Business Success= Growth + Profit
A straightforward equation by the looks of it, however in real terms not that easy to achieve, especially if one is chief, cook and bottlewasher tied up with operationally working in your business instead of strategically working on your business.
For SME’s, growth aspirations are often surpassed by the continuous quest for basic business survival. Regrettably, no ‘’stability’’ phase exists in the world of small and medium-sized enterprises. It’s either growing or declining.
Our corporate multinationals and commercial titans have the resources to drive growth via multiple channels, for instance product diversification, market expansion, customer base penetration or mergers and acquisition strategies. SME’s on the other hand, do not have that kind of luxury regarding time or financial resources.
Human Assets as Growth Catalysts
Enter the disruption era of Human Asset Management, Human Resources, Talent Management and Human Capital Management. Herein, hidden in plain sight, lies the possible answer to SME growth and prosperity.
Fortunately for SME’s, Industrial Revolution 4.0 introduced (and is still shaping) reporting technologies and platforms to bridge the gap between survival and a growth spiral, by enabling us to activate what we have today (our employees) as a tool to realise our business growth tomorrow.
Reported, Addressed, Sorted
HR Reporting Technology is not reserved solely for those enterprises fortunate enough to attain listings on the Dow Jones or Fortune 500 anymore. Herewith six reasons why implementing HR Reports, Metrics and Analytics may just be the jet fuel needed to ignite sustainable growth in your business.
1) Hire Smarter: Right candidate, right time, right price! The administrative burdens of sourcing and screening become vague memories with an array of affordable HR reporting tools to measure, diagnose and enhance hiring practices. These can yield invaluable insights to facilitate more prudent hiring actions by accumulating data regarding the jobs sites/portals rendering your best employees to date, which recruiters they came from and which methods they used to apply. Similarly, data patterns regarding your worst performing employees can be scrutinised as well.
2) Capacity Predictions: Managing vacation time, retirement, maternity leave or sick days can easily slip through the cracks of “operational juggling”. Relying on a single alternative succession plan for when things turn pear-shaped is often not sufficient to sustain operational productivity. HR analytics render predictive, scenario-based reporting based on historical employee behavioural data that assists one in drafting Plan A, B and C (and sometimes even a plan Z). Adequate replacement strategies are imperative to workforce planning, if you wish to ensure business continuity when key staff members are out of action whether temporarily or permanently.
3) Revolving Door Analysis: Employee turnover is generally regarded as an unpredictable variable, but with analytics, one can look for specific patterns which may clarify the reasons why your employees opt for greener pastures. Moving for money is just one of the motivations for employees leaving their jobs. Priorities pertaining to challenge, advancement, location, people and stability are often disregarded as factors to consider in retention strategies. Historical reporting based on data retrieved from exit interviews can go a long way to ensure that management is proactive in its attempts to retain staff who provide value to the business.
4) Inspecting Performance: Measuring employee performance is central to course correcting and improving performance, yet performance reviews are probably one of the most hated activities for managers and workers alike. Spice up these reviews with cloud-based reporting apps to strengthen collaboration, monitor goal achievement and establish real-time feedback channels between staff and management.
5) Investigating Underlying Gremlins: You’ve undoubtedly heard phrases like “it’s only the tip of the iceberg” or “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. The art of effective People Management rests on these phenomena. Firstly, by identifying the root causes of issues in the workplace (what lies beneath) and secondly ensuring that seemingly insignificant matters do not result in toxifying the company culture to the point of no return. HR reporting and analytics can aid in flagging problematic symptoms like low staff morale and link them to the underlying cause for concern, for instance, poor managerial conduct.
6) Recognition, Rewards and Remuneration: Offering accolades and rewards can notably boost employee morale. Statistics suggest that organisations that excel at employee recognition are more likely to achieve accelerated business growth. Incorporating automatic rewards and recognition programmes with reporting and tracking features give HR professionals more time to tackle high-valued tasks like succession planning, employee engagement or learning and development initiatives. HR reports can also be utilised as influential tools for company growth via compensation management reports and analytics to make strategic decisions for the business.
Data-Driven Growth
“Is it worth investing in HR Reporting and Analytics? Will data, reports and statistics derived from Human Resource practices genuinely impact profitability and prosperity?
Human Capital is the prime ingredient to spearheading business growth and maintaining a competitive advantage. Using data gathered from HR analytics afford companies the potential to improve spending patterns, elevate productivity and streamline operations, ultimately beneficial to the bottom line.
