What is People Analytics?
The practice of using data analysis and statistical methods to understand workforce patterns, predict outcomes, and make evidence-based people decisions.
Definition
People analytics — also referred to as HR analytics, workforce analytics, or talent analytics — is the practice of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting employee data to improve decision-making across the talent lifecycle. It applies statistical methods, data visualization, and increasingly machine learning to questions that were traditionally answered by intuition: Why are people leaving? Which teams are at risk of burnout? What predicts high performance? Where should we invest in development?
People analytics operates at multiple levels of maturity. Descriptive analytics answers "what happened" through dashboards and reports on metrics like turnover rate, headcount trends, and survey scores. Diagnostic analytics answers "why it happened" by correlating variables — for example, linking engagement score drops to specific management changes. Predictive analytics answers "what will happen" by building models that forecast turnover risk, performance trajectories, or hiring success. Prescriptive analytics answers "what should we do" by recommending specific interventions.
The rise of people analytics reflects a broader shift in HR from an administrative function to a strategic partner. Organizations with mature analytics capabilities make faster, more accurate talent decisions and can demonstrate the ROI of people programs to the C-suite. However, people analytics also carries ethical responsibilities around privacy, consent, bias in algorithms, and the appropriate boundaries of workplace data collection.
Why It Matters
Organizations generate vast amounts of people data through surveys, reviews, hiring, attrition, and operational systems — but most of it goes unanalyzed. People analytics transforms this raw data into actionable intelligence that improves hiring quality, reduces unwanted turnover, identifies development needs, and connects people investments to business outcomes. For HR leaders, building analytics capability is essential for earning and maintaining a strategic seat at the leadership table.
How Unmatched Helps
Unmatched's AI Analytics feature helps organizations measure, understand, and act on people analytics through AI-powered analytics and actionable insights — all within one connected platform.
Explore AI AnalyticsRelated Terms
Predictive Analytics
The use of statistical models and machine learning to forecast future workforce outcomes such as turnover risk, performance trajectory, and engagement trends.
Sentiment Analysis
The use of natural language processing to automatically detect and categorize the emotional tone — positive, negative, or neutral — in employee feedback and communications.
HR Metrics
Quantitative measurements used to track the effectiveness of human resources programs, processes, and their impact on organizational performance.
Workforce Planning
The strategic process of analyzing current workforce capabilities, forecasting future talent needs, and developing plans to close the gap.