Automatically sync headcount changes that take place in the HR system to the plan

Description

In Corporate Performance Management (CPM), the auto-synchronization of headcount changes entails automatically updating any alterations in employee numbers and underlying values occurring in the HR management system to the planning system. This is intended to eliminate the monthly labor of doing this via CSV files.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A major corporation with numerous departments and thousands of employees uses CPM software to manage its business plans and forecasts. The Human Resources (HR) department frequently updates the headcount due to routine churn, promotions, transfers and new hires.

Solution: To ensure up-to-date data within the planning system, the CPM software is equipped with the ability to automatically sync any changes in headcount from the HR system. This means that when an employee is promoted, transferred, or leaves the company, the change is immediately and automatically reflected in the overall business plan.

Considerations

For organizations with a large amount of employees, this is a massive time saver and a boon to data integrity in the workforce planning model. Most organizations treat this as a monthly task where an export is created in CSV from the HR tool, it is massaged, then uploaded into the CPM. This can sometimes erase prior headcount data. Worse, it might require the finance user to manually reconcile any changes, which with a large amount of employees can take forever and invite errors.

The concept of “sync” implies a two-way connection between the two systems. This means that the CPM is updated with new hires, changes in status, terminations from the HR system while the CPM tool sends planned hires to the HR system for fulfillment.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Integration Capability: How well does your system integrate with existing HR systems? Is the integration two-way?
• Data Fields: Can additional details like roles, locations, departments, benefits packages, 401k contributions, etc. be included?
• Planned Hire Tracking: What mechanism exists to track a planned hire through onboarding? How does the system know to change a specific record?