Big data is one of the emerging technologies of 21st century and is here to stay. Big data refers to large sets of data that can be analyzed and researched to derive value for a business. Big data specialists usually explore these large sets of data to identify patterns, associations, trends, etc. Most of the time, big data can yield invaluable information about human behaviors and interactions that are extremely difficult to interpret otherwise. As of yet, Myanmar is not a country that largely employs big data into operational routines or business applications, but it is indeed an asset once it is able to be identified by companies how exactly they can add value to their many business areas. There are numerous ways big data can be incorporated into HR and recruiting, and described below are four recommended areas in HR that big data technology can come in handy.

Retention

Employee retention and turnover is one of the most challenging areas of HR, and getting employees to stay is just as important as recruiting them. One of the biggest challenges in improving employee retention is to identify what are the main reasons someone would decide to leave the company. Big data is one of the most useful technologies that can be integrated into the HR landscape to conduct analysis on this particular area of HR. HR specialists can make use of the vast amounts of data companies are sitting on in regards to employee pay history, reviews, performance records, and promotions to identify which employees are more likely to quit. This allows recruiters to easily understand large amounts of data sets and understand why employees quit and potentially come up with ways to retain them more effectively.

Recruitment

A bad hire can be detrimental to any company, and making informed decisions without being backed by data is a tough process at best and potentially negligent process at worst. With data sets available today, the use of big data allows recruiters to analyze the current employees’ skill sets, qualifications, and performance levels to determine how successful they are within the workplace and make use of that data to predict whether a candidate fits for the role. Say for example, if the big data analysis indicates that your sales employees who have a marketing background perform better and yield more sales that other sales employees due to metrics being measured in personality, skills assessments, or other data points; then perhaps you should be on a lookout for more sales candidates who have past experiences in marketing as well.

Performance

Companies can use big data to track the performance of their employees. One of the ways this can be done is to identify the top performers within the company, trainings and resources that they receive, their lateral or upward career movements within the company, and other metrics that make them exemplary employees. Employers can then set their practices and experiences as best case scenarios and implement them for current and prospective employees to drive better performance in them due to being able to evaluate what has been successful in the past. This particular aspect of big data in HR to control and manage performance also allows recruiters to design better onboarding and training programs.

Profile

Employee personas are an integral part of a company’s culture. A company thrives as an organization or a unit of individuals striving to achieve a common long-term goal, and synchrony of their personalities happens to be one of the factors of a company’s HR success. Big data proves to be quite useful in determining the individual or collective personality of the company’s employees, and can help to analyze employees by a number of different traits.

This can be accomplished using big data analysis modules called Natural Language Processing and Sentiment Analysis, which utilize ground breaking technology to interpret the natural languages of humans to extract useful information including the range of humans’ emotions in a particular place or situation and their interaction style and frequency of communication with each other. As we head into the next decade, we are sure to see more and more novel ways for companies to use big data to help the solve HR business problems.