7-Mar-2017

By: Vic Leslie

Part 2 - Atta K Ltd - H.R Management System (How a small database solution benefited the HR Department)

Atta (k) Ltd have a proprietary Payroll System that performs all the required functions of a payroll system. Besides pay slips, it incorporates biometric clocking’s, tax reports, overtime reports & attendance, Piece-Rate activities, Earning & Deductions etc.

Mark my words, the payroll system is very much ok. Does what needs to be done. The incorporated biometrics that captures the time IN & time OUT for the 200 employees aids in calculating overtime, attendance and absenteeism. The system prints out PAYE and other Tax reports as needed. Tracks and updates employees’ loans, (company, sacco or bank). Has a well presented informative pay-slip.

The current system has more than 50 reports formats or same report in 2 to 3 different formats and some are never used in the company. Maybe in other companies where they use the same system, certain report formats may apply. This is the norm for mass created systems everywhere.

Furthermore, with the yearly upgrades, the current payroll system becomes more of the same. With such upgrades, the system becomes more advanced. It gets to a point where 50% of the payroll systems’ features are not "used" by the HR department. Reasons I have heard is "we don’t need it", "it’s not applicable here" or "don’t know how it works". Huh!

Further still, just as in other companies, you will find that the boss wants a certain report in his own format!!! Or other reports that are unavailable in the system. The boss will call you into his office and hands you a piece of paper with handwritten fields on it and says this is the format to be used when presenting this employee reports. With summary and totals at the bottom.

Due to this, the HR clerk will have to manually generate the said report in MS Excel format. This entails printing, copying & pasting, formulae and formatting.

Another example of a report regularly required by Atta (K) Ltd, is one that shows the date an employee contracts ends, or when some employees are due for retirement. As simple as this sound, such reports are not available in the current proprietary payroll system.

This is the vacuum that the custom designed HR Management System bridges. A system that does what the current proprietary payroll doesn't provide. A system that has a pre designed warning letter, suspension letter, termination letter and many other letters which are available by the click of a button. Employees’ leave balance, dues calculations, clearance letters are all automatically generated.

HRMS is designed in MS Access Database. Initial data captured is the basic employee details just as it appears in the current payroll system. One of the most complicated tasks is the calculations of employees’ leave balance. This is because some workers had accrued leave for several years and in between they would take a day or two as compassionate off days. This info would be keyed into Excel and necessary formulae applied.

When you are handling 200 employee files, the margins for errors, loop holes, forgetfulness is quite high and eventually total confusion and wrong reports when it came to leave balance. If an employee wanted to know his leave balance, the HR manager would have to manually calculate the days from his file. Starting with the date he/she was employed and the days he/she had consumed as compassionate leave. This is a process that would take a day before you get an answer.

With the HRMS, the leave balance has been automated. Just click a button and the balance is there. Work hours were greatly reduced when this system went live. Another important function is the Letter generator.

The HR department types and prints a lot of letters to the staff. Most of these letters are standard. The HR wishing to write a warning letter to an employee would open a previous letter to another employee and change the name, payroll number & date then “save as” a new letter. Eventually the server would have thousands of letters written to the workers.

With the HRMS, the letters are pre-configured and by the click of a button, a variety of standard letters are available for printing. This saved a lot of typing time and stationary costs.

Other reports available in the HRMS are the Dues Reports, Contract End, Clearance forms, Terminations letter, Discharge vouchers, Leave applications forms, certificate of service, Suspension, dismissal and various pre-designed forms.

All these are custom made for Atta (K) Ltd., and this being a custom designed system; any new report format or application forms requested can be quickly and easily designed and incorporated, thus satisfying the whims and desires of any supervisor.

By the end of the day, this system reduced workers time by 75%, thus, increased efficiency, accuracy and timely reports. Stationery (letterheads) cost reduced. Unnecessary use of MS word & MS Excel cut down by 90%.

More valuable time can now be invested on core functions of the HR department.

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