How Predictive Analytics Have Revolutionized Performance Management

“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine,” said Peter Sondergaard, former Senior Vice President at Gartner. To extract the value from this new oil and turn it into strategic steps to business success, data must be broken down and analyzed.

According to an IBM study, there has been a large amount, almost 90%, of data created since 2016, and, by 2020, 1.7MB of data will be generated every second per person. It would be a crime to neglect such an enormous goldmine of information that potentially hides critical business insights. The keyword is “hides.” Research by IDC shows that 90% of the data produced is unstructured. So, once you have a clear picture of a goal you want to reach and have prepared relevant data sets for the analysis, AI and ML algorithms will come into play. By analyzing huge amounts of data, these algorithms will then start detecting patterns to support proactive business decisions—those that head off possible challenges before they arise.

As ML and AI evolve, predictive analytics is finding its way into various business use cases. Having years of experience in transforming data into prescriptive solutions for workforce performance improvement, we want to share with you how Rallyware has been helping companies become more data-driven about their performance management and business growth.

Predictive analytics for efficient onboarding

Upon welcoming a new member to the team, comes the most important part of their journey – onboarding – because it defines the time an individual will need to reach full productivity and impacts their desire to stay or leave. Keep in mind, there’s generally no established timeframe to determine successful completion of onboarding. We’re all different, so cognitive abilities, professional experience, educational background, and available skill sets greatly influence the getting-up-to-speed period.

The Rallyware Performance Enablement Platform delivers personalized recommendations for each user to guide them through the custom journey to success. By analyzing thousands of variables about each user and comparing them with years of accumulated data, our ML engine prescribes personalized activities tailored to every individual’s unique needs for the most effective onboarding.

The relevance of personalized recommendations is provided by ongoing data collection. The more data fed to the ML engine from a specific company, the more it enriches itself, detecting patterns and improving prediction capabilities.

Predictive analytics for performance improvement

Usually, poor performance doesn’t mean that a person is lazy. In the majority of cases, low workforce productivity is the result of three factors (the combination of several or one of them):

• The lack of what (objectives and guidance)
• The lack of how (skills and knowledge)
• The lack of why (engagement and motivation)

The predicting capabilities of our ML engine have been driving the overall performance with personalized paths to success. These paths include three key elements:

1. Personalized business activities triggered for each user at the right time tell them what and when to do something, guiding them through all tasks needed to complete a goal. This way, neither new recruits, nor your existing workforce feels lost or confused. As a result, performance management becomes much easier.
2. Personalized learning nuggets delivered just-in-time equip users with relevant knowledge and skills to ensure successful completion of every business activity and, as a result, the achievement of goals. Such targeted learning is possible thanks to identified patterns in data that tell the system about potential challenges other users have encountered while performing specific tasks.
3. Data-driven gamification of activities with personalized rewards (points, badges, etc.) and on-demand feedback solve the challenge of poor engagement. When everything is catered to the individual’s needs and supported by personalized instant gratification and appreciation from a company, people feel valued and much more motivated to do their best.

Thanks to personalized activities sent before the actual performance issues arise, the Rallyware Performance Enablement Platform ensures continuous performance improvement.

Predictive analytics for churn prevention

Having a large distributed workforce can be challenging to maintaining effective performance management and ensuring that nobody is on the verge of burnout that can lead to turnover. So, when it comes to effective retention, the Rallyware Performance Enablement Platform supports companies with two major tools.

First, it monitors every individual’s performance. Once it detects a drop in activity or some other performance anomalies, it sends notifications to managers right away to alert them about the substantial emerging challenge. Second, even when there are no visible changes in workforce performance for “a human eye”, the system keeps analyzing every single activity, comparing it with various behavior patterns. By comparing the history of other users’ performance and behavior of who then quit a company soon afterward, our platform has been predicting who else is on the same road to leave their job even if their performance is adequate at the moment.  

In all cases, predictive and prescriptive capabilities of the Rallyware Performance Enablement Platform intercede right away, sending personalized reminders and learning activities for users who are at high risk of leaving to engage and “get them back on track” before it’s too late.

One more way that prevents churn is data-driven recruiting. The prediction algorithm here is similar. By analyzing and comparing all relevant data about your existing team (those who are most loyal and high-performing, for example) you can get a clear picture about whether or not candidates in question are a good match for your company.

With a data-driven tool in hand that not only predicts potential workforce challenges but also helps to solve them on time, you will have an excellent opportunity to grow your business and enjoy the best talent of your team.

If you want to know more about the prescriptive capabilities of the Rallyware Performance Enablement Platform, ask us for a demo!