The Role of Big Data in Human Resource Management in 2022

Megha Sharma
4 min readDec 28, 2021

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Organizations across the globe are making big investments in big data. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, 85 percent of executives have their projects underway or have planned for getting more value to their businesses out of data their organizations generate and gather.

A recent report by Gartner projects that big data will vindicate USD 28 billion of global IT spending and will double up in the future.

With the use of big data, human resource management teams have an unprecedented opportunity to be data-driven while they acquire and retain talent.

Big data analytics and human resource management

Business intelligence: allows businesses to choose data from a system and manipulate it to generate reports, including data in different forms.

Predictive analytics: Uses the evaluation of historical and current facts to predict unknown events using machine learning, data mining, statistics, and modeling.

Workforce analytics: This tool uses software to apply statistical models to employee-related data to optimize human resource management. It can assist companies in planning recruitment methods, several hiring decisions, and retaining the best talent.

What it means to use big data in HR

In the current fast-paced world, evaluating large quantities of different data is doable but isn’t easy. When companies start implementing the latest HR technology and use big data in HR, they will be able to:

Reduce the cost of misalignment

When employees are improperly selected they can cost the company much more, which includes their training costs and social benefits. It can also mean hiring costs, reduced productivity, and increased negative customer reviews. With the help of HR technology and big data analytics and talent managers can observe a significant reduction in the cost of misalignment.

Decreased employee turnover

When companies hire someone, they spend a lot of time, energy, and capital on those candidates. What if s/he resigns? The entire cycle repeats as they start looking for new candidates. Big data in HR allows algorithms to flag employees at risk of leaving by understanding their online activity, employment history, profile updates, job performance, and salary data. If the system tags important employees, talent managers have the option of retaining them by offering salary increases, more sophisticated positions, and even promotions. Several companies, such as Walmart, Xerox, and Credit Suisse, have been successful in increasing customer loyalty rates by up to 20 percent using this method.

Predicting performances

How would a talent manager or a recruiter know if potential new hires fit the work culture or if they do their job well? It’s unreliable to follow instincts, and it’s a lot of work to try to compare candidates with current top performers, given all the requirements for a job. Instead, the HR analytics model can be used in human resource management to track the record of successful employees and build profiles of high performers. What companies get is a targeted headhunting tool that personalized messages to the right talent. Some freelance platforms already use this approach, and the forecasts are meaningful enough to evaluate promotions, future jobs, even temporary bifurcation of companies. Big data in HR saves hiring time and money.

Benefits package improvements

Do companies identify the benefits that their employees want as part of their payroll package? Considering an example from an insurance company, employers can collect health data from employees and candidates. This allows the human resource management team to create more attractive and lucrative packages. It is important to note that companies must be transparent about what they are doing to avoid legal issues related to discriminatory practices. This can be done by disclosing how this data is collected and used.

Successful implementation of changes

While using HR technology, predictive analytics is one such tool used by organizations to evaluate the present situation and predict the future. This helps companies to have better clarity regarding ongoing operational activities and gain positive insight. For instance, Bank of America used big data to study the interaction and movement among their employees. This helped them to find out the teams that bond well and that was very efficient. These insights are beneficial for HR managers to evaluate the productivity of their talent.

To sum up

The role of big data in the HR field is becoming more important. The value of the data has certainly made several businesses run faster and achieve greater heights. It is essential for companies would are keen to ensure that their employees are managed effectively and organizational goals are being met.

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Megha Sharma
Megha Sharma

Written by Megha Sharma

HR Manager, with a sharp eye to attract and top talent, develop existing talent along with managing employee relations.

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