WHY HR NEEDS ACTIONABLE ANALYTICS

Empowering Managers

All the techno-talk aside, even if HR has ready access to analytics, is HR ready for analytics? It’s a good question. “Many companies struggle just to get accurate headcount reports,” says Bloom. “It’s hard to do more than the basics if you don’t have credible basics. Having said that, HR vendors have to be on the high ground. You have to provide the basics, but also lead people into something more profound.”

“Workforce analytics is one of the top priorities in HR, but it hasn’t permeated much because of legacy transactional systems,” says Levensaler. “If the HR organization has to draw data from a hodge-podge of systems—ERP, point talent solutions, contingent labor management systems, and more—they’re stymied by the ability to create connections.”

Another issue, Levensaler says, is that not only do many HR practitioners have limited experience with traditional analytics systems, they have little interest in gaining it. “In general, they don’t go into HR to become business analysts, but workforce analytics has become an increasingly important skill set for progressive HR organizations. We want to make it a lot easier for them to deliver operationally relevant and actionable data,” she says.

Providing actionable workforce analytics shouldn’t be restricted to the HR department, either, Levensaler says. A business-line manager at a software or manufacturing company, for example, might get different benefits from the analytics capabilities in Workday than an HR practitioner. “Business managers don’t want to be doing ‘HR transactional work,’ but if you deliver information that lets them better manage their workforce, you bet they’ll want more and more.”

The best actionable analytics are user-friendly—more like the consumer experience of using a search engine on the Web, or comparing airline offers and flight options, than grappling with a complex, buzz-word clogged BI system. “Business leaders shouldn’t have to understand the intricacies of a separate, proprietary business-intelligence software platform,” Levensaler says.

Indeed, the best analytics segues into the ability to take action, devoid of struggles in-between. Providers of HR and other types of business applications with modern systems architecture understand this, and are building more and more analytics capabilities into their applications. With time, their customers will learn that analytics really can be easy, cost-effective and-- most importantly--actionable.

Mary Hayes Weier is an award-winning journalist, writer, and editor with more than 20 years' experience covering business and technology. In recent years Mary's reporting and research has focused on the software industry, software-as-a-service, and cloud computing. You can write to her at mary.hayes@workday.com.