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Nov 9, 2021, 07:15am EST |
Why HR Should Pay Attention To The Emergence Of People Analytics And AI
Anand Inamdar
Forbes Councils Member
Forbes Human Resources Council
COUNCIL POST
Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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Anand is the CEO & Product Owner at Amoeboids.
The time when human resources was primarily an administrative function is behind us. Gone are the days when HR was only concerned with payrolls, training and finding potential candidates for recruitment. Today, HR is also involved with aligning the corporate vision to individual employee goals, ensuring the mental well-being of the workforce, leveraging technology across various HR functions and much more.
If that sounds like a lot to handle for a single team, it is. But although the scope of the HR department has increased steadily over the past few decades, the adoption of tools that can simplify the needs of the department haven't. According to the results of a PwC human resources survey, 82% of HR personnel struggle with adoption challenges, most of which can be linked back to planning phases during which decision makers didn't have access to or seek the right information. The side effect of these inconveniences can build up gradually, resulting in difficulties finding the right candidates or failing to retain existing high performers.
The People Analytics Answer
People analytics can help simplify the "human" aspect of HR by applying the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to large datasets of people and complex business problems. From identifying issues that cause retention problems to suggesting improvements in staff engagement and management behavior, proper people analytics practices can amplify the positive effects HR can have.
People analytics also include a wide range of data types in addition to HR staff records, like movement and health data from wearable devices. These various touchpoints can help in identifying new trends that can influence people's management decisions across the organization.
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Establishing Checkpoints
People analytics bring hard facts to the decision-making table and complement human intuition and professional experience to arrive at an evidence-driven road map. This streamlining adds efficiency to the organization's day-to-day processes, but certain concerns need to be tackled.
Monitoring the usage of computers is a great way to gather data, but with a significant portion of employees working remotely, it poses a risk of infringing on their privacy. Companies are buying into systems to monitor space usage in real time. Also, the sensitivity of people analytics information means organizations have to pay special attention to data protection and privacy.
As people analytics tools improve, single algorithms developed from people analytics could deeply affect the lives and careers of organizations' employees. Because ensuring employee well-being is a core HR functionality, the onus of adhering to the humane aspect falls on HR personnel.
Analytics, by definition, recognizes patterns and extrapolates those characteristics most likely to succeed. This method may backfire during recruitment, during which exceptional and creative candidates can be excluded because of their nonconformity. AI-driven interviews may also exclude the innovative applicant who doesn't quite fit into the standard structure of projects and organizations.
By considering what factors are important to employees, HR can provide execution plans to use people analytics in ways that are beneficial to both organizations and their employees. Suggestions and recommendations from a people analytics tool can help HR identify behavioral patterns, pick best-fit profiles for a role, proactively design development plans to boost employee performance, map trends in attrition within the organization and come up with mitigation strategies. These could result in both short-term and long-term gains.
Making People Analytics Work
As people analytics gains importance as a decision-making tool in an organization, determining what gets decided by big data and AI and what doesn't becomes increasingly difficult. Astute use of analytics can amplify culture, be it a progressive, learning and growth-oriented one or a dysfunctional one.
Some questions that HR should ask themselves before beginning their people analytics journey include the following:
1. What are the key questions we're trying to answer?
2. What are the groups of employees that we're going to be comparing?
3. How will we be comparing those groups and what summary statistics will we be calculating on each group?
4. What data do we need to be able to answer our questions?
It's increasingly important for managers and HR professionals to understand the advantages and pitfalls of relying solely on information. Also, thoroughly discussing the implementation of features that would provide the most impact can result in solutions that may not have been previously apparent.
A key differentiator for successful organizations is how well they manage their talent. As the value of data continues to increase, the opportunity for HR to leverage this data will become more prominent. It can also help HR align its strategies with the business goals of the company and quantify the value it can add. It's time for the HR department, in particular, to interpret increasingly complex people analytics and thereby rearchitect the future of work.
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