Human Resources or Human Capital is often regarded as the most valuable asset of an organization. However, this is also the area which is often least understood.
Employee Data is often regarded as just a database, but in reality is a goldmine of information. This information can be very insightful and such insights help in every aspect of the employee lifecycle from Hire to Retire.

Human resources often focus on hiring the right talent at the right time. However, how do we know what is the right talent? We have Job Description, skill-sets, educational attainment, work experience and finally interviews. But often we see that only about 10 percent of people get selected for any specific job role. Would it not be great if we can find out who are these 10 percent right at the beginning of the cycle? This is where HR Analytics comes in.

So what is HR Analytics?
HR Analytics or People Analytics refers to the application of analytics to the human capital of an organization to solve business problems and to improve overall performance.

HR Analytics has seen a tremendous growth in the last decade. While some organizations use it for simple reporting, others have gone a step ahead and have implemented sophisticated predictive analytics to better drive business decisions. Some are more concerned of workforce planning and peer bench-marking while others have used it to justify investments and predict risks related to Human Resources. According to Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends report, 71 percent of companies see people analytics as a high priority, but only nine percent believe they have a good understanding of which talent dimension drives performance in their organization.

In recruitment alone, HR Analytics has opened-up amazing avenues. We can now predict and successfully answers questions like ­

• What is the likelihood of an Employee from any city to stay in the organization and for long? What skill-sets are the most challenging ones to hire?
• What is likely to be spent to hire a certain number of people with specific skill-sets?
. What are the gaps in skill-sets within the organization as compared to peers?
• What is the return on investment for up-skilling or cross-skilling of employees?

Added to these, predictive analytics can also help us in identifying the best talent based on demographics, educational details, previous work experience and other such criterion.

Now let us move a little ahead in the Employee lifecycle and see how HR Analytics can help us improve Employee Retention and Employee Experience Management.

A question which has always baffled HR practitioner is `Who are the employees with a Medium to High risk of attrition?' There have been numerous studies on how to identify such employees, what retention effort can be made. Similarly, there have always been debates on methods to use for such retention.