Whilst traditionally known for being a qualitative function, modern HR departments are becoming increasingly quantitative and data-driven. The recent LinkedIn Global Trends Report revealed that 73% of companies are set to treat People Analytics as a major priority over the next five years. However, there are still over half (55%) that say they need help with putting basic People Analytics into practice.
In this report, we consider some of the key organisational challenges facing today’s talent professionals, highlighting the value and potential for data to solve HR’s most pressing issues, as businesses navigate the tricky return to work, post-pandemic.
The easiest way for HR leaders to understand the value of People Analytics is to break it down into specific use cases. In this way, we can clearly explain how the HR department can use their people data to gain valuable insights, driving business value and overcoming some of the most pressing organisational challenges that are currently top of mind for today’s talent professionals.
Looking at the results of TrueCue’s recent ‘HR Challenges’ survey, based on responses from a diverse sample of 222 senior HR professionals, across a variety of questions relating to key HR challenges that businesses are facing, one trend gets reinforced: the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated HR’s need to get the right data to the right people at the right time.
Access to clear, actionable real-time data gives you full visibility over your entire workforce and helps you to understand your organisation’s most valuable asset: its people.
The three top challenges for today’s HR professionals
The analysis of the results from TrueCue’s recent HR survey identified three major challenges for HR professionals that lie ahead in 2021 and beyond.
Challenge 1. Tracking Diversity & Inclusion progress
In terms of specific HR and organisational challenges, what is clear from the majority of respondents in our survey is that for many of today’s HR professionals, tracking their progress towards vital diversity and inclusion (D&I) goals is a significant challenge.
With many businesses setting themselves ambitious D&I goals in 2021 and beyond, 73% of respondents indicated that they found tracking progress towards these goals challenging. It’s crucial that you have the ability to track the success of any D&I initiatives that you are putting in place, in order to know if they are improving your progress towards your targets.
Challenge 2. Understanding formal and informal employee networks
With employees becoming increasingly used to working remotely or via a hybrid mix of home-based and office-based work, one of the major challenges for HR and business leaders is how to understand how both formal and informal employee networks work in this new world.
67% of respondents in our survey indicated that they find understanding formal and informal employee networks in a remote/hybrid working environment challenging. This is where the real value of Organisational Network Analytics (ONA) really comes into its own, as it helps organisations to understand how knowledge flows within and between their employee networks, identifying risks and showcasing opportunities.
Challenge 3. Staying on top of employee sentiment
When you are working closely with teams and colleagues in an office-based environment most of the time, it’s far easier to monitor and stay on top of employee sentiment. What is clear from our survey is that the majority (64%) of respondents are currently struggling to monitor and manage employee sentiment in our ‘new normal’ world of remote/hybrid work environments.
Segmenting HR needs – the four profiles
Clustering analysis of the HR Challenges Survey answers reveals four different profiles of HR professionals. The most common profile with almost half (48%) of respondents is of an HR function challenged on all fronts and with the highest challenge score (74 difficulty points on average). In contrast, the least common profile (14% of respondents) is that of a data-savvy HR function on top of all current challenges (only 39 difficulty points on average). The other two profiles are challenged (both average 64 difficulty points) but both identify as coping reasonably well with identifying employees who under or over perform and then taking appropriate action.
In addition, each is on top of specific areas; one profile is confident that it provides internal stakeholders timely and insightful analysis of People data (23% of respondents) whereas the other’s strength is in the management of the talent acquisition process (15% of respondents).
A challenge that is common across all four profiles is that of tracking diversity and inclusion initiatives, even for the data-savvy HR profile. On the contrary, the areas where the profiles differ most are in the identification of over and under performance and the management of the talent acquisition process.
The world is rapidly and exponentially digitising – with organisations collecting and storing vast amounts of people and organisational data. The four HR profiles, highlighted above, are evidently at different stages of their data and analytics maturity journey. It is therefore imperative that HR leaders understand both their current level of maturity, and importantly, what they need to focus on to successfully get to the next level in their journey. For example, the data-savvy HR profile should push the boundaries of their capabilities to use advanced analytics (e.g., predicting modelling) and cracking the diversity and inclusion challenge with data.
Track your Diversity & Inclusion progress through data
Gartner defines the purpose of a diversity and inclusion manifesto as a means of ensuring that the organisation is comprised of diverse individuals (based on individual characteristics, values, beliefs and backgrounds) and to foster a work environment in which all employees feel respected, accepted, supported and valued[i].
There are numerous reasons why D&I is high on the HR agenda in 2021. Diverse and inclusive organisations are more likely to attract and retain a wider pool of talent. A diverse workforce fosters innovation and resilience. And, as a result, diverse and inclusive organisations perform better financially.
Yet 73% of respondents in our survey find tracking progress towards D&I goals challenging. That’s why, if you want to improve D&I in the workplace, it’s increasingly imperative that you understand the data behind your initiatives.
Gain a deeper awareness of employee networks
Are there people within your organisation who are more isolated as a result of hybrid and virtual working? Are there particular groups of employees that are perhaps not connecting as well as they were before the pandemic?
Knowledge-sharing and collaboration drive business performance, which is why understanding how both formal and informal employee networks operate across your organisation has never been more important, with 67% of respondents in our survey finding this a challenge in remote/hybrid working environments.
Organisational Network Analytics (ONA) has the potential to transform our understanding of the real network of relationships, communication and knowledge that exist within a business. ONA helps organisations understand how knowledge flows between employees, identifying the influencers in your network and helping you to accelerate change and innovation. It enables HR to rapidly onboard and embed new starters and to ensure your staff always get the information, skills and connections they need.
Staying on top of employee sentiment
With many of us working from home, it’s clear that many HR professionals are currently struggling to monitor and manage employee sentiment, largely because managers see people less in remote/hybrid work environments. The obvious challenge for HR and the wider organisation is to be able to understand their employees when they are not around in the office all of the time.
With only a fifth (20%) of respondents in our survey indicating that they found staying on top of employee sentiment easy or straightforward, this is clearly a huge challenge for HR leaders in 2021 and beyond. Mental wellbeing of staff, in particular, is becoming a real priority focus for businesses, with a growing expectation (particularly in larger organisations) that they have some sort of mental health awareness programme and initiative in place.
The fact that people are working from home and potentially working longer hours means that they are at a much higher risk of feeling isolated, as they don’t have colleagues physically nearby to talk to. So, it falls on HR to be able to track and measure and understand employee sentiment. And make sure that employee sentiment is kept as high as possible.
[i] Gartner Human Resources Glossary
