{"id":3799,"date":"2016-12-14T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T12:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/its-a-database-so-why-not-keep-valuable-hr-data-in-it\/"},"modified":"2016-12-14T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T12:27:00","slug":"its-a-database-so-why-not-keep-valuable-hr-data-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/its-a-database-so-why-not-keep-valuable-hr-data-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Database, So Why Not Keep VALUABLE HR Data In It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The range of information managed in HCM Systems is quite impressive, and in most leading platforms, encompasses data relating to the 3 legs of the proverbial (HR data) bar stool: Administrative, Transactional and Strategic data. Administrative covers what’s needed for policy and regulatory compliance and core HR process support (on-boarding, payroll and benefits admin, etc.). Transactional covers the events in an employee life cycle (changes to job, organization, supervisor, compensation, etc.) or personal life event updates that impact employee benefits for example.<\/p>\n

Strategic data covers … hmmm … maybe just see Administrative and Transactional.<\/p>\n

Is this HR heresy?  Is it a yearning for the simpler days of Personnel Management when key business strategy decisions often excluded HR executives, HR\/HCM systems largely weren’t used outside HR Departments, and Talent Management was a term reserved for Hollywood? No, it’s only a lead-in to a question I’ve asked myself over the years, namely: Are we missing something when we point to data tracked on HCM systems like performance ratings, compensation and job progressions, training courses taken or competencies displayed and say this allows us to be very strategic in managing human capital?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes we are probably missing something. It seems the data we track in these technology assets, while broadly useful, might sometimes be obscuring the real mission at-hand: The need to manage and provide ready access to WHATEVER people data enables a highly engaged and productive workforce, and the proactive management of business risks and opportunities … thereby creating and enhancing sources of business value and competitive advantage.<\/em>  <\/p>\n

So What Needs to Change?   <\/strong><\/p>\n

For one thing, let’s not forget the aforementioned mission at-hand. Let’s also not forget that employee engagement, retention, productivity – and business innovation and agility – are all HCM-related themes but they are NOT HR processes with routinely defined steps that can be system-tracked or enabled.  Perhaps just as important, these themes rarely have a single process owner with a budget (for enterprise software) that solution vendors can sell to. The main implication of this is that while HR Tech circles continue to espouse moving away from being too process-centric, and being more ‘desired business outcomes’ centric in our systems design and usage, the HR\/HR Tech disciplines can perhaps be faster on the actual uptake of this.<\/p>\n

3 Examples of (Non Process-Centric) HR Data Worth Tracking<\/strong><\/p>\n