Andrew Robinson / Work / Analytics Pipeline

Automated Workforce
Analytics Pipeline

Turning 4–7 manual reports into a single automated data pipeline — zero recurring effort

Type Data engineering
Stack UKG · Cognos · Power Automate · Excel
Replaced 4–7 manual reports
Live
Before
4–7 reports pulled manually every cycle
After
Fully automated — runs without intervention
Audience
HR, Finance, Operations & Leadership
The problem

Manual reporting was eating
time that didn't exist

Every payroll cycle, every week, someone on the HR team was manually logging into UKG, pulling between four and seven different reports, exporting them, reformatting the data in Excel, and distributing them to stakeholders across HR, Finance, and Operations. The process was repetitive, time-consuming, and fragile — one missed export or formatting error could send incorrect data to leadership.

Beyond the time cost, manual reporting created a visibility lag. By the time a report was pulled, formatted, and distributed, the data was already hours old. For a workforce of 700+, that meant decisions were being made on information that was never quite current.

The real cost of manual reporting: not just the hours spent pulling data, but the inconsistency, the lag, and the risk of human error compounding across every cycle.

Before & after

From hours of work to
zero recurring effort

Before — manual process
4–7
Reports pulled manually per cycle · logged in, exported, reformatted, distributed by hand every time
After — automated pipeline
0
Manual steps remaining · pipeline runs, formats, and distributes automatically on schedule
How it works

End-to-end pipeline architecture

The pipeline connects UKG People Analytics and Cognos BI as the data source, Power Automate as the scheduling and delivery layer, and Excel as the formatted output. Each component does what it does best — no custom code, no external dependencies, no new tools to license or maintain.

🗄️
UKG Pro
Source of record
Data source
📊
Cognos BI
People Analytics
Query layer
⚙️
Power Automate
Schedule + trigger
Automation
📋
Excel
Format + calculate
Processing
📬
Stakeholders
HR · Finance · Ops
Delivery
What gets automated

Reports that now run themselves

The pipeline handles the recurring reports that were previously pulled manually each cycle — each one configured in Cognos, scheduled in Power Automate, and delivered formatted to the right audience automatically.

Headcount & active employee summary
Semi-monthly Automated
Terminations & turnover tracking
Weekly Automated
New hire activity report
Weekly Automated
Labor cost & compensation summary
Semi-monthly Automated
Open headcount & requisition tracker
Weekly Automated
The tool stack

Built on tools the org already owned

A deliberate constraint of this project was using only tools already licensed and available — no new software, no IT procurement, no additional spend. The entire pipeline runs on existing infrastructure.

UKG People AnalyticsSource of record
Cognos BIReport authoring & query layer
Power AutomateScheduling, triggering & distribution
Excel (advanced)Formatting, calculation & presentation layer
What changed

Data that used to be late
is now always current

Zero manual pulls
Every recurring report that was previously compiled by hand now runs and distributes itself on schedule.
Near real-time data
Stakeholders receive refreshed data automatically — no waiting on HR to pull, format, and send.
Eliminated error risk
Manual formatting and distribution steps were the most error-prone part of the process — the pipeline removes them entirely.
Foundation for future analytics
The data model and pipeline architecture built here became the foundation for the executive workforce dashboard and further BI work.

Next case study
Executive workforce dashboard