Predictive analytics in HR – focusing training and development (Part 4 of 8)

Predictive analytics in HR – focusing training and development (Part 4 of 8)

Predictive analytics can do more than just ensure that you hire the right people – it can help you to develop them in the right way.

Training

Predictive analytics can identify training needs on both the micro and the macro scale.

On the macro scale, it can look at your company and make big picture predictions about your needs. This can help you to make the right decision about how to bring skills into the organisation. If you know that a need is coming then you will have time to train up your own employees, saving the extra costs that can come from short notice hiring and farming out business to contingent workers. And if your predictions show that you will only need access to a skill set in the short-term, then it may show that you are better off hiring a contractor than investing in expensive training.

On a micro scale, predictive analytics can identify the training needs of individuals and allow you to plan for these in advance. By analyzing when particular types of employees are likely to need training in new skills, or refresher training to reinforce existing knowledge, you can plan a training schedule that will suit them and fit in with the company’s business cycle. Thus training can be timetabled for when the employee will most benefit from it, when their absence will be least disruptive to the business, and far enough in advance to plan around any disruption.

This applies as much to groups of employees as individuals, and may allow cost savings through group training while still tailoring training choices to individual needs.

Development

This planning can go beyond working out when an individual will need training, whether it’s in advanced call handling or the latest software package. It can allow the organization to plan effective employee development over the long-term.

The largely untapped pool of recruitment talent data, assembled during past recruitment campaigns, can be particularly useful for this. By comparing recruitment data with the later career trajectories of existing employees, predictive metrics can provide an indication of where someone’s career path is likely to take them and where they are likely to find the most success.

This allows both the company and the employee to plan for their career progression, targeting training, experience and other development opportunities to move the individual swiftly and smoothly into the place where they can do the most good.

Of course, this isn’t just good for the company, it’s also good for the employee, as it will encourage them to try tasks they are likely to find satisfying, and provide opportunities that might otherwise not have come their way.

Part of good career progression is finding an appropriate mentor to support the employee along their path. By comparing employee information, including recruitment data, predictive analytics can identify pairings that are likely to work well, and to develop the skills that the mentee wants. Thus, an appropriate mentor/mentee relationship can be established early on, to the benefit of both parties.

Of course, all the training in the world does no good if you can’t hold on to your company’s talent. So that’s what we’ll look at next – how predictive analytics can help you with retention.

– Mark Lukens

Links or other articles in this series:

Article 1: Predictive analytics – looking to the future in recruitment
Article 2: Predictive analytics in HR – looking at the big picture
Article 3: Predictive analytics in HR – smarter recruitment
Article 4: Predictive analytics in HR – training and development
Article 5: Predictive analytics in HR – retention
Article 6: Predictive analytics in HR – getting it right
Article 7: Predictive analytics in HR – barriers to deployment
Article 8: Predictive analytics in HR – the future

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Mark Lukens, MBA

Founding Partner at Capatus

Mark Lukens is a founding partner at Capatus and located in the New York office. He leads the Capatus’ Global Talent and Advisory practice. He is also an expert in the firm’s research and nonprofit practice. Lukens has more than 20 years of c-level executive and consulting experience delivering strategies and transformational programs to firms ranging from start-up to Fortune 50. He has worked with clients in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Lukens worked extensively in various product and service categories including health care, life sciences, government, nonprofit, technology, and professional services. He also advises clients in other industries including commercial and industrial, retail, logistics and transportation, media and more. Lukens serves on several Nonprofit Boards and is a professor at the State University of New York where he teaches in the School of Business and Economics with a focus on marketing, international management, entrepreneurship, HR, and organizational behavior to name a few. Lukens has a technical background as a MCSE and earned an MBA from Eastern University.

@marklukens

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