One fact that has strongly marked our civilization is the computer revolution. Since the middle of the last century, surprising progress has been made around the storage capacity and functions of computers, making them present in almost all spheres of human activity. Today's computers, like yesterday's, require that you provide them with information. And here is its central and constant contribution over time: being able to process huge amounts of information, increasingly varied, in increasing volumes and at higher speeds. Serve a number as an example of this revolution: in just 2 years, today's computers process more information than that produced throughout the history of humanity.
Almost since the appearance of computers, the public and private sectors knew how to take advantage of them. The information already analyzed or processed that they provided was an irrefutable failure and a valuable resource to take or correct actions.
An ancient idea, even before computers, raises the troubling question of whether human behavior can be predicted by rational and accessible means. This idea, once unfeasible, becomes a possibility thanks to increasingly powerful computers.
Today, thousands of companies strive to anticipate the needs of their customers, thanks precisely to the information that is available about their public in cyberspace. An example would be that experience in which, being short of cash, several financial entities call or write to the client to make various offers and even collateral benefits. Another case would be that of stores that, based on a customer's purchase history, call him to announce discounts on products suitable for birthdays or anniversaries.
Currently we are experiencing a transition in which, as already happens with customer monitoring to anticipate their needs, satisfy them and thus retain their loyalty, something similar is beginning to be done with the human resources of companies.
Surveys done abroad reveal that 80% of human resources managers recognize that a growing trend in this field is the application of Big Data, a new technological tool focused on taking advantage of the immense mass of data that daily, voluntarily or involuntarily, the workers of an organization, like the rest of mortals, generate on the Internet. Well, based on this "footprint" that remains daily in cyberspace, the company can establish behavioral patterns for each of its collaborators. Based on such trends, the company can anticipate actions and make more reliable decisions.
Naturally, millions of data alone are of no use. This accumulation of records must be processed and analyzed thanks to specialized programs. These algorithms lead to graphs, estimates, and behavior patterns. In sum, if until recently it was only the marketing, finance, and some other departments that managed based on factual evidence and indicators, human resources offices are aware today that their work can be more predictive.
The consolidation of Big Data will go hand in hand with the ever closer connection between people and between people and things thanks to technology. This implies that our immediate and mediated human interactions will each produce a record in cyberspace. Those records or data processed, analyzed and organized will provoke proposals and responses from the organizations with which we link as clients or workers. Consequently, if Bill Gates proposed the smart home with literally all the devices connected to the Internet and therefore linked to various shops and service providers, the company managed by Big Data will have a thorough knowledge of its collaborators. And this will make people management more effective.
What information about your workers will companies favor? To begin with, percentages of punctuality, absenteeism and rotation, that is, of entry and withdrawal of people from the organization. Second, performance levels, motivation, satisfaction. But the way to obtain the latter will be more sophisticated.
Let's see some examples. In the area of recruitment and selection of personnel, a company that offers a vacancy will be able to access the employability record of each candidate on the Internet: studies or training, work history with number of jobs, average permanence in them and quantitative indicators of achievement reached. The degree of correlation between the competences of each subject may also be established with the requirements of the position they held. Performance appraisals in previous jobs will also be on hand.
Regarding the management of the permanence or retention of old or regular personnel, the company will have direct and indirect measurements of satisfaction and the work environment, collected permanently and processed immediately. The information will not come only from surveys, it will originate from the use of the coffee machine, the dining room, attendance at social and sports activities, in addition to the computer (number of clicks, most consulted pages, most frequent email recipients), from the telephone smart (geographic location and most used applications) and others. The psychological, personal and family profiles of each employee will be a continuously consulted input to explain and anticipate behavior.This will bring us a little closer to really tailored incentives. In fact, the correspondence between incentives and performance will be an item of mandatory attention.
Finally, in terms of training and performance evaluation, both processes will be permanently observed and analyzed seeking to obtain the highest performance from the staff. For example, an image of the top quintile or 20% of the most productive workers can be obtained immediately.
All the aforementioned possibilities require the transformation of human resources departments. Obviously, they cannot continue accumulating data the way they do, a large part of them are disconnected and useless. Some estimates suggest that as little as 1% of data is converted into usable information. Fortunately, several human resource software programs are incorporating Big Data requirements.
To recap, the company guided or managed by Big Data will be more efficient and its staff more productive. The ethical dilemmas of this transformation are numerous and so far only glimpsed by novels such as Orwell's 1984 or the recent film The Circle. At the moment, it is worth wondering where the line will be between the permanent connection to work and the pervasive control of our lives. And, linked to it, what will happen to our private life?
The supporters of Big Data respond that this tool will not return us to the time of Taylorism and the assembly line when the worker was rigidly controlled in his times and movements. On the contrary, they add, the permanent monitoring of the workforce will not be necessary since it will be valued above all the achievements or results. However, there will be a narrow gap between temptation and the possibility of total control of people.
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*Peruvian. Magister in Organizational Psychology and university teacher.
