The demands on HR professionals are constantly increasing. They should not only act as business partners for the company’s management, but also perform numerous other functions that often clash with each other. What determines the success of HR initiatives? How can a company’s key department make accurate strategic decisions in an era of hybrid work, based on distributed data? What is the annual cost of employee turnover, and how cost-effective is it to take actions that will influence employees’ decisions to stay with the company? These are just some of the many questions that can be asked.
These are daily dilemmas faced by HR managers in every company. Undoubtedly, one of the most important goals of the HR department is to retain employees for as long as possible. Making well-informed decisions based on structured and well-presented data will certainly help achieve this goal.
What are the biggest data challenges for HR?
Given the importance of data in today’s business environment, HR can encounter data challenges. Here are some of the key ones:
- Data collection and analysis: The challenge for HR is to collect and analyze data related to employees, such as personal data, employment history, performance evaluations, absenteeism, salaries, etc. It is important to have the right systems and tools to effectively collect and analyze data.
- Integrate data from different systems: An organization may have different data management systems, such as human resource information systems, payroll systems, recruitment systems, etc. The challenge for HR is to integrate data from these different systems to get a comprehensive and consistent picture of employees.
- Analyzing data to make decisions: Data is valuable when it is used to make strategic decisions. The challenge for HR is the ability to effectively analyze data and draw valuable conclusions that can support decisions related to recruitment, employee development, retention, compensation, etc.
- Maintaining data quality: Data must be timely, accurate and comprehensive to be useful to the HR department. The challenge is to maintain data quality through regular updates, verification and monitoring of data integrity.
- Data Protection Compliance: HR needs to be aware of and comply with data protection regulations, such as the RODO or General Data Protection Regulations. The challenge is to ensure compliance and take steps to minimize the risk of non-compliance.
Facing these challenges, HR needs to invest in the right resources, technologies and competencies to effectively manage data and use it for key decisions about employees and organizational strategy.
Measuring employee satisfaction as key data for analysis
Measuring employee satisfaction is crucial for organizations because satisfied employees are more engaged, productive and loyal to their employers. Here are some key indicators that can be used to assess employee satisfaction:
- Employee satisfaction surveys: Surveys are a popular tool for measuring employee satisfaction. By asking questions about various aspects of work, such as conditions of employment, compensation, professional development and relationships with colleagues, you can get feedback from employees. Surveys can be anonymous, which encourages employees to answer honestly.
- Employee turnover rate: A high employee turnover rate can indicate dissatisfaction with working conditions. Monitoring the number of employees who leave the organization over a certain period of time can provide information on the level of employee satisfaction.
- Absenteeism and attendance rates: High absenteeism rates or frequent absenteeism can signal low employee satisfaction. Regular monitoring of employee attendance can help identify satisfaction issues.
- Performance appraisals and evaluations: Systematic evaluations of employees and their performance can provide information on their achievements, progress and professional development. Regular appraisal meetings can provide a platform to discuss employee satisfaction and needs.
- Employee Engagement Index: Engaged employees tend to be more satisfied. Indicators of employee engagement, such as the level of involvement in tasks, participation in organizational initiatives or attendance at training, can provide information on satisfaction levels.
- Employee reviews: Employee feedback can provide information on work quality and job satisfaction. Positive feedback from customers can indicate a high level of employee satisfaction.
Monitoring and analyzing these key indicators allows organizations to better understand employee satisfaction and take appropriate action to improve their work experience. It is also important to regularly collect feedback from employees and act on it to improve satisfaction and engagement.
Employee satisfaction survey
Returning to one of HR’s main goals of employee retention, the simplest and most effective method is to conduct a satisfaction survey that examines motivations and desire to continue working for the company. These motivations may include:
- Employment stability: Employees can be motivated to stay with a company by job stability and long-term growth prospects within the organization. – Professional development: The opportunity for career advancement and learning new skills can be a strong motivator for employees.
- Salary satisfaction: Salary and benefits, such as bonuses, perks or benefits packages, can affect employee satisfaction and their desire to stay with the company.
- Support from superiors: Positive relationships with superiors and receiving support and feedback from them can have a significant impact on employees’ motivation to stay with the organization.
- Challenging and interesting projects: Interesting and engaging tasks and participation in exciting projects can motivate employees who want to develop their skills and achieve professional success.
