Potential of Different Battery Chemistries for Electric Vehicles

 The battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs) has substantially evolved over the decades and this evolution has been largely driven by a certain degree of deficiency in one battery technology that subsequently incentivised the development and deployment of newer battery chemistries aimed at overcoming those deficiencies. Typically, the strength of such batteries is measured on parametres such as energy density, faster charging, a large number of duty cycles and wide operating temperature range. Further, the operating environment can largely dictate which battery chemistry will gain prominence in a certain region or country.

Lead acid was the first battery technology to be deployed in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the early nineties – a technology that has been consistently worked on for several years. These batteries lost out on popularity owing to deficiencies such as lower energy density and lower life. “Lead acid batteries witnessed a decline in adoption in EVs as it had issues such as low energy density to the tune of 30-50 Wh/kg coupled with a lower life cycle (in terms of charge and discharge cycles) on account of erosion of plate materials in an acidic electrolyte during change discharge cycles. Further, the higher charging time of 8-16 hours also limited their usage in EVs. More importantly, the lead acid technology has been in the market for a long time and there is limited scope for further optimisation as several threshold values have more or less been achieved,” explained Ashim Sharma, Partner & Group Head, Nomura Research Institute.

Around the nineties the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery technology also marked its arrival in the automotive space, but it was more widely deployed in hybrid vehicles. Typically, one of the critical battery requirements in a hybrid vehicle is longevity due to multiple change and discharge cycles during the course of operation, and this explains why NiMH batteries are deployed in hybrid vehicles. NiMH batteries did not quite gain market acceptance among battery electric vehicles because they have limited discharge current (0.2C-0.5C), limited lifecycle and generate heat during fast charging and discharging. These factors limited the performance of EVs, in terms of acceleration performance and fast charging capabilities that are considered crucial for battery electric vehicles.

Toyota has been at the forefront of deploying nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in its hybrid vehicles in various models such as Prius and Camry Hybrid, etc. Vikram Gulati, Country Head & Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Public Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility & Corporate Governance, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, shared his perspective on NiMH batteries. “NiMH batteries have higher energy density and offers higher charge/discharge cycles resulting in high durability. Such batteries have no toxic content and can be efficiently recycled. Such batteries and lithium-based batteries have different advantages and are used based on criterion such as thermal management, energy density and specific application requirements,” said Gulati.

Over a period of time lead acid and NiMH battery technologies have had certain deficiencies that necessitated the need for a new EV battery technology. And such a scenario heralded the arrival of lithium-based batteries in the automotive space in the late nineties. Among lithium-based batteries lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) have emerged as prominent lithium battery chemistries for EVs. The prominence of these battery chemistries can be attributed to their substantial production scale-up over other chemistries over the past decade. “NMC and LFP have gained market acceptance because their prices also dropped drastically, which triggered customer demand. These chemistries score high on the reliability front owing to its extensive use. NMC and LFP will remain fundamental battery families for EVs as their cells have witnessed significant cost reduction,” explained Nakul Kukar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cell Propulsion.

NMC is considered a good option for long-range EVs, especially passenger cars, sedans and SUVs. “You need to pack in more energy in each cell of your EV battery pack to effectively manage the battery pack size while delivering long vehicle range. NMC makes more sense for long-range EVs because you can pack in more energy in the same dimensions and same weight constraints,” Nakul pointed out.

NMC is also considered a good option for the Indian two-wheeler segment that grapples with space constraints to install the battery pack. NMC can pack in more energy using a lesser number of cells, thus resulting in small compact batteries that can fit easily in two-wheelers.

It is also observed that NMC works well in countries that have colder climates, but can have issues if used in hot weather conditions. This battery chemistry brings in much more complexity in hot weather conditions and can be a riskier option and will need a complex and extensive cooling system and the range benefit is not worth the effort, especially in the Indian context, noted Nakul.

Among other lithium-based battery chemistries, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is touted as a good solution for the Indian three-wheeler segment, wherein cost is the most important consideration than volume or even performance. LFP works well for three-wheelers in India as it is cost-effective and more reasonably priced than other chemistries although it cannot provide a longer range. Further, if three-wheelers desire long range capability they can explore NMC but it will only augment the cost and therefore it won’t make any sense for three-wheelers.

LFP can work well with long-haul buses as the latter have adequate volume and mass margin for heavier battery packs and are built with lower energy density cells that can offer required range. “LFP is a desired solution for buses due to its inherent safety and lower cost even though its energy density is lower since there is enough volume in such vehicles and they can easily carry extra mass – even if you add one ton of extra weight, still the bus body and structure will be able to handle it”, opined Nakul.

