Yogi Berra, the former New York Yankee baseball player known for his
pithy comments and witticisms, could have been talking to HR leaders
about talent analytics when he coined this phrase. Today, talent
analytics is, or should be, at the heart of your talent management
solution.

Talent analytics and organizational success

While HR may be one of the last areas to be influenced by the
availability of big data and analytics, it may turn out to be the most
important for organizational success in the future. After all, there is
more realization than ever that without a high functioning workforce, an
organization is limited in how much it can succeed. And the wealth of
data can help you.

Today, data for human capital leaders is available, and it’s the
driving force to help HR become a key strategic component of an
organization. There’s never been so much workforce data available to
organizations, and this information can lead to improved insight and
better and faster business decisions. Indeed, as talent strategist and
speaker Meghan M. Biro pointed out in Forbes, “in terms of HR, it’s a gold mine of Big Data.”

The questions talent analytics can answer

The valuable insight that can be obtained and the questions that can
be answered from today’s HR data is almost limitless. Insight and
questions that cover the entire talent management spectrum, from talent
acquisition to employee retention, such as:

• Are recruiting efforts (and money) focused on the areas that
  have the biggest chance for success (attracting top talent), or would
  resources be redirected to areas with better payoff?
• Which onboarding practices are succeeding by helping make new employees productive faster?
• What are the characteristics of employees that stay with the organization versus the ones that leave?
• Where are the organization’s skill gaps and how can they be best closed?

With the cost of a bad hire at tens of thousands of dollars, high
failure rates of new hires and the clear understanding that top talent
is critical to organizational success, it’s easy to see how questions
such as these, crossing all talent management pillars, are becoming more
and more important at a strategic level. But with the data now
available, talent analytics is clearly the linchpin strategic talent
management.

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If you aren’t looking at the wealth of talent and workforce data
available today, you’re missing out on guiding HR to a more strategic
position in your company, as well as curtailing your organization’s
chances of long-term success.

But there is good news – talent analytics are available today to get you where you need to go.

Follow me on Twitter: @JoeAbusamra
Joe Abusamra is Vice President, Product Marketing at Acendre