big data in HR: 4 key applications.

Big data is one of the greatest by-products of digitization. From simplifying business processes to validating business decisions, big data is becoming one of the driving forces for successful organizations. Until a few years ago, the implementation of big data and analytics was restricted to large organizations. Now it is the key to both survival and success in the digital age for companies, irrespective of their size. Increasingly, Indian companies are leveraging insights from big data across major business functions, including HR. According to a LinkedIn report, there has been a 77% growth in analytics professionals employed in Human Resources in the last five years, in the country.

Here are four powerful applications for big data in HR that can propel your organization forward. 

Improving employee experience

Data and analytics are key to understanding employee perceptions about the company’s culture, nature of work, and the overall employee experience. This data can be collected via surveys, interviews, sentiment analysis and so on. Research by Glassdoor reveals that it is not salary, but work culture, leadership, and career opportunities that are the best predictors of job satisfaction. You can conduct similar research within your organization to identify what motivates your employees. 

Boosting your employer brand

Insights resulting from research into employee experience are not just useful for internal policy making, but also for attracting potential employees. Such insights are invaluable to recruiters in analyzing the pros and cons of an organization’s employer brand. According to another Glassdoor study, 69% of active job seekers are more likely to apply to a company with an active and engaging employer brand.

Optimizing recruitment channels

Most businesses use a mix of channels to source their talent. Recruiters are constantly on the lookout for both active and inactive job seekers who are best-suited pick for high responsibility roles. In the digital age, social media platforms, online job sites and professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn are rich sources of talent. The largest recruitment page on Facebook is of Marriot Hotels, with 1.2 million likes and thousands of people interacting on the site.   Leveraging the large amount of data available from these sources can be useful in measuring the ROI of each of the hiring channels for optimized hiring outcomes.

Assessing and recruiting talent

Sourcing high potential talent is just half the battle won for recruiters. Making the right person-job fit is another hurdle they must cross before declaring any recruitment process a success. Over 60% of recruiters find it difficult to assess candidates based on soft skills. Thankfully, big data is equipping hiring managers to overcome barriers such as assessment of soft skills, cultural fit, attitude etc. 

Big data combined with AI is ushering in multi-fold technological advantages for HR professionals. Recruiters are using analytical tools to reduce the probability of human errors across all activities in the HR functions. Jet Blue recently successfully implemented data and analytics to recruit and train its staff. It shifted its policy of looking for ‘nice’ candidates to ‘helpful’ candidates, after conducting a customer data analysis in collaboration with the Wharton Business School. The result:  the leading airline realized that ‘helpfulness’ outweighs ‘niceness’ when it comes to customer satisfaction, helping it drive customer loyalty and growth.