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How many spreadsheets does it take to answer one HR question?

Digitalization Services

HRIS
People Analytics

Mareile Eckart

August 20, 2026

A businesswoman working on her laptop in a modern open-plan office

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A quick reality check: how long would it take your organization to produce an accurate, current headcount — broken down by country and function? If the honest answer is “a day or more,” your HR data isn’t integrated. It’s assembled.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Assembled data comes from stitching together exports, spreadsheets, and manual reconciliation every time someone asks a question. Integrated data is simply there, ready to query. Most HR teams are still living in the first world.

Why HR data still doesn't add up

Nearly half of HR professionals — 47 % — don’t frequently integrate business data with HR data. Even more, 77 %, name integrating disparate data sources as one of their biggest people analytics challenges (State of People Analytics 2025). The numbers explain a pattern many HR leaders will recognize instantly.
What does that look like day to day?

Reports take days: Employees spend an average of 1.8 hours a day just searching for information.
Manual merging eats the week: One in four workers spend seven-plus hours weekly copying data between systems and reconciling conflicts.
Conflicting truths creep in: Fragmented systems produce inconsistent numbers, and inconsistent numbers erode confidence in the report itself.
Decisions arrive late: By the time the data is clean, the moment to act on it has often passed.

The result isn’t insight. It’s a snapshot — accurate for the five minutes after someone finished compiling it.

One source of truth, three ways of getting there

Not every organization needs the same HR system, and that’s the point often missed in the search for “the best HRIS.” The right platform depends on company size, structure, and how much complexity you actually need to manage.

Broadly, three tiers of HR systems are handling this problem right now:

Three systems, three approaches to reporting

To make this concrete, here’s how three widely used HR systems actually differ in their reporting approach:

None of these is universally “better.” Each solves a different version of the same underlying problem — and choosing the wrong tier tends to recreate the spreadsheet chaos you were trying to escape, just inside a more expensive system.

The question worth asking first

Before comparing feature lists, it’s worth asking the simpler question: how long does it currently take your organization to answer one basic HR question with confidence? If that answer involves multiple exports, a spreadsheet, and a colleague’s tribal knowledge, the issue usually isn’t a missing report. It’s a missing single source of truth.

Ready to simplify your HR tech stack?

At valantic, we help growing multinational scale-ups evaluate, select, and implement the right, unified HRIS. Whether you’re considering HiBob, Personio, SuccessFactors, Workday, or another platform—our implementation expertise will help you choose the solution that grows with your ambitions.

Learn more

Mareile Eckart

Managing Director & Partner | People Tech Lead DACH

valantic

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