Why HR Analytics is the Key to Continuous Improvement

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

Continuous improvement (also called Kaizen or Lean) is a popular approach to enhance productivity by achieving small goals. Real-time data and advanced analytics can help ensure that each production cycle is better than the last, improving employee performance, and enabling long-term success of the organization. In this article, we talk about: 

  • What continuous improvement means for HR
  • Four types of HR analytics needed to improve productivity continually
  • Why system integration is the bedrock of effective HR analytics 
     

To improve productivity, organizations need to maximize the value from their people assets. But in many ways, traditional working models hinder this process, because they don’t offer on-time insights.

Consider the typical annual review cycle – performance is assessed every year/biannually. The employee understands problem areas and spends the next six months or year on improvements.

This means that for actual change to show in the workplace, organizations are left waiting for an indefinite amount of time. 

By adopting a continuous improvement approach in the HR process, you can push your workforce to adapt faster, respond to the need at hand, and reach all new heights of productivity. 

And HR analytics can help you do this efficiently.

Learn More: How to Use Monitoring to Boost Employee ProductivityOpens a new window

What Is Continuous Improvement in HR? 

Continuous improvement was popularized back in the 1950s as part of Toyota’s manufacturing strategy. Since then, it has had a pervasive impact on project management across industries.

Most recently, startups and agile software development teams have adopted this approach to reach their goals faster while minimizing waste of time and resources. 

As HR, you can incorporate the principles of continuous improvement to help employees achieve their individual/organizational productivity targets. This includes: 

  • Training the workforce to be creative without relying on traditional solutions to solve new problems. 
  • Inculcating an approach to work that aims for long-term success through multiple iterations if required, instead of taking on the pressure to get it right the first time. 
  • Building a data-driven culture where information, insights, and opinions are solicited from a variety of sources for the next work cycle.
  • Breaking down the idea of “perfection” and focusing on small, ongoing steps towards improvement. 
     

For example, as an HR practitioner, you can roll out a standalone L&D course for a small part of the workforce, test how well this group adopts it, review its impact on productivity, and only then decide on further investments.

Through this approach, employees are pushed to learn more than what is immediately necessary, and organizations save significant amounts of costs and effort. 

However, continuous improvement cannot take place in a vacuum.

The popularity of this model in the last decade is partly due to the widespread use of project management platforms.

These platforms show precisely where an employee stands on the improvement pathway, the effort contributed, and the time remaining to achieve defined goals.

In HR, you can use people analytics to stay updated on employee progress and channel efforts in the direction most suited for continuous improvement. 

Learn More: Why Employee Productivity Analytics is Key to Organizational AgilityOpens a new window

Why HR Analytics Aids Continuous Improvement

Analytics is now a buzzword in the HR space, and with good reason.

You can access a vast repository of employee data at a glance. Hours or even days needed to build reports are now taken over by automation. And real-time analytics can help you make decisions when they matter the most. 

For continuous improvement, staying informed of the current scenario at any point in time is at the heart of this concept.

Each iterative cycle – whether in manufacturing, software development, or HR – is based on the results of the last one. The shorter your improvement cycle, the stronger its impact.

HR analyticsOpens a new window can give you insights immediately at any point in time. In addition, predictive HR analyticsOpens a new window deliver accurate projections of “what if” scenarios.

You no longer have to analyze historical records to understand future needs manually. Adopting a predictive model helps your framework stay one step ahead, allowing you to anticipate the factors that may define the course of the next cycle.

For example, the people analytics solution provider Viser has a dedicated predictive analytics moduleOpens a new window for talent acquisition, helping you to take the right decision on your next hiring campaign based on past results. 

3 HR Analytics Metrics That Aid Continuous Improvement

Here are three areas where analytics data can help to introduce continuous improvement in HR. 

1. Scheduling insights to better allocate people assets
 

Workforce schedulingOpens a new window is a complex process, dependent on multiple stakeholders, demand flux, and company targets.

By gathering data on which scheduling practices are most effective and how employees would prefer to put in the time, you can maximize your available people assets.

Modern task scheduling solutions such as Shyft Opens a new window come with powerful analytics features that offer real-time data via business dashboards. This is particularly useful for hourly and deskless workers.

2. Candidate/Talent analytics to improve hiring outcomes
 

Hiring the best candidate for a position is a key part of HR responsibilities, and analytics can help you ensure that each hiring cycle is better than the last.

Look for platforms like PulsifiOpens a new window , which give you a comprehensive overview of employee-to-role/team/organization alignment, map their performance, and offer a dynamic picture of how personal traits translate into productivity. 

Using such data can help you make better hiring decisions in each hiring cycle, allowing you to make incremental improvements in every cycle.

3. Data from chatbots for continuous updates
 

Conversational interfaces can be a great source of data in real time.

For example, a chatbot can collect information on multiple team requirements and product status to accurately answer employee questions.

Integrating chatbots into daily workflows will, in turn, ensure that continuous improvement becomes part of daily workflows, powered by data continually collected by the bot.

Teleopti offers a solution on these lines called GrantOpens a new window – a Microsoft AI-based chatbot for data-driven employee self-service. 

Regular data collection allows you to get a pulse of the organization. This means you can roll out smaller changes faster. Employees can have their needs met quicker and will remain better engaged at work.

Learn More: How to Get Started with Implementing HR AnalyticsOpens a new window

Integrate Your Ecosystem for Sustained Improvements 

One of the major barriers to analytics implementation is the siloed nature of business processes.

Despite data pouring in from multiple areas, it is difficult to turn this data into actual improvements because there is no single source of truth.

It is a good idea for HR to start by creating a unified process environment with centralized control and visibility.

SaplingOpens a new window is an HR platform that can connect to the tools and software you are already using for productivity – it then uses “AI-powered automation and predictive insights” to make every decision more effectiveOpens a new window

As organizations rethink their processes to succeed in an agile and dynamic business environment, the continuous improvement approach will gain more traction in HR.

And real-time data, advanced analytics, and smartly designed business dashboards can help you link short-term improvements to long-term market leadership. 

Are you using analytics for the continuous improvement of your workforce? Tell us how on FacebookOpens a new window LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!

Chiradeep BasuMallick
Chiradeep is a content marketing professional, a startup incubator, and a tech journalism specialist. He has over 11 years of experience in mainline advertising, marketing communications, corporate communications, and content marketing. He has worked with a number of global majors and Indian MNCs, and currently manages his content marketing startup based out of Kolkata, India. He writes extensively on areas such as IT, BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and financial analysis & stock markets. He studied literature, has a degree in public relations and is an independent contributor for several leading publications.
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