What Is People Analytics And Its Relation With Business Psychology
The application of People Analytics to Human Resources (HR) is changing how the business industry is perceived. The purpose of People Analytics is to improve corporate performance and productivity, as well as overall HR strategies. A current example of this is the incorporation of alternative business questions, such as how Human Capital behaves and how it is managed. But what is exactly People Analytics? Why is it relevant for companies to acknowledge it? And finally, how does it relate to Business Psychology
‘People Analytics is the use of data analysis to optimize and improve the people’s side of business, previously research in Industry Organizational Psychology’ — Heather Whiteman.
To do this, People Analytics recognizes social interactions through human data analysis, such as individual or aggregated data. Its goals are to measure activity, productivity, efficiency, motivation or commitment. Additionally, talent recruitment in companies is a recurring task. It has been related to Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, HR, and Business Intelligence. Moreover, it adds value to companies as a result of working with the core structure of companies, which are humans.
Therefore Psychology and People Analytics maintain a dynamic relationship based on Human Capital. People Analytics uses enormous data to analyse psychological behaviors, such as engagement, work motivation, education, skills or qualifications. Besides this, humans are likely to have systematic deviation thinking patterns which interfere with judgement, also known as cognitive biases.
Some of the most relevant cognitive biases in People Analytics are Action Bias (present in HR recruitment) (Action Bias), Observer-Expectancy Effect (common in research), and Authority Bias (present in leadership). These biases can be reduced, leading to an increased motivation, talent retention, increased neutral recruitment and better organization.
Although People Analytics is now trending, it is not a new concept. Furthermore, communities are working on novel mechanisms for People Analytics, such as Artificial Intelligence, which have raised interest among more business industries. Nevertheless, there is an educational barrier between these novel technologies and society’s knowledge, in which technology tends to be one step ahead, difficulting its integration
To conclude, People Analytics positively impacts business questions in companies allowing them to improve in productivity and performance. Moreover, the role of Psychology within People Analytics allows profound exploration of Human Capital, as well as the understanding of cognitive biases.
Do you think that People Analytics is changing our understanding of Human Capital?