It is pertinent to note that buses typically pack in far more number of cells than any other vehicle, which necessitates the need for a reliable thermal cooling system to protect the battery cells or else the probability of something going wrong in the battery could be many times more. It is largely owing to inherent safety attributes LFP has emerged as an attractive option for buses as compared to using a large number of NMC cells for bus battery packs. Like long-haul buses, LFP can be deployed for heavy duty trucks up to 40 tonne GVW. 

Besides NMC and LFP, another lithium-based battery technology that is witnessing steady adoption is lithium titanate oxide (LTO). The biggest advantage of this battery technology is the very high cycle life of 10,000 plus cycles as well as extremely high temperature operating range. LTO is also not prone to thermal runaway and can support fast charging in high ambient temperatures. Besides this, LTO offers high discharge rates, which makes it ideal for high power applications. These characteristics make the battery ideal for applications such as hybrid vehicles (including PHEV), forklifts, tractors, mining and defense vehicles. However, the price of these batteries is on the higher side and the energy density is a bit lower. Efforts are being undertaken to improve the energy density and with scale prices of LTO should also come down.

According to Sharma, LTO can be good to use for intra-city cabs because it enables one to do fast charging and travel from point A to point B with lesser travel time. However, packing in a small battery means the battery range will not be very high but the charging time of 10-12 minutes is equivalent to a CNG refilling time, he observed.

Lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is another battery chemistry used in EVs but hasn’t gained much prominence. NCA shares similarities with NMC, in terms of offering high specific energy, good specific power and a long life span, but is costlier and is also regarded as a less-safer version of NMC.

At large, lithium-based batteries have several attributes that have enabled them to be a market mainstay but there is no denying the fact that there is a question mark over its long-term sustainability as some of the materials (lithium and cobalt) used for making such batteries are not widely available and are only confined to a few nations globally. There is a considerable amount of work happening to develop newer, viable battery technologies for EVs. One technology that appears promising and is tipped to be closer to commercialisation is solid-state batteries. This technology offers safety features more than what LFP can provide as well as provide energy density close to what NMC provides and also requires a lesser number of steps in production. “Solid state batteries are the best alternative to lithium batteries and should be commercially available over the next four-five years. In this Indian context, this technology can provide good range in hot conditions,” explained Nakul.

The sodium-ion battery technology is another technology that is considered a viable alternative to lithium-based batteries. This technology is similar to a lithium-ion battery, wherein only lithium compounds are replaced by sodium compounds. It may be noted that the development of sodium-ion batteries happened concurrently with lithium-ion batteries in the seventies but research on sodium-ion peaked from 2011. “The biggest plus point about this technology is that sodium is abundantly available across the globe unlike scarcely available lithium or cobalt and it can also be extracted from sea water, which thereby ensures adequate supply for all countries with a coastline, remarked Sharma.

Sodium-ion batteries offer several advantages such as low switching cost for manufacturers due to similarities in manufacturing processes/protocols between them and lithium-based batteries. This technology offers a lower pack cost due to use of cheaper materials (for example, aluminium is used in current collectors as opposed to copper being used in lithium-based batteries). The sodium-ion technology has the ability to ensure fast charging by leveraging a right combination of hard carbon anode and corresponding cathode to eliminate sodium plating as well as ensure easier transportation and storage as compared to lithium-based batteries, noted the senior Nomura Research Institute official. However, there are some challenges that have to be addressed before sodium-ion batteries can be ready for commercialisation – these challenges include development of an effective electrode & electrolyte material and improving the lifecycle, explained Sharma.

It is pretty clear that lithium-based battery chemistries will continue to hold relevance over the next decade or so. But there are reservations over long-term sustainability of lithium-based batteries owing to limited availability of lithium and cobalt as well as its vulnerability to warmer weather conditions. Various technologies such as aluminium air, zinc air, etc are in development stage, but only two technologies – solid state and sodium-ion battery technologies – appear closer to commercialisation. Of course, in an ever-evolving battery technology space, newer possibilities can never be ruled out.

Will Artificial Intelligence remove the Human Factor from HR in Future Enterprises?

The changing market demands invariably create the ‘need’ for enterprises to look at enhancing their operational efficiencies and stay healthy on the profitability front. In a highly competitive marketplace where enterprises are looking at every possible opportunity of staying ahead of their competitors, it has become imperative for businesses to wear the ‘change jacket’ to stay competitive.  

