24/04/2023, 20:30 Why Data Is HR's Most Important Asset

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Why Data Is HR's Most Important

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Bernard Marr Contributor Follow

Apr 13, 2018, 02:05am EDT

This article is more than 5 years old.

The average Human Resources (HR) team is sitting on a data gold mine, which is the
theme of my new book ‘Data-Driven HR’. There’s recruitment data, career progression
data, training data, absenteeism figures, productivity data, personal development
reviews, competency profiles and staff satisfaction data, just for starters. Plus, in addition
to traditional HR data sets, companies can now collect so much more data – scanning
social media data, for instance, or analyzing the content of emails to gauge employee
sentiment.

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Using HR data can be legally and ethically challenging, but incredibly valuable –
probably the greatest asset the HR team has. Why? Because when HR data is used to
improve decisions, make employees happier, and optimize processes, it adds value to the
company.

In the past, a lot of HR data went unused or, if it was used, it was put into charts and
tables for something like a corporate performance pack. Now, in the era of big data and
analytics, companies are turning their data into insights, such as predicting when
employees will leave, where to recruit the most suitable candidates from, how to identify
and attract those suitable candidates, and how to keep them happy once they become
employees.

All this means that HR data is more valuable than ever before. So it’s no wonder that a
report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 82% of organizations planned to
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either begin or increase their use of big data in HR before the end of 2018. This has given
rise to ‘intelligent HR’ as a bit of a buzz phrase.

Intelligent HR is data-driven HR

Despite having access to a wealth of data, in my experience, too many HR teams spend
the majority of their time on admin tasks or legal issues. Clunky staff appraisals, the day-

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to-day minutia of recruitment and people management, and wasteful, expensive

activities like annual staff satisfaction surveys take up time that could be better spent
elsewhere. Plus, there’s the issue that HR is traditionally seen as very people-orientated,
and not so much about numbers and data.

Even when data does play a role, it’s not necessarily being used in a smart way that’s
most relevant to the business in question. A lot of HR data analysis comes in the form of
standard KPIs measuring factors like absenteeism. After all, metrics like this are easy to
measure, and they’re measured by most companies as a matter of course (the old case of,
‘if they’re doing it, so should we’). But, these days, there are far more unique and valuable
HR metrics that can be measured – metrics that can deliver business-critical insights and
have a significant impact on the organization’s performance.

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This is where the idea of data-driven HR comes from. HR teams can use data to make
better HR decisions, better understand and evaluate the business impact of people,
improve the leadership’s decision making in people-related matters, make HR processes
and operations more efficient and effective, and improve the overall wellbeing and
effectiveness of the company’s employees. All of this can have a huge impact on a
company’s ability to achieve its strategic aims, and that’s what makes HR data so
valuable.

This idea of the data-driven HR team is certainly gathering pace, and HR and people
management is undergoing a data-fueled revolution. This part of business that has
traditionally focused on softer elements like people, culture, learning and development,
and employee engagement is becoming increasingly driven by hard numbers and data
analysis.

Adding value wherever possible

Truly intelligent or data-driven HR focuses HR data and analytics on the goal of adding
value and driving performance across the organization – all the time, not just every now
and then or on specific projects.

With intelligent, data-driven people management, the top priority is to add value to the
organization in the smartest way possible, using all the tools at the HR team’s disposal:
data, sensors, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more.

Take Google’s approach to people management, as a quick example. Google gives staff
free meals, generous paid holiday allowances, access to ‘nap pods’ for snoozing during
the day, and space to grow their own fruit and vegetables at work. Why? It’s not because
Google’s leadership team feel all warm and fuzzy about their staff (or, at least, that’s not
the only reason). These policies and decisions were based on what the data told Google
would increase employee satisfaction. And the value to the company? While staff
turnover is consistently high in the tech world, Google has been voted the top company to
work for in eight out of the last 11 years.

I’m certainly not saying that HR should only be about data. People will continue to be a
central driver of success, even in this age of increasing automation, robotics and artificial
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intelligence. What I am saying is the role of the HR team is changing and, as our ability to
gather and analyze ever-increasing amounts of data grows, so too do the opportunities
for HR teams to add more value to the organization. This is what makes HR data such an
important asset.

Read more about how data and analytics are transforming HR in Data-Driven HR. It’s
packed with real-life examples and practical ways HR teams can deliver maximum value

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in our increasingly data-driven world.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other
work here.

Bernard Marr Follow

Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments... Read More

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