People Analytics designated to be a “For People” approach, can there be a flipside to it that HRtech has left unexplored? Read on to know more
Artificial Intelligence and its applicatory tech products have been rather generous to almost every industry and its processes. Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotics, Natural Language processing all have had a huge impact on the functioning and reformation of a number of procedures and operations. There have been simplifications as well as model alleviations due to the innovation made in the tech arena. Analytics is one such technology that has been under massive utilization because of its ability to deliver deep and meaningful insights. These insights are further used by professionals and organizations to make decisions that can bring them closer to their set goal.
But recently we’ve seen tech innovations taking a flip side as organizations have begun to collect sets and sets of data on almost each and every aspect of a person, leaving no room for personal space, in order to develop their business model. Netflix’s TV series ‘The Social Dilemma’ brings to limelight the other side of the technology coin, where data is being used to control and overpower the decisions and emotions of an individual.
That brings us to People Analytics.
Even in the HR field, data and analytics are playing a major role in stepping up the decision making game for almost each and every functionality.
Be it talent acquisition, talent management, employee engagement, productivity management, or even the wellness of the workforce, HR analytics and People Analytics are leaving visible imprints on the operational and conceptual aspect of these processes.
But what’s the catch? Does People Analytics also have a flip side to it?
Well, technically, yes, it does. Any technology that is innovated, is developed keeping in mind the positive impacts, later on the negative impacts emerge.
Similar is the case for People Analytics. Let us look at the 3 major impacts of People Analytics that can take a backseat when looking at this technology as a whole.
1) Lack of emotional connect
Even though technology can analyze the emotional element of individuals in today’s world, it lacks the ability to form an emotional connection to a person. In the HR management arena, one significant aspect that can never be neglected is the ‘Humans’. People Analytics will definitely give you a broken down analysis of the skillset of a person you are assessing for recruiting, but the technology may not necessarily catch the enthusiasm of the candidate to learn and perform better, that is something that a human recruiter will be capable of doing better.
2) Patterns can change
We’ve seen this happening a lot, especially when evaluating the analytical report that has the background screening indicates that a candidate previously displayed a pattern of certain activities that could lead to potential crimes, and thus, are rejected for the job. For example, an applicant has gotten 3 parking tickets in the last 2 months, showing a pattern of misconduct. But, there could be several reasons behind these tickets, and the candidate may now know better and do better. But, people analytics doesn’t take any of that into consideration and neither do the reports that are ultimately responsible for aiding in decision making.
3) Privacy
This is the biggest concern of every person whose data is being recorded and used by analytics to form results.
Privacy issues have been prevalent for quite some time now and employees are finding it difficult to develop trust within a corporate ecosystem where they feel skeptical all the time.
People Analytics records a lot of data which not makes employees feel that every move of theirs is being watched and is under the radar, but they also feel jumpy in the sense that one slip and they will be out, leading to stress and intrusion of privacy.
There definitely is a flip side to People Analytics that often gets overlooked in the hindsight, but these are things that can be covered with a little help from ‘People’ and ‘Human’ The HR teams will have to be quite careful in evaluating these facets and making decisions that do not solely rely on the reports but of the people too.
All in all its a collaborative effort of overlooking the precisions and dropping the armours. If we can combine the highest degree of threat preparedness along with modern day spyware against our HR Analytics and end-to-end HR solutions we can take People Analytics to be the winner HRTech crown for the year!
