Many, many HR data analytics projects don’t work because proper Master Data Management is not in place.
HR Master data management means that key data about every employee, every job code, and every department is consistent in all your systems.
For example:
- If Mary started as Cashier and is now a VP, she’s a VP in every single system you own.
- If Steve retired two years ago, he’s inactive everywhere.
- If you just completed a major reorganization, your departments and reporting structures reflect the new reality everywhere.
What happens when you HR Master Data is not under control?
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data gets leaked. Because people see people they know longer manage.
Costs go up because. Many HR systems are licensed by the employee. Keeping employees in systems
Your people don’t trust your reports because nothing is consistent.
I wish I could tell you that I had a great technical solution that would make all your MDM problems magically vanish. I would certainly like one. I’ve spent more hours/days/months of my life getting data reconciled between systems.
But ultimately, it’s a human issue.
Someone has to own the data.
Someone has to be willing to pay more for your integrations. Because it’s not just a question of getting the data flowing once. It’s an issue of creating an ongoing process that guarantees that data stays consistent over time.
And someone has to be assigned to check that all systems are in order on a regular basis.
I’ve started putting together an HR master data management checklist.
But for now, I’ll ask how well your organization handles master data management? Is it under control? Is data consistent? Do you even feel capable of answering the question?