HCM Analytics Roadmap Made Easier than Iron Chef Recipes

Ever tried to figure out how to build an HCM Analytics roadmap and which or how the 100s of vendors out there would fit into it?

It’s similar to putting hundreds of different ingredients in front of you and asking you to exactly replicate the meal you saw one of the Iron Chefs made on TV without a recipe.  You know what it looked like at the end but aren’t sure how to get there.  When and how much cumin did the chef add?  Did the chef use that flamethrower thingy to toast the pine nuts or was it used just to intimidate the competition?   It can be beyond dizzying.

Let me share something with you that has helped me in building out HCM Analytics Capability Roadmaps.  McKinsey and Co asked me to put together a Human Resource capabilities level roadmap which would be used to quickly figure out the existing technology capabilities of any Human Resource department and determine what it would take to move them to the next capability level.  At the time, it was used to figure out whether or not a company was ready to move out of “HR back off automation” and move to the next capability level of delivering self service transactions to managers and employees.

Below is what I put together.

Yeah I know…consultants like pictures without a lot of details.  Let me define each of the levels.  Caveat, with this being a blog, I'll try to keep it short.

1. Foundation: You have a Core Human Resource application which allows you to store worker data, modify workers (hire to fire by an HR person), providing benefits, and making sure people get paid.  At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) federal/regulatory compliance reporting, 2) basic HR only operational reporting through some sort of ad hoc query tool (e.g. headcount), and 3) put in place HR specific key performance indicators.
2. Transaction: You have expanded beyond Core HR.  You are now having your employees manage their own data and offer Talent Management capabilities, such as Performance or Learning.  At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) you can start to measure and improve the data quality in your Core HR and downstream systems, 2) start to support functional specific dashboards built on top of the transactional applications (e.g. Compensation Dashboard) , and 3) put in place worker specific key performance indicators (e.g. how many top performers should there be).
3. Process: You have started to weave your transactions into orchestrated processes, such as OnBoarding or OffBoarding.  At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) have or are implementing a warehouse in order to merge data from multiple different functional areas, 2) provide role based dashboards that merge HR information with a worker’s or organization’s sphere of influence (e.g. sales is ability to see that Average Sales Price for a worker has slipped because they lack training on the new product), and 3) put in place process specific key performance indicators (e.g. how long does it take for a new hire to be productive and is it taking less or more time than last month).
4. Plan: This is where HR starts to move from tactical to strategic.  You have embedded HR information into the existing business planning cycles and existing planning applications.  At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) ability to know workforce headcount, cost, and objective targets real time to 12 to 18 months in the future, 2) report on the readiness to meet those headcount, cost, and objective targets at all levels of the organization before they become due, 3) HCM applications are updated based on the outcome of those planning cycles, and 4) put in place company key performance indicators (e.g. did the company meet workforce costs for the quarter).
5. Model & Forecast: You are working directly with the lines of business on how to improve their ability to meet its organizational and individual objectives.  At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) show what the impacts would be for new organizational designs, and 2) ability to show what the impact would be by tweaking 1 to many elements of on an organization or individual (e.g. what if I gave a 2% increase), and 3) ability to put in place event specific KPIs (e.g. did the layoff meet forecasted cost reductions).
6. Predict: You have consolidated all applicable indicators in order to predict challenges or opportunities with existing or new organizational and individual worker objectives.   At this level your analytics capabilities are; 1) you have moved from the manually determining Key Performance Indicators and have implemented predictive data mining tools that tell you what they should be based on looking at 100s to 1000s of indicators, 2) ability to identify hot spots in the organization before they occur, and 3) able to provide quantifiable business cases required to make costly workforce policy changes (e.g. I know this specific team, in this specific, region, and workers with this specific profile will have a retention problem and making adjustments to these 3 things will prevent it).

By knowing what each capability level consists of, figuring out where you are within it and knowing what the next one is, you should be able to put together an initial roadmap fairly quickly.  You of course will have to do some hard work after that.  Turning the roadmap into a reality .

Hope this helps and if you have questions or input on it please let me know.

PS.  In writing this blog, I did some research on the Iron Chef “flamethrower thingy”… see the Flaming Greek on YouTube for videos on how to cook with a flamethrower.  Highly entertaining!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u20PlTpBjfY

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