Introduction to Workforce Analytics

A company will progress in leaps and bounds only if its employees are happy and engaged. The future of a company depends mostly on its workforce and Workforce Analytics is a tool which helps the company to monitor and analyze data on its employees to bring any changes, if necessary.

In this blog, you will learn more about Workforce Analytics and its utilization in companies.

What is Workforce Analytics?

Workforce Analytics is a combination of manual methods adopted by a company and software utilized by them to make statistical analysis of employee related data with the help of algorithms. This helps the managerial team to optimize the work environment and observe the impact of different factors on business performance.

The algorithm also helps to predict whether any move adopted by an employee or a particular department would bring adequate ROI (Return on Investment).

Importance of Workforce Analytics

Workforce Analytics is a very essential tool for the development of a company. It is important in many aspects.

1. Workforce Analytics helps the company to measure productivity levels and helps the company to achieve better performance output.

2. Workforce Analytics helps to fill up knowledge gaps of companies and gives a company insights about themselves which would have otherwise caused them to lose money and time.

3. Workforce Analytics helps to show the engagement of particular employees and to track their progress, which will result in higher productivity.

4. Workforce Analytics also helps the company to identify trends in their market and this will help the company to know how to transform for a better outcome for their business.

Workforce Analytics vs HR Analytics

Many people use the terms Workforce Analytics and HR Analytics interchangeably. This is not correct. There are many key differences between Workforce Analytics and HR Analytics.

Key features of Workforce Analytics

1. Workforce Analytics mainly works in the area of Talent Management. Talent management is a process of developing the skill set of existing employees, motivating the employees to do their best in their work and bringing highly skilled employees into the company.

2. Workforce Analytics is specifically focused on analyzing employee data at a base level. It is based on individual level.

3. Workforce Analytics mainly used specific analytical software that is used to collect and manage data.

4. Reporting data of the organization at the individual level, Workforce Analytics helps to boost the overall efficiency of the company.

Key Features of HR Analytics

1. HR Analytics is used for many different areas of the organization and is not concerned with only a single specific one. It is an umbrella term for many operations like common day to day HR work, organization issues, efficiency of different procedures, etc.

2. Full scale data collection on every aspect of the company comes under HR Analytics.

3. Managing data on multiple levels is the aim of HR Analytics. Metrics from different levels of the organization can be used to analyze the data.

4. Analysis of the data from different levels of the company helps to identify the success of different HR policies and procedures.

Workforce Analytics can be linked with other areas of HR Analytics. The scope of Workforce Analytics is much larger since it has a macro-focus by analyzing things at the individual level.

Workforce Analytics Overview

Types of Workforce Analytics

There are different types of Workforce Analytics generating different kinds of data which gives one insights into different aspects of the company. Some common types of Workforce Analytics are:

1. Employee engagement

Employee engagement depends upon the relationship between the employer and the employee. High employee engagement shows that the employees are hardworking.

Hardworking employees are more committed to the company and have high morale. Employee engagement also helps to identify good leaders in the company, since higher employee engagement will surely produce good leaders.

2. Training effectiveness

Many companies provide training to their employees from time to time to develop their skills. The effectiveness of each training session needs to be analyzed to improve the future training sessions. This also shows whether the training received by the employees is effective or not. Effective training guarantees more productivity at work.

3. Turnover in a company

The turnover or churn rate of a company is the reflection of the work culture. If the turnover rate is low, then the situation is good, if the turnover rate is high, then new measures need to be taken to improve the health of the workforce.

The churn rate can be calculated as follows:

Employee churn rate = (Employees at the beginning of month – Employees at the end of month)/ Employees at the beginning of month

This will give the churn rate in percentage.

4. Absence

Absence is another type of Workforce Analytics which gives one insight into the overall health of the company. Absence of employees during holidays is normal, but other patterns of absences, like employees taking more leaves under a particular manager, needs to be examined and analyzed.

5. Predictive analytics

Workforce Analytics can be used to make predictions about the future of the company using trends. Machine learning and data mining is mainly used for this. Pattern matching, regression analysis and multivariate statistics are some of the common methods that are used to predict both risks and talent scope in the future.

6. Prescriptive analytics

Prescriptive analytics is used for predicting the best possible plan after predictive analysis. Minimizing risks and capturing talent is its main objective.

