With enormous amounts of data being collected by the company through different channels, how much of this data can be translated to effective business results? Are you going to allow the data to pile up or do you have a plan to manage data and leverage them to boost employee productivity and business performance?

As the name suggests, the term “big data” refers to huge volumes of information collected by the business using different channels. In case of human resource department, the big data here is employee information and confidential business data. Big data helps revolutionise the way business decisions are made through data analysis.

New data related to employees such as recruitment files, personal records, performance analysis, training and development reports, are added to your database every day. Leveraging these data will help the company to analyse certain patterns and workplace, business trends impacting decision-making, team building, business performance and overall growth plans.

BAIN survey presents the top performing companies are highly data-driven, with 53 percent respondents stating that their organisation makes data-driven decisions “quite frequently”. In data-driven decision making environments, leaders today need to ensure that their decisions are evidence-based, rather than biased opinions and favouritism observed.

See: How Can HR Teams Leverage on Big Data?

Gallup survey in 2016 reveals that only 13 percent employees working for an organisation are highly engaged. This number is undoubtedly detrimental for the business. If leaders do not take precautionary actions to improve on their retention strategy, it will greatly affect employer brand and business results. If such situations are not addressed timely with corrective measures, it will only be a matter of time when organisations face serious employee attrition in the future.

To maximise productivity and boost talent retention, there is a need for data-driven HR to design and sketch a practical strategy on how to harness on the untapped potentials of big data. For example, using tools such as data analytics, you can find out areas wherein employees need to showcase improvements or decide on the best benefits that meet employee needs and expectations.

Using predictive analytics, you can gauge predict talent attrition, voluntary employee turnover and their satisfaction in the jobs, gauge their behaviour and understand decision-making processes.

By identifying the root cause of problems and addressing them accordingly, you can improve upon employee engagement. When employees are happy and contented in their job roles, it will result in decrease of voluntary employee turnover with increase in productivity and business performance.

Moving your HR practice into an integrated cloud-based system will also help your organisation give better employee experiences. Leveraging big data to improve employee’s well being should be a continuous and ongoing priority for HR leaders.

It is one of those challenges for HR departments to choose the right HR tech and train the workforce with skills needed to analyse big data. With implementation of the right strategic approach, HRs can improve on their employee-related processes, right from recruitment to retention. It is time HR leaders to tap into big data trends, maximise productivity and boost talent retention.

Read also: Record-Keeping Policies: How Long Should You Store Data?