Even so, many companies have either not invested in human capital analytics or fully realised the expected impact of past investments. A recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) study revealed how HR can build a workforce analytics strategy that uses people data to inform talent and company-wide decisions.

Start with a strategy for using HR and people data

To be valuable, HR data analysis must be geared toward answering a specific question. Such questions can be extrapolated from the five main types of actions McKinsey identified that companies would need to take in building the workforce of the future.

Retrain: What are the specific employee skills that we need to increase proficiency in, or do we need to focus on new skills?

Redeploy: Do we need to shift parts of our workforce by redefining work tasks or redesigning processes?

Hire: Do we need to acquire individuals or teams with the requisite skills, increasing the workforce?

Contract: Do we need to leverage external workers, such as contractors, freelancers, or temporary workers?

Release: What skills are no longer needed? Can we remove skills not needed by freezing new hiring, waiting for normal attrition and retirement, or in some cases, laying off workers?

Connecting people data analytics to a clearly identified business process, goal, or metric yields the greatest operational benefits and business value. The HBR study also found that digital companies were front-runners when it came to adopting automated techniques for the talent chase, and analysing HR data to retain their highly skilled and mobile workforce.

Continuously analyse HR data in business context

Too often, people data remains siloed in HR systems and used primarily by HR departments. In the HBR study, 89 percent of the 180 executives surveyed said that HR or people data was most valuable to an organisation when combined and analysed in conjunction with financial, operational, and other enterprise data. What鈥檚 more, 92 percent of respondents believed that all business leaders 鈹� not just HR executives 鈹� needed to review and analyse HR data.

The study found that the business benefits of sharing people data company-wide included faster visibility to better predict hiring and retention needs, improved budgeting and planning capabilities, greater agility in staffing projects, and the ability to proactively address potential hiring compliance.

For example, the Coca-Cola Company鈥檚 Botting Investments Group (BIG) data strategy focuses on a platform that integrates and analyses HR data daily to identify reasons for attrition, including the trend amongst 鈥渕illennials moving in and out, and not just assume they鈥檒l stay for five years or miss the opportunity to give them a better package and get them to stay longer. These are the questions we want to answer. We want to see the bigger picture. That鈥檚 the kind of HR department the enterprise needs, and HR wants to be.鈥�

Be prepared to make organisational and tech changes

Embedding analytical capabilities and recommendations into the organisation鈥檚 decision-making processes and workflows increases both the accessibility and actionability of people analytics.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to recognise that while the fundamental business of running a business hasn鈥檛 changed with the balance sheet the ultimate measurement tool, the role of HR has significantly transformed from administrative transactional processor to strategic advisor. This transformation is still, in part, aspirational at many organisations today. It’s time to jettison long-held perceptions about HR as just a cost center. Senior leadership and every business team including HR need to get on board with modern workforce analytics. Using integrated HR and people data will allow organisations to link both the people and finance perspectives in all mission-critical decisions, operations, and planning 鈹� a must for survival for organisations both today and of the future.

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When the pandemic first began to impact Australian shores in early 2020, almost overnight, companies were required to enforce work-from-home policies for most workers. Now, well into 2021, we鈥檙e seeing this trend persist as state lockdowns and stay at home orders continue. New data released in May this year claims that now almost half, (43 per cent), of Australians are spending some of their working week from home.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has totally transformed the employee/business relationship over the past year, as a more remote workforce adopted digital platforms as their primary mode of engagement. While this was initially thought to be fleeting, it鈥檚 now becoming more obvious that many of these fundamental changes are set to stay.

Although as businesses start to adopt a more聽, Australian HR leaders might be underestimating some of the challenges of the post-pandemic 鈥榥ew-normal鈥�. According to an聽聽of HR leaders across the globe (commissioned by 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors) around 47 per cent of Australian leaders see increased employee demand for remote work as one of the top long-term impacts. 64 per cent also indicated flexible work policies to be more important in their ability to attract and retain talent moving forward.

Despite this, though, only 23 per cent agreed that the majority of their workforce can work remotely and have the necessary technology environment to do so effectively. This discrepancy is alarming and indicates that employers need to make more investments in return-to-work technologies, such as test and trace mechanisms and remote worker management systems.

