Data & Metrics
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HRIS Support
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Computer Economics does a survey about the TCO of IT support for ERP applications. While the executive summary is almost totally useless, it’s obvious that in HR, HRIS support and HR dedicated IT support is almost always understaffed and under budgeted. While you can purchase the survey if you want (I obviously have not –…
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CedarCrestone 2008-2009 HR Systems Survey
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It’s not often that you get to see the results of a survey before the submission deadline is up, but Lexy Martin shared a few preliminary numbers with me. While these are very preliminary numbers, it’s interesting to see the directionality of the numbers. She was thinking that with the down-economy, that some of the…
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The Value of HR Technologies
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The following was contributed by Lexy Martin of CedarCrestone on a very interesting study highlighting key ROI metrics behind HR technologies: With ten years of survey data, and lots of experience doing business cases for HR technologies, CedarCrestone (Lexy Martin) decided to do a white paper on how to use that material to support business…
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Changing the Numbers Game
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Recruiting is an equation of numbers. So many candidates = so many applicants = so many interviews = so many new hires. This is a well known strategy in many sales organizations that the number of leads eventually results in a certain number of sales. And of course there are great parallels between recruiting and…
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The Right Metrics
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Knowledge@Wharton had a great article recently about performance drivers. Here’s a brief excerpt: As the Dean of a business school, you decide that the best reflection of winning is BusinessWeek’s rankings. These are prominent reputation scores created by a third party that directly pits business schools against each other every two years. Essentially all MBA…
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Game Theory and HR
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If you haven’t figured out by now, I have a degree in Economics. Game theory as published by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosohy is “the systematic study of interdependent rational choice. It may be used to explain, to predict, and to evaluate human behavior in contexts where the outcome of action depends on what several…
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IBM to Buy Cognos
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Right on the heels of SAP and Business Objects is the IBM and Cognos announcement. Once again and like SAP, IBM didn’t need the capabilities. They are in all probability doing this to pick up market share and taking a major competitor off the market. On November 12, 2007 IBM announced that it has signed…
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SAP to Buy Business Objects
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Perhaps this is in reaction to Oracles buying Hyperion. I always thought that SAP’s Business Warehouse product was pretty good. Then again, PeopleSoft EPM isn’t bad either, and Oracle felt the need to go out and continue their buying spree. SAP AG has agreed to acquire software maker Business Objects SA in a tender offer…
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The Toyota Way: Principle 7
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Use visual control so no problems are unhidden. One of the best modern tools we have is the data warehouse and the dashboard. We have totally current metrics available to any of us, if we would just implement the technology. However, there are also tools that many of us use day to day ins some…
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Business Intelligence: Data Marts and Cubes
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Continued Business Intelligence: Data Marts Life finally gets exciting. We’ve loaded our data through the ETL into an ODS. We’ve enriched the data into a usable form for aggregated, multidimensional reporting. Now we just need to create the facilities for that multidimensional reporting. This is going to be a challenge to explain in layman’s terms,…
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Business Intelligence: ODS and Enriched Data Warehouse
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Continued Business Intelligence: ODS So once you’ve gotten through your first round of ETL, you’ll have to load the data somewhere (the “L” in ETL). The ODS, or operational data store, is where all the raw data gets loaded. This is basically a database that will house all of the raw data in a completely…
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Business Intelligence: Introduction and ETL
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Most normal HRIS people who sit around dealing with their normal HRIS and talent management systems haven’t given much thought to business intelligence much beyond the standard reporting capabilities provided by their applications of choice. A few might have gone out and purchased new reporting tools from Cognos or Business Objects for their ad hoc…
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CedarCrestone 2007 Analytics Report
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CedarCrestone recently pushed out their 2007 Analytics survey. While I’m not sure my own experience matches theirs, there are some interesting trends to at least be noted. You can find their full version of the survey here. In general, when we’re talking about HR metrics and analytics, I’m perfectly happy with a definition that includes…
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How to Lie With Analytics
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I was listening to a presentation being given by a timekeeping vendor. Within the demonstration, a report was run providing a detail of when people decided to take sick days, and the report stated that the large majority of sick days were taken on Mondays and Fridays. Our brilliant analyst noted that there was a…
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HR’s Decision Support
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SHRM’s study of HR technology competencies (no link, but easy to find if you’re a member) revealed some not so surprising facts last year. According to them (and every other study we get out of the HR vendor industry) more effective utilization of HR technology yields more effective HR. They specifically point out a competency…
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HR Function KPI’s
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HR function KPI’s are defined the same way as Human Capital KPI’s except that they are internally focused, rather than focused on the broader organization. One should not be blind to the large amount of overlap that the two types of indicators have on each other though. When looking at the performance of the HR…
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Human Capital KPI’s
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HR key performance indicators can be both incredibly difficult or quite simple to generate, depending on the type of indicator you’re looking for. The main problem with your KPI’s is that you need to first make the switch between simple metrics to understanding what a performance indicator is. The reality is that a simple metric…
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When the ROI Does Not Equal BS
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Colin had an article that I loved about ROI. I’ve long since abandoned ROI for TCO and my compatriot Donald Glade I’m sure has similar feelings. You shave a nickel off every $5 bill that passes by, and at the end of the year you’ll have this jar full of nickels. You can definitely get…
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Quantifying Competency’s Effect on Productivity
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A recent McKinsey survey published in Mckinsey Quarterly ((Reineke, Spiller, Ungerman, 2007. “The Talent Factor in Purchasing.” McKinsey Quarterly 2007 Number 1. Page 6)) highlighted a study on the purchasing organization and the correlation of core competencies to an organization’s bottom line. While the purchasing organization has a clear and direct line to total costs…
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HR Versus Finance – Influence, Power, and a Seat at the Table Part 2
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Lowell Bryan wrote in the McKinsey Quarterly that there is a new metric around: Times have changed and ROIC is no longer important – the new metric is profit per employee. ((Bryan, Lowell, 2007. “The New Metrics of Corporate Performance: Profit per Employee.” McKinsey Quarterly 2007 Number 1. Page 56)) Again, we look at the…