People analytics has been in the HR industry for quite a while now. It was introduced to eradicate biases, prejudices, emotions, and other influencing factors that could hurt the business decisions and the company’s growth.

This is where companies started relying on data to extract insights that are real, practical, and bias-free. Not only that, but companies are also depending on the data to understand a lot of other key organizational areas such as employee churn, productivity issues, and more.

However, with the onset of CoVID-19, a lot of new factors have come into the picture. Processes like virtual onboarding, virtual engagement, employee health got added into the people analytics discussions. And justifiably so, as these processes are now defining the basics of workforce operations.

Before diving deeper into how people analytics is working during CoVID-19. Let’s understand some basics of people analytics.

What is People Analytics?

People analytics can be defined as the deeply data-driven and goal-focused method of studying all people processes, functions, challenges, and opportunities at work to elevate these systems and achieve sustainable business success.

It is a data-backed method of decision-making that takes advantage of existing employee data and patterns to better understand the entire employee journey. It digs into the data, analyzes patterns, presents intuitive visualizations, and offers everything in a user-friendly interface. Now, over 70 percent of organizations are investing in people analytics solutions to integrate data into their decision-making. 

People Analytics During CoVID-19

Pandemic brought a lot of changes into people analytics. And chances are you still adjusting to it. To help you in this process, we bring you a list of areas that you must consider to calibrate your people analytics strategy in this pandemic-led workforce.

1. Logistics for Returning to Work

Data analysis is even more valuable as employees return to the office. It helps to track data related to employees’ well-being that further contributes to crafting health-related policies. Not only that, but it also aids in monitoring logistic-related requirements that prepare you with the right tools, manpower, and strategies. For example, how many hours should employees work now, can they adopt a hybrid working model, what will be the social distancing setting of the workforce, and more.

2. Employee Productivity

Unlike earlier, people are now working virtually. As a result, parameters to evaluate employee productivity will also undergo a vital change.  This means managers will not able to supervise their team in front of their eye leading to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and micromanagement.

This is where companies need to evaluate people analytics strategy. Collaborating with everyone virtually and ensuring that productivity doesn’t take a hit is a new challenge. To resolve this, you would need to rely on external tools that can track employees’ activity and productivity without micromanaging every employee. These tools will help you with the right data to understand employee’s productivity as well as other working parameters.

3. Employee Engagement

Teams are interacting virtually. That means employees can no longer indulge in outings, office parties, and in-person conversations. This may adversely affect employee enthusiasm and motivation which further leads to low morale at work.

Here, you must take rescue of people analytics to ensure employees’ mental well-being and enthusiasm doesn’t take a hit. Consider taking pulse surveys to understand what employees are thinking and how your current employee engagement strategies need further revamp. Evaluate the ongoing employee engagement trends and expectations and build engagement strategies accordingly.

4. Staffing Levels

Data also helps organizations to better understand and distribute workloads. Especially during the pandemic when every employee is overburdened with the work.

By taking a look at your people data, you can better understand the workload on employees and decide on staffing accordingly. Moreover, by assessing the data you can also identify the roles that you may or may not need in the future. By determining all the staffing requirements in advance you will be better able to handle the staffing process.

5. Employee Wellness

Pandemic has thrusted the importance of well being like never before. Be it mental or physical. According to a McKinsey report, behavioral health is a top workforce concern with nine out of 10 employers stating COVID-19 is affecting employees’ behavioral health.

You can leverage analytics to better your employee’s well-being status and reform your leave or insurance policies accordingly. Also, make use of the employee data to identify any mental health needs to better support employees in form of one-on-one sessions or mental health well-being.