Scaling Workforce Planning in OneStream: A Technical Outlook
When organizations look to unify workforce planning and compensation analytics within OneStream, two approaches often come up: OneStream’s People Planning (OS-PP) and the CompAnalytics solution.
Both can model headcount and various compensation methodologies, but the real difference lies in how they handle scale, security, and insight. Let’s break it down from a technical perspective with an eye toward the business outcomes that matter to Finance, HR, and leadership teams.
Workforce data is unlike any other. It’s:
- Highly sensitive (Salaries, Commissions, Bonuses, and Equity)
- Operationally dynamic (New Hires, Terminations, Transfers/Splits, and Leave of Absences)
- Strategically critical (labor cost is often the largest expense line)
The challenge is to make that data secure, scalable, and decision-ready inside OneStream without overwhelming the cubes or compromising security and auditability.
Architecture: Cube-Centric vs. Secure Layer
- OS-PP: Keeps everything in the cube. Semi-flexible, but employee-level detail can quickly create performance and security headaches.
- CompAnalytics: Stores all employee data in a Secondary Secure People Layer, separate from the cubes. Only approved, summarized outcomes flow back to OneStream, keeping cubes lean, fast, and audit ready.
Security & Governance: The PII Question
- OS-PP: Standard OneStream security, but when detail sits in app, exposure risk rises.
- CompAnalytics: Role level security (three layers), approval workflows, and metadata-logged audit trails ensure every adjustment is traceable. Sensitive detail never leaves the secure layer.
Integration: DIY Rules vs. Metadata-Aware Automation
- OS-PP: You build rules and mappings to bring HR/Payroll feeds into OneStream. Effective, but ongoing maintenance is heavy.
- CompAnalytics: Comes with the Analyze People Connector and metadata-aware mapping that automatically aligns structures with OneStream dimensions (Entity, UD1-UD8, Account, Time).
Data Flexibility: Limited vs. Unlimited Fields
- OS-PP: Field capacity is limited, meaning organizations often face trade-offs in what employee attributes can be captured (e.g., pay grade, work schedule, union affiliation, ESG flags). Integrating with HRIS platforms often requires custom development and complex data pipelines.
- CompAnalytics: Supports unlimited fields across compensation, workforce, and ESG data. Integrations into HRIS platforms (Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, UKG, ADP, and more) are seamless and configurable, reducing reliance on IT and accelerating time-to-value.
Calculation Logic: Custom vs. Pre-Engineered
- OS-PP: You script merit, benefits, and burden drivers in VB.NET. Flexible, but time-consuming.
- CompAnalytics: Ships with pre-built compensation engines in SQL—salary, bonus, equity, taxes, benefits—plus what-if drivers, variance-first analytics and common language calculations for easier configurations.
Reporting & Analytics: Finance Views vs. Workforce Insights
- OS-PP: You build dashboards from cube data—finance-centric and functional.
- CompAnalytics: Delivers purpose-built dashboards for FP&A and HR:
- Compensation variance waterfalls
- Workforce KPIs by grade/region/division
- DEI and ESG lenses
- Drill-down from summary to secure detail
Performance at Scale
- OS-PP: Works well in controlled use cases but risks cube bloat if you push full employee detail.
- CompAnalytics: Keeps the cube light, no performance tax for HR detail, while still giving drill-back access for authorized users.
The Bottom Line
Workforce planning is too sensitive, too dynamic, and too strategic to be handled like standard financial data. By combining:
- A secure employee data layer
- Pre-built compensation logic
- Metadata-aware integration
- Unlimited fields and seamless HRIS connectivity
- Workforce-specific analytics
CompAnalytics doesn’t just match OS-PP feature for feature—it amplifies OneStream’s value for Finance, HR, and executive leadership alike.