CUSTOMER STORY
Kong Inc. Built With Visier To Connect & Accelerate People Data Insights
Kong’s old people analytics solutions made answering subsets of use HR cases slow and complicated. The organization faced data accuracy issues with spreadsheets and manual data-checking. In 2022, Kong transitioned from Namely to a combination of Workday and Visier. Visier helped Kong standardize and clean all its data seven months before implementing Workday. Now, reporting is fast and accurate.
INDUSTRY
Technology
HEADQUARTERS
San Francisco, CA
EMPLOYEES
500+
SOLUTIONS USED
Visier People® Talent Visier People® Organization Visier People® TA
Kong creates software and managed services that connect APIs and microservices natively across and within clouds, Kubernetes, data centers, and more using intelligent automation.
Key outcomes
Enabled better hiring and compensation decisions
Integrated Visier and Workday for 6x faster delivery of people analytics insights
Saved time and money on reporting
Kong wanted fast insights about their people to target key business areas. Visier offered incredible speed to value over building a solution themselves with existing tools.
THE CHALLENGE
Reduce a reliance on spreadsheets and inaccurate data to get a clearer picture of organizational structure
A reliance on spreadsheets was more than just time-consuming for Kong, it also made getting insights to people leaders complicated since not everyone had access to various systems of record. "It seems like in some organizations, people get props for creating spreadsheets. We have to put an end to that culture," comments Mark Tucker, director of HR Technology and Analytics at Kong.
In addition, people had different ways of calculating even the most basic metrics such as headcount. Kong needed a solution to unify data sources and establish a single source of truth that everyone could agree upon.
THE SOLUTION
Data integrity started with basic organizational structure and headcount
One of the things holding HR back was not knowing how to pull the data from the HRIS in a consistent way. Because it took so long to build reports, many weren’t willing to create new metrics or create a new spreadsheet to track something just because someone asked for it. After onboarding Visier People the data is now easy to pull and accurate enough that leaders can get a good view of headcount, department, and region.
For instance, before Visier, a span of control report was unavailable and time-prohibitive to create. Now, the information is visible immediately. Before, not everyone even knew the proper organizational structure because the information in the HRIS system didn’t have clear data. In addition to getting rid of spreadsheets, Visier also helped standardize metrics and make the data transparent.
"Visier allows us to see the data and start drilling into the insights. Without being able to see it, it's just numbers on a spreadsheet, but with Visier, we make all the connections in a way that people understand."
Mark Tucker Director of HR Technology and Analytics
THE OUTCOME
Data over "gut feeling" and no more spreadsheets enabled faster reporting, cost savings, and deeper dives
Kong suspected that retention was a problematic issue, but wanted to verify beyond the "gut feeling." With Visier, they were able to connect performance data to retention and turnover exposing a new insight. While turnover for low performers was higher than average, turnover for high performers was well below overall. They were also now able to visualize where tenure might impact turnover and make an action plan based on these insights.
With business-impacting insights like these, Kong grew to rely on Visier and quickly moved away from spreadsheets, saving both time and money: "Visier has saved a lot of time just for me personally," Mark comments. "I’ve looked at other solutions extensively and have realized the value of Visier, including the data intake process, ability to modify any metric, and rapidly add new data sources—all within the same cost structure.”
Integration with Workday for 6x faster insights
When Kong integrated Visier with its Workday data, it dissolved data barriers and merged the powerful capabilities of the two platforms, reducing tool-switching, admin costs, and potential errors. As a result, the PA team has saved valuable time by combining all HR data sources, including Workday, which eliminates repetitive tasks while significantly boosting data visibility across HR teams.
Mark shared, “We’ve realized a huge time savings and efficiency boost with Visier at least six times. For example, if it takes me an hour in Workday to build a report, it would usually take approximately 10 minutes in Visier. This means we can keep up with the speed of business. And, once the integrations are set up, it’s very low maintenance on an ongoing basis.”
Finding the best hires got easier
Kong found that applicants who applied directly through the system had a surprisingly high (85%) retention rate. Now, they’re building on this knowledge to hire good candidates more efficiently.
EXTENDING CAPABILITIES WITH VISIER
Two years in, Kong is focusing on business growth enabled by enhanced insights
Kong participated in Visier's early access program to try Visier People® Extend which offers the ability to modify existing metrics and attributes, to load from any data source, and to create new analytic objects and properties. For Mark, the benefit came from the opportunity to connect a previously siloed talent acquisition platform via a custom API connection to Visier.
With a successful effort, Mark says he may be able to eliminate all the manual effort, even removing a data warehouse that they had to create for this purpose. "Down the road," he says, "I definitely see using Extend for bringing in our business metrics like engineering or our services group, bringing in that data to help build dashboards that will encompass everything from our KPIs to just basic productivity for a team."
Visier solutions used by Kong
Visier People® Organization
With core HR metrics, Organization starts you on your analytic journey answering questions around headcount, employee starts, and demographics, and how you compare to Visier Benchmarks.
Visier People® Talent
Identify the attributes that produce long-term, high performing employees and make better hiring decisions faster.
Visier People® Talent Acquisition
Connect recruiting data with employee outcomes so you can refine and define recruitment processes, programs, and results.
About Visier
Visier is the recognized global leader in people analytics, workforce and compensation planning, embedded solutions, and GenAI for people answers. At the core of Visier’s innovations is a simple premise: People impact is business impact, and you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Visier gives people-powered organizations the tools and insights to drive productivity, performance, and business outcomes through people impact. Founded in 2010 by the pioneers of business intelligence, Visier has over 50,000 customers in 75 countries, including enterprises like BASF, Panasonic, Experian, Amgen, eBay, Ford Motor Company, and more. Visier is headquartered in Vancouver, BC with offices and team members worldwide.
For more information, visit visier.com