From the desk of Jennifer Glaeser Beck, VP of Research & Consulting
As parts of the country are reopening, HR leaders are beginning to reflect on their organization’s initial response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Did you have the data and tools you needed to make quick, evidence-based decisions? Now is the time to review your People Analytics strategy. Determine if you are collecting the data that will enable you to make smart and informed decisions the next time you are called to respond to a crisis. If you are not already collecting or tracking these data points, now may be the time to start.
4 Employee Attitudes
If you are not already conducting a survey to collect employee attitudes, add one to your toolbox. Whether it is a large annual census survey, or frequent pulses, the following employee sentiments are critical to understand.
Job Security: Do employees feel secure in their job? This question used to be quite common, but after a long period of low unemployment, it became less relevant to organizations. Now, with record breaking unemployment claims and economic uncertainty, this is an acute and distressing concern for employees.
Health and Safety: Do employees feel safe at work? This is different from the workplace protocol for wiping up spills on the ground. This is whether employees feel the organization is taking the appropriate measures to maintain their employees’ and customers’ health.
Connection: Do employees feel isolated? Isolation and a feeling of disconnect from the organization is a possible consequence of quarantine orders and remote working situations. A feeling of connection is an important driver of Engagement and retention.
Empowerment: Do employees feel empowered to make the necessary decisions to adapt to a fluctuating work environment? Perhaps, one of the most important tools leaders can be equipped with is the trust and support from their organization to make the right decisions at the right time. For example, being able to respond swiftly to a confirmed case of Covid-19 in a warehouse is critical for the functioning and health and well-being of employees at the facility.
4 People Metrics
Location and Public Health Data: Where are your employees, and are they in a Covid-19 hot spot? Tracking publicly available data related to Covid-19, such as number of cases and number of positive test results, will help your leaders quickly understand where they may need to re-engage stricter safety protocols, shut down work, or shift work or production to other locations.
Sick Time Usage: Where do we have a rise in sick time usage? Understanding where people are calling out, in conjunction with local public health data, can help prioritize locations that need extra support.
At Risk Employees: What employees are at risk? If possible, keep track of where and how many of your employees are considered high risk for a serious case of Covid-19. Based on data available now, this could be as simple as age. Understanding this can help organizations identify where to provide additional health and safety support.
Skills or Training Data: What skills do employees have and how can they be utilized? If there is another surge in Covid-19 cases and workload needs to be redirected, who will it go to? Understanding what skills and training each employee has may help distribute the work appropriately if the time comes again to quarantine.
Review your People Analytics strategy. Is there any data missing? Do your data owners and producers collaborate? Work with your organization to make sure there is increased transparency between data holders, identify what data is missing, and ensure proactive, data-based decision making is the foundation for your next response to a crisis.
Reach out to Spring International ([email protected]) for help on building these metrics into your HR toolbox.
