The future of HR analytics

For many jobs, AI will change how responsibilities are performed as well as your organization’s approach to its HR analytics process. These amended roles will require new skills and new ways of working—with a greater emphasis on creativity and collaboration.

Here at Structural, we believe everyone should be able to connect the talent and resources within their organization and empower people to reach their full potential. Our research has found that business leaders are more effective and even more productive when they know what their employees are capable of. Overcoming the toughest business challenges of the modern workplace starts with effectively managing your human capital, talent shouldn’t be hiding within the organization.

Artificial intelligence is helping many firms visualize and adapt the skill set profile of the entire enterprise. They’re using data science to implement a more informed decision making process related to team structure, hiring, and talent acquisition. They’re finding that teams are more effective when they’re built around the requirements of the problem.

A few common trends are starting to surface when it comes to AI in the workplace:

• AI is everywhere—with over 80 percent of enterprises investing in artificial intelligence according to a study by Teradata.
• AI requires new skills—when working in the new world of AI and automation, research shows an increased demand for human capital with skills such as complex problem-solving, cognitive abilities, and social skills.
• AI requires a plan—nearly half of the respondents to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends survey, said they did not have a plan to cultivate the skills needed to thrive in a human-machine future.
  
  

HR Analytics using people data helps you develop a plan in a fast-changing world.

In this fast-evolving world, it’s more important than ever to have a plan to address the looming skills gap.

While HR analytics will help identify trends in current learning and training patterns, in the long run, a thoughtful coaching strategy is necessary to give your teams the skills they need to thrive.  

But, you can also address this skills gap right now:

• By making the most of the talent already in your organization: highlighting and activating those in your organization who have the right skills for the right opportunities, right now.

By identifying the trends of your most highly effective professionals. For example, what do your top engineers have in common? Or what skills do your most successful salespeople share? In short, finding tomorrow’s leaders… today.

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What skills do your most successful employees share?  What sorts of projects do those individuals work on and how utilized is their time?  Optimize your team with an intelligent employee directory

Start supercharging your organization through applied data science.

Structural helps you address the future—now—by applying data science to your people data to identify similar people across your company. Using this HR analytics capability, you can find those like your top performers and ensure they’re ready for future challenges.

Other examples of applied data science include:

Recommendations—Online retailers like Amazon help us make decisions by surfacing recommended products, and Netflix and Hulu help us find new shows and movies to watch based on what we’ve seen before.

These same concepts can help you find the right person to help solve a problem, to surface an ideal project or internal opportunity, or to recommend learning to level up you and your team’s skills.

Just as Amazon gives us data-driven product suggestions, utilizing an intelligent people directory can help you quickly and efficiently locate the perfect people for any given project.

Predictive Analytics—Even if you haven’t used this type of analytics directly, you’ve likely seen the results of it. For example, when you use Facebook, Linkedin, or other social media, you're already experiencing predictive analytics in your news feed as the platform aims to serve you personalized and relevant content.

This technology can be used to determine if you have an employee that is starting to look for a new job, predict those most likely to be future high performers, and help guide your managers to activities that create healthy and productive teams.

Language Analytics—The ability of computers to understand humans has exploded in recent years: today, it’s common to talk to a device and have it respond as directed.

Soon it will be possible for business leaders to search their organization’s people data using natural language. For example, if one were to ask their AI system a question in the same way they would converse with another person the AI system would leverage entire databases of common queries and surface the best answers through machine learning. It’s a powerful innovation and many technology companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and more are paving the way for others.

Structural combines data science with the science of people.

Data science will become increasingly important as organizations seek to personalize experiences for every individual - but it isn’t sufficient in isolation. Which is why we spend a significant amount of time thinking and researching how to combine data with the science of people in order to improve organizational and team performance .

For example, Alex "Sandy" Pentland, writing for Harvard Business Review, shared his research showing that a key predictor of a team’s success is how they communicate with each other: specifically, how the team communicates and engages with each other outside formal meetings. Combining advances like predictive analytics and incorporating your company’s data around communication and collaboration can help predict which teams are going to be the most successful.

The bottom line is, utilizing HR analytics by tapping into your organization’s existing people data will inevitably lead to more productive and better connected teams. Everyone within an organization can use data science to find the right people at the right time and match the right people with opportunities and projects that move the needle. Learn more about the strategic significance of connecting your talent to opportunity with a dynamic people directory by scheduling a custom demo for your organization today.

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