Given this scenario, the arrival of much-hyped artificial intelligence (AI) has set tongues wagging about its ‘deployment’ across various industries. It won’t be a far-fetched exaggeration if this machine learning technology is considered as an ‘extended helping hand’ to the existing processes of involving humans across diverse workflows. In fact, the layman’s version about artificial intelligence is that it can carry out tasks performed hitherto by humans, in terms of human intelligence such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.

The deployment of artificial intelligence is well and truly underway across industries, but there is a great deal of buzz about how this machine learning technology will enhance the efficiency parameters of the human resources (HR) department.

There is little doubt that artificial intelligence will transform the way how HR departments function across the globe. For starters, artificial intelligence can play a big role in a candidate’s application screening process. There are various AI tools that can keep the candidate engaged after he/she has applied for a position in a company. There is a growing trend nowadays of asking candidates a set of questions pertaining to that position, which helps the hiring manager to get a deeper understanding of a candidate’s credentials for any position.

Artificial intelligence also ensures adequate candidate engagement. Sample this – a candidate applies for a job through the company’s website or through some job portal or recruitment consultants; it is only natural for companies to take time to respond, in terms of taking the process forward. Such a situation can leave a candidate impatient and clueless about the way forward. This is where artificial intelligence can optimize candidate engagement by sending out automated email or messages that the selection process is on and avoid any unwanted communication gaps.

Artificial intelligence can be of big help when it comes catering to unsolicited applications – a classic case of a candidate applying for a job after the job application process is closed. In such cases, AI can facilitate reengagement of such candidates by providing them an opportunity to update their individual records, which could have gotten updated from the last time they were engaged.

There is also talk that the HR department does not quite adhere to the follow-up process as seriously as desired. This is evident is cases when an offer letter is rolled out to a candidate and there is a time gap of one or two months for he/she to join depending on his notice period. It is increasingly seen that many candidates don’t turn up on the day of joining, thus defeating the whole exercise of a hiring team’s screening, interviewing and selection process. AI can help to substantially prevent ‘no-shows’ by engaging the soon-to-join candidates and ensure they are motivated to turn up on the day of joining. This area of focus is crucial because candidates at times, have multiple offers at hand and care little about adhering to promises of joining a company on a particular day, as monetary gains drive most, if not all, to resort to such tactics (of not taking up a job as promised with the acceptance of the offer letter).

Artificial intelligence can smoothen the existing onboarding process. Normally, a candidate goes through an induction programme, where a HR personnel introduces him to the company, company’s culture, policies, and processes. AI can minimise the physical presence of HR personnel by providing new candidates with required company information.

Artificial intelligence can also be handy in optimising the employee relationship management process. A lot of routine queries such as leave, salary, bonus payment, etc are addressed by HR personnel and AI can address these queries via a chatroom or emails. Of course, there will be queries that will demand human interaction and in such cases AI can set up meetings between a candidate and the HR personnel.

Deploying artificial intelligence across the HR department won’t come cheap. AI are highly complex machines and would entail high costs. Such machine learning technologies have software programmes that need regular upgradation to meet the needs of the changing environment. To top it all, such AIs requirement lofty repair and maintenance costs. Cost is not the only factor here – in the event of any severe breakdowns, the process of recovering lost codes and reinstating the system can also be a time-consuming exercise.

Artificial intelligence is seen as an answer to many corporate woes but it must be pointed out that it cannot probably replicate humans. It is important to understand that AI do not carry any emotions and moral values and performed their tasks in a ‘programmed’ manner with little or no scope of making the judgment of right or wrong. AIs are incapable of taking decisive decisions when a situation warrants if a complex scenario crops up.

Humans deliver better productivity with experience but the same cannot be said about AI. In fact, artificial intelligence will only witness wear and tear with time. AI cannot be expected to work passionately as care or concerns are outside its purview. They not capable of distinguishing between a diligent worker and an inept worker.

It will be too much to expect original creativity from artificial intelligence as it cannot match the thinking power of the human brain and lack emotions.

Of course, the big talking point of artificial intelligence is centred on whether machines will replace humans and create large-scale unemployment. It could be true to some extent that robots will carry out the jobs until now performed by humans, but it is hard to see AI replace humans in all work streams of a company.