7. Diagnostic analytics

Diagnostic analytics is used to analyze the root cause of workforce issues. The Causes of both failure and successes are examined. This helps to bring more success and lesser failures to the company.

Applications of Workforce Analytics

Workforce Analytics can be applied in Talent Management with the help of softwares that uses algorithms for data. The areas in Talent Management where Workforce Analytics can be applied are:

1. New recruitment

• Search for the top resumes using algorithms instead of searching with keywords. This can be used to analyze applicant information.

• Background checks for applicants in various social media applications to filter out the good and bad qualities of candidates.
• Algorithms used to automatically shortlist candidates that match the company’s preferences.
• Search for similar talent amongst new recruits that will compliment the previously recruited top employees.
• Reduction of costs required to hire new employees by using algorithms for every task.
• Removal of gender biases in the workplace by recruiting candidates based on skills and not based on gender.

2. Retention of previous employees

• The algorithms are designed in such a way that it makes the hard working people of the company visible to the management which will enable the managerial team to recognise real talent and provide incentive for the same. The hard working employees are compensated in this way.
• Productivity of the employees can be tracked and monitored and any shortcomings, if visible, can be eliminated.
• Employees’ behavior towards security protocols can also be monitored.
• Unengaged employees who have been wanting to leave the company can also be identified which will provide the managerial team with adequate time to decide how to proceed in such cases. The behavior of such employees can be flagged and utilized in other related cases.

3. Employee Management

• Future scope and potential of employees can be estimated and the employees can be managed in such a way so as to realize that potential. Benchmarks for good work done by employees can be set and current performance of employees can be observed and analyzed.
• Shortcomings of particular employees in some aspects can be observed and measures can be taken to eliminate those shortcomings. Training can be provided to employees which can improve employee satisfaction.
• Performance of the best employees can be treated as requirements for new roles so as to improve the quality of work in the company.

Implementation of Workforce Analytics

Merely collection of data has no benefit without implementation of changes to mirror the data collected. It would be a waste of time to let the data go without utilization. Proper implementation will help the company to flourish. There are many ways in which Workforce Analytics can be implemented by the company. They are as follows:

1. Study of problem areas

The areas of the company which need the help of Workforce Analytics need to be studied. Every problem has different kinds of Statistical Model and data collection. In order to proceed, one must identify the problem first.

2. Type of data needed

The type of information required by the data collected which needs to be analyzed should be specified. Different kinds of problems require different types of data.

3. Benchmark allocation

The goal towards which the company is working needs to be examined. A benchmark should be set up to compare the current data with the benchmark so as to work towards it.

4. Analysis and report

Deciding on what factors to analyze and what to base the report on to solve the problem is one of the most important steps of Workforce Analytics. This will help to see the cracks in the company and how to mend those cracks.

Workforce Analytics Software and Tools

There are many common Workforce Analytics softwares currently used by companies to improve their work culture. These softwares have been tried and tested by many companies and come highly recommended by them.

The most commonly used Workforce Analytics softwares are Board, ActivTrak, Anaplan, Workday Prism Analytics, Workday Adaptive Planning, Visier People, etc.

AI and machine learning is used to develop these softwares and they are made keeping in mind the usefulness of data in different aspects of the workplace. These tools provide generous insights to the nooks and crannies of a company and help to build a healthier workplace environment.

The basic functions which are expected from Workforce Analytics softwares are given below:

• Automatic collection and analysis of data.

• Prediction of analysis results, which is used for the future of the company.

• Creation of benchmark for effective comparison.

• Reporting and management of data.

Advantages of Workforce Analytics

Workforce Analytics helps a company to manage the employees more effectively and which in turn, would help the company to achieve success. There are many advantages of implementing Workforce Analytics:

• Helps to identify new recruits who will best suit the company’s work culture.

• Helps to identify high-performing employees who will contribute more to the company which helps the company to allocate more resources to them.

• Helps the company to improve its working structure which helps to maximize the output.

• Helps to understand and evaluate the relation of employees performance with their moods which ascertains more employee satisfaction.

• Helps in the future scope of the company.

• Helps to identify the demand for new positions in the company.

• Helps to eliminate positions which are no longer required in the company.

Workforce Analytics is the backbone of a company’s management system and it helps the company a great deal. Adoption of Workforce Analytics by a company helps to improve the future prospects of the company and brings more profit.