People analytics is future of HR in India, shows LinkedIn report

MUMBAI: As high as 92% talent professionals in India consider People Analytics to pave the way for the future of HR and recruiting, according to a LinkedIn report. The 10th annual edition of the LinkedIn Global Talent Trends 2020 report shows that 95% of talent professionals in the country believe employee experience will shape the future of HR in the coming years.

The report looks at survey results from 7,000 talent professionals, platform data, and interviews with leaders to provide insight into the key topics impacting HR leaders today.

This year’s Global Talent Trends report focuses on how empathy is reshaping the way employers hire and retain talent, with companies working harder than ever to understand their employees more deeply, and better serve them. The four key trends of this year include employee experience, people analytics, internal recruiting and multi-generational workforce.


EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Talent professionals say focusing on employee experience increases retention and productivity, meets high expectations of younger workers, and attracts more candidates in this tight labour market. Top areas under employee experience that need fixing, however, are compensation and benefits and an increasing need for simplified administrative processes.

In India, 95% of talent professionals consider employee experience to shape the future of HR. About 77% say they’re increasingly focused on employee experience to increase employee retention, while 44% feel that lack of leadership’s focus and prioritization is a significant barrier to improving a company's employee experience.

Globally, 96% of HR leaders say employee experience is becoming more important. There has been a 2.4X increase since 2014 of job titles on LinkedIn with “employee experience”. Nearly 98% of talent professionals in Australia say employee experience is crucial to HR, and are a global leader, followed by the US, Canada, UK, and Southeast Asia.

PEOPLE ANALYTICS
Companies are applying data to evaluate recruiting channels, identify skills gaps, and assess talent supply and demand. Currently, companies are primarily using analytics to measure employee performance and strategic workforce planning, shows the findings.

In India, 92% talent professionals say people analytics will be very important in shaping the future of HR and recruiting (world average is 85%; Southeast Asia (90%) and China (89%)), while 72% currently use people analytics for measuring and improving performance in HR operations.

INTERNAL RECRUITING
An increasing number of organizations are rediscovering how cost-effective it is to recruit their own people. Top ways internal candidates are recruited are through jobs on internal job board and hiring managers reaching out to employees they know. Internal recruiting helps improve retention, accelerates new hire productivity and accelerates hiring process, the report states.

About 96% of talent professionals in India are placing their bets on internal recruiting to shape the future of HR and recruiting. Nearly 83% feel internal recruiting improves employee retention, while 70% say employees find internal opportunities listed on an internal job board.

Globally, 81% of talent professionals agree that internal recruiting improves retention and better retention may be why companies with higher than average internal hiring see their employees stay 41% longer.

MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKFORCE
Carving out new career paths, offering flexible benefits, developing longevity strategies and promoting informal interactions across generations are some of the ways in which companies are driving a radical explosion in workforce age diversity, shows the report. While all generations value companies with purposeful missions, it’s Boomers who are most likely to call it a top priority. Gen Z, meanwhile, is most likely to value training—36% call it a top factor when considering a new job.

Nearly 80% of talent professionals in India agree that having a diversity of generations is an important factor in recruitment efforts, while 74% say their company will focus on recruiting millennials in the next five years. About 77% feel that generational difference in management styles is a significant challenge for companies towards maintaining a multi-generational workforce.