Big Data is Redefining HR Practices

With the increase in the number of social media users, several types of mobile apps, and the digital transformation of businesses, there has been an enormous amount of data generation. But how exactly this massive volume of data is stored and processed? Here, big data comes into play. 

Big data has emerged as a gamechanger across various departments, including HR. 

While the job market is becoming more candidate-driven, HR professionals face several challenges filling open positions with good talent. Moreover, HR processes require extensive time, money, and efforts of the company. Leveraging big data can help multiple facets of HR, including hiring, performance, compensation, training, learning, and development. It can also support HR managers in making smarter decisions and achieving organizational goals more efficiently.

What are big data and analytics?

There are millions of data sources that generate data at a very rapid rate. For example, Facebook generates over 4 petabytes of data (a million gigabytes), and Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second, translating to over 3.5 billion searches every day. With the massive amount of data being generated every day, big data processes this enormous volume of data to find valuable insights. Big data analytics helps extract the hidden patterns, market trends, correlations, and preferences, preventing fraudulent activities and making informed decisions.

Benefits of big data and analytics in HR

1. Optimized and streamlined hiring process: Recruiting top talent is considered one of the most challenging tasks as it requires extensive effort in screening, selecting, and onboarding the employees. With big data analytics, HR professionals can make smarter hiring decisions. AI-based platforms like Oto_Qualify and Oto_Code can help leverage the best-in-class recruitment strategy for the organization. HR professionals can easily collect, store, evaluate thousands of candidate applications, and select the right fit for the job. This optimized and streamlined hiring process helps HR reduce the team’s time and efforts.
   
2. Boost employee engagement levels: Employee engagement always remains a hot topic for every organization as it is closely related to their performance and success. In the current age of remote working, it is even more challenging to engage and empower employees. Big data is extremely helpful in improving employee engagement by tracking the data around employee surveys. It also helps recognize, highlight, and reward the top performers. In turn, data analysis helps managers develop, empower, and engage employees. Learn top employee engagement strategies that every manager needs.
   
3. Enable more informed decisions: HR professionals need to make crucial recruitment, talent management, training, and many other strategic decisions. The data analysis enables HR professionals to be more informed. Big data analytics help collect and analyze the data and understand the organization’s activities, trends, and predictions based on historical data. Thanks to big data, the HR team can make a range of strategic decisions that include hiring, remote onboarding, performance management, employee experience, succession planning, and many more. 
   
4. Uplift employee retention: The overall experience of employees in the organization is a key driving factor that drives employee attrition rates. When the employee is engaged, and their experience is positive, it improves employee retention levels. Working with big data analytics helps in empowering employees and reducing employee turnover. HR analytics helps identify and analyze the trends across departments, teams, and service lines to highlight critical issues related to attrition. The real-time access to data helps identify problems, measure their impact on business performance, and find appropriate solutions.
    
5. Identify employee skills gaps: Every organization’s learning and development are consistent activities. By leveraging big data, AI, and predictive models in employee development, HR professionals can identify the scope of development and maximize the opportunities for skill crossover in project deployments. It also ensures that employees work in suitable roles and identify skill gaps for future training and development opportunities. These activities will decrease employee attrition rates and improve their satisfaction, efficiency, and performance.
   
6. Improve workforce planning: Data can be leveraged to improve resource planning and workforce management decisions. From task and activity management and utilization of tools by the teams to attendance tracking, big data can be helpful for the HR department. Big data can uncover valuable insights related to resource efficiency and how teams can be deployed on different accounts of clients. This information can be deployed to improve resourcing strategy and result in efficiency gains in the workplace.

Bringing it all together

The effective usage of big data in the HR department and the organization is unquestionable. For any organization that wants to achieve strong results with their human resources and talent strategies, big data can help yield transformative results. In addition, HR professionals can create superior value creation for human capital as the benefits of big data continue to unfold.