Assignment Question- What tools can HR function use to analyze such data?

What are the critical skills that HR needs to have to turn this data into information that can be used for decision making?

Businesses create a huge amount of valuable information in the form of e-mails, memos, notes from call-centers, news, user groups, chats, reports, web-pages, presentations, image-files, videofiles, and marketing material and news. According to Merrill Lynch, more than 85% of all business information exists in these forms. These information types are called either semistructured or unstructured data or Big Data. An argument can be made that extracting structured information from an unstructured source is a form of analysis itself .One reason it is important is that it gets to the heart of how to handle unstructured big data sources in the long run. However, my point is simply that the final analysis, which is what started the process of acquiring the unstructured data to begin with, does not use the unstructured data. It uses the structured information that has been extracted from it that can be used to make strategic HR decisions. This is an important nuance. Clearly, some new tools can be useful to aid in the initial processing of unstructured data. However, once the information extraction step is complete, youre left with a set of data that is fully structured and, typically, much smaller than what you had when you started. This makes the information much easier to incorporate into analytic processes and standard tools than most people think. Through an appropriate information extraction process, a big data source can shrink to a much more manageable size and format. At that point, you can proceed with your analytics as usual. For this reason, the thought of using unstructured data really shouldnt intimidate people as much as it often does.

According to projections from Gartner (2003), white collar workers will spend anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of their time searching, finding and assessing unstructured data. Because of the difficulty of properly searching, finding and assessing unstructured or semi-structured data, organizations may not draw upon these vast reservoirs of information, which could influence a particular decision, task or project. This can ultimately lead to poorly-informed decision making. In the context of relational database systems, it refers to data that cannot be stored in columns and rows. It must be stored in a BLOB (binary large object), a catch-all data type available in most relational database management systems.

Problems with semi-structured or unstructured data that HR function will have are :- No standardization, huge volumes and searchability of unstructured textual data. To solve problems with search ability and assessment of data, it is necessary to know something about the content. This can be done by adding context through the use of metadata. Two technologies designed for generating metadata about content are automatic categorization and information extraction. HP, IBM, Oracle are all working on market offerings and imagine the power these tools will potentially give HR folks who can specifically target groups with messages based on the analysis of what they are writing or talking about.

To thrive in the coming world of Big Data analysis, Human Resource professionals will have to learn to adapt and develop different skills from the ones traditionally every Human Resource person had. Areas of Improvement in HR Skills Job Descriptions: Unlike traditional ways in which HR/Recruiters profiled candidates, the new normal will be by analyzing, what people talk to and interact with while in meetings or in social networks, one will be able to identify key characteristics of successful people and from that develop a list of competencies, skills, and attitudes that are most likely to be successful. The recruiters will be then able to match this social profiles with current requirements. Sourcing : By tapping into a larger data-set than one can access or analyze today, HR folks can reach more people and learn more about job hunters. One can perhaps get referrals from whoever a person calls, what they talk about, and who they refer to in the conversations in Facebook or Twitter. The new normal will completely eliminate the need for Boolean search or experts in using the various forms of search engines. Few recruiters today know how to even optimally use search engines, they need not worry as tools will all be automated to a great extent Assessment & Metrics and Performance Analysis of recruiters: There is huge jump in the capability and ability to learn more about people by dissecting bits of information about someone from scraping or extracting data from websites/public information/social networks. This, combined with better analysis of the job specifications , expected on the job behavior , recruiters

can choose people with a higher probability of success than they can do today with all tools viz selection processes, tests, interviews etc. Management will be able to measure and track which calls resulted in the most candidates, what methods yielded the greatest returns, and how well candidates performed once hired. Some of this capability is available today with tools incorporated into HRIS systems like SAP and Oracle.

Assignment Question- Time and attendance software are being used widely. What are some of the critical uses of such software? Are there any benefits that are not yet being tapped?

Organizations worldwide are moving towards electronic attendance capturing using Time and Attendance Software. Every Monday comes with that dreaded Swipe in and every Friday is the most beautiful swipe out. Time and attendance software has become a critical part of our lives without even us realizing about it. Our pay, holidays and endless list of things are being governed by time and attendance software. Time and Attendance Software has undoubtedly helped HR fraternity in from moving away from personnel management to human resource management. Employees are the most valuable asset in any organization, hence companies place a lot of emphasis on making sure they are getting the most for their investment and always want to ensure that their employees are regularly attending work and dedicating an appropriate amount of time to their jobs. Organizations have to be really careful in getting the right attendance system. Wrong software selection can have negative impact on organizational growth. Data collection is done by using swipe cards, biometric readers, PIN numbers, and PC-based time clocks. It is a great report-creating tool and reduces the time which might have been used for payroll, accounting, and human resources personnel dedicate to calculating, collecting and processing data. Every night the system begins gathering and compiling all of the information from the day and all of that information is immediately available to managers throughout the company and in payroll and accounting to use for paycheck creation and logs. There is also a

feature on this system that alerts managers if an employee does not clock in or out on a day they are scheduled to work. SwipeClock offers a number of reports that come standard with the program, but they can all be altered or customized to best fit a companys needs. These standard features include summaries of daily, monthly, or yearly activities, detailed reports about specific departments or employees, a daily email report that can be sent to all managers or department heads, and labor code reports. Features SwipeClocks punch clocks have a special built-in lithium battery that will store all of the punches until the power comes back on, so companies will not have to worry about losing their data. Certain information, like salaries or number of punch ins and outs, can be restricted from being viewed or edited through filtering according to office location, employee code, or department. Electronic systems can recognize biometric IDs, such as palm-prints or retinal images, to signal the presence of a worker. Buddy punching becomes impossible in such a situation. Electronic recording systems can also be installed at workplaces so that the actual time a worker arrives there can be recorded. Time and attendance software can help organizations in making sure that employees are dedicating appropriate time towards work. However as most of our jobs are knowledge based jobs and requires cognitive thinking, swipe clocks alone cannot be used as a tool to measure efficiency or effectiveness. Even if my log in report shows I was present in office for 18 hours, there is no way to track whether it was productive hours or not. Many a times such systems can create mistrust. If such systems are new, the teething difficulties can be enormous. We should actually evaluate whether these systems are mandatory. Why dont organizations stop capturing log in and log out timings and check whether employees complete their work effectively or not. Such an act would give employees a feel good factor and they would start performing better the moment they realize that they are being trusted.