How to use HR data to inform decision making
How easy is it to conduct workforce analytics or produce informative HR reports for your senior leadership team? HR reporting has been one area of business where it has often proved difficult to access accurate data quickly and easily. But that no longer needs to be the case. Modern, cloud-based HR solutions are not only easy and cost-effective to set up – they open up a whole new world of data management and insight.
If your HR team is known for its strong reporting skills and data management expertise – you’re definitely ahead of the curve. HR has commonly been one of the last departments within businesses to embrace technology and maximise its own performance in the digital age. Finance, Sales and Customer Service are all examples of departments that have invested in systems that enable them to work more efficiently, devise new processes and procedures, and use reporting tools to show evidence of performance or delve into business metrics. It’s time HR had the same opportunities.
Reporting is one of the most labour intensive tasks HR leaders can undertake if they don’t have the luxury of HR software already in place.
Pulling together up-to-date statistics and data on everything from absence trends to salaries is much harder if you have to draw on multiple information sources and create new spreadsheets or templates to build a complete picture. And if any of the core information required is in a paper format hidden in a filing cabinet – this painstaking task becomes even more onerous and time-consuming. Your report also runs the risk of being inaccurate or incomplete too.
We’re seeing more and more departments looking to move away from static analysis towards a system which syncs data automatically and empowers managers to work in tandem with different team members on the same data sets.
There is no question that having robust reporting tools helps business leaders to make smarter decisions.
With the right software, you can extract and analyse large amounts of HR data in real-time. That enables you to quickly transform data into charts, dashboards and tailored reports to inform smarter business decisions. What does your business need HR to report on today? Do you need to put together a case for re-allocating staff or restructuring departments? Are you reviewing staffing costs against productivity? Do you have to report on salary trends and benefits packages in order to make a case for a recruitment drive? Do you want to delve further into the human resources costs of office-based versus home working?
Whatever HR-related reporting tasks you are currently facing, with the right software in place – it’s guaranteed to be a whole lot easier to achieve.
For an informal conversation about whether cloud-based HR software is the right way forward for your business, talk to an Access HR software specialist today.
