Weekly Insight - August 09, 2010

HR Analytics Increases Performance, Revenue and Profit

According to an Aberdeen study, organizations classified as best-in-class for HR analytics saw a 17% annual increase in employee performance KPI's, 11% increase in profit per FTE and 6% increase in revenue per FTE. Two of the key steps these best-in-class organizations took to get such value from their HR analytics are integrating HR data with other data, and standardizing their HR processes and data.

With SAP's Business Warehouse and Business Objects, HR data can be integrated with other internal and external data. One common concern from HR leaders is that sensitive or confidential employee data must be protected once it is opened up and integrated outside HR. Authorizations can certainly be done on the HR data, even when it is integrated with other data in the firm. And of course, not all sensitive or confidential HR data need to be used in analytics (they can be kept in core SAP HR).

Though effort is required for companies to standardize their HR processes and data, savings always emerge from that exercise. There are several ways of doing this – from simple business process reengineering in the existing HR functions to moving to a shared services center or even outsourcing some functions. Once those processes and data are standardized, the data they produce become more usable and valuable for HR analytics.
 

Getting Prepared For Year-End

Year-end is always a busy time for HR departments: benefits enrollment and preparation for year-end tax filings are two of the big activities. The year-end HR updates from SAP usually are announced in September for the US, and the required support packs are available in the second half of October. If you have other country payrolls in your SAP HR system, the year-end updates often come out for them in late November and December.

Coordinating the evaluation, application, testing and change management for these updates can be a big deal, particularly if this is the first time you are doing year-end in SAP HR. Many companies find it useful to have an experienced SAP HR consultant help them through the first couple year-end processes. If you are considering getting some consulting help, keep in mind that it is very important your chosen consultant have some demonstrated experience doing this. Here are some tips for evaluating your potential year-end consultants:

• Check references! Give their references a call and talk to them – consider the lack of a response as a negative evaluation. If the consultant can't provide references it usually means they have not done the work.
• Ask the consultant how they would recommend you test the support packs. What would the test environment look like? What would they test, and how would they do it?
• For US payrolls, ask the consultant about their approach to clearing claims and reconciling payroll tax accounts from payroll to FI to the W-2 and 941 forms.
• Be sure to include the payroll manager in the interview process. Much of the consultant's work will be in the functional area, so it is important that your payroll manager is comfortable with the consultant.

Steve Bogner, Managing Partner
www.insightcp.com

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