Attract, recruit, hire, retain, retire- a lot goes on in people planning, yet it doesn’t always get the deserved attention. The trickiest part is that effective people planning, or lack thereof, can either make or break an organization. In the past, collaborative people planning wasn’t well known, let alone embraced. That means the various stakeholders involved in people planning relied on their own systems and data.
The consequential fragmentation is the main issue with the reliance on disparate systems and data sources. Multiple systems like recruitment, payroll, workforce planning, and performance reviews, among others, result in silos. All these systems operating independently create isolated data that can’t talk to each other, making it practically impossible to gain a clear and more holistic view of the workforce.
For instance, a glance at payroll data may reveal considerable spikes in costs, such as overtime. However, it doesn’t show you the performance data, which means you can’t easily identify the root cause of the spike, for instance, if it’s a consequence of employee burnout, understaffing, or other factors. If you’re still unconvinced, let’s identify three key reasons people planning must shift from disparate systems and embrace a collaborative approach.
1. Huge room for data errors
Data inaccuracies mean you can hardly count on the analytics since they’re based on unreliable foundations. Disparate systems create considerable room for errors as data from each system is manually merged. The high risk of errors can arise from seemingly minor concerns like duplicate entries, mismatched records, or outdated data. These inaccuracies can compound over time and make it increasingly harder for varying stakeholders to identify problems and gather actionable insights to address them.
2. Considerable inefficiencies
Manual data consolidation is time and resources-intensive. Imagine the time and effort it takes to soldier through incompatible software, spreadsheets, and email threads, among other data sources, to consolidate and generate a basic report. Such tedious work slows the stakeholders’ progress while shifting their focus from core functions like employee development and people planning. Moreover, the inefficiencies result in delays, such as pressing employee issues, which exposes an organization to operational vulnerabilities.
3. Poor decisions
Data inaccuracies and inefficiencies caused by disparate systems mean that parties like HR are vulnerable to mistakes. Imagine the chaos caused by inaccurate employee compensation simply because of a delay. The resulting employee dissatisfaction is only the tip of the iceberg. The silos cause a lack of clarity, resulting in misaligned people planning strategies.
For instance, you could be paying more attention to recruiting for roles that aren’t critical while ignoring a notable skill gap, causing long-term issues. Moreover, it takes longer to emerge when a crisis hits since the fragmented data slows down the decision-making process. Poor decisions ripple across the entire people-planning process, significantly affecting an organization’s employee morale, productivity, and retention, which also means attracting top talent becomes problematic.
Shifting away from disparate systems is crucial. A unified platform makes it easier to anticipate workforce needs, address underlying issues much faster, and align people planning strategies with broader organizational goals. Seamless data sharing and real-time insights are no longer a fancy consideration; they are a must for modern organizations fighting to stay ahead of the curve.
