Effective use of employee engagement, productivity and achievement data within the company’s performance management platform can help companies build resilience against unforeseeable events into the core of its operations, giving managers and leaders the bird’s eye view needed to adapt to new challenges instantly and effectively.
The changing landscape of data
The way businesses gather and utilise data has radically changed over the last few years. Previously, companies relied upon basic information gleaned from payroll data, turnover rates and other financial measures in order to make judgements about where an employee – or the company at large – should be heading. Now, data comes in all manner of forms, giving business leaders a comprehensive overview of the challenges the company faces, as well as the ability to hone in and fine tune specific areas for improvement via a digital people management platform.
With the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown creating huge shifts in the way businesses operate, the ways in which data is gathered and used has also undergone a major upheaval. Workforce analytics has become a new frontier for companies looking to stay ahead of the competition, but many businesses have been slow to adopt: a survey of 500 HR leaders from MHR Analytics on behalf of YouGov showed that 44% do not have a main focus on HR analytics.
The growth of people analytics
There are three factors which are changing the shape of data analytics:
- a shift to real-time data which reflects the minute-by-minute and day-by-day changes with an organization;
- the explosion in variety of data, with the advent of text pulled data and natural language processing data adding greater understanding of sentiment;
- AI processing of data and how it is analysed.
These changes have been accompanied by an overall growth in people analytics, which have given HR leaders the practical tools required to nudge employees in the right direction and even predict business outcomes. This combined analysis of people-data collected from HR systems, and business data – for example data on operations performance – allows companies the opportunities to make improvements in a wide variety of fields, from how their organisation is designed to how they conduct workforce planning.
Maximizing data with performance management tools
Replacing cumbersome single point solutions with an all-encompassing performance management platform with an integrated HR admin system is the first step towards maximising data. There are however some key reports HR leaders need in order to make the most of their available data, as well as provide new, ongoing data which they can use to boost performance and improve employee sentiment and engagement.
Dashboard reports
Two of the key areas where data can bring significant improvements for employees are in the setting of objectives and the process of reviews. Bringing the relevant data under the umbrella of dashboard reports allows managers and HR leaders to easily track a person’s progress towards the accomplishment of goals and other key performance indicators, as well as evaluate the necessary data gathered from one-2-one meetings, check-ins and other feedback mechanisms, when reviewing their overall performance.
These dashboards give managers a holistic view of the current status of the company, as well as the departments, teams and individuals the business is comprised of. These categories can be easily ranked to show where good performance needs to be commended – and poor performance addressed – while current goals and priorities can be viewed at a glance. Real-time data can be interpreted through customizable reporting, making the appraisals process streamlined and effective.
Sentiment checking and analysis in real-time
A deeper dive into data provides a deeper insight into the gears of a business; data analytics and reporting provide the tools required to hone in on the metrics needed to work towards improvement. With clear objectives established, these reports not only offer valuable insight into how well teams and individuals are progressing towards their goals, but also illustrate employee sentiment based on data gathered from one-2-one meetings, eNPS surveys, and other methods of tracking sentiment.
The ability to pull real-time data into a unified digital system allows HR leaders to work closely with managers to track metrics concerning departments, teams and individuals, spotting new trends early as well as recognising potential problems before they get out of hand.
Today Screen daily overview
Good data provides critical insight into the broader, long term objectives of a company, but sometimes it can be easy to lose sight of what matters most in the here and now. Using a performance management suite with a Today Screen feature provides managers and administrators with a customizable overview of the day’s priorities, giving them visibility of teams and individuals in a single real-time screen.
The Today Screen is a powerful component of a business’s internal communications platform, and can be used by employees throughout the company’s hierarchy to share live feeds, videos and training, and other notifications necessary to keep everyone up to date.
Microsoft Teams integration
With Microsoft Teams becoming increasingly widespread throughout the business community, using performance management software which features full integration creates for greater ease of use for staff at all levels of the company. For employees who are already familiar with how Teams operates, allowing performance management functions to be operated via the platform – and notifications to be sent directly within it across a range of digital platforms – means that users will experience minimal disruption, regardless of their department or physical location.
Building resilience for future Black Swan events with high quality data
Consolidating data into one powerful performance management suite enables businesses to build resilience against future unforeseen events, delivering the information managers and company leaders require to act swiftly and decisively whenever an emergency arises.
High quality data allows companies to be proactive rather than reactive, better positioning themselves for the next “Black Swan” crisis, whether this is further economic disruption due to potential future pandemics or political unrest and cyber attacks.
Data-driven performance management and workforce analytics helps ensure that managers and leaders are ahead of the curve, capable of communicating new procedures and goals to staff across a multi-channel communications platform, whether employees are working on-site or remotely.