The advent of artificial intelligence is seen by companies as a mechanism to not just up their performance efficiency parameters but also trim labour costs by getting things done through machines. It is also impractical to see that AI will entirely replace human personnel and that the HR department will functional through robots. Surely, AI will make the working of the HR department more efficient than ever before, but it will be inappropriate to suggest that AI will take away the jobs of HR personnel. The HR department across industries will embrace artificial intelligence going forward, but this is not to say that human intelligence will be wiped off from the corporate landscape.

Steady Acceptance of ‘Blockchain Technology’

The emergence of the ‘blockchain technology’ is poised to transform the way people transact online. No wonder, companies are hopping on to this break-through technology, which was first introduced by an unknown programmer or group of programmers known by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Blockchain can be used to facilitate peer-to-peer exchange of assets, property, contracts, etc using cryptography. It is a distributed ledger which maintains a list of records called blocks, which comprise a time stamp. This time stamp contains information about a certain transaction taking place (its date and time). This information is subsequently linked to the previous block in the blockchain. Blockchain records are visible to all members of a network and can be easily monitored. These transaction records are protected by a groundbreaking peer-to-peer cryptographic validation. It’s important to mention that data once recorded in a block cannot be altered.

So why is blockchain such a big thing for corporate enterprises? This technology drives transparency in transactions and also provides security to people’s money and data. It also ensures speedier and tamper-proof transactions. Blockchain enables companies to be cost-efficient as they can trim down middle man costs. A report published in CB Insights stated that around $20 billion of middle-man costs is expected to be slashed going forward thanks to this technology. The efficacy of the blockchain technology can be best understood by the fact that it is being steadily embraced by global giants. It is true that the immense potential of blockchain is largely exploited by the financial sector. According to a Deloitte University Press report, 30 of the world’s biggest banks have joined a consortium to build blockchain solutions, and Nasdaq is working on a blockchain-powered private market exchange. We know for a fact that cash transfers can take days, often lack a “received” receipt, and come with fees. This blockchain technology can remove all these shortfalls in the banking system.

The significance of this technology is only accentuated by Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld. “Blockchain technology will not only redefine how the exchange system operates but also the global financial economy as a whole.” An IBM report only reinforces this thought. The report says 15% of the global banks will use blockchain by 2017 and another 66% will adopt this technology by 2020. A joint survey conducted by Synechron and TABB Group reveals that 55% of bankers expect blockchain to have a huge impact on the financial services industry over the next ten years.

Other industries are steadily adopting blockchain as well. Microsoft has deployed a cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service. IBM offered blockchain-as-a-service in logistics space, tracking food products as they move from farms and factories to store shelves. The blockchain ledger can record a product’s location, temperature, etc using tags and sensors. Blockchain can secure intellectual property and creative digital products like music and images. Further, IBM and Samsung have offered a proof-of-concept built partly using Ethereum, a blockchain-base framework, to demonstrate how blockchain can support Internet of Things (IoT) applications by supporting transaction processing devices. The distributed nature of the ledger can drive coordination among multiple devices. Even the government authorities are excited about this technology – the British government is even mulling incorporating blockchain into their student loan payments.

Interestingly, global players are upbeat about blockchain but investments in this technology have dipped this year. According to CoinDesk’s latest quarterly research report, $376 million were raised this year, which is 17% less than the amount raised in the year-ago period. It is possible that companies are not doubting the effectiveness of this technology but are only adopting a wait-and-watch approach, probably taking their own time to see where this technology can be of help in carrying out their day-to-day transactions.

Although the blockchain technology will go a long way in automating peer-to-peer value transfer, it is not free from vulnerabilities. Human fraud, double spending, compromise of wallets, servers, and even the possibility of an attack against the crypto are areas the blockchain application must address.

There is no denying the fact that blockchain is here to stay and will transform the way companies conduct day-to-day transactions. Companies are looking at ways to remain cost-effective and improve performance efficiency, and blockchain is an ideal application to cater to their needs.

How can Blockchain Revolutionize Healthcare?

The blockchain technology has been generating plenty of buzz across industries even before its commercial rollout. This much-hyped technology has been grabbing newspaper headlines although it is still a long way from being ready for commercial adoption. In fact, a recent study by Infosys and LTP revealed that the commercial adoption of blockchain technology is unlikely to happen at least until 2020.

There is also confusion in some quarters, if not everywhere about what this technology is all about? Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that records and stores every transaction across a peer-to-peer network. It stands out for data integrity, networked immutability and for being tamper-proof.

