How to Build a Career in HR Analytics: Essential Skills & Qualifications

By Sonalisha Mohanty Category Hot Topics Reading time 10.5 mins Published on Jun 05, 2023

Are you someone who joined the HR domain to understand and manage individuals within an organization? At the same time, do you love playing with data to get better and bigger insights?

If yes, then the HR analytics field is your prime setup. Analytics drive significant changes in these areas. The HR department is the one that sees an insightful presentation of labour market trends and related facts. HR analysts, as well as people analytics, are proving compatible with the changing business landscape hence, having related insights is easier.

A human resources manager designs functional activities aligned with people management goals. The employees, or people, are the critical assets owned by the firm, and people management is the critical function here.

Do you know how an HR analyst supports people management?

People management at present, supported by people analytics, justifies AI conversion. The rise of HR analytics proves sustainable, creating informed decisions for businesses. HR analysts use analytics tools to manage employees' capacity and business growth.

Now let us discuss the most-demanded skills required for the HR analytics career role.

What are the skill requirements for building a career in HR analytics?

HR analytics is a field with infinite prospects for career growth. The experts at entry-level or mid-career levels in HR are open to having such advantages in the labour market. An HR expert can build a successful career in this field if he/she has an interest in data-driven analytics.

Yet, there is no certain prerequisite for a career in people analytics. The demanding skills, foundation knowledge, and basic education of an expert help shape a career as an HR analyst. To achieve success, a certificate course in HR analytics can provide better help. The learning modules and capstone projects help upskill to match industry trends.

Let us dive into the essential skills and expertise that people analytics demand from HR.

Essential Skills for Building a Career in HR Analytics


1. Generic Requirements

Basic knowledge of applied mathematics/statistics is essential to build a promising career in HR analytics. A good idea of HR processes and practices with applied stats can lead your career toward success.

The HR domain is challenging as it holds a vast employee database, making it complex. But integrating analytics in the field has secured a data-driven and insightful future. Thus, basic knowledge of HR functions and practices can help improve your learning in this field.

Check Out this Blog: Facts of HR Analytics Certification.

2. Technical Requirements

Human resource management has a widespread application in the business world. A strong career in HR analytics is possible with attentive learning of technical skills and real expertise. Some proven technical skills are: -

  • Advanced Excel

    An expert must learn Excel functions and applications for managing unstructured datasets. Employee performance reviews are a crucial task in HR departments. HR analysts can ease this process with advanced Excel analytics. The knowledge of Excel functions helps them see performance changes and trends and make decisions.

    Here, knowledge of advanced Excel functions and VBA provides practical learning scope. HR experts need to format the datasets before studying them and learning advanced Excel functions to carry out HR duties.

  • Basic DS & AI

    HR experts need to learn tools like R programming, coding, and Python to build a strong career in this field. If you learn ML techniques and applications, deriving essential insights becomes easier. Also, learning NLP techniques helps in reading and viewing complex employee data patterns.

    Better people analytics and management require informed decisions. HR analysts apply Bayesian optimization to optimize employee performance. With these technical skills, your aspiring career in the analytics field can see growth.

  • Tableau

    Imaging and viewing complex data trends are possible with the rightful application of Tableau. Knowledge of Tableau helps you predict the labor market trends, future demands, and skills gap. As a result, HR experts can plan their recruitment processes per market trends.

    Business leaders need to see a dashboard to have insightful decisions. Tableau creates, filters, and maps the data sheets or objects for data-driven decisions in business. Employee performance needs in-depth knowledge of events happening around. HR analysts generate employee performance reports with real insights helpful for business decisions.

    By every means, Tableau helps managers and leaders visualize the facts and update the skill's development scope in the firm. Hence, practical knowledge of Tableau is essential for shaping a career in HR analytics.

  • Power BI

    Power BI is an essential tool that HR analysts use during the recruitment and selection process. Labor market dynamics keep changing with industry trends. Hence, the skills gap has become a critical condition that HR experts face daily.

