6 Benefits of Talent Analytics in Boosting Employee Performance

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Keep your business on the path to success and growth with 6 benefits of talent analytics in boosting employee performance.

Businesses are constantly looking to improve different areas of their performance, everything from higher productivity rates to better sales figures. There are two main challenges for these organizations: how to measure employee performance and how they can use that measurement to achieve the improvements they want.

One major tool that a business can use in this battle is talent analytics. It’s staggering to know that only 14% of companies currently have a talent analytics program, though 60% are looking to implement one. Just what is talent analytics and how can a business use an analytics program to improve the most vital areas of their organization?

What Is Talent Analytics? 

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You use data in almost every area of your business, so why should your workforce be any different? With talent analytics, you utilize the wealth of data you have on your employees (and that they generate) to make informed planning and operational decisions that can improve your value streams and processes. 

Talent analytics can play a major role in deciding what a business will look like in the future. For example, a company may look at relevant analytics when planning recruitment and seeing how many new employees they can afford to hire. 

Your HR team/department will be the center of your talent analytics efforts. HR professionals will collect and analyze employee data and then present it to your C-suite as a report. This may be a generic ‘state of the workforce’ report or it could be a specialized one that focuses on something the management wants to investigate such as productivity. 

As well as your existing workforce, talent analytics can be used to screen candidates and create a talent pool for future recruitment drives. With the use of automated processes and AI-powered systems, it can take a lot of pressure off your HR team. 

What Tools, Metrics, and Processes Can Help You With Talent Analytics?

As with other processes, you want a wide range of data to carry out an effective analytics program. Knowing what to collect, and how to collect it, will go a long way to providing accurate insights and enabling informed decisions. 

1. Performance metrics

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If you’re looking to boost different areas of your workforce’s performance, then accurate and relevant performance metrics are essential. However, it’s also important to not just reduce your metrics to quantitative data, you need to have some qualitative context too. 

For example, if you want to monitor the performance of a team implementing and running an application portfolio management APM program, you need to recognize the different numbers of apps being added and used every month. 

Prioritizing these metrics will also depend on the nature of your business. A call center may look at things such as average handle time, while an e-commerce business may look at its NPS (net promoter score). Some of the most common performance metrics you may want to consider include:

• Average revenue per employee. 
• Productivity rates.
• Work quality rates.
• Efficiency rates. 

As well as individual performance, you can also combine your overview with business performance. In many ways, the two areas are symbiotic; if your employees are performing to a high standard, then this should be reflected in business performance. 

2. Surveys 

Once you know what data you want to collect, then you need to decide how to collect it. Surveys can be a great way of collecting a range of workforce data, from employee satisfaction to identifying skills gaps and opportunities (or a lack thereof) for career progression. By combining collected performance metrics with the results of surveys, you will be better placed to make good decisions. 

For example, you may have recently switched to new automated processes. Your performance metrics show that productivity has dropped since they were implemented and an employee survey shows that staff are unhappy as they don’t fully understand the new processes. This means that you can make an informed decision to provide training for all staff using the new automation. 

3. Monitoring tools

For collecting quantitative data, you can use a wide range of tools that are either designed for that or that have data collection as one of its features. For example, if you’re using project management software, you can analyze how long each task takes to complete, as well as the project as a whole. 

Many of these tools will collect real-time data and can offer insights into both employee behavior (such as what periods of the day they are most productive) to the efficiency of collaboration and/or communication tools. These tools can give you a more rounded overview of different factors relating to employee performance. 

6 Benefits of Talent Analytics

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One of the advantages of implementing a talent analytics program is that it can offer you benefits in so many areas. Which of these benefits relate to boosting employee (and business) performance? 

1. Workforce insights 

A good analytics program offers you insights into your employees that may not have been as clear with just manual feedback from managers and staff. The reports can let you identify both skills gaps and any recruitment needs. 

You can also gain insights into productivity and efficiency levels so you can make any needed changes. You can use your analytics to build an employee profile for each staff member that can; 

• Highlight the need for training in new processes or with new systems. 
• Focus on employees who have leadership potential.
• Identify poorly performing employees. 
• Identify employees who may be more suited to other roles. 

It’s not just a case of identifying areas of good or bad performance. You need to be able to identify the WHY and make any changes that will improve results. 

2. Track hiring metrics

Your recruitment policies may vary across the financial year. Maybe you are subject to seasonal fluctuation and have to hire more staff around the Christmas holidays. Talent analytics can give your HR team insights into how your recruitment policies are working and can give you an average cost per hire that includes factors such as onboarding or training. 

Over time, these hiring metrics can make a noticeable difference to your performance metrics. Your hiring policy can be improved so that you are attracting the best talent during any hiring window. 

