Make Data-Driven Decisions with Powerful Reporting Tools

HR analytics software is a tool that collects, integrates and analyzes HR data to help leaders make informed business decisions. It offers visibility into workforce metrics like employee turnover, engagement and performance. By identifying patterns across data sets, HR professionals can improve processes, reduce attrition and better align people strategies with organizational goals.

With features like predictive analytics, data visualization and machine learning, HR analytics software moves beyond basic reporting. It helps uncover workforce insights, optimize talent acquisition and onboarding and guide initiatives tied to employee satisfaction and business outcomes. Designed to work across HR systems and data sources, it enables faster, data-backed decisions.

The four types of HR analytics are:

• Descriptive analytics – Reviews historical employee data to show what happened. Often used to track HR metrics like turnover rates or headcount changes.

• Diagnostic analytics – Explains why something happened by examining patterns and correlations in HR data, such as linking low engagement to performance issues.

• Predictive analytics – Uses algorithms and advanced analytics to forecast future outcomes, such as identifying employees likely to leave or predicting hiring needs.

• Prescriptive analytics – Recommends specific actions based on predictive models to improve business outcomes or HR processes.

These categories help HR leaders use data analytics to streamline talent management, improve decision-making and gain deeper people insights through a unified HR platform.

HR analysis refers to the process of examining specific HR data sets to answer isolated questions. It often focuses on one-time reports or manual tasks, typically using tools like Excel to assess metrics such as employee performance, engagement, or turnover. It supports basic performance management and is limited in scope.

HR analytics is a broader, more strategic function. It uses an analytics platform or HRIS to combine multiple data sources through automation and data integration. This approach allows HR leaders to generate ongoing insights, detect patterns and inform decisions across workflows. It also supports workforce analytics, helping stakeholders understand people data, refine HR software usage and identify trends that impact top talent.

HR teams use people analytics software to analyze employee data and identify patterns tied to engagement, retention and performance. This allows teams to move from reactive HR processes to data-driven actions. By combining business intelligence tools with HR analytics tools, teams can assess which initiatives support performance goals and which areas require adjustment.

With user-friendly dashboards and templates built into most HCM platforms, HR can streamline data analysis and present insights clearly to stakeholders. Self-service access helps managers make quicker decisions, while predictive tools support strategic planning without relying on guesswork. The result is faster, more accurate decision-making across the human resources function.

The seven pillars of people analytics are commonly used to guide how HR teams gather, interpret and apply people data for business outcomes:

1. Strategy alignment – Ties analytics work directly to organizational goals and workforce priorities.

2. Data quality – Focuses on clean, consistent and reliable employee data across systems.

3. Technology and tools – Uses an analytics platform, HCM software, or HR analytics tools to support automation and insights.

4. Data governance – Maintains security, access controls and compliance within data workflows.

5. Skills and capabilities – Builds internal knowledge around data analysis, business intelligence and communication of insights.

6. Stakeholder collaboration – Engages decision-makers across departments to apply insights where they matter most.

7. Action and impact – Applies people analytics findings to make decisions that improve employee engagement, performance and retention.

These pillars help human resources teams move from reporting to action, using data to support hiring, talent planning and strategic HR decisions.