Week 3 DiscussionCOLLAPSE

Moving Beyond the Numbers – Know Your Employees

People Analytics has become a hot topic recently. Companies such as Google have made great strides in the use of data to guide their hiring and promotion decisions.

• How does your organization integrate “hard” and “soft” metrics when assessing performance and placement/promotion opportunities?
• How can HR and business-unit leaders strike the right balance between data analysis and authentic knowledge of employees in order to build a strong workforce?
• Include examples from the course materials as well as your own experience to support your position.

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone

From Professor 

Data is an important piece of understanding for a modern HR professional. Data not only informs on progress but also informs in areas like soft skills that were considered “touchy-feely ” in the past and not taken as seriously as needed. Quantifying areas that were untouched before is an important wave of the future for HR. That said, looking at data misses one critical component – the employee. Just as the resume does not show the whole person neither does data. The leader in any organization needs to know the people, their strengths and weaknesses, and the individual stories so the composite group can be leveraged. Marcus Buckingham speaks of leveraging the strengths of any team, but that is impossible if you do not know what they are. I look forward to your insights this week.

Dr. Wallace

1st person to respond to

Walter

 RE: Week 3 DiscussionCOLLAPSE

Hi Professors and Classmates,

Moving Beyond Numbers

Human resource (HR) management accumulates and assesses data for various applications including gauging employees’ satisfaction, effectiveness in achieving the organization’s goals, and turnover. Besides, HR normally uses metrics to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of managers as well as employees. This discussion focuses on how HR in the organization integrates hard and soft metrics to assess performance and placement or promotion of employees.

How the Organization Integrate “hard” and “soft” Metrics to Assess Performance and Placement or Promotion Opportunities

The organization uses hard metrics to assess the typical daily work routine as well as how the workers accomplish their responsibilities. The hard metrics are in form of quantitative data points. In the organization, the quantitative data are in form of workers’ records, supervision reports, and project databases (Feather, 2008). HR uses these hard metrics to calculate how workers attain project objectives and the cost approximations. They can do their calculation manually or use sophisticated software programs. Soft metrics, on the other hand, are applied by HR to determine the worker’s usefulness and other human aspects that cannot be quantified. They achieve this by use of subjective data and interactive responses. Subjective data are data collected qualitatively from employees such as employees’ feelings and the level of motivation on a particular project (Feather, 2008). Therefore, HR uses these soft metrics to assess the level of employees’ gratification on a particular project or responsibility before placement or promotion is considered.

How HR and Business-unit Leader Balance Data Analytics and Authentic Knowledge of Employees

To achieve the highest performance, the HR management must leverage between metrics that require hard data and those requiring soft data. In other words, HR must know where each kind of metrics is applied (Feather, 2008). For instance, performance areas such as returns level, turnover, and remunerations require hard data whereas the performance areas such as motivations and satisfaction require soft data. In areas where soft data are required, human knowledge is greatly applied. Therefore, HR must know where to use data analytics and where to use human knowledge to assess or enhance performance.

Reference

Feather, K. (2008). Helping HR to measure up: arming the “soft” function with hard metrics. Strategic HR Review.

2nd person to respond to

Danielle,

Organization’s Performance

How does your Organization Integrate “Hard” and “Soft” Metrics when Assessing Performance and Placement/Promotion Opportunities? 

Human resource personnel often use hard and soft metrics to evaluate and improve performance within an organization. Some of the standard metrics include estimating employee skill level, assessing an employee’s involvement in a plan, and measuring their satisfaction. Hard metrics are human resource employee evaluation techniques that are based on verifiable data. Conversely, soft metrics depend on subjective information and interactive responses to determine the effectiveness of an employee. 

In my organization, the management emphasizes soft metrics to gauge the impact of human capital on business results (Singh). Soft metrics are based on the principle that skilled workers show satisfaction, thus creating a healthy and profitable business environment. Conversely, hard metrics evaluate employee turnover and works on their retention procedure. For example, an organization can use soft metrics such as employee satisfaction to evaluate the effects observed on their turnover. From my experience in the organization, various hard metrics such as revenue per worker and training is essential when assessing employee performance. Typically well-paid and trained workers deliver better performance to an organization.

How can HR and Business-Unit Leaders Strike the Right Balance between Data Analysis and Authentic Knowledge of Employees to Build a Strong Workforce?

The human resource’s goal is often to maximize profits from the human capital. In the pursuit of building a stronger team, the human resource needs to focus on both authentic knowledge and data analysis. Business leaders and human resource heads often rely on genuine knowledge, such as skilled labor, best practices, and education to ensure a smooth flow of operations (Unit, Economist Intelligence 22). Besides, the human resource has used advanced technology to gather and analyze data needed to build a strong workforce, such as employee attendance and efficiency. While authentic knowledge is essential in a work environment, human resource conducts continuous training based on big data to improve performance. 

In my view, human resource needs continuous improvement to cope with the current employment environment. The current work environment is based on dynamic skills and data analysis. For this reason, most employees who were recruited in the past require a new skill set to fit in the evolving workplace processes. For example, most IT-based companies engage their employees in frequent training to adopt the steady growth in the industry. Similarly, analysis of growing ‘Big data’ has been essential for innovating new technologies and artificial intelligence.

Singh, Punam, and Shulagna Sarkar. “Human Resource Metrics for Enhancing Organizational Performance: Case of Indian State-owned Enterprises.” Management and Labour Studies (2021): 0258042X211034617.

Unit, Economist Intelligence. “What’s Next: Future Global Trends Affecting Your Organization–Evolution of Work and the Worker.” SHRM Foundation (2014).