Here we are nearing the end of the first quarter of the new year. What are you doing differently this year to add value? Fundamentally, has anything changed from 2010 to 2011? Is there something new or of greater importance afoot? You may still be focused on cost reduction — who isn’t — but what about improved productivity, higher quality, better customer service or new products?

HR’s reason for being, as I’ve told you a thousand times over the past 30 years, is not to administer services. Certainly that is part of what we do. However, we must do it for the greater good of improved QIPS — quality, innovation, productivity or service. That is the difference between activity and value.

If you believe you should increase the value you are generating but are uncertain how to start, let me give you a hint. Last August, Bill Kutik interviewed Naomi Bloom on his radio show. As they discussed the effects of technology on human resources performance, Naomi made the following statement: “We have some really fantastic automation tools. If HR people had started using them [several years ago] instead of asking for a seat at the table, they would have owned the table.”

The question is, are you aware of the tools on the market today that will enable you to own the table?

There are models and tools out there that would be worthy of a “Star Trek” episode. As Gene Roddenberry would have said if he were still with us: “We have already gone where no one has gone before.”

Gone are the days of HRIS and ERP as big news. Now we have cloud computing and analytic tools we only dreamed of in the 1990s. There is no reason you cannot stake out a seat at the table today. Every week I hear or see something new and exciting. Truly, there is a product for just about every need, or should I say, every opportunity.

If you start today, you are already behind a significant number of your peers who have introduced analytic models and tools into their operations. I wrote about a dozen of them in The New HR Analytics. Since then, I have come across another 20-plus cases of analytic tools being applied to human resources and human capital opportunities. Your peers are applying analytics to issues such as leadership development, talent retention, employee engagement, sales growth, organizational renewal, incentive programs and productivity improvement.