After talking to a lot of people in and around the human resource industry I have found that there is a great grasping for information about what is important to measure, why should you measure them and what do you do with the information once you have it.  So, over the next few weeks,  we are going to explore the need for and wonder of, critical workforce numbers.

Absenteeism:

When you mention measuring absenteeism to a business leader, the first thing that comes to mind is who do you fire because they missed too many days.  But, what about aligning absenteeism with other trends or metrics to get a better picture of why things might be happening?   read more »

Many years ago the CRM (customer relationship management) industry exploded.  Organizations realized that if they kept better track of their customers and prospects and their relationship building exercises with those contacts, they could improve their processes and replicate their successes.  Suddenly, the rolodex and the single sales guys copy of “ACT!” was not enough.  Companies invested in integrating their information, and suddenly, they had TONS of information.  The marketing department started demanding access to the data that helped them watch the tie between their activities and the process of the sales department.  Amazing things happened to increase the sales and relationships companies had with their customers.  There is so much more about this evolution that had an impact.  One of the biggest wins was the fact that now many managers could see and measure the success of the initiatives they were doing – where it counted – the deal pipeline.

We are really at the early stage of another powerful industry explosion.  The Talent Management processes are being taken more seriously than ever.  Yes, there have been processes, employee development programs, etc., for as long as companies have had employees.  However, the heat is rising in the real attention the processes are getting.  Organizations are understanding that it is critical to track and manage the development of their employees.  A lot of activity and dollars are being spent on these initiatives.  These projects and systems are generating a LOT of data.  Everybody loves data.  I am sure your favorite item in your inbox is the huge spreadsheet with the reams of data in rows and columns, and occasionally, a pie chart or bar chart helps make the data consumable.  But what does it mean???? read more »

Part 1

Talent movement can tell you more than you think about your organization, yet many businesses don’t plumb its full depth. Talent movement statistics have more to offer than just the basics of whether your employees are leaving on their terms or yours. With some deeper analysis, you can actually improve business performance. I recently sat down with Dr. Kevin Carlson, Associate Professor of Management at Virginia Tech, to discuss the topic of monitoring talent movement and why it’s a key factor in effective workforce planning and management. He shared his insight into how businesses can analyze employee movement to maximize business performance in specific areas of their organization. read more »

Everyone’s always talking about the importance of analytics. “Blah blah blah analytics blah blah.” Of course “analytics” is more than just a buzzword, as you well know. Analytics are an important part of every HR team’s decision making and planning initiatives. And yes, you know you need them. But as many a toddler once asked, “WHY?” read more »

It started as an #HR_Tech chat on Twitter. A group of us were discussing the metrics and analytics in HR. There was some smack talk about the lack of value of turnover data being a lagging indicator of talent. read more »