IBM has updated its Business Analytics lines with aims on changing the way companies handle employee feedback and evaluation.

The company said that its workforce analytics platform will be adding new services which will allow companies to better spot potential employee issues and provide management with a better picture of how employees see their company and its issues.

Among the new additions will be an update to Retention Analytics. The service will allow firms to compare unstructured data on employee patterns and behaviours to help firms better spot possible human resources issues ahead of time.

Murray Campbell, senior manager of business analytics for IBM research, told V3 that the service will pooint out pssible ‘hot spots’ where behaviour patterns can suggest employees will soon be on the move. By spotting issues such as rapid turnover in management or discrepancies in compensation which could be remediated before a staff exodus takes place.

“It gives them the chance to proactively respond,” Campbell explained.

“The capability that we are talking about here is predictive, it forecasts what might go on in the future versus what has already happened.”

IBM is also planning to bring its big data analytics capabilities in to the employee survey space. Designed to better manage long-form response questions, the Survey Analytics service will provide companies with a visual representation of what employees see as the key issues and terms facing their company.

By providing data organised both regionally or mapped out by company branch or level, the service seeks to enable intelligence into how employees truly see their company forming and move beyond the “check-box” performance survey format.

IBM said that it will be making the platforms available as both on-premise and service offerings, though long-term plans are to offer the platform as an on-demand cloud service.