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The importance of data science skills in HR

Data science has become important in helping organizations identify trends and, ultimately, drive strategies that will impact the bottom line. Here are 4 reasons why data science skills are important for human resources (HR) departments:

  1. Adapt to new HR expectations – HR teams are now expected to play a strategic role in their organizations. Data scientists can provide key workforce data insights as well as tell stories behind what the data means to ensure HR’s input in an organization yields positive results.
  2. Reduce biases –programs and policies are often established with good intentions but might actually be causing more disparity. Organizations that want to eliminate equity issues and reduce biases can leverage data science and analysis to uncover trends, policies and practices that need to be addressed.
  3. Pinpoint the drivers of workforce engagement and retention – most organizations use some sort of employee engagement or pulse survey to understand discretionary effort and intent to stay. Data science skills allow this analysis to be taken a step further.
  4. Overcome recruitment challenges with confidence – data science can give an organization a strategic advantage in several areas of recruiting, be it understanding where to source candidates or how to identify the best talent for vacancies.

Whether it’s hiring a skilled data scientist to join the HR department, retaining with a third-party organization to work alongside an HR team or acquiring a certification in data science, HR teams and professionals should consider adopting these skills to increase the effectiveness of their programs and strategies.