- Organizational culture: Employees can be motivated by a friendly, supportive and inspiring organizational culture that fosters a positive work environment.
- Work-Life Balance: Employees may appreciate a company that promotes work-life balance and offers flexible solutions, such as remote working and flex time.
- Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a key indicator of engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. This indicator will be described in more detail in the next section of the article.
Conducting an employee satisfaction survey on these motivations can help you understand what drives employees to stay with the company and what actions you can take to increase employee retention.
Net Promoter Score
What is the Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS)? The Employee Net Promoter Score is a measure that helps organizations assess the level of employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. Similar to the NPS for customers, employees are asked how likely they are to recommend their company as a place to work to others. The rating scale is from 0 to 10, and employees fall into three groups:
– Promoters (ratings 9-10): Employees who give the highest ratings are committed, satisfied and loyal to the organization. They are willing to recommend their company as an employer to others.
– Passive (ratings of 7-8): Employees who give neutral ratings are satisfied, but may not necessarily recommend the company as an employer to others.
– Critics (ratings 0-6): Employees who give low ratings are likely to experience dissatisfaction, lack of engagement or negative experiences in the workplace. They are less likely to recommend the company as an employer.
The Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an important indicator that helps organizations assess the level of employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. A high NPS indicates loyal and engaged employees, which has a positive impact on productivity, retention and talent acquisition. Organizations should regularly monitor Employee NPS and take steps to improve the work experience of employees.
How do you make strategic decisions from an HR perspective?
In the era of hybrid work, when employees are often in different locations, HR professionals face the challenge of collecting and analyzing dispersed data. Making informed decisions requires the ability to access and interpret relevant information from a variety of sources. HR departments can use technology solutions, such as analytics tools or HR management systems, to centralize and effectively analyze data. By harnessing the power of data, HR can gain valuable insights into employees’ needs, preferences and performance to make informed decisions and develop tailored strategies.
All of this can be supported by Power BI (a data visualization and business analytics tool), which can help HR departments make key decisions. Here are some ways Power BI can be useful to HR:
- Monitor key HR metrics: Power BI enables the creation of interactive and dynamic dashboards that aggregate and visualize data related to employee headcount, turnover, compensation, absenteeism, engagement and other HR metrics.
- HR Process Effectiveness Analysis: Power BI enables analysis of the effectiveness of HR processes, such as recruitment, performance appraisal, training and development, and compensation management. HR can track and evaluate indicators such as process duration, success rates, costs and other factors affecting process efficiency.
- Employee Engagement Analysis: Power BI enables the collection of employee engagement data through surveys, polls or other tools. HR can use this data to create interactive dashboards that show real-time engagement results. This allows HR to identify areas where employees may need support and take action to improve employee engagement and satisfaction. Given the analysis of the employee satisfaction survey, the data can be prepared in a way that allows analysis from different perspectives – both for specific departments and the average score for the entire organization.
- Forecasting and human resource planning: Power BI enables analysis of historical employee count and turnover data, which can help HR departments forecast future staffing needs and plan human resources.
Power BI provides data visualization tools and capabilities that enable HR departments to take a more strategic approach to analysis and decision-making. This allows HR to better understand data, identify patterns and trends, and take effective action to improve performance, employee engagement, achieve organizational goals and make data-driven decisions.
Key findings from the article
- The HR department has to analyze a large amount of data scattered across different locations.
This often leads to data silos, resulting in key decisions being made based on faulty conclusions.
- In order to effectively achieve one of the main goals of the HR department, which is to retain employees, it is useful to know their level of job satisfaction with the company. To do this, you should collect information from them, such as through surveys and Microsoft Forms, and then be able to analyze it in a reliable and accessible way.
- The HR department analyzes far more indicators, such as employee turnover rate, internal employee displacement, team productivity, employee absenteeism, overtime, average recruitment time, average recruitment cost, etc. Regularly analyzing these indicators allows the HR department to gain valuable information about various aspects of the organization and make appropriate decisions to improve overall efficiency.
- Data analytics, combined with tools such as Power BI, addresses the need for easy access to all necessary HR data to help achieve organizational goals. Power BI is a powerful business analytics tool that allows HR to analyze and visualize data in a user-friendly and efficient way.
