technology
HR’s New Weapon
– BIG DATA
WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER
By Brandon-Jo Mouna
Work is becoming a means of
identity, where the job you
do defines who you are.
This evolution is placing
new and unfamiliar complexities on the
way human resources and employers do
business – how they engage individuals,
recognize talent, attract the very best and
open up channels of communication and
collaboration.
If we steer employees in the right direction
and help them utilize their talent,
both the employer and business win.
Conventional wisdom is that people are
the most valuable asset of any business.
But if that’s true even just a small percentage
of the time, many companies are
guilty of letting their most precious resource
wither on the vine.
It may not be intentional. Most managers
won’t set out to create an unhappy
work environment. Regardless, they still
find themselves losing talented and skillful
employees. How do you reach this
group of people before they are disengaged
and ultimately move on to other
jobs? The model for success is to create
and foster a collaborative and engaged
mindset. The key here is to reach employees
before they shut down and provide
them with appropriate challenges,
support and tools to keep them interested.
Data analytics has the potential to
revolutionize HR. One recent survey
suggests an astonishing 63 per cent of
employees are not engaged and 24 per
cent are actively disengaged with their
jobs (Gallup Management Journal,
2013). It simply doesn’t have to be like
this. Improving the way we work isn’t
about working harder – it’s about working
smarter.
Combining technology and human
insight creates an abundance of information
around human behaviour and workforce
tendencies that employers have
been collecting for decades. Until recently,
we haven’t been able to extract and use
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HRPATODAY.CA ❚ FEBRUARY 2014 ❚ 63