Reference no: EM133005670
Workforce analytics has helped the energy company tackle absenteeism and turnover. Jack Dwenson of People Analytics, said: "Absenteeism had risen above benchmark, so we needed to determine what was driving this change." Jack's' team formulated 55 possible hypotheses, tested 21 and found 11 to be valid.
"We were able to debunk certain myths," he said. For example, selling back untaken holiday did not increase the likelihood of someone going off sick. What was more important was the length and timing of holidays. "Taking only one long holiday a year increased the likelihood of sickness.
Similarly, taking lots of short breaks without a longer break at some point in the year was another risk factor," said Jack. "The insights have allowed us to update guidance for managers on how to handle holiday requests. We can also model various policy changes to see what impact they are likely to have and whether there might be unforeseen consequences that might increase the cost of absenteeism."
So far, the investment has yielded a return of around $300m over four years, and turnover in critical roles has fallen by 25%. Productivity has improved and recruitment costs have fallen. Turnover is a business-critical issue in the organization because it affects their ability to serve customers, manage operations or fill key roles. However, some companies analyze turnover simply because they can. Jack said: "Often people focus on turnover because it's an area where the availability and quality of data is high, and you can achieve a quick win."
However, it is more sensible to first determine whether there is a business case for looking at turnover, and embarking on analysis only if the case stacks up. And turnover is not always a bad thing, he said: "Turnover can, in fact, help triage poor performers, open positions to enable career advancement or allow for better skills matching."
Question - Is turnover a strategically important issue? What are the actions that an organization can take to address the issue?