Member Article

Overcoming the top HR challenges through data

Modern HR departments are now becoming more data driven and qualitative. The recent LinkedIn Global Trends report revealed that in the next five years, 73% of businesses are looking to focus on people analytics, with over 55% stating they need assistance to implement basic people analytics.

In this report, we study some of the key executive challenges facing today’s talent experts, stressing the potential and value for data to solve HR’s most vital issues, as businesses circumnavigate the complex post pandemic return to work.

A clear way for HR leaders to understand the value of People Analytics is to break it down into specific use cases. In this way, we can clearly explain how the HR department can use their people data to gain valuable insights, drive business value and overcome some of the most urgent organisational challenges that are currently front of mind for today’s talent experts.

Looking at the findings of TrueCue’s recent ‘HR Challenges’ survey, based on responses from a diverse sample of 222 senior HR professionals, across a variety of questions relating to key HR challenges that businesses are facing, one trend gets reinforced: the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated HR’s need to get the right data to the right people at the right time.

Access to clear, actionable real-time data provides you will full visibility over your entire workforce and enable you to understand your organisation’s most valuable asset - its people.

The analysis of the findings from TrueCue’s recent HR survey identified three major challenges for HR professionals that lie ahead in 2021 and beyond.

Tracking D&I progress

In terms of specific HR and business challenges, what is clear from the majority of respondents in our survey is that for many of today’s HR experts, tracking their progress towards vital D&I goals is a significant challenge.

Many businesses in 2021 set themselves ambitious D&I goals, with 73% of respondents revealing they found tracking progress towards these demanding. It is crucial that you have the ability to track the success of any D&I initiatives that are put in place so that progress can be monitored.

Staying on top of employee sentiment

When you are working closely with teams and colleagues in an office-based environment the majority of the time, it is far easier to observe and stay on top of employee sentiment. What is clear from our survey is that the majority (64%) of respondents are currently struggling to monitor and manage employee sentiment in our ‘new normal’ world of remote/hybrid work environments.

Understanding formal and informal employee networks

Employees are becoming increasingly used to working via a hybrid mix of home and office-based work and is one of the major challenges for HR and business leaders to better understand how both formal and informal employee networks operate in this new world.

67% of respondents in our survey indicated that they find understanding formal and informal employee networks in a remote/hybrid working environment taxing. This is where the real value of Organisational Network Analytics (ONA) really comes into its own, as it helps organisations to better understand how knowledge flows within and between their employee networks, identifying risks and showcasing opportunities.

The four outlines of HR needs

Clustering analysis of the HR Challenges Survey answers reveals four different profiles of HR experts. The most common profile with almost half (48%) of respondents is of an HR function challenged on all fronts and with the highest challenge score (74 difficulty points on average). In contrast, the least common profile (14% of respondents) is that of a data-savvy HR function on top of all current challenges (only 39 difficulty points on average). The other two profiles are challenged (both average 64 difficulty points), with both identifying as coping somewhat well with recognising employees who either over or under perform and then taking suitable action.

In addition, each is on top of specific areas; one profile is confident that it provides internal stakeholders timely and insightful analysis of People data (23% of respondents) while the other’s strength is in the management of the talent acquisition process (15% of respondents).

The common challenge across all four of these profiles is that of tracking D&I initiatives – even for the data-savvy HR professional. In contrast, the areas where the profiles differ most are in the classification of over and under performance and the management of the talent acquisition process.

The world is rapidly digitising, with businesses collecting and storing vast amounts of people and organisational data. The four HR profiles highlighted are clearly at different stages of their data and analytics maturity journey. It is therefore imperative that HR leaders understand both their current level of maturity, and importantly, what they need to focus on to successfully get to the next level.

Track your D&I progress through data

There are numerous reasons why D&I is high on the HR agenda in 2021. Diverse organisations are more likely to attract and retain a wider pool of talent, with their workforce fostering innovation and resilience enabling them to perform better financially.

However, 73% of respondents in our survey find tracking progress towards D&I goals challenging. That’s why, if you want to improve D&I in the workplace, it’s increasingly imperative that you understand the data behind your initiatives.

Staying on top of employee sentiment

With many of the workforce WFH, it’s clear that many HR professionals are currently struggling to oversee and manage employee sentiment, largely as managers see less of people in remote/hybrid work environments. The obvious task for HR and the wider organisation is to be able to understand their employees when they are not around in the office all of the time.

With only a fifth (20%) of respondents in our survey indicating that they found staying on top of employee sentiment easy or straightforward, this is clearly a huge challenge for HR leaders in 2021 and beyond. Mental wellbeing of staff, in particular, is becoming a real priority focus for businesses, with a growing expectation that they have a type of mental health awareness programme and initiative in place.

The fact that people are working from home and potentially working longer hours means that they are at a much higher risk of feeling isolated, as they don’t have colleagues physically nearby to talk to. So, it falls on HR to be able to track and measure and understand employee sentiment. And make sure that employee sentiment is kept as high as possible.

Gain a deeper awareness of employee networks

There could be people within your organisation who are more isolated as a result of hybrid and virtual working. There are particular groups of employees that are perhaps not connecting as well as they were before the pandemic.

Knowledge-sharing and collaboration drives business performance, which is why understanding how both formal and informal employee networks operate across your organisation has never been more important, with 67% of respondents in our survey finding this a challenge in remote/hybrid working environments.

Organisational Network Analytics (ONA) has the potential to transform our understanding of the real network of relationships, communication and knowledge that exist within a business. ONA helps organisations understand how knowledge flows between employees, identifying the influencers in your network and helping you to accelerate change and innovation. It enables HR to rapidly onboard and embed new starters and to ensure your staff always get the information, skills and connections they need.

Darshan Baskaran, Analytics Lead at TrueCue.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by sarah Treadwell-Jones .