Analytical HR leaders are becoming increasingly important to CEOs

HR professionals are becoming an increasingly bigger part of the overall corporate strategy, a recent CareerBuilder survey has revealed.

The survey showed that the ability to manage the growing amount of data their workforce produces is a top concern for CEOs, with 90 percent stating that having HR professionals with a knowledge of analytics was of importance to them. One-third of the CEOs in the survey cited these skills as "absolutely essential".

This demand has the potential to spur an new outlook in terms of employee management. Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, stated: "In our study, CEOs acknowledge that the recruitment landscape is changing and the need for their HR teams to come forward with data-driven, competitive approaches and efficient technologies is more critical than ever".

Although CEOs are pushing this new data-driven approach, they seem unable to fully utilise data to its full potential. A recent KMPG study showed that while three-quarters of businesses utilise data analytics for many areas including HR, only 14 per cent had the full talent and skills available to properly leverage their analytical capabilities. As well as this, over half (58 per cent) have problems evaluating data quality and reliability. At present, there is a clear gap between the needs of CEOs and the skill set of their managers. 

While the exposed skills gap in skill can be a hard problem to tackle, the process of data analysis can be streamlined and simplified through the use of efficiency software. Through this, HR departments can more easily understand the data analysis process and get clearer insights into the finer details of the functionality and productivity of their workforce.

With the right tools, HR professionals can get closer to meeting the increased needs of their CEOs and add more value not just to workforce management, but the overall business strategy .