jure of HR analytics depends ‘on integration Within a company.The current state of HR analytics for predicting its future suggests thatthe fits OF AR nnalyliew depends heavily onidata integration With According to Deloitte's 2016,Global Human Capital Trends report, 86% of Australian businesses surveyed rate planning, ») Companies can easily take advantage of a single platform that supports.a full:range of “CHR: processes, including talent strategy and. planning; sourcing and” recruiting; “performance management, learning and development; talent review and succession Planning and compensation. “Analytics can also gi ‘Wactions are. For example, ai i companies improve hiring or reduce attrition, or pinpoint areas where labour-related.. “savings can be achieved!) ‘qAnalyties can also be used to support training, developmen more closély tailored to individual employee needs - thereby helping HR deliver more customized options. for employees. As the Accenture research notes, HR canjjuse customize programs for smaller and smaller segments, helping to increase employee, performance, engeyement and retention.ope Ekg eration 2 Dr tythe (pe [bewkntag, te Giger Un Sed vow 4 i hes Ante OA 3 vce 4 a8ep bniprerigstiePR Raia pane emt » Human Resource Information Systems (IRIS) arc the databases, software and computer systems that companies use to maintaiti their Htiman resources: payroll, ime off, employee records, benefits, and:mor “HR mict#iés is the data used to quantify the cost and the impact of talent management programs and HR processes and measure the success of HR ‘initiatives, 3. R is the most used HR analytics tool. R is great)for statistical analysis.and, “Visualization which is very suited to explore huge data setgi\It enables you to analyse and clean data sets with millions of data. 4, R-Studio is an open sourcelaid enterpriseFeady professional software package for RMt basically does everything that Rydoes but has a friendlier user-interface. The interface contains a code editor, the R console, an easily accessible workspace, and history and room for plots and files. SqMicrosoft’s Power BI It makes the aggregation, analysis, and visualization of data very simple) With Power BI, it’s a Ginch\to connect to multiple:source systems; like SQL databases with people data,.a live twitter feed'and/or machine learning APIs.“All these different data sources are then combined in Power BI. This simple aggregation process enables you to combine multiple data sources in one large database. Some of the other HR analytic Software which are hugely popular are'Oracle HRs _.Analyties, Talent Soft Analytics, People Misight; Suit’ HR toname afew: In short term there are and will be start-ups in specialist areas, like in team or network. analysis, engagement, performance, strategic workforce planning etc and the cloud- based HR management systems (delivering most of the data). These two areas will soon see the consolidation into larger systems and service offerings. Finally, the costs of these technologies will reduce which will help spread the use and demands for analytics as smaller organizations will be able to afford to deploy this.Data analytics is becoming commonplace across sev 3} therefore HR nflucnee in human resource management, ‘The implementation o| al company activiti analyties performs a key modem data gathering and business intelligence approaches to worklor data is known as HR analytics. Organizations can connect workplace and financial information to align personnel initiatives with corporate outcomes to optimize HR activities, HR analyti also known as workplace analytics or talent analytics, allows HR professionals to make smarter recommendations based on actual data, Analytics can assist anticipate employee retention and has a wide range of modeling abilit s for workplace planning, Following is the role of HR analytics in HRM: : The data gathered via the usage of HR analytics is used to examine data. HR analytics assist i ns for workers, information unification and give nput-output evalu: cost-benefit, or social evaluati all of which may be analyzed utilizing statistical analysis, \2.Méfagement of Employees: Human resource analytics. is crucial in the management of a Management of Employees: mn company’s workforce. This platform keeps track of important information about employees knowledge. It contains information that backgrounds, such as their experiences, skillets, assists the HR division in the recruitment process by analyzing resumes as well as other Pertinent information using various metres. HR analytics determines what is causing a group's tumover rate to rise or fall. Employee or work happiness, job engagement, duration inthe job, and any other pertinent facts about the w ker are all kept in this file LAxfrformance Management: HR. analytics: aids-in-the de road map for evaluating employee performance by providing low - and high metrics. HR. analytics shows overall effectiveness and areas where enhancement is needed for progress. This explains what workers do and how they do it, \_ARetention: Analytics professiontis may-help HR managers do this by presenting typical indicators such as staff tumover, previous resignation records, involuntary staff tumover, and so on, The capacity to analyze pattems across the period, among business segments, or between<_ACompensation Management: Compensation and | important sets of people to overall organizational consequences is the differential. The capacity to swiflly constret comparisons, spot pattems, and locate exceptions, which falls wit purview of analytic managers, is what eres the the disparity, \_SPoreonal Data Protection: Any organization that wants to prote: priorities data security, HR analyti securely manages and saves a large volume of data. When a business employs HR analytics, data can be converted, and illegal use of the material is impossible. centives' major goal is to