Laura Avalos of o9 Solutions on Leveraging the Power of Data to Manage Employee Experience

In this article, Laura Avalos, HR Director – Performance Management, o9 Solutions explores how organizations can use data to create exceptional experiences for their employees

Data underpins our lives and has fast emerged as the driving force across businesses. The reliance on data-driven decisions yields predictable outcomes and an almost certain possibility of success in various endeavours. Data finds a multitude of applications, and there are many areas of business where it has proved to be a game changer.

Organizations have been leveraging data gathered using assessment tools to create exceptional experiences for their employees. Enterprises are using data to better understand the factors that motivate their employees to improve performance, and therefore, set them up for success. In addition, it helps them track and understand various stages of the employee life cycle (recruitment through exit), gaining deeper insights into how employees are adapting, and growing over time. This allows organizations to support employees and help them thrive throughout their career journey.

Adopting a Data-driven Approach Early On

There are various assessment activities that can be implemented at various stages of the employee journey to gather insights and make improvements to existing processes. For instance, during talent acquisition, organizations can deploy social media tracking tools to gauge the effectiveness of their branding campaigns and know how engaged their target audience is, particularly prospective employees, universities, and partners, among others.

Recruiters can identify the right talent by leveraging assessment tools to deploy psychometric tests and other elimination techniques that help determine the right candidates who are best suited for the role and organization.

Managing Employee Experience and Life Cycle

According to a recent study by Jobvite, 30 percent of job seekers left a job within 90 days of joining, citing factors such as day-to-day role expectations, company culture, and unsatisfactory leadership. The onus, therefore, lies with the organizations to ensure an immersive and positive onboarding experience for new hires, so that they feel connected and become an integral part of the organization from day one. It is imperative to perform a dip or pulse check through onboarding surveys administered through assessment tools at regular intervals (30, 60, and 90 days), to ascertain the employee experience. In addition, early performance reviews help organizations in identifying whether new hires are on or off-track and accordingly take the required steps to mitigate any potential risks.

Similarly, it is a common practice at leading global organizations to partner with third-party vendors to periodically roll out enterprise-wide employee satisfaction surveys that determine the employee experience at different levels. The data gathered through such surveys is crucial in shaping major policy decisions at organizations.

“Performance and progression are the other two critical areas where assessment tools play a vital role. The performance data gathered through tools help track employee performance against organizational or departmental goals on a regular basis. This allows for a better understanding of the learning and development needs of employees and design effective learning interventions for them.”

Employee and Enterprise Success: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Performance and progression are the other two critical areas where assessment tools play a vital role. The performance data gathered through tools help track employee performance against organizational or departmental goals on a regular basis. This allows for a better understanding of the learning and development needs of employees and design effective learning interventions for them. Consequently, it helps organizations create meaningful and rewarding experiences for employees, and enables them to achieve their larger goals, which are inextricably linked to the performance of employees.

Building Engaged and Motivated Teams 

According to the Corporate Leadership Council, highly engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave companies than those less engaged. Recently, organizations witnessed the Great Resignation, fueled by the global pandemic, which saw employees leaving their jobs in hordes, compelling organizations to rethink their strategies and take significant steps to assess the employee experience by running engagement and pulse surveys. These were aimed at better employee engagement and retention, resulting in the implementation of employee engagement initiatives and positive changes to work policies.

In addition, data collected through assessment tools or surveys can help organizations benchmark their policies with respect to the de-facto industry trends and best practices. This helps them gain actionable insights into aspects such as industry compensation standards, pay parity, and employee benefits, enabling them to stay competitive and be the employer of choice for prospective employees.

Conclusion

Data can be an enabler for leaders, helping them make the right business decisions, but it takes discipline and a combination of the right assessment tools and processes to continuously track data for those data-driven decisions to be effective.

Hence, data collected with the right set of assessment tools along with the willingness to act upon the gleaned insights can be a critical driver for enterprises, allowing them to manage and enhance employee experience, brand image, and growth.

About the author: Avalos is the Global HR Director, Performance and Development at o9 Solutions, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, TX.  In this role, she leads a team of L&D professionals from all around the world.