India sees 77 per cent growth in HR analytics professionals
In the past five years, there has been a 70 per cent increase in specialised analytics professionals in HR across the Asia-Pacific region, whereas India has shown a higher growth at 77 per cent, according “The Rise of Analytics in HR: An era of Talent Intelligence” report published by LinkedIn. These professionals are known to fill various specialised job titles such as ‘data scientist’, ‘talent analytics director’ and ‘diversity analytics specialist’. In India, 14 per cent of total jobs in HR are analytics-based, signifying that companies are increasingly trying to arm their HR functions with analytical capabilities with talent as their focus area.
The top three industries to adopt talent analytics in India are financial services and insurance, technology software, and professional services. In fact, financial services leads the pack as the top industry to adopt talent analytics in seven countries in Asia-Pacific, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Taiwan.
Compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, talent development and productivity are established focus areas for use of analytics in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, companies are also actively ramping up the use of analytics for emerging focus areas such as employer branding, workforce planning, and culture and diversity. HR leaders in India are currently prioritising the use of analytics in three areas namely, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, productivity and performance. Interestingly, analytics usage for retention ranks four in India, compared to eight in Southeast Asia as well as China, and nine in Australia. This could be attributed to the fact that India has a high attrition rate. Priority areas in different countries vary as per the different business realities in each market. For example, in India and China where people change jobs often, talent acquisition is a high priority. However, in Southeast Asia and Australia where attrition is lower, the focus is on talent development and workforce planning, respectively.