5 Trends That Will Define People Analytics In 2023

People analytics is set to deliver much more than just better data

Talent scarcity, especially among highly skilled workers, continues to be a challenge for hiring managers and talent acquisition experts across industries. In a survey from the National Association for Business Economics, half of the respondents reported a shortage of skilled workers. And while the scarcity of qualified candidates has been exacerbated by the pandemic, it had been a concerning trend prior to 2020, and data indicates it will continue to be a challenge into 2023 and beyond. In fact, a recent report from Korn Ferry found that by 2030, there could be more than 85 million jobs unfilled simply because there isn’t enough talent to fill them.
 

Thankfully, advancements in people analytics and the increased adoption of new candidate-tracking platforms are making the daunting task of filling the unfilled roles just a little bit easier. What used to be primarily a manual system where individual recruiters and talent acquisition specialists used their own methods (mostly Excel) to track candidates has been transformed by new technologies. More than just numbers, people analytics combines relevant data, machine learning, and other tools with HR processes and benchmarks to deliver useful insights. This has made it easier to source potential fits, align candidates to jobs, manage the recruitment process, streamline onboarding, and much more.

However, the improvement and usage of people analytics doesn’t just have benefits in candidate identification and process efficiency. Those are real and tremendously helpful perks, no doubt. But only now are we starting to see the true potential of people analytics, and the impacts will be felt well beyond the recruiter’s desk. Here are five trends in people analytics to watch for in 2023.

1.    Enabling the Best Recruiters to Do What They Do Best – Recruit

Not too long ago, the job of a recruiter was even more challenging than it is today. Manual candidate and employee tracking was the norm, and even the best recruiters had to spend hours each week using their own processes to input data and manage their talent pools. This method not only took significant time away from recruiters that could have otherwise been spent actually recruiting, but its limitations also severely inhibited how effective recruiters’ candidate matching capabilities could be.

But finally, thanks to advancements in people analytics, those times are getting further and further in the rearview mirror. Candidate tracking has gotten to a point now where recruiters can spend more time with hiring managers learning the specific needs of the role and more time with candidates evaluating their capabilities and working to find a match. Certainly, through new people analytics technologies, recruiters are also able to save time by being better able to match candidates with jobs that are more in their wheelhouse. Rather than relying on data and information that could be out of date, recruiters now have the insights they need to have more productive, targeted conversations with potential hires on what would make someone successful in the role they’re working to fill. In 2023, recruiters will spend more time than ever doing what they do best – recruiting.

2.    Deepening Integration of AI Technologies into the Candidate Tracking and Talent Acquisition Realm

It’s obvious that a powerful digital transformation is underway in many organizations. Many are implementing new technologies that are revolutionizing the way business is done. Recruiting and HR departments are no different. Staffing firms and top HR leaders are embracing connected devices, cloud-based computing, product-lifecycle management software, and, most notably, advanced tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI technologies are fundamentally redefining the way recruiting departments function, from the candidate journey and matching to human resources functions and onboarding / offboarding.

Today, the AI capabilities of tools such as LinkedIn, Bullhorn, and others are dramatically increasing the efficiency at which staffing firms and HR departments operate. AI technology can better find passive job seekers and match them with a role that could be a better fit for their skills, experience, and/or workplace requirements. AI can be used to deliver a smoother, more enjoyable onboarding experience for new hires and help track current employees to see where some type of career intervention may be beneficial (more on this later). It’s not perfect – yet – but the technology is worlds beyond what it was just a few years ago, and HR departments are finally seeing the benefits.

In 2023, we will continue to see more widespread adoption of these technologies, even among less sophisticated groups. Those who have yet to master this game-changing tech – or worse yet, adopt it in the first place – will be at a disadvantage from the onset.

3.    Improving DE&I Initiatives and Reducing Implicit Bias Through People Analytics

More companies are rightfully placing a greater focus on improving their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts. Beyond being the right thing to do, it also makes business sense as companies with a diverse workforce are 35 percent more likely to perform better financially than organizations that are not as diverse. People analytics is helping make this possible.

For starters, data analytics can help HR leaders examine where the organization is today, identify areas for improvement, and work on an improvement plan. Beyond just saying “we’re not diverse enough,” this data helps leaders find out if some divisions or locations are more diverse than others. It shows what the company makeup is by race, ethnicity, gender, and age, as well as other indicators such as veteran status, disability, and more. This data helps identify where some implicit biases may lie and can show HR leaders where adjustments to hiring efforts or training may be necessary.

Moving forward, the industry is set to go well beyond DE&I benchmarking to actually using people analytics to actively track the organization’s progress, seeing where their diversity-in-hiring initiatives are working and where they may need to change or refocus.

4.    Extending Beyond Talent Acquisition and Further into the World of Onboarding and Employee Experience Tracking

Everyone in HR knows how crucial the onboarding experience is to an individual’s future satisfaction in their role. Make a bad impression early, and it can carry through an employee’s entire career experience. And if a recent Gallup poll is right, in that only 12 percent of employees say their organization does a great job onboarding, then there is plenty of room for analytics to make an impact through tracking, pulse surveys, culture adoption, and more.

People analytics can also be a powerful tool in career development. In the future, more HR departments will be using this data to track professional progress using provable numbers, measuring success against tangible career development goals rather than obtuse or unclear job objectives. These tools can also help match employees with new opportunities within the company and identify areas where skill development may be needed.

5.    Enhancing Reporting Capabilities to Build Greater Trust and Transparency between Talent Acquisition and Hiring Managers

The challenges in hiring over the past few years have put additional stress on hiring managers to get their open roles filled and, in turn, on talent acquisition specialists to fill those roles faster. Showing progress and candidate status has slowly started improving, but through people analytics, recruiters and talent experts can give hiring managers a deeper-than-ever look into how recruiting efforts are going. Data is only as valuable as the insights and process improvements it can help produce.

New reporting can show the how and why of attrition rate, reasons for turnover, trends in hiring, and new hire outreach efforts to give a full picture of an organization’s employment landscape. It can give a snapshot of where an organization may be failing and help HR leaders create a plan to address those gaps. Again, these insights are only as useful as the individuals in charge of addressing them, but as we move into 2023, reporting is finally giving companies a better sense of why their current methods may not be working.

People analytics is not a panacea for solving HR challenges and recruitment struggles. But the future with people analytics is making those HR challenges easier to solve and recruitment struggles simpler to fix. As we move into 2023, we will only see people analytics become more pervasive as HR departments look to get back on track after years of slightly off-the-rails people management.

Author Bio

Amanda Floyd is the Manager of Talent Acquisition at Yoh. She is an experienced senior recruiter with experience working in the information technology and services industries. Her expertise includes talent acquisition, team building, screening, and account management. Connect Amanda Flyod