Tips on Maintaining Clean Employee Records

One of the essential things for an employer to do is ensure that clean and accurate employee records are kept. There are many benefits to clean data; providing clean employee records means your employee contact data is continuously up-to-date. Your organization achieves compliance with Federal and State regulations with updated end-of-year benefit statements, health insurance docs, and W2’s.
And knowing you have the correct address, phone number, email address, and even social media contact data allows you to focus on your employees instead of constantly chasing after them to manually update incorrect contact data. It also helps your company monitor performance and productivity to keep on top of competency and helps minimize disputes. Therefore, inaccurate employee data can mean money lost on time, opportunity, and productivity.
Here are ways to maintain clean employee records:

Establish a list of key data

Maintaining clean and correct data starts with establishing what records you must have on file. These records will be used for managing payroll, day-to-day personnel issues, training, onboarding, and so on. These records will also be used for compliance, and in situations, they may be needed for internal reviews or audits. These records should also include HR and recruitment data, such as applicants’ resumes. Here are some important employee data:

  • Employee record information –full name, birthday, contact number, physical address, email address, emergency contact
  • Payroll and benefits records
  • Onboarding documents
  • Policy affirmation documents
  • Signed contracts
  • Training and development records
  • Certifications, licenses, and credentials
  • Incident reports – behavior or performance warnings, formal discipline records
  • Retirement documents
  • Termination documents – resignation letters, separation agreements
  • Pre-employment data – job applications, resumes, offer letters, signed acknowledgments  

Choose a record-keeping system

Companies have the choice to keep paper files or maintain records electronically. However, no matter how small your company is, keeping paper files has proven to be an inefficient method. While there are some initial costs in implementing an electronic record-keeping system, it will cost less in the long run. Paper records will require more time and money, with personnel having to maintain records manually. It will also demand more physical storage space. Paper record-filing is also not an environmentally friendly practice.

While there are security concerns for both paper and electronic storage systems, electronic recordkeeping has the least risk. Not only can electronic records be backed up and stored in the cloud, but lowering its vulnerability can be achieved through robust security systems and controls. On the other hand, paper records can be compromised by natural disasters, poor storage conditions, and loss due to human error.

Integrate with enterprise data quality solutions

Enterprise data quality solution providers help organizations manage the challenges and ever-changing profiles of employees.  Integrations can cover every aspect of the employee lifecycle – from hiring and recruitment to retirement and separation. The solution formats, standardizes, and validates addresses, and updates current employee records with address changes. It can enhance contact information, including email, phone, and social media handles. The best integrations come with geocoding for emergency contingency plans and other strategies.

At RunnerEDQ, our CLEAN_Employee product ensures that your employee contact data is constantly updated. Data is clean through a deduplication process. We also provide real-time address checking, as well as batch processing for existing address data. We also format addresses using your organization’s standards.

To learn how we can help you and your business, complete the contact form.