Big Data is the buzzword in IT at the moment. It is a part of every other compilation made for top IT technologies today. But most people do not understand Big Data other than thinking of it as a generic term in IT jargon
Big Data sets are defined as large volumes of data—both structured and unstructured that is generated every single day. These data sets, when analyzed, can be used to drive efficiency and performance by companies. However, the power of big data lies not in the sheer amount of data it generates, but in the way this information is applied and used by organizations for their benefit. When the data is evaluated in real time by powerful analytics programs, it provides actionable information. Businesses use this for such purposes as decision-making, streamlining operations and developing products, among others.
Big data can be used to enhance employee engagement, which, in turn, translates into high productivity. Here are a few the ways to do it…
How Big Data helps Employee Engagement
Performance Analytics:
Big data analytics helps employees look at their contribution in a company’s overall performance and see the connection between their work and the organization’s goals. Employees, with the available data, can orient themselves and set individual goals easily. Organizations, too, can use big data to create an individualized career development plan for every employee and spot employees who, need additional training. In a data-driven organization, every action performed by an employee produces logs that can be accessed by the enterprise leader to review and estimate against the desired performance goal. Such data can provide department heads insights into the capabilities of individual employees which managers can use to set benchmarks for each employee.
Career Growth Tracking
This feature benefits both employees and employers: Employees can work upon their weaknesses and, in turn, the employer can make the most of human capital—from professional training within the office or training outside to enhance skills. Employees can use big data to track their career growth quarterly, as well as annually. This can provide employees a sense of control over their career progress and improve their engagement within the workplace. Using big data, employees can select the area where they think they need improvement and track their performance, along with their peers in that particular area that will motivate the employees to perform more effectively.
Self-Directed Career Development
Most employees would prefer their professional shortcomings to be pointed out in private. And employers can use Big Data for that. So, organizations have to install big data-tracking tools and provide employees access to their performance data through an internal job portal or a virtual assistant. This will remove stress that results from open discussion of an employee’s shortcomings. This kind of an environment makes employees feel empowered and in control of their work quality. Organizations that engage in such policies typically enjoy a high employee engagement level.
Motivating the Numbers
Big data can also be used by employers to generate empirical evidence which will help in effective decision-making. Since data can come from various sources, it is important for the employer to bring down the range to a few areas. When information is generated, the findings must be shared with all stakeholders to reap the maximum benefit of the report. This way, the organization can offer employees the significant data needed for them to succeed.
Conclusion
These are some of the ways where entrepreneurs can use Big Data to increase their employee engagement at the workplace. Increased employee engagement can mean enhanced productivity and a lower attrition rate. Therefore, the first step towards this is to gain a deeper knowledge into big data by enrolling in a big data course.
(The author is Mr. Peeyush Bajpai, CEO, Spring People and the views expressed in this article are his own)
