Following last month’s CIPD Data Analytics Conference and Workshop we decided to take a closer look at data analytics and its role in HR. The idea of data analytics in HR is not a new one. It’s about taking a data driven approach to identifying and analysing people related issues. However, over the last few years we have seen it become increasingly important – in fact LinkedIn reported that in North America there has been a three-fold increase in HR professionals adding analytics skills and keywords to their profiles. It is clear that when done well, people analytics can provide organisations with huge amounts of information and reporting abilities that can help revolutionise employee engagement, satisfaction, retention and, ultimately, business success.