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Introducing ELMO Insights: AI-Powered Answers Without the Analyst

Learn how ELMO Insights helps HR teams turn natural-language questions into real-time workforce intelligence, enabling faster action and more informed decision-making.

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HR is expected to deliver strategic workforce intelligence, yet most teams are stuck producing reports that are already out of date by the time they’re shared. In this session, we’ll show you how ELMO Insights turns natural-language questions into real-time answers, helping you prioritise action and influence decisions faster.

Frequently asked questions

General platform & access questions

How do we access or get started with ELMO Insights?

ELMO Insights is part of HR Core, which gives you access to your data foundation. If you’re already using HR Core, Insights will automatically appear in your main menu when it launches (and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available).
Don’t have HR Core yet, or curious about what it can do? Book a call with one of our team members to receive a demonstration.

Is ELMO Insights included in our current package or is it an add-on?

If you have HR Core today, then there’s no extra cost; if you don’t, then speak to our team about HR Core Platform.

Data & analytics capabilities

Can we create custom reports?

Absolutely. You can build reports based on your specific needs, depending on which ELMO modules you have.

What data sources does Insights pull from?

Insights pulls from HR Core as a baseline—that’s your data foundation. It can also access data from any other ELMO module you’re using, though it doesn’t integrate with third-party software.

What are the checks and balances in place to ensure that the data is accurate?

ELMO Insights only uses data already in our system—it doesn’t invent information. Every insight is traceable—you can drill down to see the exact employee records and metrics behind any prediction.

How far back does the historical data go?

All your historical data is available, as long as it’s from a module you have access to.

Can we export data to Excel or other formats?

Yes, you can export reports as CSV or Excel files.

How real-time is the data?

Data refreshes every hour.

Is the AI Assistant built by ELMO or is it provided by a third-party? If provided by third-party, what data do they gather and keep?

ELMO Insights is an ELMO product, and ELMO never uses or shares your data externally. In some cases, we embed best-in-class technologies to support specific features, such as the AI assistant. Any such providers are fully disclosed in our sub-processor documentation, and ELMO remains responsible for how customer data is handled.

When using AI what security is in place to ensure our staff personal and private information is kept safe?

Staff personal and private information remains protected through defense-in-depth architectures that ensure only authorised personnel can access specific data based on their role and business need. Multi-layered security ensures staff data is encrypted, access-controlled, and continuously monitored for threats.

When adding data charts/ insights to the dashboard, will the data still be restricted to 1 hour updates as it is now, or will real time refreshes be available?

The entire system refreshes hourly right now. Individual users can’t configure this yet, but we’ll continue making improvements after launch.

Can you filter the data by time period? E.g. For each quarter/month

Yes, you can filter by time period.

Does Insights rely on having “position lead” activated in ELMO? how does it work if you are not going to move to “position lead”

No, you don’t need “Position Led” enabled. If you’re an existing HR Core customer using “Employee Led,” Insights will work just fine.

Will this platform support the WGEA reporting? The preprogrammed reporting in Analytics doesn’t work for this currently

We haven’t yet recreated the WGEA dashboard – we will be creating an HR Core dashboard later this year and will incorporate some WGEA elements into that.

How does it work in with previous analytics module / does it replace?

ELMO Insights is a new product that sits alongside our existing Analytics and Custom Reporting functionality. If you’re an existing ELMO customer, we’ll be reaching out in the coming weeks to talk through what this means for you and make sure you’re clear on what to expect.

Would ELMO insight be able to extract information from Elmo (KeyPay) Payroll?

Not at launch, but some KeyPay data (employment details) will be available later this year.

Benchmarking & comparisons

How does the benchmarking work?

ELMO Insights isn’t like ChatGPT or other large language models. It only reads your data within your system, so it benchmarks against your own organisation’s data, not external sources.

Can we compare across different departments or locations?

Yes, as long as the data source includes department and/or location information.

