How to plan your talent analytics requirements for HRMS

Are you planning to select a new HRMS? Is talent management a key focus for your organization? Discussions about talent reporting and data go hand in hand. Here are four areas to consider as you analyze and document your requirements for a new HRMS.

1. What business questions or challenges do you plan to solve?

Many companies have similar struggles and opportunities when it comes to talent management. Your analytics should support your key business drivers so you need to identify your company’s specific talent needs. Is it important to track specific sources of talent due to competitive markets or is your focus more on retaining talent and on the analytics that accompany that task? In order to define your new HRMS requirements, it is critical to understand the underlying business questions and needs that will drive your talent analytics.

2. Where is your focus: predictive analysis, compliance or career planning?

The area covered under the umbrella of talent management is large, as are the possibilities for analytics. As you work toward defining your requirements for a new HRMS it is helpful to clarify your future vision. Are you seeking talent analytics that will offer predictive analysis to suggest when an employee may be a flight risk due to lack of career growth? Are you primarily concerned with how compliance will be adequately reported to government regulators? Or do you have an overall focus on your current employee population and ensuring that analytics will cover career planning and development activities?

Identify and prioritize your HRMS requirements using this fully customizable requirements template 

3. Who is your audience?

There are many HRMS systems in today’s market. Some are heavily geared toward recruiters and measuring operational metrics such as time to fill for a position, while others may focus on managers who are leading their teams and interested in talent analytics that are accessible via mobile HRMS. Different HRMSs offer various features for different end users. In order to select the right HRMS for your company, it is essential that you identify the future system users and usage.

4. Are there any local requirements?

Talent data and processes can often take on a local flavor due to government requirements. You may find that a required regulatory report in one country will contain data that is not allowed by another country’s legislation, so there is a need to tread carefully on the data storage and analytics front. As you define your analytics, it is helpful to understand regional data and reporting needs and to confirm that your global model will cover all of your reporting needs worldwide.