Upskilling HR for emerging tech

At the beginning of 2020, data analytics was cited as one of the top HR trends to look out for in 2020. Then the pandemic hit, and many HR teams were forced to shift functions such as hiring and onboarding, learning and development and employee engagement online.

In today’s work climate, data analytics is no longer simply beneficial to HR teams. As more companies move online, they are relying on analytics for business insights and team learnings more than ever, meaning that data analytics is integral to HR teams’ success.

Pandemic preparedness

According to PwC’s 2020 HR Technology Survey, 72 per cent of HR leaders either have or will have cloud-based HR applications in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the necessity of data insight for better understanding employees and their needs, measuring sentiment and culture, tracking the lifecycle of employees and planning for the future.

Tracking and analyzing employee data can help guide companies through difficult decisions, including those that inevitably arise during challenging times like these. It can also help identify any gaps or areas of improvement for organizations that are spread across multiple locations. After all, you can’t fix what you can’t measure.

Here are some particular areas where data analytics are coming into play during the pandemic:

Managing remote work: With more companies moving to remote work during the pandemic, HR teams can leverage data to track productivity, manage workloads and burnout and monitor employee well-being and sentiment.

Attracting the right talent: Sixty-seven per cent of organizations say that they plan to spend less on permanent hiring over the next 12 months, according to McKinsey & Company. With teams becoming leaner, it’s more important than ever that new hires possess the skillset needed to thrive. Using data will help HR determine what key qualities successful past employees have possessed, to help better determine what to look for in new hires.

Increasing employee retention: Working remotely can lead to a drastic shift in workplace culture and organizations may need to reevaluate their company values. To inform decisions around future planning, they’ll need measurable data on what employees like about the workplace and their jobs.

Planning for the future

Data-literate HR teams can help solve new challenges as they arise. They can also help an organization be proactive rather than just reactive.

Data analytics can help future-proof an organization by predicting turnover, measuring the ROI on training, measuring team productivity and even measuring engagement.

Imagine your team has access to an employee’s data from recruitment, onboarding, training, performance reviews, coaching interactions, promotions and lateral moves, all the way to when the employee leaves the company and afterwards. With access to this level of data, HR can gauge how employees perform in certain types of roles and optimize roles and work environments and training accordingly.

HR leaders are typically the biggest advocates for skills training, but when it comes time for them to invest in their own professional growth, they tend to use programs that develop interpersonal rather than data-heavy skills. In today’s digital age, a combination of both soft and hard skills is important for every role.

As automation takes over mundane tasks, software developers with skills such as emotional intelligence, leadership and creativity are becoming more highly valued. In the same vein, as more cloud-based HR solutions become available, HR professionals with the ability to use these tools are growing in demand.

Creating data-literate HR teams

So, how do we create data-literate HR teams? Rather than looking outward to new hires for these skills, senior HR execs should consider upskilling their teams so that they’re in tune with emerging technologies. With technology permeating virtually every industry, there are now programs available for upskilling HR teams specifically with minimal disruption to the daily workflow.

Data for HR analytics courses built specifically for HR professionals looking to gain digital literacy skills cover recruiting, attrition and employee engagement, along with exploring how HR professionals can better collect, clean, analyze and visualize data using Excel and Tableau to make better data-driven decisions within their roles.

In an increasingly digital world, HR teams have the ability to leverage data to create impactful permanent changes within their organizations.

But it’s up to senior executives to invest in their teams and provide them with the knowledge and tools they need to diagnose problems and create actionable solutions.  

Jeremy Shaki is CEO and co-founder of Canadian tech education leader at Lighthouse Labs. For more information, visit www.lighthouselabs.ca.