6 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Excel Spreadsheets To Manage HR functions
Excel spreadsheets are a very important tool used by many HR departments and small business managers to record company and employee data, for varying needs, most basic of them being employee information, leave tracking, air tickets, salary information, etc. But are excel spreadsheets the best way for recording, maintaining, and analyzing your HR data?
As businesses expand, HR teams who are responsible to manage these slowly have to deal with an information overload, and suddenly find out, what was manageable before, is no longer an option, with the same spreadsheets, because simply they have outgrown the need. Its time you look into better options, before the overload is just starting to begin.
HR departments, need to consider better options such as a software which can automate and centralize certain processed manually done on an excel spreadsheet, Cloud Based HR and Payroll Software like HR Chronicle is one of them.
We take a look at 6 Reasons why you should stop or at least avoid using excel spreadsheets:
- Data is at risk. Spreadsheets are normally held on PCs / Servers, if you are sharing data within a team and other colleagues need to use it, then you need to make sure only one user uses the data set at a time to avoid data conflicts. Even more riskier is, if the file is password protected, and the user forgets the password, you can risk loosing all information, pretty much quickly. Years or months, or weeks, or days of effort, can go in vain with a simple human error.
- Accountability. If there are multiple people accessing the same confidential HR data in a team, they can make changes to the original document without approval flow and can manipulate values, in error or without having appropriate authority. It would be difficult to find out, who did what change, making it difficult to hold the responsible person accountable.
- Lack of access to real time information. HR data keeps on changing constantly, because of varying business needs, new joiners, leavers, updating contact information, updating leave records, updating of bank details, to name a few, the list can go on. So, it is not possible to update all the information received through emails, manual word forms, and update immediately, in excel spreadsheets, it has to go through a verification process which is tedious and manual. Also, at times the managers may forget to record the leave or forget to send an email to HR, making it all the more difficult to have data accuracy and integrity.
- Use of paper. Employees need to fill different forms for different requests, and then needs to get the approval from various department and finally submit the forms manually to the HR department. Lots of paperwork and time is consumed in securing approvals from various managers, mangers, as we all know are always pressed for time. Its time to move to a paperless environment.
- Scattered data across multiple files and sources. HR teams need to manage numerous spreadsheets like one for leave request, one for salary, one for contacts, one for bank account, again these can be in a single spreadsheet file or across multiple files. There is a reasonable risk of duplication of data and also misplacing the files, files being overwritten, in a different folder, same files being stored in multiple places on the file server, and so on, which may lead to inconsistency of information. It would be tough to figure out the latest data set.
- Risk of data corruption. When a spreadsheet(s) passes through various people’s hands, it is all too easy for the information to get corrupted. Although it is possible for people to go in and deliberately change figures or add misinformation, often data corruption occurs inadvertently and unintentionally. Someone who doesn’t know how to work with spreadsheets can quite easily key information into the wrong place, or change formulas by mistake, making the effort for another team member null and void.
There are many more reasons, you should avoid or stop using spreadsheets. we have touched only the tip of the iceberg above. HR Chronicle is a reasonable alternative to spreadsheets when you’re looking for managing your HR and payroll needs.
We are sure you will want to know more. HR Chronicle is a leading Cloud Based HR and Payroll Software, we have served our customers since 2006 that’s when the very first version of HR Chronicle came out, HR Chronicle is available in 2 flavors, Cloud Based and On Premise. To know more give us a shout, we will happy to discuss more.
