Why Do Employee Analytics Matter?

Employee analytics can be rather useful seeing as we live in a data-driven world. For, not only do they reveal employee experience, but they also help businesses establish the best practices.

As to what employee analytics are (sometimes also referred to as "workplace analytics"), it is, perhaps, best to describe them as an umbrella term encompassing various workforce metrics, some of which include engagement, satisfaction rates, attrition and benefits.

The term is, however, not to be confused with "people analytics," as these stats measure processes and techniques related to HR.

Which Areas of the Overall Employee Experience Do Employee Analytics Affect?

The three chief areas employee analytics affect are, as follows:

a) Increasing Employee Engagement. The stats can be used as definite drivers of employee engagement.

b) Decreasing Employee Turnover Rates. Insights into the factors causing the employees to leave.

c) Helping to Improve Process and Overall Workflows. Many aspects can be positively influenced by employee analytics, like using kanban boards and other apps and tools.

d) Business Performance. Businesses with a solid employee experience have higher profits and customer satisfaction rates.

e) Employee engagement. By defining and addressing problematic practices, businesses can increase employee engagement.

f) Company culture. Insights can help build an authentic company culture capable of attracting prospective leaders.

g) Improvements. Insights equip managers with the tools necessary for making better decisions and choosing better resources.

h) Recruiting practices. Insights improve hiring and recruiting practices so that businesses can optimize these processes and prevent potential mistakes.

As you can see, employee analytics covers a wide range of aspects that can help businesses improve the processes and practices, which, in the long run, leads to a better employee and user experience.

Why Employee Engagement Matters?

Much has been said on this matter. Suffice it to say that employee engagement determines overall business success, given that it has an impact on every single aspect of doing business. Think in terms of optimized productivity, experience, satisfaction, operational efficiency, company reputation, company culture, and finally - profits.

Employee engagement is influenced by a number of factors, such as are communication, apps and tools, and employee satisfaction.

To get an insight into employee analytics, you can apply a variety of approaches, including but not limited to employee feedback, surveys, internal communication and collaboration platforms.

Commonly assessed stats include the turnover, absenteeism and Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Employee Analytics: Examples

Since employee analytics include a number of insights, examples may come in handy. Here are some best practices, but remember to use them as guidelines rather than rules. Adjust your approach to fit your business culture.

Employee Benefits Analytics

Employee benefits play a large role in attracting and retaining employees. Some common benefits include paid time off (PTO), life/disability insurance, retirement savings or contributions health insurance, commuter benefits and family/medical leave.

Additional benefits may include wellness programs and training — the two highly popular choices.

Employee Attrition Analytics

Employees can leave for a variety of reasons, all of which can be categorized as voluntary- or involuntary leave.

Voluntary leave happens when an employee chooses to leave. Resignation is the most common one.

Involuntary leave happens in all attrition cases caused by the business itself (layoffs, restructuring, etc.).

The most common employee attrition metric is the employee attrition rate.

Productivity and Efficiency Analytics

Productivity- and efficiency analytics are indicative of employee engagement, which, as mentioned above, is crucial for any business.

The most significant operational efficiency and productivity metrics include work efficiency, work quality, and time spent on target tasks.

Work efficiency measures the overall ability of an employee to get the job done in a satisfactory manner. It is usually being assessed by an input-output ratio of a particular task over a designated time frame.

Work quality is being assessed via managers’ feedback.

Time spent on target tasks shows how long it takes an employee to complete the target task. It should be used in continuity since it illustrates which employees aren’t motivated (they repeatedly spend too much time on a task). However, keep in mind that this metric is not always indicative of employees’ abilities. In some cases, employees may spend significant amounts of time looking for information. Should this prove to be the case, the metric shows the need to employ better tools and communication platforms.

Internal Communication Analytics

Proper internal communication has a huge impact on employee experience. When tasks aren’t being communicated clearly and information flow is impeded, employees will not be motivated.

To ensure that efficient internal communication is taking place, pay attention to relevant metrics, which include employee adoption rate, click-through rate (CTR), and open rate.

Employee adoption rate measures employee engagement on the internal communication platform.

Open rates measure how often employees consult internal communication channels (platforms, email, etc.).

CTRs measure how many employees click a link sent via communication channels.

Conclusion

As you can see, employee analytics metrics are tremendously important. It is recommended to invest efforts to improve the business culture, but keep in mind privacy issues. It is necessary to ensure that employees’ private information is secure at all times by complying with the regulations, applying data encryption and performing regular security audits.

Angela Ash is an expert content writer, editor and marketer, who focuses on topics related to remote work, freelancing, entrepreneurship and more.