3. Employee retention

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While employee turnover varies from industry to industry, the overall average turnover rate was 41% in 2023. Some of that will be due to natural turnover (such as retirement) but what might concern you is when your best talent leaves for what they see as better opportunities. By utilizing talent analytics, and in particular staff feedback, you can identify factors that may stop that loss of talent. 

Employee satisfaction rates will tell you what the current employee sentiment is. But you want to drill down into the details and see what is affecting that satisfaction rate. Are you offering good opportunities for learning and/or career progression? Are your benefits packages attractive enough or do they need to be improved? You want to ensure that staff want to stay with you rather than join a competitor. 

4. Identifying skills gaps and the need for training or learning 

Very few if any businesses remain static in the way they do things or the tools they use. Advancements in technology, new AI-powered systems, and automation are all designed to boost productivity and efficiency. However, if your staff are not ready to use these new tools, or if they lack the training required, then you may not see any positive effects. 

For example, you recently developed a new call monitor system for the call center sector. Your analytics may identify skill gaps that must be filled to achieve optimal productivity. Analytics helps you – and your workforce – adjust to new market needs or business operations. 

By closely analyzing your performance analytics and combining them with insights from your staff, you can identify any skills gaps or any training that is needed. The benefits of identifying any need for training or learning are twofold. You can boost important metrics such as productivity and efficiency. But you can also improve employee satisfaction by providing clear career progression paths. 

5. Identify bottlenecks and other problems

It’s not always a case of looking at data and seeing poor employee performance. Talent analytics can help you see why that performance is poor in the first place. One team may have low productivity levels because a bottleneck has occurred and there are delays in the work reaching them.

These bottlenecks – or other problems – can be a real hindrance to productivity and efficiency levels but could also delay the completion of projects. Drilling down into the data and getting a clearer picture can mean that you can make adjustments that can boost those all-important performance metrics. 

Analytics is a guiding light in the often-convoluted labyrinth of organizational workflows and processes. By delving deep into data, it uncovers bottlenecks that often go unnoticed, such as technical debt impact, hindering productivity and efficiency. As mentioned before, it’s not simply about the data you see in a report, but understanding why those figures are what they are. 

6. Improve company culture

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The qualitative aspects of talent analytics combined with metrics such as employee satisfaction can enable you to make any changes needed to improve the overall company culture. When satisfaction levels are high, then employee engagement levels are high, and vice versa. Using tools such as workforce surveys can help you pinpoint any issues that may exist. 

When workforce analytics shows that your employees are unhappy, you need to know why that dissatisfaction exists so that you can address the issue directly and make any changes that are needed to bring them back to good satisfaction rates, Some of the most common reasons for workplace dissatisfaction are: 

• Career progression opportunities. If an employee feels that their career is stagnant and that promotion is unlikely, they may look elsewhere for employment. 
• Salary. Do the salaries you offer reflect what’s offered by your competitors? You want to at least match the average market rate if not better it. 
• Relationships. Poor working relationships can lead to a dip in productivity and an unhappy employee. Managers should prioritize good communication and a culture of collaboration. 
• Benefits. You may offer a competitive salary but do your benefits packages match that salary? Employees want to see attractive benefits packages that may include bonuses, health and dental support, childcare, etc. 
• Recognition and awards. In addition to benefits, employees want to be recognized for their achievements. If one of your staff comes up with an idea that boosts efficiency or a team completes a project ahead of schedule, then you should recognize that in some way.
• Work-life balance. Employees today want to have a good work-life balance. That can include shift patterns that allow them more time with their families or a remote or hybrid working model that lets them choose when and where they work. 
• Management styles. Nobody wants authoritarian-style leadership or a feeling that managers are constantly looking over their shoulders. 
• Workloads. If you overwork your staff, then it’s natural that they will be unhappy. While there may be times when workloads increase (to meet an order in time, for example), that need should be communicated and good overtime rates offered.
• Job security. Your staff needs to know their roles are secure. Communicating when there are any issues and if those issues will affect the size of your workforce is crucial. Equally, you should also communicate when the business is doing well and what your future plans are. 

By using talent analytics, you can identify any issues that your staff feels are important. Addressing and rectifying those problems can lead to higher employee satisfaction rates and help boost your productivity levels. 

The Takeaway 

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There are many factors to consider when you look at both business performance and employee performance. Market trends or a downturn in the economy can mean that your sales figures will be adversely affected. Although you may have no control over such external factors, you do have a degree of control over internal factors that can affect employee performance. 

If you want to enjoy the 6 benefits of talent analytics in boosting employee performance, you need to be ready to combine qualitative and quantitative data so that you get a more accurate overview of relevant conditions within your business. Identifying what works – and what doesn’t – can be an important step to higher productivity and efficiency levels as well as improved employee satisfaction.