There is no doubt that big data is touching every aspect of the way businesses are run. Areas such as sales, marketing, accounting, and more have all been impacted by the use of big data. One area that has not been left behind is Human Resources (HR). Big data is changing in different ways and that is what we are going to be looking at in this article.
Employee Engagement and Motivation
One area big data has helped HR managers is the tracking of employee output. HR managers can now track employee productivity and reward top performers based on this data. This data can also be used to find out if there are any inefficient behaviors or patterns that are impacting productivity.
The first use of big data outlined above helps HR motivate employees by using a reward system while the second use helps them take corrective action as soon as possible so that the inefficiencies do not continue to affect the business negatively.
Better Resource Utilization
HR managers can use data to find out if an employee is not properly matched to their role. If they are talented and experienced but mismatched, the HR manager can move the employee to a role that fits them better. This ensures HR does not lose a talented and experienced employee, the employee does not have to be let go, and the business does not have to spend the time and money it would take to find a replacement.
Businesses can also use big data to schedule the best work hours for their employees. By doing this, businesses ensure employees are never too tired when they arrive for their next shift and that everyone works a similar number of hours. This way, the business always has enough employees available while ensuring fatigue does not leave it with less than the optimum number of employees.
Streamlining Hiring Practices
While it has always been easy to find different types of data on employees and candidates such as their sales data, salaries, benefits, and more, big data is allowing businesses to do a lot more with that data. Businesses can use big data to examine and analyze their existing workforce and its output and see areas where there are deficiencies. This way, the business only hires people with the skills required to fill the gaps that exist, thereby making the workforce more efficient.
Additionally, big data analysis has helped a lot of businesses scrape data about potential candidates to be used together with their resumes during the hiring process. These days it is possible to find out a lot of information about anyone with an online presence using data collection, scraping, and analysis techniques. Once all of this data is collected, data scientists analyze it and send their results to HR managers who use the insights gleaned to hire a candidate who is the right fit.
Improving Employee Retention
High employee turnover is always bad for business. Even worse, businesses may not always be able to ask why employees may be leaving. Employee exit interviews are not always as productive as HR managers would like them to be.
However, big data can help businesses identify trends and patterns including when employees leave, what happens before or after they leave, and other factors or changes that may be leading to the turnover. Once this data is collected and analyzed, HR managers can start putting strategies in place to not only eliminate the cause of the high turnover, but to also find ways to meet employee needs to reduce turnover.
Big data can also help assess the impact of things like better perks and benefits on the rate of turnover, thereby helping HR managers land on employee retention strategies that have a better chance of convincing employees to stay.
Balanced Financial Compensation
Financial compensation is a very important component of employee satisfaction. Employees want to make a good living, and salaries, benefits and perks are among the first things candidates look at before applying for a job. Big data can help HR managers streamline their financial models to ensure that the salaries, benefits, and perks given to different employees are in line with their roles, productivity, and output.
Big data can also help businesses that have an international presence streamline their financial packages. Due to various factors, limitations, rules, and regulations, it can be difficult to balance salaries for employees in different locations or countries. Big data can make this easier for HR managers.
Improved Employee Training
Regular training is an important part of not only keeping employees in line with the latest knowledge and guidelines, but it is also a great way of improving employee output, improving safety, and a lot more. Big data can help businesses understand the knowledge gaps that exist in their workforce, thereby giving businesses time to formulate a plan to train employees.
Big data can also analyze different aspects of the way an employee handles various tasks to determine where they need to be retrained or not. This way, HR can put the necessary training plans in place before the employee starts becoming a liability.
Tapping into Big Data
Big data, data science, and analysis in the context of human resource management are becoming increasingly important. Candidates who can collect, analyze and interpret data to provide insights that businesses can use to streamline their HR departments are in demand. If you would like to help HR managers and businesses make better use of big data, you need a computer degree.
In many cases, a bachelor’s degree in computer science is not enough and this is why many data scientists hold master’s degrees. Fortunately, you can earn a master’s in computer science degree online with schools that have a focus on data science, leading to very lucrative job opportunities.
The use of big data in HR has helped HR managers streamline a lot of their work and has helped in making the right decisions regarding issues like salaries, benefits, employee retention, and a lot more.