There is a lot of talk and activity in the industry around the disruptive nature of blockchain and its possible impact on businesses. The big question is: How can blockchain revolutionize the healthcare industry? It is perhaps too early to make an emphatic statement but one cannot overlook the new possibilities this technology will present for the healthcare industry. Blockchain-powered health IT systems can facilitate health data interoperability, data integrity and security, portable user-owned data among others. What’s more, blockchain could ensure cryptographically secure and irrevocable data exchange systems. Leveraging such a technology will ensure seamless access to historic and real-time patient data and eliminate data reconciliation costs. A classic example of blockchain technology in the healthcare space could be the recent collaboration (on a trial basis) between data-centric security company Guardtime and Estonian eHealth Foundation to secure the health records of one million Estonian citizens. But such a model is unlikely to be replicated globally given the complexities surrounding data ownership and governance structure for health data exchange between public and private entities.

Claims adjudication and billing management is another area where blockchain can transform the operating ways of the healthcare industry. It is estimated that around 5-10% of healthcare costs are fraudulent owing to excessive billing or billing for non-performed services. One can recall the Medicare fraud in the US that caused around $30 million in losses in 2016. Blockchain-enabled systems have the potential to automate the majority of claim adjudication and payment processing activities and minimize these medical billing-related frauds. Not just that, blockchain systems could help to root out the need for intermediaries and trim administrative costs for providers and payers.

Pharmaceutical companies have been incurring an estimated annual loss of $200 billion owing to sale of counterfeit drugs. Blockchain can play a significant part in ensuring drug supply chain integrity. This technology can facilitate a chain-of-custody log, tracking each step of the supply chain at the individual drug/product level. Furthermore, add-on functionalities such as private keys and smart contracts could help build proof of ownership of the drug source at any point in the supply chain and manage the contracts between different parties. Take the case of iSolve LCC that is currently working with multiple pharma/biopharma companies to implement its Advanced Digital Ledger Technology (ADLT) blockchain solutions to help manage drug supply chain integrity.

This technology can be leveraged to cope with unreported clinical trials that can create patient safety issues and knowledge gaps for healthcare stakeholders and health policymakers. Blockchain-enabled, time-stamped immutable records of clinical trials, protocols and results could potentially address the issues of outcome switching, data snooping and selective reporting, thereby reducing the incidence of fraud and error in clinical trial records. Blockchain-based systems could help drive unprecedented collaboration between participants and researchers around medical research innovation in fields like precision medicine and population health management.

Health data breaches are a huge concern in the healthcare industry. According to the Protenus Breach Barometer report, as many as 450 health data breaches occurred in 2016, affecting over 27 million patients. The blockchain technology can avoid such breaches due to hacking and ransomware.

Given the current growth of connected health devices, the existing Health IT infrastructure and architecture will find it highly challenging to support the evolving IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) ecosystems. It is estimated that 20-30 billion healthcare IoT connected devices will be used globally by 2020. Blockchain-enabled solutions can bridge the gaps of device data interoperability and ensure data security, privacy and reliability around IoMT use cases. Companies such as Telstra (user biometrics and smart homes), IBM (cognitive Internet of Things) and Tierion (industrial medical device preventive maintenance) are actively working around these use cases.

One would stop short of suggesting that blockchain will revolutionize the healthcare industry but there is no denying the fact that this technology will drive enhanced operational efficiency of healthcare players. Bring on blockchain! The healthcare industry across the globe is excited to embrace it!

Will Automation Turn Out to be a Serious Worry for Indian IT Industry?

Automation is one thing that sets tongues wagging in the Indian information and technology (IT) industry – the big question that is asked: How much deeper will ‘automation’ penetrate the country’s lucrative IT industry? Well, the $160 billion Indian IT industry has witnessed ‘effective’ implementation of automation, which has paved the way for companies to not just scale up productivity but also to remain cost-efficient. A market replete with cut-throat competition, Indian IT companies are feeling the ‘pressure’ to protect their margins and are increasingly using automation platforms to improve their profitability.

The so-called ‘artificial intelligence’ based platforms are changing the way IT firms manage their day-to-day affairs. Wipro became the first Indian IT services firm to launch an artificial intelligence platform – Holmes – last year. TCS launched its artificial intelligence platform – Ignio – while Infosys rolled out its artificial intelligence platform – Mano. The objective of IT firms is to achieve non-linear growth – growing revenue at a much faster pace than the number of employees. Thus increasing both revenue per employee and profitability.

