Data analytics: the ROI conundrum
| Pages | 78-79 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-04-2019-157 |
| Published date | 08 April 2019 |
| Date | 08 April 2019 |
| Author | Chris Bruce |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Strategic commentary
Data analytics: the ROI conundrum
Chris Bruce
How can benefits teams ensure
their value is really felt by the
business? It starts by
cementing the team’s data
capabilities to enable benefits prosto
provide real-time updates on benefits
spend and transition from a
prescriptive to predictive analytics
model. While prescriptive analytics
seeks the best solutions among
various known choices, predictive
analytics takes it a step furtherto
model and forecast what might
happen. The latter means that
organizations can better preparefor
the impact of macro trends, such as
an aging workforce, on benefits
requirements and spend. Data
analytics is crucial for this higher
level, strategic planning. However,at
a time when data are the focusof
much debate and legislation, it is
imperative that companies are
sensitive to this and earn and
maintain their employees’trust in the
storage, consent and use of data.
Deciphering benefits spend and
eliminating complexity
Employee benefits are often
discussed as an afterthought on the
company balance sheet but represent
a significant amount of spend for
global employers. This cost is
incredibly hard to calculate because
of its dissemination in local markets–
and the job is only getting more
complex as employees demand more
flexibility in their benefits offering.
Benefits software, and the data
analytics that underpin it, hold the
code to deciphering benefits spend
and keeping tight control of costs,
which our Global Employee Benefits
Watch report found remains a priority
initiative for 96 per cent of
organizations.
In the past, we seem to have been in a
stalemate, where the desire to
implement benefits analytics has been
tempered by the need for ROI on the
time and financial investment involved
in cleaning and finding the data sets.
But global organizations cannot afford
to wait any longer. Those organizations
who are looking more deeply at their
data are already seeing considerable
ROI from their effort. One Thomsons
Online Benefits client, for example,
realized they were paying for 26,000
health insurance policies when they
should have had just 19,000.
Working out the new well-being
contract
Employers’ goals have changed very
little over the past decade –they want
happy, productive people to drive
shareholder value. Employee health
plays a big part of this across regions:
promoting employee well-beingis an
underlying objective for52 per cent of
global employers. However,the
problems and solutions thatglobal
companies encounter vary
significantly. In APAC, for example,
some employers are looking to deal
with preventable illnesses (e.g.
providing water filters in India), while
in the USA, the health issues are
predominantly chronic, relatingto
over consumption or aging.
Chris Bruce is based at Thomsons
Online Benefits, San Francisco,
California, USA.
PAGE 78 jSTRATEGIC HR REVIEW jVOL. 18 NO. 2 2019, pp. 78-79, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited,ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/SHR-04-2019-157
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