Employment Today, August/September 2010 Here’s a bit of advice for aspiring HR professionals on what not to do with spreadsheets. While on OE in London working for a multinational consulting firm, a hapless Kiwi working as an HR administrator inadvertently emailed company-wide a spreadsheet containing detailed salary data for all of the firm’s European partners. She didn't last long. How many spreadsheets are used for HR processes in your organisation? From workforce planning to performance management and remuneration reviews, spreadsheets have long been at the core of many organisation’s HR processes. And the cause of many headaches for all who use them. While spreadsheets are ideal for budgets and financial analysis at a defined period, they are not always the best option for managing and tracking information that is constantly changing or for the actual HR decision-making processes. As spreadsheet users become more IT-savvy, organisations are increasingly using complex spreadsheets to facilitate and control key HR processes like remuneration reviews and performance management. This is largely due to people naturally looking within their own knowledge base to choose a tool for the purpose. Yet the risk of errors remains high. Risks of using spreadsheets in HR The risks are numerous, but here’s a few: • Data quality – if the HR team has to split a master spreadsheet so various managers can complete their parts, data manipulation may occur making consolidation difficult and resulting in data errors or inconsistencies. Spreadsheets are also prone to simple human errors as they require a lot of manual input. Just keeping data current as staff come and go can be a challenge. • Lack of process consistency – spreadsheet authors are sometimes the only ones who truly know what cell formulas and references are in complex spreadsheets. • Version control – when constantly updating and sharing files with other staff, it’s easy to start sharing an outdated version. • Security – even with passwords, critical HR data in spreadsheets can still be accessed using password hacking tools which are widely available on the internet. Once a spreadsheet has been distributed it’s hard to control what is actually happening with them – are they emailed home for them to work on, or printed and left on their desk? • Reporting inconsistencies – changing cell references doesn’t always update the graphical interfaces, so there is a risk that graphs could be incorrect There are many more, but the bottom line is a negative effect on the business. HR can end up working a lot of extra hours at certain times of the year (e.g. remuneration reviews); there is a lack of visibility to, and therefore control of, key HR processes; compliance issues – complex spreadsheets can often make it difficult to track and manage information to meet compliance obligations; poor business decisions can be made based on incomplete, old or incorrect data. How do you manage spreadsheet risks? While spreadsheets might be suitable for some organisations, the risks and complexity of managing a workforce grows as your employee count increases. Technology to help standardise key HR processes and ensure a consistent approach is typically a good option for large organisations. The key steps are: 1.Identify spreadsheets that are used for business-critical HR processes. 2.Clarify and document all of the risks associated with the spreadsheets your organisation uses for HR processes and establish which spreadsheets pose the biggest risk, and which need greater security, version controls and backup. 3.Ensure standardised processes are used across the organisation when updating data, no matter what technology tools are used. 4.Determine if your HR data and processes could be streamlined and better supported by an HRIS or specific HR software applications.
|
 |
Coping with spreadsheet shockers |
||
 |
||