All You Need To Know About Workforce Analytics

Introduction

We live in a very competitive world where every employee wants fast growth, salary, promotions, etc. Employees do not hesitate to change the company if they are unhappy with their current employer. This factor sometimes becomes an alarming situation for employers because employees are an asset to the company. Workforce Analytics helps these employers better their decision-making to retain the employees, reduce the turnover time, and provide better opportunities to their employees.

This article will talk about Workforce Analytics meaning, the types of workforce analytics, the benefits of Workforce Analytics tools, and workforce planning analytics that helps companies to make better decisions. You will get the answers to questions such as – What is workforce? What is a Workforce Analyst? What is Workforce Analytics and planning? Let us first define Workforce Analytics and try to understand –  What is workforce analytics?

1. Definition Of Workforce Analytics
2. Types Of Workforce Analytics
3. Importance Of Workforce Analytics
4. Benefits Of Workforce Analytics
5. Workforce Analytics Tools
6. Workforce Analytics Examples

1. Definition Of Workforce Analytics

To define workforce analytics, one needs to know what the workforce is. Workforce refers to the employees working for a company or organization. Workforce Analytics measures and organizes the employee data in a sophisticated manner. It helps the organizations understand employees’ performance and decides which employees are an asset to the organization. Thus, it assists employers in overall management.

Analytics Workforce helps the Workforce Analysts to decide the right people for the organization. It also aids in determining what kind of tasks suits them the best, how their roles can satisfy them, etc. You must be wondering about what a Workforce Analyst does. The HR team mainly uses Workforce Analysts in the organization to perform Prescriptive and Predictive Analytics.

2. Types Of Workforce Analytics

Now that we know the Workforce Analytics meaning let us focus on its types. Below are two kinds of Workforce Analytics that organizations implement to make better decisions regarding employees and improve their organization.

A) Predictive Workforce Analytics

This analysis helps the managers to know the potential employees who are required by the organization for success. Also, it allows them to understand the employees who are more prone to leave the organization soon.

B) Prescriptive Workforce Analytics

Prescriptive Workforce Analytics helps the Human Resources team decide actions to retain the organization’s potential employees. This decision takes place based on the Predictive Analysis performed on employee data.

3. Importance Of Workforce Analytics

Broadly, Workforce Analytics software is part of People Analytics or HR Analytics. People Analytics takes care of every aspect related to the workforce, employee management. On the other hand, Workforce Analytics focuses mainly on the issues related to workforce planning.

The technological innovation in Workforce Analytics tools helps to get more insights into the data of employees. Therefore, modern Workforce Analytics is more influential and effective in presenting the insights.

These modern and innovative Workforce Analytics help the Analytics Workforce team in an organization to offer the data which was never available with the executives earlier. This information further helps make decisions related to human capital management, i.e., planning, hiring for labor, etc. It helps them make smart decisions in better staffing and allocating the resources appropriately, leading to their overall growth and success.

4. Benefits Of Workforce Analytics

Some of the primary benefits of Workforce Analytics are listed below –

• Employees are indeed an asset for a company, and the company’s overall growth depends entirely on the employees. But at times, the task assigned to the employees can reduce the employees’ productivity or provide lesser returns. Thus, Workforce Planning Analytics helps the employer find areas that can be automated. Therefore, employees can focus on other valuable tasks.

• Instead of hiring and firing, workforce and people analytics can help an organization know more about the performance and productivity of their employees. They can also know the factors which do not let the workers work well. Instead of replacing the employees, maintaining the current workforce would be a good idea. Understanding the factors that affect productivity will assist more to overcome these situations.

• Instead of hiring new employees, Workforce Analytics helps organizations know more about the requirements based on previous employees and their success. However, hiring new employees is not so easy for the organization. With Workforce Planning Analytics, the organization also understands the new employee based on historical data, whether they are suitable for the company or not.

5. Workforce Analytics Tools

Some massive organizations keep their products of Workforce Analytics within the ERP systems. Simultaneously, some other vendors use the Workforce Analytics tools that can occur either on the cloud or on the premises.

Irrespective of the product, a Workforce Analytics tool has the below-mentioned perks –

• It automates the data collection process from multiple sources.
• It validates the data quality of the collected data.
• It uses many workforce metrics that can explain the data in an easily understandable form.
• It presents the data in the form of personalized reports or dashboards to make them appealing.
• It monitors the performance management information about the workforce using the predefined indicators.

Many vendors are responsible for developing and selling Workforce Analytics tools. These vendors include Oracle, SAP, Sage, Kronos, Workday, etc.

6. Workforce Analytics Examples

To understand the Workforce Analytics and benefits of Workforce Analytics, here are some real-time examples –

• Employee Management

One company implemented Workforce Analytics to determine how and which of the employees were responsible for increasing sales and good customer experience for their company. They wanted to know the various factors that have improved sales. They collected data consisting of personal information and traits, their behavior with the customer, and the management procedure they follow. The metrics thus retrieved were compared to the incentives and various development opportunities given to the employees.

The results showed that the main driving force for customer satisfaction was employee development, and the second factor, i.e., employee incentive was low. The Workforce Analytics software results also revealed that the other factors responsible for employee performance were the employee’s shift length and personality traits. All these results helped the company to make better decisions and enabled the sales staff to perform well.

• Retention

One organization wanted to address the issue of employees leaving the company. So they collected the employee data consisting of information, such as promotion history, performance, role, number of years with the organization, location, salary, and social engagement. Based on the data metrics, the result revealed that the employees who interacted less with other employees were the ones who mainly quit the company. This analysis helped the organization make decisions, and they were able to retain the employees by 25%.

• Recruitment

Another company implemented Workforce Analytics to improve their recruitment strategies. They performed a survey on the job applicants with few questions. This survey helped the company know applicants’ preferences, such as job security, salary, growth opportunities, and various benefits. In addition to these survey questions, the company also collected data about their qualification and previous experience.

The results helped the company know what type of employee they require and other vital factors. In this way, the company was able to satisfy the applicants better and increase the chance of joining the company.

Conclusion

Workforce Analytics is the talent assessment tool that helps organizations make better decisions for their employees to perform well and get better opportunities. Companies usually have all the data about their employees. It is not enough to collect the data, but its analysis is also necessary. The Workforce Analytics software helps analyze this data to get meaningful insights that can help the analytics workforce gather the required information and make the decisions accordingly.

Now, you have understood the answer to the questions – What is Workforce Analytics and planning? How does it benefit the company? It is a great data management solution for companies. You can explore more about Workforce Analytics by opting for Jigsaw Academy’s People Analytics & Digital HR course. It is a 3-month online course that empowers the modern Human Resource Manager with advanced tools and techniques. Enroll in this certification program and turn your dreams into reality.