A Beginner's Guide to Workforce Analysis

Workforce analysis is crucial for grasping the intricacies of labor supply and demand. The benefits of workforce analytics include improved employee performance, enhanced operational efficiency, and alignment of human resources with overall company objectives. It delivers vital insights that help investors, management consultants, economists, and HR departments formulate effective strategies to optimize workforce utilization and achieve organizational or societal goals.

“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.” - Carly Fiorina

Workforce data plays a significant role in tracking hiring and economic trends. For instance, our recent reporting this summer analyzes the July employment market; another of our reports offers an in-depth examination of the technology industry. We also study the effect of workforce trends, such as AI job trends. Companies use this kind of data to understand the markets in which they operate and make informed decisions.

But how is this job market data collected and analyzed? What are the components of the overall labor market? What does workforce analysis reveal about labor market trends and organizational needs? This guide will introduce you to the fundamentals of workforce analysis, breaking down key concepts and processes.

What is Workforce Analysis?

Workforce analytics refers to the process of collecting HR data, analyzing it, and using the insights to optimize decision-making and operations. To fully define workforce analysis, it is also essential to understand its role in identifying and interpreting labor market trends. 

Workforce analysis entails incorporating and evaluating different labor market elements to discern employment and hiring trends and patterns. This includes examining job roles, necessary skill sets, employee data, and economic and market conditions that shape strategies and policies. 

Professional investors, management consultants, and employers can use workforce data to identify growth trends, evaluate a company's operations relative to its peers, and uncover geographic or industry market opportunities.

Sample Aura Platform Analysis

Aspects of Workforce Analysis

• Accessing the Labor Force: The term "labor force" includes all individuals eligible to work within a specific market, providing a comprehensive perspective on existing and prospective talent across various sectors.
• Researching Open Roles: Companies advertise jobs through publicly available job listings, which allows for analysis of the number of open jobs, growth trends, and more.
• Analyzing Active Applicants: Focuses on individuals actively seeking jobs, helping to understand the pool of potential hires with specific skills and experiences.
• Developing Recruitment Initiatives: Identifying groups of candidates who have shown interest in specific job openings, serving as the starting point for the recruitment process. In addition to identifying candidates, providing targeted employee training can enhance their capabilities and contribute to overall organizational success.
• Designing the Hiring Process: This step includes screening and assessing candidates to match job roles, customized to meet each team's specific requirements and standards.

Steps in Workforce Analysis

• Pinpointing Key Labor Markets: Identify the labor markets relevant to different job roles within an organization, highlighting regions with varying levels of talent competition.
• Collaborating with Management: Engage with management to align workforce analysis with broader business goals, ensuring a cohesive strategy.
• Compensation Analysis: Review salary information from comparable organizations to establish competitive pay and benefits, ensuring the company attracts and retains top talent.
• Monitoring Market Trends: Keep abreast of current trends in the job market, such as preferred compensation structures or investment initiatives, to adjust strategies as needed. Organizations can better prepare for potential workforce shortages or surpluses by considering various future scenarios.

Enhancing Workforce Planning with Data-Driven Insights

Workforce planning should be an ongoing, data-driven process to ensure alignment with a company’s mission and business objectives. This includes identifying high-potential employees and critical roles within the organization, as well as assessing workforce demographics and succession planning needs. By interpreting workforce data effectively, companies can address skills gaps, anticipate future staffing problems, and create a succession plan that secures the future of the business.

Additionally, workforce analytics can provide actionable insights into employee turnover and retention rates, allowing HR professionals to make data-driven decisions that significantly contribute to achieving annual business goals.

Benefits of Workforce Analysis

• Strategic Benchmarking: Supplies critical data for comparing labor supply and demand, enabling the understanding of competitive strengths and weaknesses. Management consultants, for example, may use benchmarking to make client recommendations.
• Enhanced Recruitment: Improves the ability to attract and retain the right talent by refining recruitment processes based on labor market insights. Talent acquisition and HR professionals may rely on this type of data.
• Optimized Compensation: Benefit and compensation managers also use workforce analytics. It helps establish effective compensation structures, making the organization competitive in attracting skilled professionals.
• Informed Strategy Development: Supports the creation of both short-term and long-term business strategies, leveraging workforce data for better decision-making. Adhering to the principles of a good workforce strategy is essential for effective workforce management and achieving business success.
• Performance Optimization: Effective workforce utilization analysis can improve employee performance and operational efficiency.

The Future of Workforce Analysis

Aura’s platform revolutionizes workforce analysis by providing comprehensive, publicly sourced data in a simple, on-demand platform. It aggregates up-to-date and objective information from disparate data sources, such as publicly listed job postings, offering detailed and valuable insights into workforce trends.

• Automated Data Collection: Continuously updates data from millions of data points, ensuring accurate and timely workforce insights. The platform uses data and statistical models to ensure these insights are precise and actionable. 
• Interactive Dashboards: Users can access dynamic dashboards for detailed, data-driven decision-making. Workforce analytics software like Aura provides these dynamic dashboards to enhance decision-making processes.
• Strategic Insights: Supports business and HR initiatives by offering in-depth data on workforce composition, talent supply and demand, and competitive benchmarking. Considering workforce availability is crucial for understanding talent supply and demand, and for making informed business decisions.

How Aura Helps the Workforce Planning Process

By leveraging Aura’s advanced workforce analytics, organizations can enhance their business strategies, streamline workforce structures, reduce costs, and maintain a competitive edge. Aura’s platform provides the tools for efficient and effective workforce analysis, transforming how companies approach labor market data.

• Insightful Analytics: Aura employs advanced analytics to uncover workforce trends, helping companies anticipate changes and proactively adjust their strategies. Users can use this information to project talent shortages or surpluses, enabling businesses to plan their recruitment and training efforts effectively. Business leaders can use these insights to make data-driven decisions.
• Customizable Reports: Users can generate data about organizational metrics for a single company, state, region, or country, offering deep insights into various workforce metrics. This data can uncover investment opportunities, inform strategic planning, support decision-making processes, and communicate workforce trends to stakeholders.
• Integration Capabilities: Aura’s data platform can be integrated with existing technology and data systems, ensuring a smooth data flow and enhancing the effectiveness of your existing data processes.

Learn more about Aura’s capabilities and how it can benefit your organization with a free trial of the workforce analytics platform.