establish the jaximum potential degree of the worker value proposition that encompasses both monetary and non-monetary compensation and bonuses. Finalizing the optimum financial incentives programme necessitates developing an analytically based equation that is both financially sustainable and consistent also with a long-term goal{ HR analytics assists Human Resource Management in determining the optimum balance between what the organization spends and what employees value, Who are the stakeholders ’Astakeholder.in,the, broadestysenserisranlyoneswhoris directyi0 ‘sindireotly affected. by-HReanalyticsvorkt Stakeholders in the context of HR analytics include executives, line managers, senior HR leaders, HR business partners, employees and, in some ‘Gachistaketolderihas « different perspective and set ‘Whereasilinemanagersiare) | ‘usually most interested in thy data visualization and ‘reporting of key metrics and analytical | cases, human capital: technology vendors. of concems regarding HR analytics practices and activities insightsfeneouivesiand SeniOrURIIEABE ae generally more interested inhow HR analytics enables HR strategy and execution, critical workforce decisions.and other important business ‘outcomesHence, those leading HR analytics in organizations have an important role and responsibility in assisting stakeholders with framing HR research and analytics questions that are realistic, measurable, valued added and more importantly - evidence-based and ethical akeholders* id frame HR research and Determining stakeholders’ requirements is important fo formulate z analytics questions, identify strategic and tactical HR research and analytics priorities, secureation on the ongoing progress of key HR research and analyties initiatives, Stop 2: Define HR Research And Analytics Agenda Once the stakeholder needs and expectations are identified, itis time to define the HI research and analytics agenda, An HR research and analytics agenda may be long term or short term. ‘The constantly evolving nature of business and the “future of work” are redefining what is considered lang term versus short term, In our age of on-demand data aggregation and visualization, algorithms, artificial intelligence and automation — long term is no longer 3-5 years out. One year is considered the long-term norm currently in virtually all “industries. year is considered the long-term 1 in virtually all Conversely, short-term requirements tend to coincide with the organization’s quarterly results, sometimes monthly. It important to note that short term doesn’t necessarily mean tactical or teactive, nor is long term equated with strategic. Short-term and long-term research requirements can be both strategic and tactical in nature. ‘Step identify Data Sources Once the HR research and analytics agenda is established, the next step is to identify the sources of data that will help to answer the HR research and analytics questions and hypotheses. Data ee ee ie TS Kescarcd ancl analytios questions’a sources may be either public yr private. Public data reside in university libraries and governmental databases (e.g. UK’s Office of National Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor Statistics). Private data includes an organization’s internal employee data housed in its HRIS as well as external benchmarking data from “best-in-class” organizations, Research reports and results gathered by membership-based consortia (e.g. Global Centre for Work- Applied Learning, Centre for Evidence-Based Management, Gartner CEB, The Conference Board and the i4CP) and academic think tanks (e.g. Insitute for Employment Studies inthe UK, Comell’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, University of Southem California's Center for Effective Organizations) are credible sources of private data and information, Sources of data may or may not exist depending on your organization’s current HR research and analyties practices, While reviewing data soures, questions may arse as to whether the organization's HR research and analytics practices are still useful to the business (e.g, some practices may have become institutionalized over the years), Therefore, some tough decisions may need to be made with respect to modifying existing HR research and analytics practices, discontinuing outmoded or symbolic practices and adopting new ones.Stop 4: Gather Data This step of the HR analytics eycle involves the actual collection of data through primary research, secondary research or mining the organiz tion's internal data in the HIS. Primary research is new or original research that addresses a specific research question or set of questions (eg, a research project or experiment to identify which factors enable or inhibit employee engagement and performance, selection research using validated personality instruments for leadership succession, employee and organizational surveys for action planning and change, organizational network analysis to determine the level of collaboration by specific Jobs and roles). Primary research can be done in-house if an organization has the HR research and analytics capabilities or in partnership with credible think tanks or research is data and information availa ‘through existing sources (e.g, literature review of journal articles and reports from credible institutes, HR benchmarking, labor market databases). The most reliable and trustworthy secondary sources of information for evidence- based decisions and practice come from scientific research studies (e.g, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, literature reviews). Theory-driven (@eduetive and data-driven (inductive) approaches to mining and modeling data from the organization's HRIS, SaaS-based platforms (€g, data agaregation and visualization products, employee engagement tools, social or “<> organizational network technologies) and other extemal data sources are another way to