Business leaders have long struggled to unlock the power of data, to create truly “data-driven” organizations that use analytics and insights to improve performance. They already have a lot of data at their fingertips and will have a lot more soon. Analysts predict that by 2025, the amount of data in the world will double every 12 hours1, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning technology.
Collecting the data is of course the easy part. Accessing, sorting, and analyzing to obtain meaningful and actionable information is much more challenging and many organizations struggle to do so successfully, hampered by legacy systems, integration issues, lack of skills and resources, and the scale and complexity of the task.
Getting this process right is very important because the potential of data to have a positive impact on organizations is great, whether it be measuring, evaluating, and optimizing employee experiences or improving operational performance in all areas of the employee life cycle. HR professionals can and should use data to attract high-value organizational skills, engage, motivate and retain existing talent, and drive performance, learning and productivity.
This is possible because the range and depth of data they have are evolving rapidly. By extracting this massive amount of data, employers give a complete picture of their team, with a much better understanding of people’s circumstances, motivations, needs, and aspirations, which in turn helps them deliver a relevant and engaging employee experience to create.
Of course, great responsibility comes with great responsibility, and organizations must act ethically and transparently; must access, protect and share data appropriately, based on a strict code of conduct, legal compliance, and employee consent. They take a big risk if they can’t manage the data properly.