Dive Brief:
- More and more employers are applying HR-based analytics tools to employee data. Primarily used within healthcare benefits, employers are also using analytics to identify/reward top performers, root out skills gaps, improve training programs and recruit the best talent, among other things.
- But while those objectives are may be well-intentioned, they also can conflict with employee privacy, TechTarget reports.
- As a result, employers and HR should tread very carefully when using analytics within the workforce, TechTarget adds.
Dive Insight:
One expert in the article explained that privacy issues can surface if an employer delves into health characteristics of specific employees or makes decisions based on employee ages, for example. They can also run into issues if they use "predictive termination models" that lead them not to train people who are in line for being let go, or on the flip side, if they use predictive models as the basis for promotions.
John Sumser, an analyst at HR Examiner, told TechTarget that privacy concerns and breaches are building. Two pieces of seemingly unconnected information when used together can result in accidentally disclosed personal information.
Bottom line, experts in the article agree that these potent data mining solutions need to aggregate data in ways that make it useful for analytics but ensure individual privacy, whether it's an employee or a family member who happens to be in a health plan, for example.
