As lockdown begins to ease, organisations are exploring how best the business (and most importantly, staff), can re-enter the workplace. HR will play a central role during this transitional period, and the weeks and months which follow. Access to people analytics will be integral to making informed decisions, but according to new research from TrueCue, organisations are hindering plans by not maximising the information available to them.
TrueCue polled 100 data and IT professionals to understand how businesses are currently analysing the data available to them. The findings revealed only a fifth (19 per cent) of organisations have a data and analytics strategy defined at corporate level. When looking at the challenges of analysing data, the findings revealed a third (33 per cent) of participants felt data was often dispersed in silos across the business. Respondents also felt, when it came to seeking and accessing data, this was typically a slow process. Lastly, a lack of technical capability meant departments were limited in understanding the data available to them and ultimately, how to leverage it.
Commenting on the findings James Don-Carolis, Managing Director of TrueCue said,
“Organisations are wrestling with the challenge of how to re-enter the workplace. Issues relating to social distancing, travel restrictions, vulnerable employees, family commitments and employee desires to continue remote working, are just some of the considerations. Businesses will turn to HR to take the lead on ‘project return’, implementing a framework to deploy this safely.
“People analytics will be critical in enabling HR to gain insights on their workforce, allowing more informed decision making. But our evidence shows the department will struggle if data is not available. This needs to change and our findings are a testament to this.”
Don-Carolis continues,
“Over the next 12-18 months we expect to see organisations investing heavily in HR data and people analytics, potentially as part of wider digital transformation initiatives, which are now being accelerated.
“Smarter businesses will recognise when it comes to making decisions about staff and how best to safely return to the office, it needs to be backed up with facts. This needs to come from the top down and integrated through all departments of a business.
“Data needs to become democratised and accessible so departments such as HR can gain the insight they need, particularly when the workforce is remote and dispersed, and likely to remain so for some time.”
Don-Carolis concludes, “Having a data-driven culture and analytics function is important. For it to work it needs to be more than just technology. It is about having genuine insights that will allow good decision making, based on trusted information that can be accessed by the right people at the right time.”
For more information, please see: https://www.truecue.com/