8 of April, 2025

One of the great questions of humanity is who we are, where we come from and where we are headed. These are difficult questions to answer when we refer to life, but not in the world of business. HR Analytics or people analytics has arrived in Human Resources to facilitate personnel management.

Discover in this article what HR Analytics consists of and why it is necessary to implement it today.

What is HR Analytics?

HR Analytics is a data-based methodology and management model. On the one hand, it is a model for analyzing mathematical variables.

On the other hand, Data Analytics in human resources is a management system for personnel and organization data that solves human resources issues.

Thanks to Analytics in human resources, we can better understand the company and the management of human capital. The workforce is the core of any company, its real driving force.

The more information we get from it, the easier it will be for us to make decisions, as they will have a more solid base.

Recalling the questions we were asking ourselves at the beginning, Human resources analytics allows us to know why and how things happen.

It doesn’t matter if it was something positive or negative for the organization, we get key information. From the data, we will be able to find out the reason that has led us to this situation.

Moving forward to the present, HR Analytics allows us to know what is happening now. In this way, the company has the possibility of establishing alert systems when something strange occurs.

It doesn’t end there, as we can detect patterns or trends to try to anticipate the future.

In which processes does HR Analytics help HR?

The method HR Analytics uses data analysis to optimize various processes in the HR area. Here are the main processes where HR Analytics adds value:

Improvement in employee retention: by analyzing key metrics and job environment surveys, it is possible to identify the causes of voluntary turnover and develop preventative strategies to reduce the abandonment rate.
Optimization of work performance: HR Analytics allows detection of factors that affect productivity, facilitating the implementation of improvement and training plans adapted to the specific needs of the employees.
Design of effective compensation programs: through detailed analysis, the effectiveness of the benefits offered can be evaluated, ensuring that they contribute to performance and retention of staff, and adjusting them according to the preferences and needs of different groups within the organization.
Data-based decision making: the use of HR Analytics facilitates informed decisions in areas such as hiring, talent development, and strategic planning, aligning HR policies with business objectives.
Identification of turnover and retention patterns: by analyzing staff movement, trends can be recognized that indicate turnover risks, allowing proactive intervention to retain key talent.
Performance evaluation and skill development: HR Analytics helps to track individual and collective performance, identifying areas of improvement and professional development opportunities, which contributes to more effective talent management.
Improvement in onboarding processes: through the analysis of organizational networks, the integration of new employees can be optimized, connecting them with the right people and resources from the start.
Encouragement of diversity and inclusion: it allows monitoring and analyzing demographic data, helping to identify and correct possible biases in selection and promotion processes, and promoting a more inclusive organizational culture.

Types of data analysis

The concept of HR Analytics is something new in the world of human resources.

If we want to further define what HR Analytics is, we can look at the three types of data analysis that we can address:

Descriptive analysis: describes what occurs. It corresponds to a first stage of data analysis. It synthesizes the data obtained, analyzes the history, and converts it into valid information for decision-making. It is a basic analysis, not very in-depth, but equally useful.
Predictive analysis: serves to predict what will happen. Starting from a certain situation and the available data, we aim to anticipate what will happen based on patterns or trends. In this way, HR can make the best decisions for the organization.
Prescriptive analysis: goes a step beyond the previous two models as it suggests actions for something to happen. It’s related to business analysis, focused on very specific situations.

To illustrate it even more, we can provide examples of People Analytics. In the first case, there’s recruitment.

For example, the search for professionals with the same characteristics as star workers. HR Analytics tells us how they behave, their skills, etc.

Thanks to predictive analysis we can estimate how many professionals we will need for a certain project or campaign.

For example, for Christmas or summer season, according to the experience of previous years. Finally, the prescriptive tells what would happen, for example, if 10% of the workforce leaves us or if sales drop a certain percentage.

Benefits of HR Analytics

The use of HR Analytics has countless benefits for the company. The most obvious, as we have already indicated, is making strategic decisions based on real and verified data.

Making decisions by intuition is like playing Russian roulette, making them based on data brings us closer to success.

Having an HR Analytics dashboard allows us to reduce the workload of HR. The analysis of people in HR is something very complex, but it’s useless to collect it if we then don’t know how to interpret it. The use of these tools makes this work easier for human resources.

The importance of HR Analytics will allow the HR team to gain weight. It can be consolidated as a strategic department within the company.

It should be so on its own, but unfortunately it is not always given the importance it deserves. If HR does not have the necessary support from management, it will be difficult for it to fulfill its mission.

How to implement HR Analytics step by step?

If you want to apply data analytics in human resources of your company, you can do so by following five simple steps.

As in any process that we develop in the company, it is essential to have a clear objective. Once we meet this initial requirement, we can implement HR Analytics following these steps:

1. Identify the problem to be solved

We can collect a multitude of data, if we have our objective clear we can use the key HR metrics on that issue.

Only those data that have a direct relationship with the problem that concerns us, the issue to be resolved, will be used.

2. Prioritize and segment problems

As many advantages as HR Analytics offers, not all problems can be solved at the same time.

For this reason, it will be necessary to analyze which ones are the most important. From there, prioritize problems and solve them according to their relevance to the organization.

3. Collect good data

It’s something we can never lose sight of, we must collect good data. And by “good” we mean relevant data, which make a significant contribution.

There can not be one data more valuable than another, we will only select the relevant metrics to create our HR dashboard.

4. Data collection

In this fourth step, we will have to put our technical skills into practice to collect and interpret the right data.

HR software like Sesame HR help us both to collect this data and to interpret it effectively.

5. Action

We now have the data collected and analyzed. Now we just need to act according to the information obtained, take the appropriate measures to correct the situation, introduce the relevant improvements, etc.

All this, backed by solid data that facilitates the explanation of each decision.

Discover HR Analytics from Sesame HR

Implementing People Analytics through Sesame HR offers multiple benefits that optimize the management of human resources and enhance organizational performance. Here are its main advantages:

Improvement in decision-making: By analyzing objective data on employee behavior and performance, leaders can make more informed and accurate decisions, aligned with the strategic objectives of the company.
Optimization of recruitment and selection: People Analytics allows identifying competencies and characteristics that correlate with success in certain roles, speeding up the selection process and improving the match between the candidate and the position.
Increase in talent retention: By analyzing factors such as work climate and commitment, it is possible to detect early signs of demotivation, allowing proactive strategies to retain key employees.
Improvement of organizational performance: Continuous performance monitoring facilitates the identification of areas of improvement and the implementation of specific training programs, raising the overall productivity of the company.
Greater employee satisfaction and commitment: By better understanding the needs and expectations of the staff, initiatives can be designed that promote a positive work environment, increasing motivation and commitment.
Anticipation and prevention of staff turnover: Thanks to predictive algorithms, it is possible to predict intentions to leave and act preventively to keep talent within the organization.
Optimization of productivity: By analyzing the conditions and most efficient schedules, work dynamics can be adjusted to maximize team performance.
Reduction of operating costs: The automation of routine tasks and the improvement in talent management contribute to reducing the costs associated with manual processes and high staff turnover.

Integrating People Analytics with Sesame HR transforms human resources management, providing data-based tools that strengthen decision-making and promote a more efficient and satisfying work environment.

Do you need to optimize decision-making and the data of your HR team? Register and get a 14-day free trial of Sesame HR.

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

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iriserrador

HR Content Specialist

HR Analytics: The keys to analytics for people management