Ultimate Performance: Measuring Human Resources at Work

Where to Leverage Technology

The cost of collecting data. What is the actual cost of collecting all of the needed data? Your labor and dollar cost will vary, but the cost is at least 10 times less expensive today than it was 15 years ago. Specifically, costs have gone down because:

• HRIS and ATS systems are better able to provide data quickly.

• Survey tools are now web-enabled and accessible directly by Human Resources with less expertise needed to develop.

• Data collection from the staffing function has improved as Talent Management Systems have made it easier to status and rank candidates (recruiters now can batch status scores of candidates at the same time).

• New technologies that were designed to automate processes also give managers greater visibility. For example, if you have just implemented performance reviews online, you can likely now run a report on the top 10 percent of performers by department in 2005. How long did it take to compile that data by hand in 1999?

What to do when you do not have a dedicated analyst running your metrics. Many of us don’t have an HRIS analyst dedicated to creating and running complex reports and then assembling them into dashboards. If there is a provable ROI, hiring that analyst and/or outsourcing the compilation is a good investment. However, when you are directly challenged to provide a dashboard, with limited time and limited resources, do the following things:

Keep it simple, stupid. Focus on fewer metrics and fewer data points. Make sure ...