Australian businesses also have some work to do when it comes to issues of maintaining an engaged workforce, reskilling and upskilling, and talent acquisition, which have all changed immensely since the start of the pandemic.

The changing nature of employee engagement

Mass movements of employees into home offices and more remote locations has triggered a paradigm shift when it comes to how organisations maintain employee engagement and morale. It鈥檚 easy for employee bases that are more distributed and isolated to become disengaged and unenthusiastic, with productivity slipping as a result.

It鈥檚 never been more important to check-in on employees, not only to make sure they鈥檙e still engaged but also to touch base on their wellbeing. Despite this, Australian leaders are significantly less likely than other countries to be conducting regular pulse surveys to gather employee feedback (25 per cent).

This leaves many organisations in the dark about employee sentiment, as the workplace continues to evolve. We鈥檙e in a situation where everyone is adapting to a new mode of working, so employees are still figuring out what鈥檚 important to them. Organisations need to understand where they could be more effective and productive and one of the best ways to establish this is through setting up an employee listening strategy and conducting regular pulse surveys.

Rethinking talent acquisition policies

COVID-19 has pushed workers out of central offices and into homes or more remote working spaces. Employers need to consider this in their talent acquisition strategies and processes, as not only is there a wider pool of available and suitable talent but the environment is also far more competitive. It鈥檚 now possible for candidates to pick up positions in entirely different cities or even countries, so organisations need to do a lot more to stand out.

There are three important steps employers need to take when crafting new talent acquisition policies for a hybrid working environment, which are:

1. Identify skills gaps聽鈥� employers need to take stock of the available skills across the entire organisation to identify weak points and assess what鈥檚 needed
2. Increase internal mobility 鈥撀�this goes back to reskilling and considering where training opportunities could be used to fill talent requirements
3. Use technology to scale up hiring and on-boarding 鈥�聽this is an important step as it will allow organisations to more effectively define their purpose and differentiating aspects to candidates and new employees.

Organisations need to put themselves in candidates鈥� shoes if they are going to compete for top talent post-pandemic. In our findings, 64 per cent of respondents believed that COVID-19 will make flexible work more important to attracting and retaining talent, with financial stability of the organisation (62 per cent) and work/life balance (59 per cent) also top of mind.

However, many employers may be underestimating the importance of compensation 鈥� which takes precedence for responders in other countries 鈥� with only 43 per cent of Aussie employers flagging that as a major focus.

Australians lagging on reskilling and upskilling initiatives

There is often a misconception that, during tough times, businesses need to focus on utilising and maintaining their existing talents and skillsets. However, the coronavirus pandemic has taught us that reskilling & upskilling employees can be a huge differentiator, especially in terms of a businesses鈥� ability to pivot and adapt.

Take NAB, who used the pandemic as an opportunity to convert thousands of training programs to聽run online, supporting the upskilling and reskilling of its 40,000-strong workforce. Emphasising digital and data skills, the bank found a range of synergies across the organisation and permanently improved its overall workplace training and delivery.

础听聽report found that at least half of all employees will require reskilling and upskilling by 2025, with the potential to boost GDP by $6.5 trillion. Furthermore,聽 report called out workforce talent and skills development as one of the key trends for businesses that were maintaining agility and continuing to thrive.

This imperative has not been reflected in our study, as only 34 per cent of Australian employers expect to invest in learning programs for reskilling and upskilling (compared to 38 per cent of global respondents). Australian鈥檚 are also significantly less likely to make major operational or strategic changes over the next year, and 鈥� as a result 鈥� may be overlooking the necessity for expanding employee skill sets.

Australia鈥檚 global position as having handled the virus extremely well may be playing a role in spurring employer complacency on training initiatives, with a belief that a return to normality may be on the horizon. Although considering the permanent effects on the economy and new hybrid ways of working, faith in a return to 鈥榖usiness-as-usual鈥� is misplaced. This will only be exacerbated next month, as the JobKeeper initiative聽.

Overall, businesses need to recognise that the pandemic is more than just a blip in history, it will have a lasting impact that must be catered for in the long-term. With the right technology, employers can ensure that workforces remain engaged and the right talent is always at their fingertips.

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