Can a better insight into complex labor market datasets simplify your tasks?
HR professionals use Power BI to view unstructured datasets, clean them, and explore vital insights. Real insights are essential for business since they save time and effort. The interactive features led by Power BI support generating reports on recruitment trends in the labor market. HR analysts use Power BI to manage recruitment activities aligned with goals and track the gradual progress.

Yet, all these technical skills are better used when applied in real time. Getting practical experience with analytics tools can strengthen your expertise in the field.

3. Soft Skills Requirements

The HR domain demands people management skills. If you are an expert in knowing people and their complex behavior, you can justify the HR analyst role well. Besides technical skills, an HR must also develop soft skills that build the analyst role.

  • Critical thinking abilities

    To build a successful career in a data-driven culture, one must strengthen his/her thinking abilities. In-depth thinking and critical analysis assist the analyst in seeing through complex datasets. HR analysts can break down complex data structures and predict future trends if they have strong thinking abilities. Also, HR pros combat people management issues well by critically analyzing the reasons involved.

  • Business Management skills

    HR analysts work with senior management authorities who are behind informed business decisions. Here, HR analysts must own strong business acumen that helps them assist senior management.

    Better business management skills include conversation, leadership, and strategic thinking abilities. HR analytics dive into business insights and facts. Thus, clear conversation is of utmost importance. You can build a leading career in analytics if you have desirable knowledge and skills.

  • Strong networking skills

    HR experts need to build professional ties with business stakeholders to make business decisions. Network building depends on the conversational abilities of an HR. HR experts must provide real insights into the latest trends for business decisions.

    Thus, an HR analyst must stay updated with the latest developments to support business decisions with insights.

How to Qualify for the Position of HR Analyst?

A roadmap for a successful career in HR analytics starts with a bachelor’s degree. A degree with consistent knowledge of academics can build a lucrative career with endless scope for career growth.

Also, a good knowledge of applied mathematics/statistics assists non-programming pros in building a rising career in HR analytics. With a least 1 year of work experience, an HR professional can work on shaping a promising career in analytics.

The expertise also includes technical skills and work experience with relevant tools. HR analysts can take an industry-paced HR analytics course to have an advantage.

Building a Career in HR Analytics!!

Analytics-driven industries are witnessing rapid growth. This opens up unending career growth opportunities for experts out there. HR domain integration with analytics opens many career growth doors for experts.

To build a promising career with expertise, an industry-paced course in HR analytics is available. Mid-career experts in the HR domain can enrol in the HR Analytics Program for practical learning. Here, the industry experts bring many capstone projects for real-time learning.

A course certificate from IBM and Microsoft supports your dream of joining the billion-dollar HR analytics industry.

Frequently Asked Questions


1. What are the essential skills required for becoming an HR Analyst?

HR analysts deal with business managers and help in insightful business decisions. Thus, the essential skills are :

  • Generic skills

  • Technical skills (Excel, Programming, Tableau, Power BI, DS, AI, ML, NLP, Deep Learning, etc.)

  • Soft skills (conversation, business management, networking skills, and critical thinking)

2. What are the job titles/designations available in HR Analytics?

HR analytics is currently in demand due to its shift in business dynamics that builds data-driven culture. Analytics in the HR domain has given rise to possible job titles like: -

  • HR Analyst

  • HR Analytics Manager

  • HR Business Partner

  • HR Data Analyst

3. What is the roadmap for starting a career as an HR Analyst?

The HR Analytics field is changing, and to sustain in this industry, you need to get an HR Analytics Certification. An industry-paced certificate course prepares you for a trending role with the application of analytics in real business cases.

4. Can a career in HR analytics provide an attractive paycheck?

An industry-certified HR analyst can crack prominent positions in MNCs with an attractive paycheck. On average, an HR analyst makes 5-9 LPA in India. Yet, the salary range depends on an analyst's realtime work experience and unique skill set.

5. Can a non-IT/non-programming expert switch their career to the HR Analytics field?

Yes, they can. A non-IT expert can start a career in HR analytics with at least 1 year of work experience. No programming skills are asked to become eligible for this role. But through an industry-paced course program, you can learn essential technical skills.