Duplicate HR Records: What Are The Risks?

Duplicate HR Record Management

Whilst unintentional, duplicates of employee records are an easy mistake to make and can have serious consequences for both your business and your employees. Primarily caused by simple human error such as the incorrect inputting of payroll identification numbers, duplication in employee records can also occur when an employee changes role or re-joins a company. The impact of this can be greater than you would expect, prompting inefficiency within your HR system and issues for the affected employee.

Also commonly occurring when an employee changes name, the effects will be most significant for the employee themselves. They are likely to experience financial changes including a split in their pension pot and multiple charges due to incorrect taxation. Misleading communication can also be a frequent result, which is likely to disorientate the affected member of staff. As a result, this can often lead to more problems for the human resources team as the employee could progress to issue a complaint.

In addition to this, more than one record for an employee can cause incorrect tax (PAYE), universal social charge or pay related social insurance (PRSI) calculations, resulting in an incorrect return to Revenue. If this occurs, amendments must be made through the official government system, which can be time-consuming for your HR staff.

So, it’s better for both your business and your staff to avoid the issue altogether. Digitising your HR Records and categorising information by employee number, surname and document type can significantly improve your HR Records Management. It will also help improve your organisation’s GDPR Compliance.

Automating your employee onboarding processes using RPA (Robotic Process Automation), can also help eradicate human error and prevent duplication. Any issues with duplication that happen to remain will be easily and promptly identified, and amending them will be smoother. All this will simultaneously free up time for your HR department to concentrate on other necessary tasks and, more importantly, keep your employees happy.

What are the risks of duplicate HR records?

In the age of technological advances, an increasing number of businesses are discovering how digital services can help to improve their performance. Cleardata provides a range of comprehensive services to help streamline your business, update the way you work and avoid unnecessary problems such as record duplication such as:

  • Bulk Scanning – Cleardata’s bureau can digitise your employee records quickly and easily using our fleet of Kodak production scanners.
  • Intelligent Data Capture – We’ve invested in intelligent capture software to automatically recognise and extract data from your HR Records. Information can then be validated against your SAP database or HR rules to ensure data is correct, check for duplicates and highlight any exceptions. This helps to avoid manual data entry, increasing accuracy, reducing costs and allowing employee duplication to become a thing of the past.
  • Automated email management – We can utilise intelligent software to manage large volumes of incoming emails, download relevant attachments and upload into your existing HR Systems. This automated solution can save valuable time for your HR Team.
  • Cloud Document Management – Cleardata’s online document management solution provides fast and flexible access to your HR Records in the cloud.  Information can be searched easily whilst working in multiple systems, such as Sage, SAP, Word and Excel. Users simply highlight an employee number or surname, click the quick search key and all associated data will pop up on their screen. They don’t even have to log into the cloud solution.
 

The ease and speed with which Cleardata’s systems work also means that your HR department can forget repetitive roles which are prone to human error, therefore allowing them to concentrate on more important and time-consuming tasks. Essentially meaning your business can run more efficiently. So, what are you waiting for?

How to mitigate the risks of duplicate HR records

Cleardata provides a range of document management services for HR Records to help your organisation manage records efficiently, with GDPR compliance in mind. Our team frequently digitises HR, Personnel, Occupational Health, Training, Payroll and Pensions Records.  Assured to ISO27001 for Information Security, BS 10008 for Legal Admissibility of Electronic Information and ISO 9001 for Quality Management Systems.

We can scan your HR records and digitally index them into category areas, including: terms & conditions, right to work, employee relations, payroll and training, all so you can manage what you need to keep for GDPR compliance purposes. Our secure archive facility, combined with Cleardata’s online Archive Management System, will allow you to monitor records stored offsite and retrieve information quickly as and when you need it.

Cloud based document management allows information to be digitally stored and retrieved quickly at the touch of a button. Cleardata’s document management services are used by many businesses to free up valuable office space and save time manually processing paperwork.

Document scanning services from Cleardata

Cleardata scans over 11 million images each month. Our bureau is set up for high volume capture and is quality managed to ISO9001. We’re also accredited to ISO27001 for Information Security and can scan HR Records for businesses of all sizes, including blue chip and public sector organisations. We prioritise quality and security when it comes to document scanning. Our state of the art scanners can handle small and large format documents.

When we receive your employee records or other documents for scanning, each one can be indexed using OCR technology – this means that your employee records or other documents can be digitised, searched and then easily retrieved.

Scanned records can be returned to you in a convenient format for you and your files will be regularly backed up in our hi-tech scanning bureau – giving you peace of mind that your documents will always be fully protected. So many HR departments have found our document scanning services to be invaluable, saving them time, money and office space.

HR document storage

Our state of the art, fully protected, secure document storage facility allows you to store your essential HR records offsite. We offer guaranteed digital retrieval within hours of your request, using our scan on demand service. Documents can be retrieved, scanned and digitally returned in any required format, via email, secure ftp upload or using our on-line document management system. This means you can access your retrieved HR and employee records from any location, using a secure web browser.

Our secure document storage facility features a very early smoke detection alert system (VESDA), Access Control systems, Flood Detection sensors, 24/7 CCTV monitoring,  allowing you to rest in the knowledge that your documents will be safe and secure at all times. Records stored offsite are booked into our online Archive Management System, Cleardox AMS. This allows our clients to request file retrievals, manage retention dates and receive automated notifications for destruction.

Secure shredding

When and if the time comes for your documents to be destroyed, Cleardata provides a secure destruction service on-site that fully complies with BS EN 15713 for secure destruction, data protection legislation and information security policies and procedures.  We can notify you, using managed destruction dates, when your archives are due to be disposed of.

Cloud document management

Our secure on-line document management system is an affordable solution that allows you to fully access and manage your documents from any location using a web browser. We can scan and upload your documents to the cloud, enabling you to view them in whatever format they were created e.g. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, jpeg etc.

By indexing documents with appropriate metadata, such as employee name, payroll number etc, you can find your HR records quickly and easily, making this the perfect solution for securing, searching and retrieving your employee records, such as:

  • Application forms
  • Leavers files
  • Appraisals 
  • Training records
 

Our on-line cloud solution enables you to view documents in their original format, assign tasks (associated with a document) to other people in your organisation and provides a full electronic audit trail for your documentation.

RPA

Cleardata can help automate your manual HR processes, using robotic process automation services.  This can automate employee onboarding tasks such as:

  • Setting up employee records
  • Sending out employee handbooks
  • Right to work checks
  • Perform employee checks in 3rd party systems
  • Order workwear or equipment
 

Our cloud-based software robots can be trained to complete many different types of HR tasks. 

For further tips on how to avoid data duplication in your HR Records or more information about any of Cleardata’s Services contact us or call to speak to a member of our professional team on 0800 046 8081.