More than just a number – how big data can lead to huge HR wins

Experts say that data is becoming the world’s most valuable resource. But what value does it bring to HR professionals?

While HR is by no means solely a numbers game, organisations are understanding that having reliable data they can easily collect and organise is a valuable tool.

At a basic level, the data gives useful information into sickness levels, overall performance, diversity, turnover, and much more. And more strategically, having the ability to delve into the data, finding trends in particular business areas – or even geographical regions for larger companies – can give HR professionals useful insight into how their HR processes are working and where their people need support.

The data can also help to get the attention of the wider organisation, particularly if there’s an issue that requires urgent attention. This leads to valuable conversations, and ultimately evidence-based decisions that make a true difference to how an organisation works.

All of this contributes to the transformation of HR’s reputation from practitioners into strategic business partners.

Data challenges for HR

With so much to gain from utilising people data to highlight and solve business problems, why is this not a standard part of HR’s role? We’ve found that the following blockers are common:

• Data, data, everywhere – perhaps the biggest data challenge for HR teams is when they still have their data stored in multiple places. This makes organising and consolidating the data an extremely difficult and time-consuming process.
• Lack of understanding – to make use of your data, you need to be able to interpret and understand it. And with so much data available, HR professionals are often overwhelmed.
• Fear of breaking the rules – data protection regulation is strict and comes with serious sanctions. While this is undoubtedly an effective and necessary way to protect personal data, it can also lead to a fear of breaching regulation. And this can ultimately deter organisations from using people data to its fullest potential.

Cascade HR can help

Our fully integrated solutions make collating, organising and understanding your people data simple. Built with data compliance in mind, our simple to use reporting can help you gain valuable insight into what your people data is telling you about your organisation – safely.

Get in touch to discover how we can help with your reporting.