Imagine that five people account for 35 percent of the collaboration relationships in your company. One is about to retire, and two others are in salary negotiations. Hyperventilating yet?
But collaboration relationships can be measured. In fact, tracking employee data provides information you need to assess team members’ real or potential values to the company.
The Data Points You Need to Track
There are six types of data it pays to measure:
- Demographic data is your standard HR information: age, gender, race, tenure, pay grade, education, and work experience.
When examined as a company, this information identifies diversity or inclusion issues. There may be underrepresented groups or a department dominated by one gender or another.
- Sentiment data tracks how your employees feel. It’s possible to measure engagement, attitudes, reactions, and tone. Feelings are contagious. Understanding your staff’s feelings and addressing concerns can maximize employee retention.
- Performance data indicates how your team does at its job. Tracking performance means knowing how much your people sell or produce using information from reviews and other evaluation processes your company utilizes.
Analyzing performance data also allows supervisors to see whether their stars get too distracted. Ensuring employees spend a majority of their time working within their strengths keeps a company asset from jumping ship.
- Physical data is fairly new. Tracking this information is more advanced and includes knowing your team’s location, where they congregate, etc. It even helps you assess whether your office layout promotes the collaboration you desire.
- Productivity data tells you how much your employees email, how long they’re on the phone, and other measurable factors. Tracking productivity allows you to see how people influence the behaviors around them. By praising their actions, you increase effectiveness across the board.
- Relational data has a lot of potential but is the most overlooked. It shows who works with whom and how to quantify relationships. Tracking relational information gives insight into who has influence and where silos are located. This knowledge can be paired with other data sets to make decisions.
Data to the Rescue
Combining these six types of data is the key to understanding people analytics. But first, start small, know the law, and use the right information to make the best decisions.
For example, you can’t fire someone due to demographic data. But if you want to know who the top-notch employees are in your firm, combine demographic data with performance and relational data. You will systematically identify the cream of the crop.
Trying to decide whom to promote? If performance scores are identical, other stats can reveal which candidate is helpful, shares ideas, and listens better than others.
The HR impact on your company doesn’t happen in a bubble. Great people follow great peers to new companies. Employee engagement can be impacted by one person’s mood. By looking at data holistically, you’ll notice trends, assess risk, and catch situations before they’re out of control.
What if your most influential team member, who supports and helps his peers, were underpaid by 20 percent? His loss would hugely impact the company’s productivity and morale. Rather than saving the situation with a resignation letter, tracking employee data has the ability to come to the rescue before the crisis rears its ugly head.
By combining data sets, you’ll realize that large issues can be resolved with a small fix. It’s like when your car breaks down — only one small thing keeps it from running.
How could capturing and using these data sets help you hire and retain your best staff?
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