“Back in the day,” HR professionals were considered “people.” While this is still largely true today, it’s an expectation that comes with a new twist.
Today’s HR professionals must be able to use data to help their organizations effectively manage their people. And they must be skilled and up-to-date with technology that can automate work roles to ensure continued productivity and efficiency.
Digital transformation is impacting organizations of all types and sizes, and every role within those organizations. Human Resources is no exception. In fact, HR is probably the function that may be most impacted by the need to understand people analytics and automation.
Unfortunately, while people analytics and automation are essential competencies for today’s HR professionals, many admit they don’t have these tools.
Big data is commonplace in organizations today. But just because the data is available doesn’t mean it’s being used effectively. In fact, Sage data shows that while 94 percent of business leaders say their companies have access to some form of people data, “62 percent of HR leaders admit they can’t use people analytics to identify trends and provide actionable insights.”
Organizations that don’t want to lose ground in an increasingly competitive environment—for both customers and employees—must hire or train people with analytics and automation competencies.
Applications for analyzing people
As businesses do more and less in the talent arena, people analytics is getting the spotlight it deserves. However, HR professionals need the tools and training at their fingertips to make data-driven decisions that have a positive impact.
There are many ways that people analytics can provide important insights to HR leaders and the organization. For example:
Understand the top sources of job candidates who are most effective in their positions – and opportunities to take costs out of the talent acquisition process.
Assess turnover drivers, high-performing areas that can be used as best practice examples, and strategies to enhance engagement and retention.
Track diversity metrics to identify where diverse candidates are (or are not) entering the organization, moving into more responsible roles, entering leadership ranks, or leaving the organization.
This data is not just a “nice to have.” It is increasingly a “need to have,” both to positively impact an organization’s bottom line and to address stakeholder demands related to evolving expectations around diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental, social, and governance investments.
Using automation in human resources
From HR information systems to artificial intelligence, technology is constantly evolving to provide opportunities for organizations to save time and money through automation. HR needs to know what technologies are available, how to use them, how to evaluate and select vendors, how to effectively implement adaptive tools—including training and communicating with employees—and how to evaluate the effectiveness of these technology investments.
These are new requirements that HR leaders have not had to deal with in the past. However, today they must be attuned to the options available and must be skilled at helping their organizations evaluate, select, and implement those options. This is not just the role of their IT colleagues, although they, of course, must play an important role. In fact, building strong relationships with IT colleagues today is as important as maintaining relationships with CFOs and leadership teams.
Where can automation be applied?
Many aspects of HR operations can benefit from automation. For example, chatbots can be used for customer service applications (internal and external). AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, which has been widely covered by the media for its potentially significant (and equally controversial) use cases, can be used to create documents of various types: job descriptions, job postings, handbook chapters, policies, and more.
Automation can be used to streamline HR workflows – for example, automating the onboarding process, or making training and development options (such as business-critical cybersecurity awareness modules) for new hires and employees on-demand and always available.
In this environment, HR leaders also need to be able to alleviate any concerns or fears that employees may have about “AI robots taking my job.” When HR leaders can help employees see automation as an asset or help rather than a competitive enemy, they can help those workers grow and advance to take on more strategic roles in the business.
Every organization approaches its people analytics and automation opportunities differently. What will remain the same, and a growing trend for 2023 and beyond, is the need for HR leaders to take on a more strategic role as they become “people with a twist.”
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