The Ultimate Guide to Talent Analytics

How do you know if your hiring strategies are working? What’s driving employee turnover in key departments? Where should you focus employee development efforts to boost productivity? With talent analytics, your human resources and recruiting teams can answer questions like these with confidence. 

Talent analytics involves using your people data to solve problems and uncover opportunities. The right talent analytics tools give you a level of insight that’s truly unprecedented and, with that, the ability to make decisions that move the needle. 71% of HR teams that leverage analytics report that it’s an essential part of their strategy. 

Let’s take a deep dive into talent analytics, the different types, and how companies are using it now. We’ll also share some tips on how to find the right talent analytics platform for your team. 

💡 What is talent analytics? Discover how it can revolutionize hiring, engagement, and retention with actionable insights. 📊

Defining Talent Analytics

Talent analytics is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting workforce data and then using that information to make decisions about your HR strategies. It’s sometimes referred to as people analytics or HR analytics. Talent analytics takes numbers and patterns in your data and turns them into actionable insights that help organizations adopt smarter recruiting processes, retain top talent, and build more productive teams. 

Talent analytics covers a wide range of HR activities, including:

• Tracking employee performance and engagement trends
• Analyzing recruitment metrics, like time-to-hire or cost-per-hire
• Forecasting turnover risks and workforce needs

There are many benefits of talent analytics for HR leaders and their teams — these are just a few of the biggest:

1. Equipped with insights about the traits of your top performers, skills gaps you need to fill, and other critical data, your team can hone its recruiting strategies and make better hiring decisions. 
2. Data analytics helps you understand employee engagement trends and patterns, as well as factors contributing to those changes, so you can switch up your engagement strategies and track their impact.
3. When you make more informed decisions about who to hire and have a handle on your engagement strategies, you’ll be able to retain more employees and decrease turnover rates. 

With talent analytics, you can take proactive steps to address issues happening within your organization, which leads to better business outcomes. Deloitte research found that companies with a mature strategy are 4.2 times more likely to be highly skilled at data storytelling and 3.2 times more likely to be skilled at sharing data insights.

Exploring Different Types of Talent Analytics

There are different types of talent analytics depending on what you’re using your data to do. Whether you’re trying to understand past trends, looking into what’s driving workforce changes, predicting what might happen in the future, or honing HR strategies, talent analytics gives you the power to make data-driven decisions. 

• Descriptive Analytics: Descriptive analytics look at past data and examine old workforce patterns to give HR professionals an understanding of historical trends and employee behaviors. It helps you see areas of strength and improvement, setting a baseline you can use to track progress and inform decision-making.
• Diagnostic Analytics: Diagnostic analytics look at the reasons behind the patterns you’re seeing in your people data, determining the root causes of specific outcomes. For example, you might have noticed a decrease in employee engagement or delays in your hiring processes, and diagnostic analytics helps you pinpoint what’s causing it. When you understand the what and the why, your team can deploy more targeted talent management strategies. 
• Predictive Analytics: Predictive talent analytics helps you understand the past — and the future. Using your historical employee data and machine learning algorithms, predictive analytics forecast potential future scenarios. For instance, it can help you determine which candidates are most likely to succeed in a given role, and from there, your team can prioritize applicants who are less likely to quit. 
• Prescriptive Analytics: Prescriptive analytics goes beyond explanations and possibilities, using the data you’ve collected to make recommendations about what actions to take next. For example, if predictive analytics suggests a high likelihood of turnover in a particular department, prescriptive analytics can offer strategies to improve retention, such as starting a mentoring program or adjusting compensation packages.

HR and recruiting teams that leverage different types of talent analytics understand their workforce on a deep level. You’ll build a wealth of historical knowledge — not just data — that gives your team the ability to launch proactive strategies, enhancing retention, hiring, and engagement. It’s a game-changer for staying ahead in talent management and making workforce decisions that benefit both employees and the organization.

🎯 Unlock actionable insights from your HR data and transform your hiring process with talent analytics. Learn more with the ultimate guide.

How to Use Talent Analytics for Actionable Insights

Did you know that nine in ten business leaders say analytics elevates the HR profession? If you want to elevate your team with real insights rather than just collecting data with your analytics platform, follow these steps.

1. First, define objectives for talent analytics. Understanding what you want to accomplish with talent analytics gives you direction in your search for the right technology. It also helps make the case for making the investment. 
2. Next, collect high-quality data. Without good data, you won’t be able to apply talent analytics. This data could be from employee surveys, performance reviews, candidate profiles, and more.
3. Then, leverage advanced analytics tools to interpret the data. Use your analytics tools to get answers to your pressing questions about your workforce. 
4. Finally, apply what you learn to your strategies. Put all that data to work for you and spruce up your techniques. Imagine you found that employee engagement follows a seasonal pattern, dipping down toward the end of the year, caused by employees’ uncertainty about business goals. That could be addressed with an additional company-wide goals check-in meeting to keep everyone on the same page as the year closes out.

Choosing the Right Talent Analytics Platform

Now that we’ve shared some talent analytics examples and benefits, let’s take a closer look at the technology. How do you know what makes a great talent analytics platform? You’ll want to look at factors including:

• Ease of Use: The platform should be user-friendly, with easy-to-read dashboards and engaging, shareable data visualizations. If your HR team isn’t well-versed in analytics, look for a platform that makes it easy to interpret complex data.
• Integration with Existing Tools: The best talent analytics platforms should seamlessly integrate with other HR tools like your applicant tracking system (ATS). That way, your people data flows smoothly between platforms without silos. 
• Customizable Reporting: A great platform allows you to create customizable reports so you can track the metrics that matter most at your organization. Bonus points if the dashboards are shareable and stay updated in real time.
• AI and Predictive Capabilities: Look for platforms that leverage AI and machine learning for predictive and prescriptive analytics. These tools are the key to better decision-making that improves recruitment, retention, and employee satisfaction.

Talent analytics is a powerful tool for people management teams, and it only gets more powerful by the minute. It’s no longer an option for teams that want to remain agile and competitive to leverage their people data — it’s a must. 

ClearInsights, the new advanced talent analytics suite from ClearCompany, is the answer to your talent analytics needs. With ClearInsights, you get:

• Instant AI-powered insights — just ask questions about your data in natural language.
• Real-time data access — stay informed with the most current workforce insights to drive timely decisions.
• Customizable dashboards — create visualizations that align perfectly with your team's needs.

Learn more about ClearInsights, the AI-powered talent analytics sidekick for HR from ClearCompany.