Why Reporting & Analytics is Better on Single Software - XCD

Reporting and analytics are the parts of Human Resources’ workload that drive the most value and have the most strategic impact in the workplace. As every HR professional knows, HR reporting and analytics demystifies people data to make it easier for business leaders to understand where their operations could be more effective and bottom line costs can be reduced.

It’s not about simply presenting different metrics and HR reports without context or insights, it’s combining in-depth reports with HR analytics to squeeze value out of your existing data through trend analysis, people analytics and payroll analysis. Finding the most effective software for both HR reports and analytics can be a challenge, particularly when you’re relying on integrations and APIs to transfer data between different systems. Single HR and payroll software which hosts all of your HR and payroll functionalities on one platform makes reporting simple as you no longer have to waste time searching for the right information in different sources. But we’ll get onto that in a bit.

First things first, we need to explain some important definitions of what exactly are the differences between single software and HR reporting and HR analytics software. 

What is single HR and payroll software?

It’s simple, single software is an all-in-one platform for all of your organisation’s HR and payroll software needs. And when we say all of your organisation’s HR-related needs, we mean all of them. From HR processes like recruitment and onboarding to performance management, time and expenses to payroll, and of course, a comprehensive reporting and analytics suite, XCD single software is an end-to-end solution. 

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What is the difference between HR reporting software and single software?

Typically, HR reporting software is a handy piece of kit which helps HR managers and professionals to create HR reports based on their internal people data. Most of the time, these reporting suites will be extensions of an organisation’s existing HR software, or integrate with their database to utilise its employee information. These pieces of software will be crucial for HRs to present their data in a way that makes sense to the C-suite and decision-makers, but can sometimes lack when it comes to setting and monitoring budgets or presenting findings on an organisation’s current and historical spend.

XCD’s single HR and payroll software solution features a comprehensive reporting and analytics capability which is seamlessly connected with every other element of Human Resources and payroll. XCD creates one central source of truth in your HR data and organisational information, meaning that HR managers can access all of the information they need to create effective and impactful reports on anything from recruitment spend to employee engagement and satisfaction. A single solution for HR professionals means no messy integrations and no more wasting hours looking for the right pieces of data. For employers and business owners, it means less money spent on different people analytics softwares that can do half the job.

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How can single HR and payroll software benefit reporting and analytics?

A single HR software platform benefits reporting and people analytics as all employee and organisational data is centralised in the system. Rather than having to refer to separate systems for similar information, a single solution makes it simple to access the HR data you need to be able to report effectively. 

HR professionals using single software can report on both HR and payroll from one system and analyse the relationships between different metrics and spend. This could be tracking employee satisfaction vs. performance and salary spend or even average expenses spend vs. deals closed on a sales team. All information on the XCD system is accessible through different levels of security clearances, so those who need to access HR data have a seamless experience, without compromising any sensitive data.

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Make the most of your employee data to create data-driven Human Resources strategies 

Talent management of a workforce is a full time job, quite literally. Except most of the time when using outdated softwares, HR’s time is eaten up with administrative duties and communications. Being able to efficiently manage the workforce begins with being able to easily access your people data from one central source of information. 

XCD’s reporting and analytics software makes it simpler to create specific, data-based HR strategies through its intuitive report suite. The reporting software utilises automated workflows to pull the correct information from every element of your employee database so HR have a bank of information and payroll data at their fingertips at all times. Even better, as XCD is cloud-based, every piece of data is updated in real-time, meaning that every single HR report is accurate and up-to-date down to the minute. 

This enables HR departments to undergo accurate, data-backed workforce planning for your organisation easily, without information bottlenecks and without the risk of your people data being outdated. 

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Instant reporting templates

Instant reporting templates are a God-send for time poor HR professionals, especially if they’re not too savvy when it comes to creating presentations that look professional and slick. XCD’s instant reporting templates make it simple for HRs to present their people analytics findings quickly and clearly to the key decision-makers in your organisation. XCD even has the functionality to create custom executive-level dashboards to give the C-suite a top-down view of organisational operations instantly. 

With over 150 templates ready-to-go, HR departments can analyse any combination of metrics to suit the exact needs of your organisation. Yet, if somehow XCD’s reporting suite doesn’t have the exact dashboard that you’re looking for, you can create entirely customised dashboards and reports by pulling any combination of metrics from your HR software’s bank of employee data. 

For example, if you wanted to analyse the impact of the world cup on employee productivity, you could pull historical data from previous tournaments and perform a trend analysis on the output levels of different departments in the workforce. During the pandemic, we even created a completely custom dashboard to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce.

Boost your people analytics with AI-powered forecasting

XCD’s HR and payroll software is built on the Salesforce platform, which means it benefits from industry-leading investment in technology. Every single element of the XCD reporting and HR analytics platform is enhanced with Salesforce’s AI-powered Einstein analytics tool. 

Einstein Analytics enables HR professionals on the XCD platform to accurately forecast employee performance, satisfaction and productivity, not only through trend analysis but with AI-driven insights. This HR analytics tool bolsters your Human Resources’ capabilities and has a knock-on effect on every HR process. Better people analytics and HR strategies means more effective performance management, which positively impacts employee engagement, which improves sales, and so on. 

Improve talent management with insights from payroll spend

So, we’ve explained plenty of ways in which XCD single HR and payroll software is a great tool for reporting and analytics. But how exactly does combining HR reports with payroll reports benefit HR departments?

Having a clear understanding of payroll makes it easier for HR to create data-backed strategies for workforce planning. We’ll work through an example: if we can see from a payroll report that total salary spend has stagnated in recent years, and a HR report indicates that employee satisfaction is starting to waiver, it could create a case for HR to argue for pay rises for employees. This could improve employee experience and even prevent a spike in employee turnover in the wake of the Great Resignation. 

Your organisation’s people data is invaluable to talent management and ensuring that your workforce stays happy. Understanding payroll analytics alongside HR analytics gives HR managers a 360 degree view of the workforce and an organisation, better equipping them to prove the value of HR in a business. 

Single HR and payroll software is the key for effective HR reporting and people analytics

Whether you need to bolster your HR strategies or you want a better insight into every element of your people data, XCD single solution is the perfect analytics tool to achieve your business goals. 

Want to see more about how XCD’s end-to-end single HR and payroll solution can transform your reporting capabilities? Book a demo today.