An HR Glossary for HR Terms

Glossary of Human Resources Management and Employee Benefit Terms

Employee Database

What Is an Employee Database?

An employee database is a digital filing cabinet HR professionals use to store critical employee data, including name, job position, salary, hire date, and other work-related information.

The five main reasons for creating and maintaining an employee database are to:

  1. Comply with personal information security regulations
  2. Increase the HR department’s accuracy and productivity
  3. Evaluate employee data for ensuring fair compensation
  4. Track instances of disciplinary action or grievance
  5. Issue reports to help management make strategic business decisions

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What Is an HR Database?

An HR database is the same thing as an employee database. In other words, an HR database is used to track relevant employee information, such as recruitment details, qualifications and special designations, past and current salary, performance reviews, etc.

How Do You Create an Employee Database?

There are various ways to create an employee database, the most common being:

Why Is an Employee Database Necessary?

Paper and documents-on-a-company-server employee databases are not ideal, as they are cumbersome to create, maintain, secure, and use. They are also prone to data loss, entry errors, constant updates, and non-compliance with federal information privacy requirements.

Newer, cloud-based employee database software is quickly becoming the norm due to its centralized control, automated functions, ease of use, in-depth reporting capabilities, and strong security features.

What Should Be Included in an Employee Database?

An employee database should record and track a variety of employee information, including:

How Do You Manage an Employee Database?

Here are a few crucial rules for properly managing an employee database:

In addition to employee database laws and regulations, there should be a company policy for:

What Is Employee Database Software?

Employee database software eliminates home-grown spreadsheets and compiles all employee information in a more secure, convenient and efficient system. This makes it easier for a company to remain compliant with laws, regulations, and policies.

Some of the functions an employee database software performs are:

There are benefits to these features, namely:

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