Many organizations are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to drive better business results by automating routine work, enhancing experiences, connecting end-to-end processes and more. But what about using the data that powers the AI to do more with the data (that then powers the AI again)? According to a recent report from International Data Corporation (IDC) sponsored by SAP SuccessFactors, HR and talent leaders are at the forefront of this thinking — with 63% of companies strategizing around new and advancing use cases for AI-backed people analytics.
As businesses discover how AI can enhance decision-making and planning, they’re also realizing how challenging it can be to gain visibility into workforce data in a way that is timely, comprehensive and actionable. Until quite recently, insights driven by people analytics have been difficult to access and even more challenging to put to use.
Fortunately, recent technological developments in the area of people analytics are giving organizations far greater access to easy-to-digest workforce insights. These changes benefit talent leaders, in particular, who can now make quick use of data-driven insights powered by AI.
“As skills shortages continue to rise, talent leaders are feeling the pressure and looking for new ways to acquire, develop and retain the right talent,” said Christina Russo, senior director of product marketing for talent and learning at SAP SuccessFactors. “For our customers, these advancements in people analytics give talent teams instant access to the insights they need to know what’s working, not working and how best to improve — across the entire talent lifecycle.”
1. Deeper visibility for quicker identification of qualified talent
As we all know, recruiting employees is more complicated than simply filling roles. To find an employee who possesses the skills required for a role, talent leaders need to make data-driven decisions at every stage of the hiring process. However, there’s typically limited visibility into pipeline performance, sourcing effectiveness and global recruiting trends, making the process of finding and hiring qualified talent a challenge.
AI-powered people analytics allows employers to streamline recruiting, improve sourcing and attract top candidates faster. With this technology, you can visualize the flow of candidates into your organization to spot bottlenecks.
You may find, for example, that job seekers get stuck in the interview process. While interviews are crucial to the candidate search, too many can be cumbersome for both candidates and hiring managers. By refining the interview process, you can move candidates through the hiring process faster while still making sound decisions about the final hire.
Such insights aren’t limited to professionals with experience in data analysis. Even if you’re not a data analyst, you can use plain language to request information about the recruiting process — and you’ll receive AI-driven responses in a format you can understand and make use of right away.
With these insights, you can streamline the recruiting process and improve key metrics like time to fill and cost per hire. With sleeker processes and leaner budgets, your organization can allocate extra resources to teams with harder-to-attract talent.
2. Better skills analysis for accelerated employee upskilling
The importance of employee skillsets doesn’t fade once new hires are onboarded. Talent leaders must maintain awareness of their employees’ skills and how those abilities align with organizational priorities. When you lack a clear understanding of workers’ capabilities, your company is vulnerable to hidden skill gaps that threaten the attainment of strategic goals.
People analytics takes the guesswork out of skills analysis. With the right tools and information, you can identify current skills gaps and anticipate future needs to support business initiatives. People analytics can also help create development strategies and suggest opportunities so your company can close gaps and increase potential.
With AI-driven insights, you can track skill proficiency and drive upskilling. These insights allow you to spot whether your teams offer the right blend of technical, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. You may realize, for example, that your team members offer sharp expertise in the technical aspects of their jobs but lack the soft skills to collaborate and drive progress on big-picture goals.
3. Greater access to data-driven insights for proactive decision making
Next-generation people analytics also allows talent leaders to identify potential risks as they pursue organizational objectives. With greater access to instantly useful insights, you can identify specific problems, perform a root-cause analysis and quickly design an appropriate solution.
These new tools empower you to overcome issues that can threaten your business’s success in strategic initiatives. Take turnover, for example. Employee churn slows productivity, weakens institutional knowledge, drains resources and erodes morale. It can slow organizations in the pursuit of any goal, large or small.
People analytics equips you with the insight you need to reduce — or even prevent — turnover. Insights can reveal, for instance, whether turnover is tied to a specific location or employee demographic. You can determine if churn correlates with a lack of development opportunities, employee satisfaction or a combination of several factors. You can also cross-reference the insights with other people data to investigate whether factors like pay are influencing resignations.
With people analytics, you don’t just get accurate information about your employer’s current standing — it also allows you to peer into the future and make more proactive decisions. You and your fellow leaders can use predictive analytics to forecast how a specific solution will impact turnover. By testing solutions, organizations eliminate guesswork and prioritize proactive, tested approaches.
People analytics: Empowering talent leaders to deliver on organizational priorities
A new generation of people analytics tools is equipping talent leaders with the information and insights they need to accelerate business goals. The IDC report indicated that 48% of organizations using AI-backed people analytics consider it vital to workforce planning and placement and to executive and leadership goal setting and decision-making. With people analytics, talent leaders can refine recruiting, enable skills building and proactively address risk to ensure their organizations have — and continue to have — qualified talent.
To learn more about how your organization can benefit from AI-driven people analytics, check out the IDC Spotlight and SAP’s People Intelligence solution.
This article is part of a series covering people analytics. To read the first article, please click here.
