Unified HCM. Unified talent. Integrated talent management. So many terms. So many definitions. Does it all really matter? The answer is yes!
Many companies have deployed core HR systems with separate “best-of-breed” talent management solutions. All too often this approach doesn’t have the positive impact on business performance that is expected.
A commonly cited reason is that talent-only solutions lack the underlying business information needed to inform strategic workforce investment decisions—decisions such as:
- Who are my best managers?
- Why are we losing critical talent?
- Is it more cost effective to staff at one business site vs. another?
The fact is, in today’s fast-paced global economy, it’s no longer enough to know who works at your company. In order to respond to rapid business change, it’s vital for business leaders to have insight into what people are working on, whether or not the right work is getting done, whether or not the right people are doing the work, what the work is costing, and most importantly, the business results of the work being done.
A unified HCM solution like Workday combines core HR data with talent, work, and cost information in a single system—providing far richer information for the business, managers and decision makers.
Let’s look at how a Unified HCM solution can help address each of these questions.
Who are my best managers?
Talent-only solutions can identify top performers, but how do you identify the best—and worst—managers? A unified HCM solution makes it possible to create KPIs around bench strength, who hires and retains top talent, and who’s best at grooming top performers, etc., and correlate manager quality to business performance.
Measuring the impact of manager quality on the business will help improve overall manager quality and drive business performance through higher levels of engagement and productivity.
Why are we losing critical talent?
Voluntary turnover can be expensive in more ways than one:
- High recruiting costs
- Low morale impacting customer service and productivity
- Lack of continuity for ongoing projects as tribal knowledge flees the organisation.
Because a unified HCM solution combines core HR and talent information in a single system, it’s easy to create metrics around salary, career progression, turnover, absenteeism, variable compensation, etc., and use this information to analyse why people leave.
Armed with this information, business leaders can evaluate an appropriate strategy to improve retention and mitigate the negative impact of high turnover on business performance.
Is it more cost effective to staff at one business site vs. another?
In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, accuracy can mean the difference between profitability and non-profitability. A unified HCM solution makes it easy to provide accurate workforce and labour costing to help business leaders decide where to build up operations and produce specific SKUs.
Because a unified HCM solution combines talent and workforce cost information, decision makers have easy access to the insight they need to drive higher levels of performance and profitability—without logging onto separate systems.
HR Transformation with a Unified HCM Solution
An important part of HR’s job is to ensure the organisation has the right talent with the right capabilities who are engaged to deliver on the strategy, both today and in the future. For example, if people-cost structures are too high, it may be impossible to get the right pricing strategy and grow the business.
It’s up to HR to find a way to have the right capabilities and engagement at the right cost. This requires business data—not just talent information—as well as the ability to configure the system to get the right answers and KPIs out.
With the business insight provided by a unified HCM solution like Workday, business leaders can stop debating if there’s a problem and begin to focus on solving the most critical problems, driving new levels of business performance.
Only a unified HCM solution like Workday combines insight into the costs, capability, capacity and quality of the workforce in a single system to make this transformation easy and cost effective.