gather, query and analyze data about the workforce, provided it is done ethi ly and responsibility. \_Step 5: Transform Data Transforming data into useful and meaningful insights is arguably the most important, yet most. challenging, step. Many advancements and innovations have been made by leading edge software firms (¢.g, Oracle, Sulesforce, SAP, SAS, Workday) that incorporated HR analytical capabilities within their suite of products such as predictive analytics, process analytics, text and sentiment analytics and real-time analytics, to name a few. 17 Step 6: Communicate Intelligence Results ‘The sixth step of the HR analytics cycle. involves communicating intelligence results. Real HR analytics capabilities place more effort and emphasis on telling a story about the data and visualizing the data in the context of the organization's most pressing problems and successes. torytelling can bea powerful approach in communicating data driven insights, both in words and visually, because it stimulates emotions (i. the brain processes emotions differently thanporte, saad NHMN. a ixt for telling executives cts and data), Storytelling, however, Should not be aQuise or pr what they want Quant ole 4 — for the organizat to hear or “cherry-picking” the data and insights, For example, Rasmussen and Ulrich state that “HR analytics ean be misused to maintain the status quo and drive a certain agenda (i.e, when you know what story you want to tell, and you then go look for data to support same” (2015, 1.237). Moreover, we need to consider the ‘Goravity of the story"7nd the ethicality of the way bomb in which data-driven insights are derived, communicated and used. The dissemination of "4 inaccurate or misleading insights will invariably lead to bad workforce decisions and big organizational consequences. Hence, communicating and reporting HR analytical insights involves not only some ethical interpretation on the part of HR analyties team, but also speaking truth to power. aking analytics cycle is to enable HR strategy crea The final step of the decision-making, Wehave heard the proverbialmantra that behind every successful organization and evidence-based isa strategy thatworks.Butwhat exactly is strategy? Strategy is a can be defined in many ways. Mintzberg describes strategy is terms of a plan, ploy, pattern, 1 w is terms of a plan, ploy, pate jensional concept that position and perspective.As.a plan strategy relates to leaders establishing the overall direction ion. As a ploy, strategy is all about maneuvering) and-outwitting| As a pattem, strategy involves engaging in specific behaviors and consistent acti effectively implement the strategy. Strategy is also a position in terms of howan organization marketplace. Lastly, strategy is a perspective that reflects an organization's culture and character (je. does the organization see itself an imitator, Seg. differentiates itself in the competiti improver ori novator when it comes to its people, products and services). In summary, st asking intelligent questi (SWOT), knowing the right things at the right time, scenario planning, evidence-based decision-making, establishing priorities and goals and effectively managing execution. Despite these various methods and processes, strategy in the context of HR “refers people”, Ahuman resource strategy tends to focus on aligning people policies, practices and aligning people policies, practice processes with the overall business strategy in order to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives. In a perfect world, HR strategy creation should be done in concert with the overall business strategy, although this rarely occurs in practice. A human resource strategy alsoinvolves making smarter HR decisions, and there are no shortage of models, frameworks and guidelines on the topic of HR decision-making. The prima yurpose of HR analytics is to ——_—_ ights derived from HR analytics play a central role in influencing HR strategy, decision-making and the strategic enable HR Strategy and decision-making. The resultant data choices organizational leaders make when it comes.to.adopting evidence-based HR practices. ANALYTIC VALUE CHAIN Analytics is constantly evolving, has changed dramatically over the years and is advancing rapidly today. There are five categories of analytics: descriptive, diagnostics, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive. These categories build on each other and enable enterprises to make faster and smarter decisions. As organizations evolve, they move from focusing on historical “what” and “why” questions to a more forward-looking predictive, and prescriptive predictions, and finally to cognitive analytics Tablet Tradtonal vs modem analytics RESe ne kere Drie as fie eT cee that automate decision. The advanced analytics maturity path is summarized in Table 2 and shown on Figure 3 (Intel, 2017). Descriptive analytic are valuable for answering questions about what happened in the past and uncovering pattems that offer insight. Such data provide an opportunity for business enterprise to review data to understand the state of affairs of their operations. Business decision makers can drill into specific areas of their business to identify anomalies and root causes of problems or issues. Descriptive analytics tools include data modeling, reporting, visualization, andinvolves making smarter HR decisions, and there are no shortage of models, frameworks and guidelines on the topic of HR decision-making. The primary purpose of HR analytics is to ic na Pr of HR analyte is t enable HR strategy and decision-making. The resultant analytics play a central role in influencing HR strategy, decision-making and the strategic choices organizational leaders make when it comes to adopting evidence-based HR practices. ANALYTIC VALUE CHAIN Analytics is constantly evolving, has changed dramatically over the years and is advancing rapidly