People Analytics Technology: The Possibilities

Introduction to People Analytics Technology

In today’s dynamic business landscape, making strategic and informed decisions about your workforce is more critical than ever. People analytics, also known as HR analytics or workforce analytics, empowers organizations to leverage their data to make informed decisions regarding their most valuable asset: their employees. This not only improves decision-making processes but also delivers high returns on investment (ROI) by enhancing overall organizational performance and employee satisfaction. To successfully take on this journey, you need people analytics technology.

Insights into the World of People Analytics

The urgency to make data-driven decisions about your workforce has never been greater. However, many organizations struggle with fragmented data scattered across various HR, payroll, performance, engagement, recruiting, and learning systems. This dispersion of data prevents organizations from fully leveraging their people data for critical decision-making. Despite significant investment in collecting and analyzing data, many HR teams find it challenging to demonstrate the tangible value they bring to the business.

People analytics technology addresses these challenges by consolidating, cleaning, and transforming scattered data into a format ready for analysis. This enables organizations to extract meaningful insights efficiently and effectively, making them accessible across the organization to ensure they are used for strategic decision-making.

Criteria for Choosing a People Analytics Solution

When selecting a people analytics technology, it’s essential to start with a clear definition of your objectives. Consider where you are in your people analytics journey and what you hope to achieve with your chosen solution. Here are the key criteria to guide your decision:

1. Data Integration Capabilities:
   • Evaluate the platform’s ability to handle different data types and ingestion options.
   • Assess the frequency of data uploads and the accessibility of analytics-ready data.
   • Ensure the solution can seamlessly integrate with your existing systems and provide true automated data pulling capabilities.
2. Ease of Use:
   • Consider the user experience, especially for non-data-savvy users.
   • Look for features like granular filtering, metric explanations, and a storytelling approach to presenting data.
   • Ensure the platform provides guidance and contextualization of metrics to enhance understanding.
3. Cost:
   • Analyze the total cost of ownership, including licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing service fees.
   • Compare the cost implications of building an in-house solution versus purchasing a specialized platform.
   • Consider hidden costs like labor, technology investments, and the potential risk of project failure.
4. Time to Value:
   • Evaluate the implementation time for both specialized platforms and in-house solutions.
   • Consider the time investment required to build and maintain an in-house solution.
   • Assess how quickly users can adopt the solution and derive meaningful insights from it.
5. Out-of-the-Box Analytics Capabilities:
   • Look for pre-configured metrics and visualizations that facilitate a quick start in leveraging data.
   • Ensure the platform covers essential HR domains and provides diverse, intuitive visualizations.
   • Evaluate the platform’s drill-down options and the clarity of its metrics and insights.
6. Customization and Flexibility:
   • Determine if the solution allows for customization of data, metrics, and descriptions.
   • Ensure it supports the creation of custom dashboards and ad-hoc analyses.
   • Assess the platform’s ability to configure predictive analytics and other advanced features.
7. Security and Privacy:
   • Ensure the platform adheres to regulatory compliance standards like GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.
   • Check the flexibility in hosting locations and the solution’s authorization control features.
   • Evaluate the platform’s support for identity and access management, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Single Sign-On (SSO).
8. Customer Support:
   • Look for a vendor that offers a partnership approach, providing proactive communication and continuous improvement.
   • Ensure the vendor is committed to addressing your evolving needs and supporting the platform’s evolution.

Alternatives: Buy vs. Build

Organizations often face the decision of whether to build a people analytics solution in-house or purchase a specialized platform. Each approach has its pros and cons:

• Building In-House:
  • Pros: Full customization, integration with existing tech stack.
  • Cons: Time and labor-intensive, high costs, potential for security and privacy issues, not user-friendly for broader audiences.
• Core HR Systems People Analytics Modules:
  • Pros: Integration with existing HR systems, established security settings.
  • Cons: Limited out-of-the-box features, long time to value, high costs, limited customization and granularity in access management.
• Data Science People Analytics Platforms:
  • Pros: Extensive data connection possibilities, advanced modeling functionality.
  • Cons: Too complex for broader user groups, limited out-of-the-box analytics, long time to value, and high costs.
• Enterprise People Analytics Platforms:
  • Pros: Quick time to value, extensive out-of-the-box functionality, user-friendly design, strong data security expertise, .
  • Cons: Varying levels of customization and moderate advanced modeling.

Conclusion

Selecting the right people analytics technology for your organization is a pivotal decision that can significantly impact your success. By considering the key criteria outlined above and carefully weighing the pros and cons of building versus buying, you can choose a solution that aligns with your goals and drives better business outcomes.

At Crunchr, we have developed an intuitive people analytics platform designed for broad usage across organizations, with a focus on ease of use, flexibility, and quick time to value. Whether you’re an HRBP, HR leader, or business manager, Crunchr enables you to find the insights you need to make data-informed decisions with confidence.

For more information or to see Crunchr in action, visit our interactive product tour or book a demo.