It would come as no surprise to most human resources (HR) executives that analytics continues to be a hot topic for the strategic HR agenda. However, what’s new is how leaders expect to see analytics applied.
Since the dawn of automated HR reporting, analytics, and planning, HR has had no other option than to procure and implement multiple systems to deliver individual capabilities — a reporting tool for transactional data, a standalone analytics application for descriptive metrics, and a business intelligence package for advanced analytics with machine learning. However, this can create a mish-mash of complex tools with no clear visibility or confidence in the data or analysis provided. Our vision at SAP SuccessFactors is different.
Redefining What’s Possible for HR
At the recent SuccessConnect conference in Las Vegas, I announced SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, enabled by SAP Analytics Cloud.
SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics delivers business intelligence, planning, and predictive capabilities within one product. It includes things like “smart discovery” that uncovers hidden patterns through machine learning, data blending from multiple sources, opportunities for collaboration and team discussions within planning, beautiful visualizations, and the ability to ask the data questions via voice interactivity.
Our goal at SAP SuccessFactors is to help you improve people and organizational decisions and to help managers and business leaders do the same. We will do this by simplifying how you consume and share analytics with powerful new capabilities, enabled by SAP Analytics Cloud, embedded within our human capital management (HCM) suite and by providing expanded options for analytics and planning capabilities that disrupt the perceived limitations of traditional offerings.
Figure 1: Dashboard with insights into key metrics
Figure 2: Example drill down for details on Learning and Growth initiatives
The Road Ahead and What This Means to Our Customers
“When SAP delivers on the new people analytics strategy to easily blend HR data with business data, this will make our HR data a strategic asset – it’s the ‘holy grail’ for our business.” – Blair Hopkins, director of Global People Data, Reporting, and Analytics, EY
So, with the advent of SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, enabled by SAP Analytics Cloud, what does this mean for existing SAP SuccessFactors customers – in particular SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics and SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Planning customers?
- For embedded suite analytics, including reporting, the first step to leveraging the power of SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics is to start using report center, which has been generally available since 2017 and is a prerequisite for the solution. Learn more about report center, its benefits, and how to enable it in the customer community here.
- We will continue to support our existing SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics and SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Planning customers until they are ready to move to SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics.
The Future is Bright and Will Soon Be Here
The average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day and the majority are made at work. At SAP SuccessFactors, we’re working hard to make the future of better business decisions a reality today — delivering built-in analytics to the HCM suite for both managers and employees alike, joining talent data with enterprise business data, and using predictive analytics to build the next-generation workforce.
The sky truly is the limit for analytics in HR. And we will be with you every step of the way. In future articles, we’ll go into greater detail about SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, including new capabilities that enable you to transform your HR strategy and enterprise-wide decision-making. You will also learn from experts across SAP SuccessFactors, SAP, and our broader ecosystem of partners and influencers, providing you with the most cutting-edge minds focused on this topic.
Amy Wilson is global head of Product for SAP SuccessFactors.
