“The opportunity for HR is to swiftly and aggressively distinguish from the traditional systems and be adept at looking at the data engines and analytics. Most importantly the art to mine data, identifying relationships, patterns, hypothesis and testing them would be a source of competitive advantage”
Madhav Vamsi M
I am a devout user of LinkedIn. My passion multiplies with every passing day for the way LinkedIn “datafied” our professional connections. For me, this process is datafication. I believe Datafication is seen as the next big thing in management.
How can the HR fraternity benefit from the big data revolution? There is an imperative need to introspect deep and to define the problem areas in an organization. Areas like team collaboration, benchmarking best cognitive and psychometric behavioural patterns, predicting possible exits, HR datafication is vital and a key to HR success, for which the journey must begin by arriving at a problem statement.
With tremendous economic anxiousness across; according to me the key challenges for the HR fraternity are delivering growth, controlling costs and managing risks. Organizations now realize the scope in improving organizational efficiency and OD, an imperative need to seek data, right and relevant data as per the contextual environment a particular organization is operating in.
The opportunity for HR is to swiftly and aggressively distinguish from the traditional systems and be adept at looking at the data engines and analytics. Most importantly the art to mine data, identifying relationships, patterns, hypothesis and testing them, would clearly be a source of competitive advantage for an HR Professional. HR needs to be agile in harnessing big data for business performance and results.
More and more data has been created in the last two years due to globalization, mobilization, cloud computing and social media. Amidst this data explosion, what are some of the prominent challenges of datafication? Is HR in India Inc. geared up to handle the challenges?
Data is in abundance. What we see now is a data fission reaction, and the word infinite is apt for ‘Data’ for its abundant, availability across the world in various forms. One of the most prominent challenges is having ‘HR as a data operator’. While data analytics is a powerful tool, it can only be as powerful as the operator. Big Data indeed would revolutionize HR. It presents both, a challenge and an opportunity for the HR Manager, who has traditionally been seen as a not very data savvy or technology savvy professional. The real need is HR Analytics education for India Inc.
HR as a school has gone through innumerable changes over the last two decades, thanks to the various movements around the economy being anxious, which has helped HR to turn agile and to swiftly change gears; moving away from a traditional personnel department to be a part of business, embedded into the business as a business HR. Having said that, I believe, HR in India is not right there, as far as Datafication or usage of Big Data is considered. Another key challenge for HR India is ‘HR Data Management’. Companies still seem weak at managing HR information
Today as we read into the success stories of organizations who have immensely reaped benefits out of analytics, the likes of Google who datafied search, similarly LinkedIn, datafying professional network, there is no second thought that each of these businesses is harnessing big data for its growth and in turn value for share. Having said that, success stories are from companies prominently from the Western World. We are yet to see remarkable examples of an Indian firm creating stories about the possible benefits earned using big data.
“Today as we read the success stories of organizations who have immensely reaped benefits out of analytics, the likes of Google who datafied search, similarly LinkedIn, datafying professional network, there is no second thought that each of these businesses is harnessing big data for its growth and in turn value for share.”
Unlike a data/technology geek, HR is unable to ask the right questions. HR is unable to form equations, simple questions like which are the segments that are leaving the organization or macro questions like how to build a stronger talent pipeline for the Global Economic recovery. As an HR professional, am I able to distinguish the cognitive abilities of a particular project reaping benefits mapped and replicate the pattern across other projects?
As an HR leader am I able to investigate the key challenges of the HR? And once analyzed, are we as able to build sustainable solutions to the key challenges using hypothesis or right predictive analysis? Are we able to use data engines effectively? For me, the real data revolution still lies ahead! And it’s time we seriously capture the opportunity now!
Focusing on well defined, small, and easy analytics “showcases” the first step to creating awareness and appetite for analytics support with senior business stakeholders. The best teams ensure they collaborate with stakeholders throughout the process of identifying which topics or projects the HR analytics team will work on, all the way through to interpreting the results. Embracing storytelling to communicate their data is a strong skill HR needs to gain the essential boardroom support.
Developing analytics capability in HR teams such that they are able to influence and work with stakeholders inside and outside of HR might be a “business challenger”.
HR domain experts with the skills to analyze HR-related business needs and integrate databases from different sources will be the torchbearers of creating a culture of data-driven, decision-making, therefore, paving the way for the maturity of HR datafication.
