Silos of spreadsheets in HR

A benchmark study based on an analysis of 298 validated respondents, finds that most large organizations have not derived full value from their human capital due to lack of business intelligence (BI) technology and the low priority placed on improving workforce performance management. The study also shows that with rampant use of spreadsheets, emails and custom applications, the gap between the requirement for workforce metrics and the capability to deliver them is only widening.

Managing the effectiveness of an organization’s workforce to full value is one of the most critical performance management objectives for this decade. However, this research report shows that over two thirds of organizations lack information technology to measure and improve workforce performance, and surprisingly, many are not making it a priority.

Among the key findings:

• HR Needs Tools and Skills: HR organizations are not satisfied with their workforce metrics, and only half of HR organizations have sufficient skills. Over half admit lack of BI is the largest barrier
• ERP and HRMS Fall Short: Of respondents with HRMS with their ERP suites, half lack accessibility and capability to generate workforce metrics
• Silos of Spreadsheets and Email Stunt Organizations: More than half of organizations do not have access to workforce metrics for which they are responsible and 28% lack any access to important workforce metrics. Those organizations most often use reports (74%), spreadsheets (69%) and e-mail (49%) and many will custom build
• Workforce Metrics Becoming More Sophisticated: Metrics in widest use are compensation (chosen by 62% of respondents), budgeting (56%) and goals and objectives (52%). New implementations in 2007/2008 will be goals and objectives (77%), learning and training (71%), compensation (69%) and competency (66%).

Source(s): Ventana Research, Cognos