It’s Not Clairvoyance, It’s Data Science

We’re in a fierce era of ever-increasing competition for great, reliable data. Around a decade ago, at the start of the Big Data boom, businesses were just beginning to devise ways to capture and record data. Today, we’re asking, “How do we make our data stronger to deliver insights that are more meaningful?”

For some companies, the answer has been to hire data scientists to help interpret the huge amount of data that companies are collecting, internally and online. In fact, according to Glassdoor, “Data Scientist” ranked as the best job in America in 2017 for the second year in a row. The growing demand for data analysts and scientists really goes to show how more companies are relying on data to help guide their workforce decisions and optimize their biggest asset:  Their people.

But before you go out and hire a data scientist or analyst, it’s important to have clearly defined goals and ask, “What are the core metrics I want to measure to better inform specific business outcomes?” You should also know where the data you’re collecting originates and whether there’s proper standardization when entering data into your systems to improve reliability.

  ​If your organization truly wants to adopt a data-driven culture, it needs to be comfortable sharing data across functions and business units   

It’s also crucial to train your entire workforce to be more data-savvy. While finance and marketing roles have historically been driven by data, more companies are realizing that HR leaders also need to be data analysts. Where HR teams used to rely solely on “gut feel” to make decisions, they now increasingly use data to help identify top leaders and determine whether employees are being compensated and rewarded competitively.

How can you help your organization embrace Big Data to gain workforce insights?

You Need Big Data to Reveal the Big Picture

Plain and simple, people are busy. In the pace of today’s workplace, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. Therefore, more and more, companies are trusting Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help provide higher-level organizational direction and business insight. AI can analyze company data, market trends, and consumer information to help businesses better understand their biggest pain points as well as those of their clients. But to get the most assistance from AI, you need to have a large amount of data so that you can train these systems to analyze various data streams and identify complex patterns.

By analyzing a wide spectrum of data, AI can provide the context needed to help businesses make better decisions. According to a 2017 report by Infosys, 76 percent of senior business decision makers cite  as fundamental to the success of their organization’s strategy, and 64 percent believe their organization’s future growth is dependent on large-scale AI adoption. While the artificial brain can raise problem areas, it’s not intended to out-manage humans. You want to use AI to figure out how to guide your human perception and expertise.

The Power of Predictive Analytics and Benchmarking

More than ever, companies are fighting tooth and nail to recruit and retain skilled talent.