Improving Productivity With Workforce Analytics
By Rick Delgado, contributing writer
To improve productivity is one of the main aims of most businesses — a target that’s highly sought after with businesses always looking for the next way to increase it amongst their workers. It makes sense, of course, because improving productivity is a great way to increase profits — another aim of most businesses. But being able to improve productivity is an elusive target; one that’s often proved difficult to achieve meaning the potential offered by workforce analytics is a particularly attractive possibility.
What Is It?
Workforce analytics is a way to optimize human resource management to allow the best possible deployment and use of workers — and in turn improve productivity. This is carried out through computer software and practical methodology to apply statistical models to worker related data such as punctuality or current performance. It is yet another example of how Big Data will continue to transform IT and business processes.
How Does It Work?
The first step in the process would see businesses finding a specific issue they want to improve. From there, they would be able to come up with a plan to investigate the underlying factors that influence this issue within their company, looking at which metrics are the most relevant measures of their workers’ performance. At this point, the analytic process begins as the firm can use the data to find the cause and effect — noticing the trends that stand out — as these statistical findings are observed they can be brought to the upper management and key decision makers within the company who can define their action steps and implement a solution to pursue.
The ultimate goal, of course, is to improve productivity — but this is far from the only possibility.
What Can We Achieve With It?
Firms may be able to improve their retention rate of workers’ with workforce analytics, reducing the turnover of their employees and ensuring those they hire will stay with the company longer. In and of itself, this can help to improve productivity: less time will need to be spent on training new workers and more attention can be paid to the aims of the business. There’s the possibility to reduce attrition rates, managing the loss of employees, through allowing firms to best understand how to engage their workers and ensure the work is rewarding for both employer and employee.
There’s the possibility to identify hidden potential by using workforce analytics to see who the highest performing members of each team are. With this information a business can grow even more. The worker could be given more responsibility and allowed to make a greater difference within the firm; similarly, they can be recognized for their contribution, perhaps with a higher wage rate, improving their morale and their dedication to work, once again improving overall productivity for the company.
How Can It Help Our Employees?
Of course, in knowing your best employees, workforce analytics allows for another improvement that will influence productivity — companies will be able to strengthen the employee sourcing process they undertake, combining traditional recruitment processes with workforce analytics techniques. The knowledge of which existing employees are most effective can allow firms to screen their new potential employees, in turn improving their hiring decisions and allowing the workforce to be as effective as they possibly can be.
Within the firm as it currently exists, there’s the potential to find anomalies and outliers — managers would know which employees to lose and which employees to dedicate further attention to, helping them develop.
Ultimately, then, it’s clear workforce analytics offer a significant opportunity for businesses to improve their productivity, and should be pursued by any firm that wants to make such progress moving forward.