Human Resources Technology Big Data Defined

If your master bedroom closet is like mine, you can barely see the floor.  My shoe collection has outgrown its formerly organized location, overflowing to the floor.  Since I travel as does my hubby, bags and suitcases keep me on my toes as a navigate the compact closet maze.  Baskets of socks, t-shirts, and unhung jackets litter the closet where we’ve spent time, money, and stress organizing, cataloguing, but I have no idea where to start anymore.

That’s what big data is to HR and technology.  It’s a giant collection of crap, fashion favorites and memories stored from years past with no clear since of direction, organization, or any idea in which to start.  Now imagine trying to sort through your own information evaluating, filing, and even locating  candidate applications to cross reference employee turnover while considering the participation rate of your 401(k) combined with absenteeism rates.  Just writing this, I’m overwhelmed already.

For big data and these human resources and business metrics to be useful and effective, one must have a clear sense of direction.  That means understanding what exactly big data is and how it can help HR.  Education leads to enlightenment, and when it comes to my closet, I knew I couldn’t do it alone.  I was enlightened enough to call in the experts, and by the experts to get me and my closet where it needed to be.

A Focus on HR Reporting & Analytics

Those analyst types or consultants whose job it is to crunch the number, determine patterns, and analyze analysis.  HR metrics and formulas like cost per hire are not enough.  Our industry by nature isn’t numbers or hr reporting focused, but we should be.  We spend our energy often times on the soft topics, the warm fuzzies like me.  I tried to organize and wrap my head around that damn closet only to get caught up in the memories of a slimmer waste and the time we spent on our honeymoon in Italy where I bought that killer leather purse, losing sight of what I had planned in the first place.

How to Organize Your Closet Full of Clothes

So I brought in my expert to help me organize closet full of clothes, my mess.  It was expensive, but my closet became organized, clean, and I could see through the clutter of what my closet (or data) should be.  I breathed easier, saved time, and stressed less.  I realized I had 10 black shirts, and had purchased new ones because they were lost. I streamlined my wardrobe, but more importantly I learned something along the way.