Creating an Integrated Dashboard for HR and Business Performance: an Agile Approach

In the digital age, human resource management and business performance monitoring require advanced, integrated solutions using business intelligence dashboards.

Dashboard implementations, however, are often set from a technology perspective dictated by IT rather than the HR customer’s need. The result is a complex, all-encompassing solution that is expensive and takes a long time to implement.

For a large client in the Italian manufacturing sector, which has a worldwide presence, HRI started from a different vision: focus on the client’s needs, priorities and timeframe and the consideration that, with the data already available, more than 75% of the client’s information and decision-making needs could be met.

Novel elements in the approach of creating the HR Dashboard

1. Focus on customer needs: rather than focusing on technology, we placed emphasis on the customer’s decision-making needs and built a mockup together to recreate the look and feel
2. Prioritization of needs: the motto was “let’s start with what we have and make it smart.” After validating the mockup, we created the first views on the BI dashboard quickly in order to have, from time to time, immediate feedback from the customer and be able to fine-tune.
3. Modularity and agile approach: we maintained an open development framework and agile logic so that additional data and analysis modules could be added later in a modular way.

Project phases.

The project, which lasted approximately 6 months, had 6 phases for which we report the main activities.

1. Initiation and kick-off

In this phase we identified and created the working group, shared objectives and method, and did the project kick-off in workshop mode.

2. Codesign

We first devoted ourselves to collecting and arranging data and creating the feasibility perimeter. In this perimeter we identified three classes of data:

• Classic “HR” data: master data, payroll, DE&I, turnover, etc.
• Data fed by HR processes including: recruiting, development, performance, welfare.
• Business data: sales performance, production performance, HSE, etc.

Finally, we prepared and discussed a Mockup on Excel, validated it and did a follow-up with all people involved.

3. Implementation

We moved on to development on the Business Intelligence platform by doing an initial configuration design and establishing the data collection mode.

We defined access privileges for 4 different “personas”:

• Corporate HR
• Group Management
• Legal Entity Management
• Legal Entity HR Management.

Next, the implementation of the analysis modules (also called “Apps”) began. In an iterative manner, we confronted the client with any changes/increases until we arrived at a prototype to test.

4. Validation

We validated the prototype with the client, corrected and integrated it to make it operational. We started having the HR dashboard used by the work team to get feedback on clarity, usability, etc.

5. Training

Adopting a business intelligence tool to monitor performance is not just about moving from a simpler tool (usually Excel) to a more advanced one.

Viewed from a broader perspective, it can be an opportunity to participate in a synoptic view and advance a data culture that leads to greater awareness and understanding of organizational phenomena.

For this reason, prior to the handover to the client, we conducted two types of HR training:

• A “technical” training on using the dashboard and reading the representations it contains;
• A training geared toward growing the culture of data and its use in the organization.

The main contents of this second training covered three themes:

1. Ownership: training in data ownership awareness.
2. Data driven management: giving evidence of how data can be used to understand phenomena and make decisions.
3. Producing reports and information for story telling: providing the logical tools and informing the steps to read data and tell the story effectively.
4. Handover and dissemination.

We then did the handover to the organization based on a timetable that started from project team members to the full perimeter (see figure below left).

Contextually, we plotted the necessary path for the addition of additional data and analysis modules (see figure below right).

The result: an efficient HR dashboard without the costs of traditional technologies

HRI’s agile approach to creating an Integrated Dashboard proved successful:

we contained development time and started providing analytical elements even before the end of the project without the complexities and high costs typical of traditional technology implementations.

A crucial aspect is the change of mindset, achieved by stimulating data culture, emphasizing the importance of ownership, data-driven management, and storytelling skills with data.

In summary, HRI’s agile approach has enabled the development of an integrated dashboard that not only meets current customer needs but is also ready to adapt to future demands, while promoting a data-driven corporate culture.