HR systems are the “pot of gold” in terms of data for a lot of organisations, especially companies that run people business.

From my experience with customers around HR reporting and analytics in the last few years, the phrase “we want the reports that we always had” seems common. This is unlike the case with finance departments or supply chains and sales, whose reports change every time. New information raises new questions that in turn require new information — it is a never-ending circle of quality improvement.

When discussing analytics and reporting requirements with customers, consultants often hear that they don’t want any changes: “Please keep the reporting format and processes as they are” is the common answer to any requests. Companies are often reluctant to review their reporting processes, not knowing that this could benefit them by increasing transparency and finding the right answers to their questions, but also by reducing manual labor and hence costs.

Gartner predicts that 70% of workforce analytics projects will fail by 2012. By definition, this also includes HR BI. Are we really that inadequately prepared for pretty simple HR reporting implementations? There are lots of good examples of successful HR Business Intelligence implementations and happy customers, but normally only bad experiences break the news.

Many HR departments have made good progress in automating their business processes and can produce simple reports showing basic employee data. Some have even introduced methods of measuring the efficiency of HR processes. However, while the data produced are useful for monitoring and reducing the operational cost of the HR function, it’s not enough just to have efficient HR processes; HR also needs to support the business in creating value for the workforce as a whole.