Many of us have heard the computer science aphorism “Garbage In, Garbage Out,” meaning it’s difficult to create a good result with bad input. The same applies to human decision-making. It’s difficult to make the correct decision if you have faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data. Talent management is no exception.
Trying to analyze data stored in paper records, spreadsheets or Word documents is not only time-consuming and frustrating, it’s ineffective and error-prone. A recent article in Workforce magazine underscores the importance of sophisticated workforce analytics applications in helping HR staff and business managers sift quickly and intelligently through data such as performance reviews and compensation packages to make smart decisions about hiring, promotions and pay.
The key to effective talent management is putting actionable data in front of the right people at the right time. If compensation and performance data, for example, live on disparate data “islands,” disconnected from one another, it is impossible for executives to make informed, strategic business decisions. Unless information is presented to the user in a format that is unified, simply having the data stored somewhere doesn’t make much difference.
Companies of all sizes are realizing that analytics and reporting tools are vital for the most strategic talent management tasks. A recent study by the International Association for Human Resource Information Management and consulting firm Knowledge Infusion found growing interest in workforce analytics software. 35% of companies with 2,500 employees or more are in the process of implementing analytics software. Moreover, the study found that 30% of companies of the same size indicated they will make significant investments in analytics software during the next three years.
The most useful workforce analytics software will span the typical silos of information in a company, pulling data from all talent management applications and offering complete insight into how the organization is performing relative to talent management initiatives and objectives; and that’s the real goal. By providing this access, executives can identify how best to steer the organization going forward. Stay tuned for more information from Workstream on this topic in the coming months.
And, if you are going to be at HR Technology Conference in Chicago the week of October 8th, please stop by our booth, #320, to see the future of Talent Management... and win an iPod, iPhone or iMac while you’re at it!