The effective use of automation is seen as a ‘big disruptive threat’ to the Indian IT industry’s pyramid model, where companies generate revenue in a linear manner by adding employees. And as the current trend suggests, non-linear growth will be the main focus area of IT companies.

The use of automation platforms has been yielding positive results for IT companies. The industry added 200,000 employees in FY16 as compared to 230,000 in FY15. This is an ample indication that automation is beginning to replace jobs that were earlier done by humans. It also tells something about the future. The industry expects to add around 200,000 employees for FY17 – precisely the same number of employees added in FY 16.

According to a report released by Centrum Broking, the country’s top five IT companies have substantially reduced their hiring in 2015 by ‘aggressively walking the automation path’. The report further revealed that the combined net additions of employees of IT behemoths like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Cognizant during the October-December period stood at 28,182, down 38 per cent from the year-ago period.

There is no denying the fact that automating tasks previously done by engineers has caused jitters among the Indian IT workforce. The general line of thought is that automation will kill jobs done by humans. The Indian IT industry is expected to witness a dynamic shift over the next five to seven years. If experts are to be believed, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence platforms will create higher demand for up-skilled engineers in niche areas. Industry watchers believe the need for up-skilled engineers will result in a steady decrease in demand for entry-level or lower-level engineers for tasks such as coding, back office maintenance and applications testing.

According to Malcolm Frank, executive vice-president of strategy and marketing at IT bellwether Cognizant, automation is yet unlikely to derail the traditional manpower-linked model of the IT sector, whose employee base touched 3.7 million in FY16. “To say that a significant portion of the industry will be automated, I think that’s more theory than reality. I can tell you this, it’s not gonna happen in the next three years,” he had said during an interview on the sidelines of the Nasscom India Leadership Forum in Mumbai.

One also has to understand that automation simply does not mean ‘sacking people and rendering them out of job’. The adoption of automation not only throws an opportunity for companies to optimize talent (within the organization) but also enables them to drive more innovation and to increase revenue per employee.

Automation is clearly the way forward for the Indian IT industry – the IT workforce will need to diversify beyond their ‘core skills’ and add new and ‘industry relevant’ skill sets.

Organizations Jumping on Analytics Bandwagon to Improve Worker-Manager Relationship

Improving worker-manager relationship is always an ‘everyday challenge’ for corporate enterprises. It is a ‘given’ that the all-out focus of companies across the globe is to optimise productivity of employees and in facilitating the same firms are willing to walk the extra mile to bring about a certain ‘desired’ level of worker-manager relationship without any trust deficit. No wonder, corporate enterprises are fast jumping on the analytics bandwagon to skirt any worker-manager confrontations or unease as one may call it.

Companies see analytics tools as the way forward, as they help mitigate potential worker-manager trouble. Many firms are using an assessment tool called Predictive Index (PI) that generates a behavioural profile and provides an accurate depiction of an employee’s work preferences among others. So how does this predictive analytics works? Predictive analytics conducts a psychometric test of an employee to assess his natural behaviour. The results of such a test are assessed by trained analysts and provide an overview of an employee’s behaviour patterns along with his management and influencing skills.

Predictive analytics has helped bridge any gaps between workers and managers. According to a leading Indian newspaper, a senior manager of a company was feeling tremendous work stress. Nobody would have known the stress levels of this manager but the company could initiate timely corrective measures thanks to predictive analytics. Predictive Index analysis revealed that the manager was increasingly under stress after his reporting manager was recently changed.

Similarly, predictive analytics again came in handy at a manufacturing company, where PI analysis revealed that the morale of a team was very low. The company carried out a probe and found that the team had issues with their manager.

These two incidents clearly bring to the fore corrective measures initiated by companies with help of predictive analytics. Such measures, if taken at the right time, can not only help companies retain their employees but also ensure employee productivity is optimised.

The Predictive Strategy Group – a company that conducts such analysis for companies – summed up fittingly, terming the Predictive Index as a human blood test. “"Predictive Index is like a blood test -getting to know about a disease even before the symptoms have become visible to all," the Predictive Strategy Group’s co-founder Vinaya Bansal once famously said.

It is abundantly clear that Predictive Index analysis helps minimise damage in worker-manager relationships. Such analysis is not just limited to improving worker-manager relationships – it also helps companies to zero in on a right candidate as well as in offering promotion to an employee.

The importance of analytics tools will only increase going forward and companies are going to richly benefit from it in their pursuit of facilitating a vibrant work environment coupled with optimising productivity of employees.