Only 11% of organisations in India are satisfied with the current level of talent analytics, while just 24% are satisfied with the present level of workforce planning in their organisation. These findings are part of the 2018 State of Talent Analytics in India study by Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ: WlTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company.
The State of Talent Analytics in India is a study that assesses the overall maturity of talent analytics and workforce planning in India. While, talent analytics is the application of statistics, technology, and expertise to large sets of people data to make better decisions for an organisation, workforce planning looks at the current and future workforce requirements in terms of capacity, capability and future skills requirement.
The study found that workforce optimisation ranked a close third among the top four HR priorities. This is a clear testimony to the role and importance of talent analytics in workforce planning, going forward.
The study also indicates that predictive analytics, the science of using data and statistics to predict likely outcomes, is a high interest area, yet only 3% organisations are currently leveraging predictive analytics for making people decisions. Further highlighting the need for adopting latest technology in talent analytics, the study found that a vast majority 79% still use excel based spread sheets, while only 18% use statistical tools such as SAS, R, SPSS etc.
Analysing the challenges for effective implementation of talent analytics, the study found that - integration of data from disparate sources, unactionable data and lack of suitable skills were the top barriers.
Commenting on the study findings, Neeraj Tandon, Practice lead- Workforce Analytics and Planning, Asia Pacific, Willis Towers Watson said: “The difference between decisions made on gut feel and based on knowledge is access to data and knowing what to do with it. Organisations are increasingly recognising the value of big data and data analysis in predicting and dealing with constant change and complexity. From an HR and talent management context, this difference could have far reaching implications.
Evidently, HR teams that have been able to effectively utilise people data, are realising benefits and value for their stakeholders and at the same time succeeding in elevating the role of HR in contributing to boardroom decisions.
The study shows that companies in India recognise this, are beginning to take efforts in the right direction but there is some distance to cover.
The study further revealed that majority organisations in India lack dedicated resources or suitable skills for talent analytics but that seems set to change with higher investments as 53% companies are gearing up to increase their investment in talent analytics.
The key focus areas of investments will be technology (71%), people/competence (68%) and data quality (61%). On workforce planning, the study finds that only 1 on 4 are satisfied with the current status. Perhaps explaining the reason for this, the study reveals that while projecting future workforce demand is the top driver, only 11% organisations in India have a long term (3 to 5 year) workforce plan.
Overall, the study highlights that organisations are beginning to acknowledge the importance of workforce planning in driving their future people and business strategy.
This is evident from the fact that 44% organisations see workforce planning as an ‘integral part of business strategy’ and 33% view it as a ‘key strategic initiative’. Moreover, it has started garnering attention and involvement at senior leadership levels with 46% organisations responding that all business leaders, including CEOs and COOs are sponsors of workforce planning.