Nonprofit HR’s Blog

Big Data is on the verge of becoming affordable and useful to more organizations as large wealthy companies develop and use the technology that will eventually trickle-down to small and mid-sized organizations.

For the nonprofit HR world this means paying attention to the genre’s growth and development knowing that it is still outside our reach – for now.

To that end, Meghan Biro has a great post about how the convergence of data and technology can help HR better do its job.

“Big Data’s greatest HR value may well be as a predictive tool. By analyzing the skills and attributes of high performers, Big Data allows organizations to build a template for future hires. HR and Leaders can learn what to look for with incredible precision. The results of these analyses can sometimes be surprising. Degrees from fancy colleges have, in some organizations, turned out to be lousy predictors of success. Similarly, an impressive resume may not necessarily mean someone is good match for your organization. Big Data is democratic, supporting a meritocracy and enabling companies to make smarter decisions; Google has an entire HR division devoted to “people analytics” which measures qualities such as social skills, flexibility, emotional intelligence, initiative, attitude (negative or positive or AKA “good fit” vs “bad fit”), and perseverance.

Big Data also widely expands the hiring pool. HR can go online to sites such as TalentBin and LinkedIn and search the world for that perfect hire. A prospect doesn’t even have to be looking to switch jobs.”

So let the education begin nonprofit HR professionals!