort level with data analytics
It is imperative for every HR manager to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their team in every aspect. There will be various types of people- willing, resistant, and savvy. A successful HR is one that is able to tap at various levels and get the best work done out of everyone. Once you understand the different levels of analytical comforts and capabilities, the work becomes a lot easier.
Identify existing tools
Before starting to integrate data analytics into your organization, understand your current ways and techniques of collecting and analyzing data. What data to collect? How to collect? What to do with it? What software to use? This will give a clear picture of the current data collection capabilities and the areas where expansion is needed.
Collection and integration
The task of data-drivenness does not end just with the collection. It necessitates analyzing the data in the most appropriate way to arrive at meaningful data sets that could be used for the advantage of the organization while facilitating easier execution of tasks. Collected, unanalyzed data is of no use to anyone. Make sure to employ the data analytics software well.
Data-drivenness could make a lot of tasks easier for HR organizations and their execution simpler. However, it should be made important that all the employees are on the same page and have unity in performing work- be it data-savvy or data-resistant people. Leveraging the capabilities of your team and providing for sufficient scope of expansion should be the ideal way of making your organization data-driven!!
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