How smart tech can help HR use employee data to make better decisions

Is your HR department reactive or proactive? If you find yourself constantly having to put out fires, it's probably the former. And that's the traditional way HR has operated – simply responding to business needs as they arise. 

But in 2023, the profession is increasingly recognising that prevention is better than cure. For example, if you could anticipate the causes of high staff turnover and head them off at the pass, just consider how much time you could save on hiring and recruitment.

Of course, you can't spend all of your time talking to every single employee about their problems, especially in a large organisation. But what you can do is use anonymised employee data to spot trends, identify issues and predict problems. This data can then guide you towards solutions that actually work, rather than imposing top-down policies that are essentially just guesses. 

The best news is that most employees are now carrying around powerful devices in their pockets. And when teamed with the right apps, they make for powerful and efficient data-gathering machines.

The need for privacy

Of course, gathering data from people via tech has a bit of a bad rep these days. Companies like Facebook are in trouble with multiple governments for gathering personal data such as your financial information, physical location and purchase history, and selling them on to advertisers. 

But HR departments neither demand nor require this kind of personal data. What we're talking about here is anonymised results that point to broad trends among the employee base. 

Take health and wellbeing. HR departments are increasingly trying to promote better physical and mental health outcomes among their staff, as a way of minimising sickness and absence, as well as creating a healthier and happier workforce that's going to perform better overall. 

Yet, just guessing at what kind of campaigns, information or assistance will promote this in a particular organisation is like shooting in the dark. 

As anyone who uses a smartwatch or fitness app will know, apps and devices can tell you an awful lot about a person's health, habits and challenges… indeed, sometimes things they couldn't tell you themselves. 

And when that information is gathered in a collective, anonymised way, it can help ensure your health campaigns are targeting the right issues, and give you measurable data as to whether they're working or not. 

Granular data

Professor Robert Stawski, an interdisciplinary developmental health researcher at the University of Essex, points to some types of data that can be useful in determining both mental and physical health trends within a workforce. 

"Step counts are a very easy one," he begins. "They're almost ubiquitous given technology that people are either offered through their employers or choose to purchase on their own, such as the Apple Watch. Plus these same devices also allow for tracking sedentary behaviour; the absence of physical activity. They can also capture sleep, which is also an important health behaviour that relates to your ability to engage in physical activity. Another method of data gathering is simply asking people about health behaviours and habits via an app. 'What have you been eating? Have you been eating fruit today?'"

In short, technology allows us to move beyond a mere one or two data points, and gather large amounts of data at a very granular level. The more detailed this information, the more detailed and useful the analysis, and the better understanding you can get about what's really going on with your employees. 

Start with your HR goals

So how do you go about data gathering in practice? The important thing, says Stawski, is to determine what your HR goals are; then work backwards. "You design your assessments, and then you collect the information you believe is going to be the most beneficial, and the most informative for understanding whether or not the sorts of policies you've implemented are having the desired effects," he explains. 

Most importantly, he advises, you should harness technology to make the information you're gathering as timely and up-to-date as possible. "I believe this is the future of health and well being focused research; to have granular data on individuals in near real time," he says. "That way, you have a finger on the pulse of health and well being in the here-and-now. 

"This means you can track when there are ebbs and flows, and you can contextualise them. You want to be able to see how employees and individuals are changing over time; across ages, and across all groups, all demographics."

He cautions, though, that this information must remain anonymised, if trust in the technology and data-gathering is to be maintained.

"Moving towards intensive and continuous assessment does start to get closer to constant surveillance," says Stawski. "And that is not something to be taken lightly. So there need to be appropriate firewalls built in, so individuals feel they're giving HR important information that can help to understand changes in their health and wellbeing; but that it can't be utilised or aggregated in a way that's punitive."

Stawski believes the best way to achieve this is by: "Partnering with tech companies who have the knowledge and the infrastructure, and then telegraphing and making this transparent to individual employees. That way, they'll know this is the process by which their employer can contribute to invest in their well being."

How YuLife can help

At YuLife, we're firmly focused on helping HR departments gather the most valuable data related to employee health and wellbeing. By leveraging the features and capabilities of YuLife, HR departments can gain insights into employee wellness, make data-driven decisions and design targeted interventions to improve overall employee satisfaction and productivity.

It all starts with the YuLife app, which encourages employees to engage in various wellbeing activities, such as walking, cycling and meditation, in exchange for real-world rewards. In this way, such activities are gamified, creating a fun and interactive experience for employees. 

HR can easily access data via the Employer Portal: a comprehensive analytics dashboard that provides HR with real-time insights into employee wellbeing metrics. 

The dashboard presents aggregated and anonymised data, ensuring employee privacy while still allowing HR to analyse trends and patterns across the organisation.

This data enables HR to gain insights into employee physical health, detect patterns of inactivity or high stress, and design interventions that promote healthier habits and work-life balance.

Another valuable aspect of YuLife is its rewards system. Employees earn points for engaging in wellbeing activities and can redeem these points for various rewards, such as discounts, vouchers, or charitable donations. HR can leverage this data to measure employee motivation, track participation rates, and identify the most popular rewards. This helps HR assess the effectiveness of incentives, refine reward strategies, and continuously improve employee engagement.

In short, all of the information provided by YuLife can be used to identify employee trends, understand the impact of wellbeing initiatives, and tailor programs to better meet employee needs. And that makes for better policy making and a healthier and happier workforce overall.