Understanding the Importance of HR Analytics

by Ryan Hersh BI Industry Professional

The cost of losing an employee can be as much as 6 to 9 months of their annual salary according to SHRM. For an employee making $100,000/year, the cost would amount to $50,000- $75,000. This is no small amount when you consider the implications at the margins in competitive industries. A broken culture and management style could mean life or death for some businesses. Consider the importance of this given employee turnover is at the highest it’s been in 10 years. What can be done about this?

The first step is to realize if your company has a turnover problem. A good place to start here is utilization of HR analytics. Your HR department should keep track of metrics such as:

· Churn rate over time

· Attrition by department

· Employee survey data

These initiatives must come from the top-down and prioritized which requires an awareness of the importance of employee retention and happiness.

Once these metrics are gathered, the company can determine the biggest factors that contribute to an employee leaving or staying. For example, a business may find long commute times are the reasons why 30% of employees leave. A more flexible work-from-home policy or work-day schedule could be implemented to take this into account.

HR analytics can then measure the impact of initiatives taken to see if retention improves over time. Survey data will back this up along with general employee happiness.

People are the most important strategic asset a company has, and it should be priority for every business to make sure they do everything possible to keep their best employees.