The Invisible Foundation: HRIS Infrastructure, Unique Employee IDs, and Defining a Source of Truth

Before climbing the staircase of People Analytics, you need to ensure that the ground beneath it is solid. That foundation is your HR technology infrastructure—the set of systems, data governance rules, and technical standards that ensure everything else works. If your HRIS isn’t structured properly, even the best analytics will be built on unreliable ground.

Why You Need a Unique Employee ID—And Why It Should Be Numerical

Every person in your workforce should be identified by a single, unique, and consistent ID across all systems—from the ATS to payroll, performance systems, learning platforms, and beyond.

This ID should be:

• Numerical only (e.g., 100035)
• System-generated and immutable (it should never be reused or changed)
• Consistently applied across all platforms and data pipelines

Why numerical?

• Avoids formatting inconsistencies across systems (e.g., “m.nolazco,” “MNolazco_1,” “nolazco.m”)
• Minimizes manual entry errors
• Ensures better interoperability across different vendors, platforms, and data environments
• Prepares your data for scaling as you connect more systems or expand globally

The unique ID becomes the linking key that allows you to stitch together data from different systems and trust that you're analyzing the same individual throughout their journey—from applicant to alumni.

Why Defining a “Source of Truth” Is Essential

In most organizations, multiple systems store overlapping data. An employee’s job title might appear differently in the HRIS and the payroll system. Their start date might vary between the ATS and the HR platform. So which system is correct?

That’s where the concept of a source of truth comes in: the system you officially designate as the most accurate and authoritative record for a specific type of data.

For example:

• HRIS = source of truth for job title, department, location, employment status
• ATS = source of truth for application data and hiring date
• Payroll = source of truth for salary, bonuses, and pay frequency
• LMS (Learning Management System) = source of truth for completed trainings

By defining these relationships explicitly, you reduce confusion, data mismatches, and time spent validating reports. It also enables your People Analytics infrastructure to scale responsibly, because everyone knows where to find the right data and what it means.

Final Thought: The Best Analytics Start with the Boring Stuff

You don’t need advanced dashboards or machine learning to begin transforming HR. What you need first is a stable, scalable infrastructure: one numerical ID per person, and one clearly defined source of truth per data type.

These aren’t glamorous tasks—but they’re what separate organizations that dabble in People Analytics from those that truly lead with it.

Want to climb the staircase with confidence? Start by laying the bricks no one sees—but everyone depends on.