During the last few years, digital technology has brought along systematic management of huge quantities of data for their analysis and subsequent extraction of information. What we know as Big Data has become one of the most valuable assets for companies. Not only because of the possibilities it offers to manage their relationship with customers and potential customers, but also for the advantages it’s already providing to HR departments.
In this field, the universe of Big Data’s practicalities goes far beyond an efficient automated arrangement of information concerning the professionals within an organization. Solutions based on Big Data technology prove to be, for instance, very useful in talent attraction strategies: companies can implement increasingly analytic and strategic selection processes to find the most suitable candidates –both for their professional and personal profiles-. For that to happen, Big Data does not operate exclusively based on the knowledge obtained from the candidates’ resumes, but also incorporates external data from the Internet and Social Media. The so-called digital fingerprint is acquiring increasing relevance regarding the possibilities of success of a job application.
Technologies related to great volumes of data have also brought along an improvement in employee retention strategies. According to the renowned consultant Alex Espenson, HR managers who use these kind of tools are able to obtain a very precise portrait of the professionals who opt out of the company. Likewise, patterns based on employees who would like to find another organization can be established. The same applies for those who decide to stay, thus making it more feasible to create an “employee retention model”.
In that sense, one of the most remarkable conclusions extracted from the study “HR Digital Disruption” -in which 25% of HR managers from big and middle-sized Spanish multinational companies took part- is that the majority opinion (96%) thinks that Big Data will allow to be more predictive than reactive regarding talent drain. There are companies which already have, thanks to these technological breakthroughs, extremely valuable information about motivation and the satisfaction index of their professionals.
By processing huge quantities of data, there are companies already capable of managing career plans in a more effective manner and performing more accurate analysis on employee productivity, which could be linked to a better management of functions such as Compensation & Benefits or Training & Development.
The inclusion of Big Data technologies in HR strategies requires to take several steps, as David Mihala, Oracle´s HCM Sales Director, points out: on the one hand, to identify, no matter how long it takes, what kind of data will be useful for an effective human capital management, and to define a strategy to integrate, cleanse and arrange them; on the other hand, to utilize a single interface, readily available for every member of the department; and, finally, to place a bet on simplicity and analysis efficiency.
Sources: Randstad, Business.com and Workday.