Why Gathering Employee Data Is Important for Managing Your Workforce

The modern digital business landscape is data-driven. However, many business organizations still fail to harness the power of data and use it to their advantage. Employee data offers a range of benefits to companies, from analyzing the effectiveness of their workforce management and training programs to forecasting productivity trends and identifying top talent.

It can help with workforce development, planning, and management. Workforce data is every piece of information a business organization gathers about its employees. It encompasses specific details and basic contact information, such as ethnicity, date of birth, contact info, etc. 

This information helps team leaders and HR managers create comprehensive demographic reports about the workforce. Specific data, on the other hand, such as employee performance, helps business leaders develop better training programs, improve employee productivity, increase engagement, and more. 

When you look at employee data as a whole, you can see it’s an abundant source of information for fueling crucial business decisions. Aside from improving decision-making, analyzing employee data also helps improve company culture and develop a top-class workforce that can conquer any challenge.

Reasons to collect employee data

The types of employee data are many. Here are the essentials:

• Employment status (freelance, contract, part-time, or full-time);
• Transportation methods and commuting time;
• Length of employment;
• Attendance logs;
• Compensation records and information;
• Over performance;
• Periodical performance reviews;
• Personal information (name, date of birth, address, etc.);
• Hiring details;
• Recruitment data;
• Training courses;
• Certifications.

Employee data helps companies accomplish two vital goals. It allows them to understand employee behavior and actions. Team leaders and managers can use that data to anticipate worker reactions to new policies. 

Surveying your workforce empowers your employees and allows them to voice their opinions. That helps reduce negative feedback and increase employee engagement. More importantly, you can build a connection with your workforce based on mutual trust and loyalty. 

Here are some top reasons to gather and analyze workforce data.

Anticipate workforce trends

The collection of employee data allows you to get ahead of the latest recruiting, hiring, and employee management trends. From a performance, psychographic, and demographic point of view, collecting workforce data helps HR managers and business leaders gain a holistic perspective of their employees. 

They can better manage the workforce, cater to the specific needs of individual employees, and gather insights to identify patterns in their behavior. Identifying and anticipating workforce trends allow companies to solve problems, mitigate conflicts, and create a unified, prosperous company culture.

Cut down expenses and ensure growth

Turnover is the greatest challenge for every business, regardless of industry or size. However, analyzing workforce data allows business leaders to control corporate expenses up to a certain level. 

When employees leave your organization, you can analyze the reasons to recognize patterns and gather insights that help your HR decision-makers improve recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and employee management and retention practices. 

Additionally, such data also helps companies time job postings to increase the chances of reaching top candidates.

Increase workforce productivity

Reducing turnover rates leaves enough room for focusing on increasing productivity. Here are a few examples of how to leverage employee data:

• Managers could periodically interview all employees to find the best ways to solve their problems and provide support when they need it;
• HR teams could analyze the overall workforce productivity to identify promotion opportunities and areas for improvement;
• Gathering employee insights allows business leaders to develop the best training practices.

Since your workforce is the productive core of your business organization, collecting employee data is vital to understanding employee perspectives and gathering feedback that could lower turnover rates and improve productivity and decision-making.

Types of data to include in your database

The most effective use of employee data depends on the accuracy of the information you collect for your database. There must be no mistakes when entering the data in your employee database. 

The accuracy of workforce details determines the level of efficiency and productiveness of your organization. However, the data in your database also depends on how you plan to use it. 

There are three types of data that every business database should include:

• Identifying data – contains basic identifying details such as personal information such as name, address, ethnicity, race, age, and other contact details (phone, email, social media, etc.);
• Workplace performance metrics – involves keeping historical records on tracking and monitoring employee performance, sales numbers, attendance logs, annual review documents, etc.;
• Benefits information – includes retirement plans, healthcare policies, insurance, and other means of tracking the employee benefits.

Conclusion

Collecting and analyzing employee data is paramount for every business organization today. It’s the key to solving many challenges, such as identifying top talent, beating competitors, cutting down expenses, decreasing turnover rates, and improving productivity. 

Data is the new currency in online business. That’s why modern companies need innovative ways to gather, analyze, and process incredible amounts of data to stay on top of local and global markets.