6 steps HR teams should follow to clean data

Carry out AI data analysis

Using the company HR system’s AI data-checking capabilities is a good place to start. If a company’s HRIS does not include AI capabilities, the HR team can analyze employee data using external AI tools.

Once AI has identified any errors, employees should fix the data in the HR system, review and update the procedures that led to the errors, examine configuration options in the system to see if there is any potential of avoiding or reducing the issue in the future, and review and update training materials.

Carry out data audits

Users should look through reports from the HR system to audit data and identify errors. This plan is similar to the AI data analysis step, but the goal is to look for mistakes that the AI may have missed. For example, there may be two termination records for an employee because of a data entry error or a quirk in the system.

If an audit reveals the need for a large amount of data changes, the HR system administrator should upload the changes to avoid users manually keying in the data. Only trained and experienced system administrators should perform this task because data imports typically can’t be reversed.

The HR team should also implement mandatory training for anyone entering data into an HR system. The training can be based on an employee’s role so workers who only occasionally enter HR data won’t have to complete in-depth training.

Set up and review interfaces

One of the best ways to avoid data entry errors is to push data from one system to the next so users only need to enter data once. A CHRO should work with their team to identify manual entry occurrences, then research the cost of setting up an interface between the systems.

Users should also periodically review the data being pushed from one system to another to confirm that the process is being carried out correctly.

Use picklists

One way to potentially avoid data entry errors is to use picklists instead of text fields. For example, a picklist would provide an employee with a list of departments to choose from instead of the employee typing in the name of their department.

Data cleaning may be necessary before the implementation of picklists.

Use default values

An HR system should be configured to use default values as much as possible.

For example, if an employee selects United States for a “country” entry, the payroll currency should default to USD, or if a user enters a worker’s job title, then default settings should automatically fill in information such as the employee’s pay grade and bonus eligibility. This may require a project team to create standard values for each position in the company, but the end result will be more consistent data.

CHROs may also want to limit the number of people who can enter data for events such as new hires and promotions, because the latter in particular requires a large amount of data entry. More people entering data leads to more possibility of errors.

Gamify the process

If the data cleanup process requires employees to update their own data, the HR team can create a contest that rewards employees who complete the required tasks.

For example, the HR team may draw employee names for prizes at different intervals or give prizes to the departments that complete the tasks first.

Eric St-Jean is an independent consultant with a particular focus on HR technology, project management and Microsoft Excel training and automation. He writes about numerous business and technology areas.