today. There are five categories of analytics: descriptive, diagnostics, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive. These categories build on each other and enable enterprises to make faster and smarter decisions. As organizations evolve, they move from focusing on historical “what” and “why” questions to a more forward-looking predictive, and prescriptive predictions, and finally to cognitive analytics ‘Table 1. Traditional vs modem analytics: SE em reports or portal _ storytelling, open APIs that automate decision. The advanced analytics maturity path is summarized in Table 2 and shown on Figure 3 (Intel, 2017). Descriptive analytic are valuable for answering questions about what happened in the past and uncovering patterns that offer insight. Such data provide an opportunity for business enterprise to review data to understand the state of affairs of their operations. Business decision makers can drill into specific areas of their business to identify anomalies and root causes of problems ot issues. Descriptive analytics tools include data modeling, reporting, visualization, andregression to collect and store data in an efficient way, to create reports and presentation information, and to find trends in the data. Since data is scattered in large numbers of disparate data sources, analyzing all relevant data can be a challenge for most organizations. Diagnostic analytics are used for discovery. They examine data or content to answer the question why did it happen. Diagnostic analytics takes a deeper look at data to attempt to understand the root causes of events and behaviors in an organization. To optimize diagnostic analytics, it needs to be extended to operational employees of the organization. The result of the diagnostic analytics is often an analytic dashboard that is used for discovery or to determine why something happened. Predictive analytics analyze current and historical data to provide insights into what will happen and why will it happen in the future with an acceptable level of reliability. It attempts to accurately project the future condition and states. It uses data, text, media mining, forecasting, and predictive modeling to identify probabilities of potential outcomes and/or likely results of specific operations. Predictive Analytics is an extension of Data Mining technology. Both are based on a huge amount of mathematical theory dating back several decades. Data mining technology helps to examine large amounts of data. One can sift through all the chaotic and repetitive noise in data to discover pattems ‘Ws. Caeporen funn nace 91 E tege 3 Moving up ax va shan and use that information to assess likely outcomes, and then make informed decisions. Data Mining refers only to past data and uncovers relationships between measurable variables. Despite being around for such a long time, data mining has not yet reached the business mainstream. Predictive analytics can help businesses with a wide range of problems. Lebied, 2016 claimed that businesses are using Predictive Analytics to analyze historical data and facts in order to better understand clients’ needs, market potentials, products, suppliers, and partners and to identify potential risks and opportunities for a company other businesses use this type of analytics for predicting which customers are most valuable, scheduling preventive maintenance, and detecting fraud. Airlines use analytics to decide how many tickets to sell atesr 3. Moving tna cha and use that information to assess likely outcomes, and then make informed decisions. Data Mining refers only to past data and uncovers relationships between measurable variables. Despite being around for such a Jong time, data mining has not yet reached the business mainstream, Predictive analytics can help businesses with a wide range of problems. Lebied, 2016 claimed that businesses are using Predictive Analytics to analyze historical data and facts in order to better understand clients’ needs, market potentials, products, suppliers, and partners and to identify potential risks and opportunities for a company other businesses use this type of analytics for predicting which customers are most valuable, scheduling preventive maintenance, and detecting fraud. Airlines use analytics to decide how many tickets to sell atwhat discounted price for a flight, Hotels use it to predict the number of guests they ean expect to book on any given night to increase revenue (Adelman, 2015). Prescriptive analytics goes beyond predicting future outcomes. It not only anticipates what will happen and when it will happen, but also why it will happen. It employs data techniques such as decision modeling, graph analys ,, simulation, neural networks, heuristics, and machine Teaming to suggest actions that the organization could take to achieve the desired outcome. Prescriptive analytics tries to evaluate the effect of future decisions in order to adjust the decisions before they are actually made, Future outcomes are taken into consideration in the prediction, Prescriptive analytics are commonly used in organizations to optimize scheduling, production, inventory and supply chain design, and other organizational activities to deliver hat the customers want, and mect and execed customers’ expectations (Riabacke, Danielson, and Love, 2012). Prescriptive analytics is the most valuable kind of analytics and usually results in rules and recommendations for next steps. A 2012 survey by Gartner shows most analytics users still focus on measurement of the past, with only 13 percent of users making extensive use of predictive analytics, Less than 3 percent of analytics users are using prescriptive analytics tools such as decision/mathematical modeling, simulation and optimization. Another study shows that by 2020, 40 percent of new investment in analytics tools will be in predictive and prescriptive analytics (Intel, 2017). Cognitive