HR Leads in APAC Focus on Data and Analytics to Drive Companies Forward

Extra tags: analytics

Authored by: CK Tan, Senior Director, Qlik

It's been more than two years since the first COVID cases were reported; and slowly but surely, we see the world returning to a semblance of pre-pandemic times. However, nations are playing it safe when loosening pandemic restrictions, in anticipation of inevitable clusters arising.

We persist in doing business in a landscape that continues to pivot over hours and days rather than weeks and months, as we carefully tune our response to the interplay between COVID, governmental guidelines and every company’s desire to keep its workforce safe, productive, motivated and engaged. HR continues to be at the centre of a lot of thinking on these topics, and forward-thinking companies are leaning more than ever into data in the absence of established rules and playbooks for the situations we see emerging.

In Asia-Pacific, discussions continue apace around requirements for vaccinating workforces, or, alternatively, requirements for demonstrating ongoing testing of those who are not fully vaccinated. I believe it is only a matter of time before we will need to start collecting more specific data on booster shots, too, given the drop in efficacy of the vaccinations over time. The collection, analysis and use of this data is becoming daily task in many HR Departments – and more so as Omicron BA variants have stubbornly persisted amidst loosening of restrictions.

However, COVID testing and vaccinations are just the tip of the HR Data Iceberg for 2022. Some other big topics are set to continue to perpetuate the need to be able to both use the data we have and drive continued data literacy education within the HR function.

The Great Resignation:

For a few years, we’ve been seeking the secrets of Predictive Attrition, trying to understand who will be leaving and enabling the business to run with continuity by being able to plan for and negate gaps in the human organization. Has the Great Resignation disposed of the rulebook here? I believe so, as people are leaving good jobs in good companies at rates we have never seen before, for reasons we cannot necessarily predict. What happens now?

Compensation and Benefits:

A fascinating side effect of the pandemic has been watching companies embrace the idea of a “work-from-anywhere” mentality. With multiple nations having enacted nationwide lockdowns to curb the spread of the pandemic, many companies were forced to adapt to support a remote workforce. Yet over these past few years, what was meant to be an interim work arrangement, has now become a long-term adoption of digital transformation.

In fact, an EY study reported that only 15 per cent of surveyed Southeast Asia employees wanted to return to working from the office full time when pandemic restrictions ease. The majority instead prefers to work anywhere (32 per cent), work remotely full time (29 per cent), or in a hybrid work arrangement (23 per cent). More employees are choosing to stay home for better work-life balance and have observed better productivity as well. It can be observed that through remote work, more and more people are valuing flexibility over co-worker connections, and companies who fail to recognise these trends will lose out in the competitive talent market.

In addition, pay isn’t enough on its own anymore. People are looking much more closely at the benefits companies are giving, too – an open vacation plan, enhanced parental leave, more robust mental and physical health offerings. The list is becoming longer and the uptake of these benefits higher as time goes on, with companies realizing these are no longer perks, but near-mandatory expectations of the best talent. Companies are steadily picking up on this - India’s leading IT player Tata Consultancy Services has leveraged Qlik to enable tracking and proactive measures for its COVID vaccination efforts for more than 400,000 employees.

In short, access to market data, your employee data, uptake on benefits programs, employee sentiment, as well as engagement surveys on what is important to your people could be the difference between a workforce that is thriving, only surviving, or worst of all, declining.

Employee Talent and Skills:

About half of all workers will need reskilling in the next five years, noted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a 2020 report, and governments and corporations need to step up to ensure low-wage workers will not be forgotten.

There has never been a bad time to invest in your people; however, something we are seeing much more of now is the need to identify and bring people through more structured training programs, as well as offer cross-training opportunities and courses to develop both hard and soft skills. Most managers have never needed to manage remote teams before, but the current world order is different from how we have worked before. Being able to see who, how and which managers are thriving in this new world-of-work can help identify what benefits your business when it comes to remote management and upskilling your workforce to meet the demands of the future. As part of its digital transformation, Japan’s multi-franchise restaurant coporation Toridoll, utilises Qlik Sense to gain actionable insights on sales, employee resource management, and employee training, all to maximise the present customer experience in their stores.

Employee Engagement:

Personally, I have always been a strong proponent of reversing the notion of Predictive Attrition to create a Predictive Engagement model. There is something more appealing to me to do the things that you do well – and to do them even better –, to keep your workforce motivated, engaged and feeling part of your broader business. Certain groups of workers simply don’t read emails (or rarely) and would prefer face-to-face communication – or insert your conference platform of choice – as much as possible. Others may prefer communicating in their second or non-native language in writing to ensure they understand the messaging correctly. Some may value different benefits to others. This could vary based on age, location, tenure and so on – but, at the core, being able to see this and provide tailored benefits programs for your workforce could be the solution to the Great Resignation. Think of it as the Great Retention, and avoid the recruitment need as much as possible. Noble Group, a Hong Kong-based global supply chain conglomerate uses Qlik to provide easy-to-use dashboards to analyse employee data. The robust reporting that highlights nearly any view of the data that HR deems important, aids the conglomerate in tailoring employee benefits to better retain workforce talent.

As you continue on your journey through the pandemic and into your own future of work, I have no doubt that bringing HR Data and Analytics to the decisioning process will help pay you dividends. I wish you every success, as we all continue navigate these difficult times.