In recent days, I have been coming across the term "Datafication of human resources" quite frequently. Though I could guess that the term datafication might be something related to data, I googled to find out the actual meaning of the term “Datafication of Human Resources”.
This was my first stop and I got a fairly good idea of what the term “Datafication of Human Resources” means: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/07/19/the-datafication-of-human-resources/.
Datafication means converting existing business into data business. In other words, datafication involves storing large volumes of data and analysing it meaningfully which would benefit businesses greatly.
Business can derive benefits from datafying performance management as well. I think that the main objectives of a business to datafy their performance management would be:
1) Develop and retain talent: Employees are a company’s greatest asset, and companies would like to develop and retain talent. Since a lot of cost and efforts are involved in hiring and on-boarding new employees, an organization’s top priority would be to develop and retain good talent that they already have.
If HR is presented with good analytical data from performance management, they can take targeted initiatives to develop and retain the employees. Some performance management reports would that would be beneficial include Rating Distribution, Training needs report, Strengths and weakness report etc.
2) Improve Employee Performance, and overall organization performance : Every organization would like their employees to work towards the organization goals. Also they would like to find out ways that employee’s performance can be bettered all the time.
Continuous feedback analytical reports, rating comparison, performance plan status reports, goal status, goal alignment etc. are some analytical reports that would be beneficial for improving the employee performance.
3) Succession Planning :
Business would like to plan their succession needs well. They would like to identify talent pool within their organization and promote them to key leadership roles within their organization.
Performance management data would greatly help in planning the succession needs. Some such reports include 9 Quadrant analysis, Rating comparison etc.
4) Pay for Performance:
Performance Metrics is important for companies who have pay-for-performance or incentive plan based on performance, for it’s employees. Metrics like performance indicators, targets, actual achievement against targets etc. would be helpful.
In a nutshell, if organizations effectively analyse and use performance management data, they can greatly benefit from it.
