Does your data need a detox?
How’s accurate is your HR data? Do you have a single source of truth or is your data scattered across multiple sources - a spreadsheet here and there, some held locally, some central, HRIS not linked to payroll properly? Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before and its normal 👍
But it is also time consuming! Whenever you need to run reports, you have combine the data, taking time. Then you need to manually correct some areas, taking time. And, after you’ve delivered the report, if there’s any errors, fixing those also takes time. Not to mention the damage to HR’s reputation in the business.
So, what do you need to do?
Don’t panic, I’m not about to suggest buying a whole new HRIS. It probably won’t help anyway….technology all sounds good in the brochure. But it also depends on how well it is set up and how it is used.
For example, if you don’t include all the holiday entitlements to go with your legacy T&C’s, then you’ll end up having holiday data stored elsewhere. So, when you need to know who has holiday that month for pay top up based on their commission or overtime payments, you have to introduce a time-consuming manual process.
Or, maybe, the link to from your HRIS to your payroll system is not being used and employee’s data is being manually entered in to both systems by each team. So, there’s the potential for more errors. Whilst you can fix errors, this takes time and prevention would always be better.
To improve your data, you first need to identify where there are problems. Is it multiple sources, is it in your system settings, are there missing links? Or do your processes need to really utilise the capability of the system such as workflows and so on?
Then, pick one thing to change at a time. Small steps are much more effective. As you implement each improvement, the small gains in productivity and time will give you more scope to make more improvements. The first few steps can feel like hard work and may even need additional resource but then they really do pay for themselves once you get going.
Do you feel like you could benefit from someone who has done it before? Do you want some ideas specific to your organisation? Get in touch and I can provide a fresh opinion from a place of experience, with an initial free of charge consultation.
