• Sign in
  • 0Shopping Cart
  • Solutions
        • High value indicators
        • HR working data driven
        • Managers working data driven
        • HR of the future
        • Best Practice Nuggets
        • Advisory Board Briefings
        • Special Offer
        • SOLUTIONS

          After more than 20 years of research we know what it takes to be a top performer in people management. Our solutions focus on ‘what moves the needle most’ in people management – from creating a high value dashboard to establishing the MUST in every HR process. Everything tied to monetary impact being able to prove the value the HR function creates and highlighting line management accountability. Following best practices creates impressive results on all levels.
  • Live online academy
        • Overview
        • Up-skilling HR working data driven
        • Best Practice Nuggets
        • Up-skilling managers working data driven
        • Certificates
        • Description

          After up-skilling and coaching thousands of HR professionals in Fortune 500 companies to work number driven and putting a price tag on a problem, our programs are also available to you in our live online academy. Every year HR professionals participate in our academy worldwide either as company in-house seminars or in one of our live online up-skilling courses.
  • Featured Insights
  • Community
        • Live specials online
        • Podcast
        • Blog
        • Post your question
        • Newsletter
        • Register
        • Sign In
        • Community

          Welcome to our community "HR working data driven". The main purpose it to share, explore and support HR professionals in working number driven. Take part in one of our weekly live specials, read our insights or post a question and get an answer from our members and coaches about a specific topis. If you want to join please sign in and become a member.
  • About us
        • Careers
        • Contact
  • Menu Menu
Winning via numbers

Big Data in HR – New way of working or just a new hype?

5 min read

Most companies struggle to identify the needed success-relevant metrics to keep control of all people management processes. Getting this right is a powerful platform to get HR in the driving seat, creating real value by highlighting issues tied to financial results, moving managers into the right direction and deciding on organisational change based on measurable input. Big Data will eventually support that by moving a sophisticated dashboard to the next level.

BIG data as a problemsolver

Companies seem to view systems and BIG data as a problem solver, but there are two major problems:

First, Big Data will maybe give you a better basis for decisions and actions – but the manager still has to act upon it. An example in Performance Management: Big Data might help you in identifying poor and low performers (but honestly: most managers know these already). The crucial thing is acting upon it: Getting rid of poor performers (which lots of organisations struggle with) and improving low performers (also something most organisations are not really good at).

Secondly, the IT systems are still a big hurdle. Nowadays many companies still struggle to get basic data into the systems (or fail to get the basic data into the systems correctly). Without that database it is useless to speculate how Big Data will be able to help us – especially as it takes much more than that before we can do workforce analytics based on Big Data.

Should we ignore Big Data?

From our perspective the answer is “No”. We should use the momentum to start asking these questions:

  • What are the business critical people management processes in our organisation?
  • Do we only analyse the past or also engage in predictive analytics?
  • What are the Must-Win-Battles within each of the processes?
  • What results do I have to achieve there? What is the target range we should hit?
  • Which metrics would create the right transparency?
  • What are the business cases – how much money do we lose by not reaching the target area?
  • How can we get the right raw data – combining core HR data with business data from finance,marketing, risk management, to achieve reliable results?

Based on vast experience from our benchmarking platform, we are unique in supporting companies in 4 major areas:

Good learning points…….

“…..Let us start to walk (focus on the questions (metrics) in HR that have a direct impact on company results ) before participating in a 100m Olympic Run (using Big Data)…. “

“…..If you start your Big Data approach in HR by collecting all the data you can find you may never come to an end. Rather you have to start with the questions you would like to answer…..”

Choosing the right indicators

Defining the right success criteria for each indicator including defending reasons – focusing on high value generating indicators

Defining the correct raw data to be collected 

Crucial to measure the right things in the same way across the whole organisation – and also to enable benchmarking with the outside world

Providing for each metric the F-Top practice from our benchmarking platform 

Allowing the client to set the right target ranges in order not to be too ambitious or unambitious, but always aligned to specific business needs

Linking each metric to top and bottom line results

Expressing deviations from the target range in concrete monetary terms – how much money do I lose when I am 10% too low compared to a set target

Examples on how Big Data can be used?

Sourcing

  • Process data from the recruiting process can show the best channels and even the best day to post a job for a certain position in a certain geographical area
  • Data gained from Social Media behaviour of candidates can be analysed to determine if they are suitable for a certain job (how outgoing they are, if they are opinion leaders or followers).
  • Online discussion forums can provide data on potential candidates (who answers questions intelligently related to topics that are relevant for the company)

Learning & development

  • Linking data on participation in (formal and informal) L&D activities with performance data can help predict which L&D activities work for which employee group, skill set and role

Performance

  • I.e. data based on wearables: e.g. on the retail shop floor employees wear a tracker that shows their movements and interactions which can be linked to the turnover they create with customers
  • Sensors embedded in office furniture monitor employee behaviour and can help optimize office design for best performance 

Proactive retention management

  • By using various employee data (satisfaction surveys, communication data, performance data, compensation data on amount of pay and timeline of pay increases…) to predict employees who are in risk of leaving

Finally one thing which is definitely a big discussion topic for the future is the handling of data privacy rights. Work councils and unions need to be included in an open discussion regarding which big data to use and how these can be broken down and used on individual levels.

F-Top Institute

Poststrasse 30
CH – 6300 Zug
Switzerland
info@ftop.ch
Phone: +41 41 769 80 30

F-Top Institute

Nørregade 33
DK – 1165 Copenhagen K
Denmark
info@ftop.ch
Phone: +45 2670 0602

Information

  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Recruitment Privacy Notice
Going beyond Dave Ulrich – How the famous HR model led to some unintended...Thought Leaders – the new normal in HR
Scroll to top
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.Got it!Learn more