A buyer’s guide to data-driven HR

Make better, data-driven decisions with the right HR analytics solution

Smart organizations understand that actionable insights are necessary to make their workforce more engaged and productive. But knowing you need to use HR data and knowing how to do it are two very different things. To determine your data-driven path, ask yourself these questions:

What are you trying to achieve with your data?

The full picture gives you the ability to act. Identify problems that can be more easily solved with data-driven solutions.

Where do you get the data you need?

Once you’ve identified all internal and external sources of data, you will have more confidence in your analysis and resulting initiatives.

How do you make sense of your data?

Data analysts can translate numbers, but more advanced analytics requires a blend of technology, statistics and domain expertise to connect multiple data sources and uncover patterns.

Based on your answers to these questions and your existing capabilities, you can choose from one of the three following HR analytics solutions:

Build from scratch

Building from scratch requires internal IT resources to create new systems and may involve hiring new talent to build and manage your data warehouse. In addition, there will be ongoing costs to maintain and evolve your analytics solution. Unless your organization has very specialized analytical needs or you have custom-built systems that can’t easily integrate with off-the-shelf analytics software, you may want to explore options other than DIY.

Standalone software

This approach means buying standalone HR analytics software and using a third-party integrator to bring your data sources together. You’ll then use your own resources to implement, run and manage the system. Standalone software makes the most sense for organizations that already have business intelligence tools and teams producing analytics for other functions, like finance and sales, and can extend their learnings and assets to HR.

Full-service HCM partner

HCM providers go further than both DIY and standalone software solutions because they can integrate analytics into core HCM workflows and provide insights for dashboards and reports. This option is the most turnkey of the three, so it works best for organizations that don’t want to invest time, money and resources in their own analytics solution.