How Big Data can help HR with hiring decisions

The Human resources (HR) function is usually not the first thing that comes to mind when we think of big data. That’s because it is still a developing concept and a majority of the companies are still using traditional methods to perform HR related tasks.

Organizations should make the most of big data to find the right level of adaptability to offer work-life balance to its employees as well as to determine the right benefits and bonuses in order to encourage employee loyalty towards its company. It can also be used to increase the quality and usefulness of regular training programs, thus maximizing the use of their human capital.

Big data has proven itself fruitful in many businesses; be it sales, marketing or accounting. Today we explore how big data will impact the HR function:

1. Amplify the quality of new recruits

Hiring the wrong person for the job is probably the worst mistake an HR team can make. With the help of big data, recruiters can be more analytical and strategic when it comes to finding the ideal candidate for the job.

If they get access to online employee resume databases, employment records, social media profiles, tests and other profiles, it will help the recruiter find the best candidate with the highest potential by sorting this information and narrowing down the talent pool.

Take the case of Royal Dutch Shell; they made their employee play specially designed video games in order to analyze the best idea generators in their team. As a result, the team found it easier to recruit employees that had the 6 main qualities the company needed i.e. mind wandering, social intelligence, goal-orientation fluency, implicit learning, task-switching ability, and conscientiousness.

2. Promote better training and employee success rate

Training can be an expensive affair if the overall employee retention is unsuccessful. Big data allows businesses to measure the effectiveness of the training program so they can make better investments when it comes to training and development of their employees. If regular performance evaluations are conducted, the efficiency can be measured via big data and it will help the HR understand the effectiveness of their employee development programs.

Check out IBM’s strategy in this context. Traditionally an outgoing personality has been seen as a key trait, but IBM compared worker surveys and tests with manager assessments and found that the most important characteristic of sales success was actually emotional courage. Successful salespeople may or may not be outgoing, but they do need to be persistent, and not take no for an answer.

3. Prevent employee attrition

Making strategic workforce decisions without data to back them up is like guessing, and it’s an issue that has prevented the HR from making a bigger impact on business outcomes. Workforce analytics is the art and science of connecting data to discover and share insights about your workforce that will lead to better business decisions. In order to reduce employee turnover, HR needs to become more data-driven, looking past simple descriptive analytics and towards more exploratory analytics, predictive analytics.

To conclude

These are a few ways in which big data can help the HR perform at a much more efficient rate. It is an infant concept but once companies truly start implementing it in their recruitment processes, it will yield great results.