The survey also found that only 13% of leaders were very confident that their teams understood workforce analytics to the point where they could drive improved business performance, whereas more than 42% were not confident in this.
Only 14% of business and HR leaders use workforce analytics to make strategic decisions, according to Fairsail, with 69% restricting this to basic operational insights and reporting.
Despite this, 41% of those questioned said they believe workforce analytics to be increasingly critical to a business’s success, and 43% think they are important already.
Only 6% reported being very satisfied with the analytics tools currently available to them, 41% claimed to be dissatisfied, and a further 8% had no analytics capability at all.
More than six in 10 (62%) respondents had no plans to invest in analytics tools in 2015, with 27% citing their reason as a lack of budget. This is despite 49% stating that they struggle with their current HR system’s reporting and analytics features.
“Organisations are failing to make this a high priority, despite serious concerns regarding talent gaps and low levels of employee engagement,” commented CEO at Fairsail Adam Hale.
“It is no wonder that employee engagement is such a challenge when you consider the state of many HR systems in mid-size organisations, and the tendency to rely on spreadsheets for managing business-critical workforce data.
“Despite the focus and discussions around intelligent data and analytics there is a worrying gap between the possible and the actual,” he added.
Organisations failing to prioritise workforce analytics
Almost four in 10 (38%) senior business and HR leaders have little, basic or no knowledge of workforce analytics, according to research from HR management software company Fairsail.