analytics employs technologies such as machine and deep leaning and other high performance analytics tools to automate human-like decision making. It, could also augment human decisions with help from smart machines. In this type of analytics, incoming data is translated into action without human intervention, HR BENCHMARKING ‘Types of Benchmarking The two main types of benchmarking are internal and extemal, While this article looks at benchmarking for HR department procedures, itis also used in many other business arenas, Internal Benchmarking This refers to comparing two aspects of an organi ion. A simple example might be the comparison of the functioning of two employees. in terms of productivity and quality ofperformance. Departments can also be compared to one another to see which has the highest profit ratio, External Benchmarking This comparison is between competing organizations. Using measurements common to both ( or to all), the benchmarking business can see numerically where they rank, They may, for instance, be in the top twenty-five percent or perhaps just below average when compared to the top-performing business surveyed. Further Delineation If external and intemal benchmarking are the trunks, the branches of this process are different kinds of measurements and target organizations. Process Benchmarking This type of benchmarking looks at the metrics ( or statistics) concerning one or more of a company’s processes and how they compare to the processes of other top-rated organizations. In HR departments, for example, it might involve looking at ways an employee is on-boarded and whether that process aids in retention. Competitive Benchmarking While the process benchmark looks at one aspect of an organization, the competitive benchmark procedure studies overall performance of the organizations involved. Performance or Functional Benchmarking This compares how well an organization is achieving its goals. That may be in terms of profit/loss statistics, customer satisfaction or other measurements of success. In terms of HR. departments, this can be an internal or an external procedure, as the HR department can be compared to other departments such as quality assurance in the organization. It may also, however, be compared extemally to the HR departments of other organizations in things such as net promotion scores for the employer.Benefits of Benchmarking BENCHMARKING. é 6 6 4% OD ED PERFORMANCE PROCESS SURVEY MEASUREMENT COMPARE TARGET INDICATOR HR benchmarking can provide some useful and quite powerful information. When looking at similar organizations, a lot can be determined through benchmarking comparisons. HR pros can see where gaps exist within certain practices. Which policies are working well and which may be causing problems can also be identified. As can issues within such areas as hiring, training, and promotion. Specific issues such as sick time, retention and discipline can be examined separately. This is helpful when attempting to identify patterns for future use. Best Practices in Benchmarking Best practices in benchmarking revolve around identifying a particular strategy. It’s critical that professionals determine what it is they wish to lear prior to undergoing any data collection. Otherwise, it’s likely they will waste time and resources obtaining information that proves to be useless. It’s also important to ensure comparisons are being made between very similar variables. For example, it isn’t very worthwhile to compare the salaries of a large corporation that’s been in business for decades with those of a small startup. While the purpose in benchmarking is to identify best practices within HR, it’s also necessary that best practices within the field of benchmarking be utilized in order to gain the most success. ‘The Outcome of Successful Benchmarking ‘The great thing about the benchmarking process is that itis structured. While it does not result in grand innovations, it does provide a plain path toward proven success, That is key to benchmarking, It will always have an infrastructure, a “highway” system, that makes possible the transition from point “A” to point “B” just like interstate highways make travel faster and easier. The units of measure mentioned above will depend upon the areas of comparison. Theymay be quantitative or qualitative. Narrowing down the issue of study is important as well. Deciding to visit Mount Rushmore instead of a national monument will result in a much more selective (and manageable) data field. Analysis of that data field will show any disparities between the organizations involved in the process. Just knowing what is different, however, will not make the process successful, The next step is strategizing how to address those disparities. ‘That strategy must include considering things that could hinder adaptation. One of the primary hindrances, especially in HR departments is the tendency of employees to resist change. They may have to be retrained or even moved to different departments, Benchmarking can show where resources are not being, well-used too. Current thinking stresses the value of human capital over material or financial resources, and it is crucial to utilize them to their (and the corporate) advantage. Another area benchmarking spotlights is weak areas that have the potential for change. That means looking at things like machinery replacement, upkeep, safety, and a myriad of other issues. Sometimes it isn’t cost-effective or even possible to make a change. Where it is, however, benchmarking reports can be the basis upon which a department within a company may request resources to make the change successful. Conclusion Benchmarking is a complex process that helps organizations to improve upon their policies, practices, and products. HR benchmarking is specific to the field of human resources and is used to examine best practices within departments. Bees ies: