Personnel planning software creates hidden potential

When Pia Hutmeyer hears that another new sales manager has resigned, her mind starts spinning. It is the fourth resignation in two months. As Head of HR, she is responsible for personnel requirements planning and personnel development and pulls the strings in recruiting. She can put one and one together. But she is not a data expert. What she doesn’t know yet is that the solution for her HR planning is within her grasp. And it will not only significantly change HR controlling.

High personnel costs

After what felt like an eternity, Pia analyzed the Excel report from the finance department. The figures presented by Christian, Head of Finance, in the subsequent meeting with CEO Torsten confirm her fears: personnel costs are too high.

This is their moment. “I see a need for action in the recruiting process” she says. “The last recruitments cost us time and money. The end of the story is that they all left again in a very short space of time. I am convinced that we can make our wishes and goals clearer in the recruitment interviews and screen applicants more specifically. This could save us considerable costs”.

The problem of missing data

Torsten should listen up now. Instead, he looks blankly at Pia. “The few new hires… Do they make that much of a difference to the personnel costs?” he asks. And when Pia doesn’t answer immediately, he adds: “Can you back up your assumptions with figures? I’d like that in black and white. I need all the data in relation to that. Costs per application and costs per recruitment, average remuneration per full-time equivalent, fluctuation rate, absenteeism if applicable, total personnel costs.”

Pia understands what Torsten is saying, but she is faced with a problem: how can she put the individual personnel data in relation to each other? She already spends far too much time analyzing the Excel spreadsheets she receives from the HR team and the finance department.

In search of personnel planning software

Pia wants more. There must be a sensible tool for personnel planning that allows you to present the current data situation in a clear and understandable way and show correlations.

Just the other day, Christian told us that his finance team now uses software for controlling. Yes, and what about the HR department, thinks Pia? There it was again. A deep sigh. When will there be all-encompassing software for personnel planning and personnel costs that all relevant departments can use to visualize personnel developments in real time and track them over a longer period of time? That would improve the corporate strategy holistically. And she wouldn’t have to create formulas and study outdated Excel spreadsheets.

Lost in thought, she turns to Christian, who raises her hopes. “We have wonderful dashboards in QVANTUM where you can display anything you want. It’s a great help for my personnel cost planning,” explains Christian cheerfully. Pia remembers the coherent graph of personnel costs that Christian presented. “Can I also use it to display the staff turnover rate and absenteeism, for example?” she asks curiously. Christian doesn’t have to think twice.

Is controlling software the solution for HR?

“See?” says Christian as they sit together at his desk a little later. He opens his personnel cost planning in the QVANTUM controlling software. Pia is excited when Christian gives her a brief introduction. Can QVANTUM really be the long-awaited software for her personnel planning? “In QVANTUM you can find all your planning data, which you can display in clear dashboards. Here, for example, you can see the personnel costs per employee. The costs can be broken down further. As you can see, you can add new planning masks and display anything you want. Including personnel data.” “Looks really intuitive,” replies Pia. “And how do we introduce the software?” she asks, immediately thinking of all the Excel spreadsheets they have already collected. “Your team can simply enter all the data here from now on and integrate Excel spreadsheets. And if you want to continue using DATEV or other tools, for example, you can simply import your data here. The introduction to QVANTUM is very easy. Our team only had one onboarding meeting and now we only plan with QVANTUM.”

All reporting data at a glance

And as if that wasn’t enough, Christian opens his presentation from the meeting, which graphically illustrates the company’s personnel costs. “This is our dashboard that we use for the cost centers. The QVANTUM dashboards can easily be linked to Power BI via an interface so that the information is always up to date. And we already have the license in our Microsoft license. So no extra costs.” When he sees Pia’s questioning look, he adds: “Power BI is an intelligent self-service platform that visualizes data from our planning. No matter what changes, all data is automatically transferred to your dashboard so that you can always see the latest developments and track them over longer periods of time. The HR dashboard is interesting for you because you can see all developments and correlations in HR planning from the software directly at a glance.” Diagrams light up in front of Pia that are not only self-explanatory, but also have a whole new potential. For a long time now, Pia has been looking for suitable software for her personnel planning. And suddenly it seems as if her worries have vanished into thin air.

With the HR cockpit to the recruiting strategy

It is the reason why Pia stands up in the Wednesday meeting full of self-confidence and explains the need for target-oriented employee appraisals and new communication approaches in recruiting. By communicating tasks differently, the company can find suitable staff in the long term, increase employee satisfaction and reduce personnel costs. Their new presentation shines with an up-to-date overview, including absenteeism, turnover rate, number of overtime hours, employee satisfaction, cost per application and cost per hire, average compensation per full-time equivalent, personnel costs per employee and total personnel costs in relation.

For the first time in a long time, Pia thinks she sees joy in Torsten’s face. He seems almost a little proud. Pia is thrilled. And all thanks to software for her personnel planning.

The agile dashboards not only save their meeting, but also significantly improve HR controlling. In the coming weeks, Pia and Christian will often sit together to discuss current personnel developments and draw conclusions. Thanks to QVANTUM, they have a uniform and cross-departmental picture of the current situation. With the QVANTUM solution, the company achieves several goals at once: agile personnel cost planning, agile personnel resource planning and automated HR controlling, which acts as an operational interface between the company’s HR and finance departments.

Have you already looked into the functions of controlling software for your HR planning? Contact us directly for a consultation and initial insights in the free trial version.