The Right Tool for the Right Job?

Microsoft Office is a great platform to manage and analyze business data, but do you know when you are using the right tool for the right job? 

We’re all familiar with Microsoft Word which is great for writing letters, procedures and other common documents.  Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet application which is great for analyzing and presenting data.  Microsoft Access…. Anyone?... Anyone?... Does anyone know what Microsoft Access does?

Meanwhile each time a new piece of employee information needs tracked, it is too often dumped in to one of many Excel spreadsheets that make up the organizations “HRIS System”.  While Excel is great at what it was designed for, it was not designed to store even remotely complex data.  That includes your HR Data. 

Relationships between different types of employee data are often difficult to maintain and prone to human error using multiple spreadsheets.  Too often date elements are repeated in multiple places leading to inconsistencies when something is changed in one location and not another.  Typos and other errors commonly occur because the spreadsheet does not limit your input to valid data with the use of dropdowns and programmed validations. 

Microsoft Access is a relational database management system, the key words being “relational database”.  Unfortunately most users are unable to just jump into Access and create a well-designed relational database do to its complexity.  It is important to have the different data tables and relationships properly defined so the system works properly.  An example of this might be where I have a data table to manage employees where any given employee only has a single record in the table.  This table would include information such as Name, SSN, Gender, etc.  I might need a completely different data table to track the employee’s position history.  This table may have multiple records for any given employee since an employee may have held more than one position during their time with the organization.  Things like this must be taken into account when designing the database.  We haven’t even talked about bells and whistles; this is just the foundation defining what data can be stored in the database and how.  So while we’ve determined that Access is a much better tool for storing employee data than Excel, we have also determined the learning curve may be a bit much for most people.  After all, you want to concentrate on providing HR Services, not becoming a database programmer.

Why re-invent the wheel?  The HR Data Manager (www.hrdatamanager.com) is a powerful HRIS/HRMS written in Microsoft Office Access and is compatible with Office 2007 and 2010.  We have already spent the time to design the database and develop the software to provide you with a powerful solution that is completely Microsoft Office compatible.  Your existing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets can be easily imported into the HR Data Manager giving you a fresh start with a tool designed to save time, reduce errors and help with common compliance concerns.  Feel free to check out our web site and take the Free 30 Day Trial for a test run.  www.hrdatamanager.com

HR Data in the Poor Economy

Things have been tough all around with the economy leading to record layoffs and unemployment.  Businesses focused on the bottom line are more interested than ever in retaining highly motivated quality employees while quietly disposing of dead weight in an attempt to come out the other end of the down turn with an albeit smaller, stronger workforce and a more profitable business model.

Human Resources data is more important than ever in achieving these goals.  A comprehensive HRIS will allow you to document both positive and negative employee performance allowing managers to better make those tough decisions about who will stay and who will go.  Just as getting rid of dead weight can be important, rewarding and showing gratitude for positive performance can be just as important leading to a highly motivated team.  While giving raises may be difficult in tough times, sometimes a positive attitude and a “Thank you” go a long way toward employee job satisfaction.  An HRIS will also help you to keep compliant with a number of government regulations helping to avoid potential fines and costly litigation.  When contemplating layoffs, you need to make sure your employee data is well documented as some of those who are laid off may seek retribution, regardless of how justified the decision was.  In addition to the benefits to the work force as a whole, an HRIS will help you to streamline the HR Department allowing them to concentrate less on the tedious management of data and more on the employees themselves.

The bottom line is that an HRIS will help your organization to create a happier work force and provide well documented, defensible data to support the decisions made by HR and Management on a day to day basis.

The HR Data Manager is an easy to use HRIS and includes a FREE 30 Day Trial available at www.hrdatamanager.com.