Big Data
Analytics
OPENING THE DOOR FOR NEW HR INSIGHTS
Big Data and analytics has been a popular topic in the business
press lately, and for good reason: it is a powerful tool
that can add tremendous value to organizations by making
tasks easier, faster and more insightful. By pairing Big
Data with imagination and creative thinking, unexplored concepts
can be developed to boost organizational effectiveness and
productivity.
HR AND BIG DATA
While many business functions are increasingly making good use
of Big Data analytics (a recent survey found two-thirds of organizations
are increasing Big Data spending and have applications in
production), HR has been slow to make use of this new tool.
However, CEOs and CHROs are beginning to see how
workforce analytics can lead to better talent decisions and better
business results. Indeed, applying Big Data to workforce
behaviours and data is the next step in the evolution of workforce
analytics (which started with 1950s “time and motion” studies and
later applied to office workers with 1990s-era “Business Process
Re-engineering” initiatives).
People accept that companies like Google, Netflix and Amazon
gather massive amounts of data to service “us” better. And, in
The Decoded Company, authors Segal, Goldstein, Goldman and
Harfoush argue that many companies now know more about
their customers than they do about their own employees. But with
employee-related expenses representing more than half of an organization’s
costs (over 80 per cent if you factor in office space and
IT), businesses should be leveraging Big Data to learn more about
how they can make employees more effective and productive.
BIG DATA: WHO DOES WHAT?
Many organizations struggle with where to place Big Data responsibility.
Who owns it? The business? IT? Or the business functions
that use Big Data?
By Peter Smit
14 ❚ MARCH/APRIL 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL