Nearly three-quarters of business decision makers trust the HR department to provide data-based insights
November 12, 2019
By using data-driven insights and foresight, organisations can strengthen their human capital and build a sustainable business. When looking at what data businesses are already applying within HR, The Netherlands come out as top for applying basic HR data at 78%, compared with France at just 53%. Going beyond basic use of HR data, 46% of companies in Germany make use of linking different data sources to find out correlations or even causality, compared to just 26% in Belgium and France. The UK comes a close second at 38%.
In terms of the business areas where HR data-based insights can make the biggest impact, Belgium ranked the highest in Europe in terms of both HR and non HR decision makers using data to improve employee satisfaction & engagement (60%), with the UK and France joint second (46%) and The Netherlands (37%) and Germany (36%) trailing behind. In Germany, staffing data is the area where companies believe these insights can make the biggest impact on businesses, with 55% of respondents believing this is the case, compared to only 29% of respondents in France, feeling the same way.
There is certainly a healthy demand for HR data-based insights, with 43% of the HR decision makers, revealing they are asked for insights of this type at least once a week. The number one reason for these requests relate to employee absenteeism (mentioned by 44% of respondents), followed by Employee costs (40%) and Productivity (40%). This is evidence that business decision makers are seeing the value in receiving HR data and actively requesting it.
The research also found that business decision makers believe the HR department is comfortable with handling & analysing data (69%). 59% believe technology infrastructure has improved to better support the deployment of HR data-based insights. Whilst, approximately two out of three of all respondents (both HR and non-HR decision makers) think the right skills and competences to embrace data-based insights are currently available in their HR department. The two most important skills that need further development when it comes to HR data-based insights are: analysing skills (40%) and improving change management skills (34%). In 53% of the cases, this will be solved through extra training opportunities.
Kobe Verdonck, CEO of SD Worx Group said: “This research is promising because it shows the evolution of the HR department. We’ve gone from talking about the value of HR data and the need for it to have more of a prevalent position within the rest of a business, to witnessing business departments seeing the benefits of the data and using it to help inform decisions within their own
departments. We can only expect that to grow over the following years as both technology and internal knowledge gets better.”
SNCB, the Belgian Railways, are making full use of HR data to increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Petra Blanckaert, Head of Human Resources & CEO Office at SNCB, explains how the company is taking the lead in this area: "We require a great deal of operational effort from our workforce in our pursuit of punctuality, customer satisfaction and so on. With this in mind, we are keen to invest in their satisfaction and well-being. This is why at the beginning of this year, we queried our 18,000 employees about their satisfaction, engagement and culture. We used an extensive questionnaire to identify points for improvement. This HR data has helped us concentrate on what matters to the majority of our employees, ensuring that our approach receives broad support. The HR data is helping us to prioritise properly and to not become sidetracked by eye-catching outliers." Blanckaert continues, "Analysing the results helps us to flesh out our participatory approach in which we draw up action plans in work groups. The HR data enables us to provide specific feedback regarding the results to all our employees – the level of detail and reliability allow for increased employee recognition and involvement."
About the research
This Online research of the iVOX research panel and database was carried out on 200+ employee companies, surveying HR managers, HR Directors, HR Officers, HR Experts, Chief HR Officers, HR Business Partners as well as those not working in the HR department; CEOs, COOs, CFOs and other decision-takers and advanced staff members with a view on the HR policy of the company. This has provided insights on HR-analytics, from perceptions to skills and tools related to database insights. The countries surveyed were Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK , with 100+ respondents in each country.
About SD Worx
As a leading European provider of payroll and HR solutions, SD Worx guides organisations in managing their existing and their new workforce, with a full-service package in the areas of Staffing, Payroll, Time and Talent. SD Worx delivers the best suited approach for every situation, providing the insights, expertise, outsourcing services and technology HR- decision makers need for their organisation and their individuals to thrive. Today, more than 68,000 small and large organisations across the globe
place their trust in SD Worx and its nearly 75 years' worth of experience. In 2018, SD Worx achieved a consolidated turnover of EUR 594.4 million with its two entities.
SD Worx Group offers its payroll and HR outsourcing services, software and consultancy in 92 countries, calculates the salaries of approximately 4.6 million employees and ranks among the top five worldwide. SD Worx has more than 4,150 employees working in ten countries: Belgium (headquarters), Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. It is the co-founder of the Payroll Services Alliance, a global strategic network of leading payroll companies that together handle 32 million payroll calculations.
Since 2018, SD Worx Staffing Solutions has been offering flexible and temporary employment, secondment, recruitment and selection, outplacement and career guidance services in Belgium and the Netherlands. SD Worx Staffing Solutions has more than 450 employees and employs an average of 5,500 temps on a daily basis through its more than 3,000 customers.
More info on: www.sdworx.com