The Future Talent Shortage Will Force Global Companies to use HR Analytics to Help Manage and Predict Future Human Capital Needs

Introduction

Companies should use business intelligence (BI) to transform and maximize the potential of their human capital. The use of human capital based business intelligence (BI) has increasingly become one of the vital strategic components for world class companies. As competition for talented resources intensifies, many senior managers have turned to BI to monitor staffing levels, predict turnover and retain top talent. In the past most software projects focused on automation and other operational efficiencies ahead of BI. Automation projects dealt with process inefficiencies. The key ingredients for human resources based business intelligence have been available for some time now. With the emergence of easy-to-use tools, dashboards, scorecards and web portals BI is starting to offer a host of services. But is that enough? Other key components of an effective human resource based BI platform are a well-defined data management strategy, highly trained business analysts and a single repository for all human resource (HR) data.

Human capital is an important company asset. Senior managers who struggle to get accurate information regarding their associates within a timely manner may miss strategic opportunities. BI allows managers to turn strategy into execution by focusing on elements of workforce success. The four key categories of a successful Human Resource Strategy are Workforce success, Workforce mind-set and culture, Workforce competencies and workforce behaviors (Huselid, Becker, & Beatty, 2005).