A database is only as good as the data it contains. Have you finished spring cleaning your HCM data? Don’t fall behind!

A database is only as good as its data and if you haven’t started your spring cleaning, yet, there is no better time than now. Having clean data is extremely important to all HR activities and is often overlooked by business owners. Nevertheless, database management can be tedious, time-consuming and some might even call it boring.

HR data can be considered one of the most valuable business assets and should be kept up to date. With the surge of big data and today’s growing globalization, data changes occur more frequently than ever before and unless you keep on top of these changes, it will cost you. The Data Warehousing Institute, which provides research and business intelligence for the data warehousing industry, estimated that data quality problems cost U.S. businesses over US$600 billion a year. Evidently, the costs associated with bad data can seriously diminish the value of your database and make all your HR efforts futile.

Here are some tips for your data cleansing:

·         Start of by entering only clean data. If the data is right from the start, you will have a lot less work to do clearing it later.

·         If possible, hire someone dedicated solely to data management or have one person on the team be accountable for the data.

·         Ensure that employee data is updated as soon as you are aware of any changes.

·         Take the time needed to really clean your data.

·         Periodically audit your data for errors.

·         Get software to help manage data quality.

By comparing the costs (in terms of HR and business effort) or outsourcing data quality audits, organizations can see that an integrated, easy-to-deploy and easy-to-manage data quality system has a clear return on investment. A good data quality system will not only find errors, it will help you pinpoint where the problems are coming from. By maintaining audit histories and using analytics with slicing/dicing capability, a good data quality system can define where errors are coming from (region, business unit, and department) and can track issue metrics that provide details on where the root problems areas are. These could be errant data-entry forms or systems that allow for incorrect data, insufficient training in certain regions, or perhaps a new form, process, or report that is corrupting data.  An automated system can find these problems before they become crippling to your organization.

To increase their efficiency today and improve their planning for tomorrow, many organizations must rely on their HR data to make informed and accurate business decisions. Nakisa® OrgAudit™ provides a simple and smart way for your organization to take control of critical business data. The solution provides Managers, HR & Executives with a clear process and the tools they need to analyze, cleanse and monitor HR data for better business decision-making. Get more information by visiting our website.

Good luck with your spring cleaning! We look forward to hearing from you to book a demo!

Looking for more info on data quality, download the cheat sheet today!