Three Ways Progressive HR Pros Are Getting Ahead In The War For Talent

Why HR needs to embrace a data-driven approach

Technology has changed how we work and quickened the pace of business. For individuals, it means having instant access to infinite amounts of information and being connected 24/7 – anytime, anywhere.  For businesses, data and analytics have dramatically improved efficiencies and allowed operations to become increasingly agile, which are all necessary to thrive in today’s economy.

With talent shortages still at large, talent retention strategies are now fundamental to business growth with more and more HR and People leaders transforming how they measure, manage and engage their workforce. Combined with the rise of People Science and the maturation of HR management platforms, HR now has a better understanding of the tangible benefits in taking a data-driven approach to attract, engage, develop and retain their company’s biggest asset – it’s people.
 
Processes and people expectations have also changed. Traditional hierarchical orgs and position management have become outdated and are being replaced by agile and dynamic organizational structures meaning the old tried-and-true HR processes of the past are no longer equipped to manage the increasing HR demands for mid to large size businesses.
 
Simply put, the rules are changing and today`s organizations need to find new ways of working to keep up with the pace of business and meet employees’ changing expectations. (See Fig. 1).  Technology has and will continue to play a fundamental part in this evolution, but while technology has drastically improved things for both the business and the employees, it has also presented its own unique challenges that call for a new approach. 
 

Most companies have invested significantly in CRM and financial systems, so they can gain in-depth insights into customers. However, fewer organizations have invested in their people in the same way.  Companies often know much more about their customers than they do their workforce.
 
This is because in most cases, people data is fragmented, inaccurate and incomplete, being held in multiple spreadsheets across many different locations. Trying to manage the entire workforce using rows and columns of numbers is incredibly inefficient and limiting.
 
HR cannot be successful if they are running the people part of the business using spreadsheets or old, out of date, applications. Like the rest of the business is used to leveraging valuable customer, financial and operational information, HR must adopt a data-driven approach to people management. 
 
People Science is a new approach to understanding the interactions between people, their behaviors, organizational systems and performance – and is now offering HR departments the same level of insight their departmental counterparts have been using for years to make business-critical decisions. 
 
It enables companies to extract actionable knowledge from people data, so they can make better people decisions. It’s about better understanding the commonalities between people, their behaviours - and business goals and strategies.

Any process-oriented role for mid to large size businesses can be incredibly tedious, that includes HR. How often have you heard someone say that they’re buried underneath a mountain of paperwork? Time-intensive processes can often take over an employee’s day and limit them from performing more meaningful and valuable tasks. 
 
This is where today’s intelligent people management solutions can really help boost productivity and free up HR departments to help create more exceptional experiences for employees. Leveraging new technologies such as AI and Machine-Learning can also help with automating tasks like collecting and processing current and prospective employee information.
 
Automation speeds up processes by eliminating yet another step that used to require human involvement. Instead of waiting for HR professionals to review and make calculations based on people and performance data, Sage Business Cloud People automatically creates reports to display the necessary information as soon as operations take place.
 
While some critics suggest people see intelligent machines as competitors for their jobs, a recent industry study published on CIO Magazine and conducted by information technology professional network Spiceworks, found this simply isn't the case.
 
In the case of IT workers, over 90 percent of respondents in the study said they do not worry about automated software taking their positions or fear a machine takeover in their industry. Instead, IT professionals said they believe automated tools perform basic tasks and allow humans to focus on aspects of their positions that require specialized skills.

We know the proliferation of mobile devices, smartphones and social platforms has changed how people communicate and interact with family and friends. It has also changed our expectations around how we create, curate and consume information so it shouldn’t be surprising that people carry these same expectations around their everyday workforce experiences.
 
Employees now expect to be able to work from anywhere while using any mobile device all while having secure access to their company’s virtual networks. But this presents a unique challenge for HR departments – balancing the expectations of today’s employees, while protecting company data and remaining compliant.
 
Sage Business Cloud People offers a differentiated approach to managing employees’ experiences by ensuring instantaneous and secure access to personal data – something integral to the employee journey moving forward. By giving employees access and offering a self-service option for administrative HR tasks, employees will feel more empowered in their own development, while HR can spend more time focusing on strategic activities rather than administrative tasks.  Ensuring employees’ data is both safe and accessible will go a long way in building a trusting relationship between the business and employees. 

Technology, processes and people expectations have changed – creating both exciting opportunities as well as a new host of challenges. With talent a key differentiator for businesses, HR needs to fully embrace this data-driven approach moving forward to keep up with the pace of business and the pace of change.
 
Today’s advanced HR and people solutions aren’t designed to replace HR workers. They exist to enable their success by giving them the time and insights to effectively attract, retain and engage critical talents who can drive the business forward.