As HR organizations begin the process of implementing analytics – or even think about implementing analytics – in their daily tasks and processes, they can begin to see the transformative power analytics can ultimately bring to the HR organization. But often, even this initial foray into the brave new world of analytics is not as bold as it might be, through no fault of the HR team.

Analysis via Silos — A First Step

Talent analytics, or people analytics, provides previously unattainable insight into areas such as talent acquisition, onboarding, performance management, employee engagement and succession planning. While a huge step forward, it’s just that – a single step in a longer journey. But that first step is critical. As Forbes magazine stated, “most companies have lots and lots of HR data, but they are in no position to use it.”

When they do begin to use it, by gleaning insight and making more data-driven decisions, chances are high that these decisions are made in a vacuum, as that is typically how the data is stored and how it can be viewed. That’s just reality – the way that the human capital landscape has been set up.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as any data analysis is almost always better than no data analysis. By gaining insight into a particular talent management pillar, such as recruitment or performance, your organization and HR function will be better off.

That siloed view is all you’ve had to work with, so it’s been the best you can hope for.

Until now.

Integrated Data Analysis

An even better way to capitalize on all that HR data that often goes unused is to bring it all together, looking at it from different perspectives and vantage points. By looking at data from an integrated viewpoint rather than from individual silos, you’ll broaden your insight and ability to save time and implement meaningful changes throughout your organization.

As the Harvard Business Review notes, “gaining insight on human capital data yields a competitive advantage.”

With an integrated approach, the insight can explode, as these few examples show:

1. Traditional insight: basic insights into your talent acquisition process

• where are the best applicants coming from?
• what are their similarities?
• how many are there?
• how many are qualified?
• what percentage get hired?

Integrated insight: melding applicant information with vacancy data

• how are your organization’s applicants aligning with job vacancies?
• is the pool of applicants sufficient for existing and planned vacancies?
• are there types of positions that attract the best applicants?

2. Traditional insight: basic performance management insight

• who are the top performers?
• where in the organization are the top performers located?
• which employees are not performing well?

Integrated insight: cross-functional data integrated with performance management data

• identifying links between candidates, new hires and top performers
• isolating connections and trends between top performers and managers
• locating skills gaps and linking them to your succession plans

3. Traditional: no insight into employee engagement and its relationship to onboarding and performance

Integrated: broad insight into employee engagement and its effect on organizational performance

• which employees are most engaged?
• how does engagement affect onboarding success (or lack of success)?
• what is the relationship between engagement and retention?
• can engagement help improve succession planning?

Analysis Covering the Full Talent Management Spectrum

Until now, HR organizations have understood the potential power that analytics can provide, even as they have struggled to utilize data. But even when organizations embrace analytics, the hoped-for insight has typically been limited to individual pillars of the talent management spectrum, as silos of organizational data limited the scope of what could be accomplished.

With integrated People Analytics, the potential is exponential.

Real-time People Analytics from NGA.NET.

Coming soon.