In today’s world, information is the most valuable asset for organizations and its volume keeps growing every year at an exponential rate. However, there’s no point in holding on to large quantities of data if we don’t know how to analyze them and make sense of them. In the HR department, one of the tools used for data analysis is Power BI. How does it work and what are its benefits? We asked Guido Risso, HR Business Partner at intive, to share his experience with us.
Broadly speaking, what is Power BI?
Microsoft Power BI is a data analysis service that provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence (BI) capabilities. Its interface is simple and friendly for everyone who needs to start using it. It’s a free BI tool, but much like every other program, it also has paid content which grants you access to the most advanced tools.
What are its main advantages?
The main advantage is that with Power BI companies can manage big quantities of data (Excel, SharePoint, SQL, XML, PDF and more) which other platforms may find difficult to process.
The built-in features for automatic learning analyze data and help users spot valuable trends and make informed predictions. Besides, users can visualize information in templates so that companies can understand their data in a more detailed way. The intuitive interface makes it much more user-friendly and it’s easy to navigate through complex spreadsheets.
Power Bi is based in the cloud, so users get powerful algorithms and state-of-the-art intelligence capabilities that get updated regularly.
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the interface can be customized, so users can create their own control panels to quickly access the data they need. They can also set up alerts as KPIs to focus on important metrics and measurements.
Last but not least, Power BI ensures data safety, since it offers both internal and external accessibility controls.
What can it be used for? Could you give us an example on how it works?
It’s really versatile. We can put up a dashboard with important information for our area in order to make better decisions for our business.
One representative example could be the survey on Tech events we’d sent the staff a while ago. Once we gathered all the answers, we used Power BI to see in detail which events users were interested in or which members of the intive community were the most active.
Which industries or areas can benefit from using Power BI?
It’s tempting to say: all of them, but let’s not generalize; truth is, nevertheless, that most industries would benefit from Power IB. It goes without saying that depending on the area, the purpose of the tool may vary, but since it’s super thorough and intuitive, I believe it could be used in all cases.
How did you learn Power BI? What would you suggest is the best way to learn it?
When the pandemic started, I took part in many webinars focused on HR, and most of them mentioned Power BI. That’s how I got interested in the tool. Then I started watching YouTube tutorials and learning about how it works and what advantages come with it.
My advice? Watch some tutorials, just like I did, or take a free course on Udemy (basic and intermediate level). Microsoft also has a webpage called Microsoft Learn with a module focused especially on Power BI, with basic and advanced content.
How exactly is Power BI used at intive?
At our company, we’ve been working with this tool a lot. For example, in this way we now collect information on any new employee’s first month’s activity, and we use it for exit interviews as well. We’ve also transferred assessment indicators that we used to gather on Excel, to Power BI. This way we avoid overcrowding for data editing and we can see clearly the state of those assessments.
What do you think about the future of this tool?
I believe it’s absolutely promising. I mean, nowadays, it’s already one of the most implemented tools globally in terms of data visualization and analysis. It’s also constantly updated so that you can make the most of it in amazing ways. Besides, it can be combined with programming languages such as React or Python.
There are other similar tools out there, such as Tableau y Qlik, but in my opinion, Power BI still outranks its competitors.
In the digital world, nowadays more and more information is generated on the cloud. Hence, data analysis is and will keep on being a trend. In the future, every person working in HR will have to know data visualization, storytelling or data literacy in detail.