Technical & implementation

Do we need any technical setup or IT involvement?

Nope. Once Insights is enabled, it’s set up automatically.

Can multiple users access Insights simultaneously?

Yes.

What permissions/security controls are available?

ELMO Insights implements comprehensive security through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) combined with multi-layered data protection. Row-Level Security (RLS) ensures users only see data relevant to their role or reporting hierarchy (e.g., managers see only their direct reports, regional leaders see only their geography). Column-Level Security (CLS) hides sensitive fields like salaries, performance ratings, or personal information from unauthorized users. Object-Level Security (OLS) controls access to dashboards, reports, and worksheets with view-only or edit permissions.

How does it handle data privacy and confidentiality?

ELMO Insights protects staff personal information through comprehensive security and privacy measures. All data is encrypted using AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, with infrastructure hosted on ISO 27001:2022 certified platforms in Australia. The platform complies with GDPR, Australian Privacy Act 1988, and UK GDPR. Staff data is never used to train AI models, and multi-factor authentication plus SSO integration ensure only authorised personnel can access the system.

Specific metrics & use cases

What turnover metrics are available?

You’ll get annual turnover (calendar year), turnover rate, new starters, exits—all reported year-on-year.

Can we track absenteeism trends?

If you use ELMO Leave, yes—that data will be available.

Does it show predictive analytics or just historical data?

Right now, it’s historical data. Predictive analytics is something we’re exploring for future releases.

Can we see salary analysis and pay equity data?

You can analyse your own salary data based on what’s in your Remuneration module. Insights doesn’t benchmark against external salary data.

What performance management insights are included?

If you have ELMO Performance, you’ll be able to ask questions like:
-How many appraisals are overdue?
-Which employees in <location> have overdue appraisal checkins?
-Compare performance ratings by department for this years appraisal
-Which managers are late on completing their appraisal checkins?
-Compare average performance rating by department over the past 3 years
-What is the relationship between performance rating and location?
-What is the status of current performance checkins by department?

Can we track recruitment metrics like time-to-hire?

Yes, if you have ELMO Recruitment, you can ask questions about time-to-hire and time-to-fill for requisitions.

AI & automation

What AI features are included in Insights?

Insights includes the Data Assistant, which lets you ask questions about your data in plain English.

Can it identify patterns or anomalies automatically?

Not at this stage.

Does it provide recommendations based on the data?

Yes, it’ll suggest ways you might dig deeper into your data. But it won’t tell you how to reduce your turnover rate for example, it helps you understand the data, not prescribe solutions.

AI Hallucinations seems to be an issue with some AI tools – how do we account for these?

AI hallucinations occur when language models generate plausible-sounding but factually incorrect information—essentially ‘making things up’ when they don’t have the right answer.

ELMO Insights analyses your real workforce data using proven statistical methods, and when it does use AI to explain findings, it’s only summarising facts from your database, not generating fiction. We minimize the risk of hallucinations by ensuring that every answer is generated from verified data, following defined business logic

We use RAG (or Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to ground AI responses in verifiable, factual data.
Instead of answering from memory, the system retrieves relevant data from our verified database to construct an answer.

By restricting the AI’s knowledge base to our data, it prevents the hallucination of false information.

Training & support

Is training available for Insights?

Yes — training is available for ELMO Insights.

We’ll provide a range of training options to suit different learning styles, including short end-user videos available on the ELMO website. We’ll also run regular webinars (weekly or fortnightly) to walk through key use cases and answer questions live.

Insights will be incorporated into our existing ePractical sessions and eLearning courses within the ELMO Academy, and we’ve also launched a set of generic AI courses in the Course Library to support broader AI capability building.

Are there templates or pre-built dashboards we can use?

Yes—we’ve built five suggested dashboards to help you get started quickly and show you what’s possible. We don’t have plans to add more right now, but if we see strong demand for additional module-specific dashboards and it helps adoption, we’ll definitely consider expanding the library.