Human Resources Database

[arifmasum]

Dear All,

I am on a way to develop a database for human resource division for a company. May I expect some guidelines and advices from experienced members of this forum?

Does anybody can provide me any example of template?
Thanks in advance.

Arif Masum

 

[ajetrumpet]

You probably won't get a template, but it would do you a world a good to understand tax calculation and employment forms. That will probably be a big part of your development, assuming you are in the United States. What a task! I wish you luck with it. You should know your stuff after completing something like that.

BTW, who is that in your profile?

 

[arifmasum]

Thanks a lot dear Adam. Actually I am from Bangladesh, A south Asian developing country. I just joined a company to develop their human resource database and administration. I am on a way to design employee information and attendance calculation first. So, can you give me any advice?

BTW, as I am a newbie, a baby's photo is on my profile. Thanks a lot again.

Arif Masum

 

[ajetrumpet]

The baby picture is very appropriate, I guess. That's funny...

As far as the advice someone can give to you, this project is far too large to just give "general" advice. If the company entrusted you to develop this database, then obviously you have the talent to do it.

Because this is such a large project, I would recommend that you just get started, and post specific questions here when you get stuck. But, one thing that is critical when doing something like this is to think through it before you start creating anything. An outline, or even a diagram on paper helps. The bigger the project, the more thinking/planning is needed in order to prevent uneccessary backtracking in the development stage.

 

[arifmasum]

Thanks dear. Your comments are appriciated. Yes, I am doing the ground work of this project & I know I will be able to give a state of the art HR application. I will post if I get stuck anywhere. Thanks again for the endless support I am getting and got previously from this forum. All the best wishes to you all. Thanks

Arif Masum

 

[jepoysaipan]

Hi Arif,

Hope its not too late for this thread, I am now in the mid of developing an HRMS, so far I managed to get the inputs from the concerned personnel that will use the system, so now I am in the process of normalizing the DB and creating a prototype for their approval.

So far data collecting is the hardest part, since from time to time they seem to change forms & policies, regarding the template it would be better for you to design your own since nowadays copyright issues are a big thing in this word.

I will try to post screenshots as I progress to give some ideas to others, for I learn a lot on this forum, so I guess its time for me to give it back to those who needs help.

Good luck!

Jeff

 

[arifmasum]

Waiting to see your success....

Dear Jeff,

Thank you very much for your reply. It is much inspiring. I am also developing HRMS for a group of companyies. We have time card machine (which gives text data). I am manipulating that data to get reports.

Please let me know about you design process, so that I can get some view. Hope you will succeed soon.

Best regards and best wishes.

Arif Masum

 

[jepoysaipan]

Hi Arif,

Well the setup they have is like this, attendance is monitored by Peachtree and from there I was able to import the .csv and manipulate the data in Access, pretty much other functions like record keeping etc. etc. are in there, so far still finalizing the tables and by the end of the week hopes to start the design process.

BTW, I think your making an M.I.S. if indeed payroll is included on your DB and some other stuff pertaining to all the staff.

Cheers!

Jeff

 

[natale]

Is there a guidebook to show you how to set up a simple HR database?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

the first step is to decide all the bits of data you want to keep

ie name address dob qualifications, educational, training courses, disciplinary record etc, - if you need payroll then also salary, ni status, tax status etc etc, work hours, normal days, and decide on the extent you need ot keep a history of changes to this data for each employee.

now you need to normalise this into an efficient database structure

ie decide which tables you need, and then which information belongs in which table
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having done this you will find it much easier to develop the solution

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now, in practice the data analysis and the document flows/process analysis is done together, but IMO, the data is paramount, If the data analysis is correct, everything else is easy - if its incorrect, you will find yourself hanlding loads of special cases, exceptions etc

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make sure you understand the little nuances of the system that are waiting to catch you out! users take things for granted and will assume you know these things - until they come to use it!

 

[natale]

I have the data, should I start from scratch or find a database that I can modify? I don't know a whole lot about access but i do know that there has got to be a better way to keep track of employee items than 4 different spreadsheets.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

well if you can find a template it might save you a lot of time - try the ms templates that ship with access, or try ms on line for a start.

the history tables are likely to be the hardest to manage, and these may not be implemented as you would like in a database.

one other point = if you can find a suitable commercial app, its almost always cheaper than doing it yourself, but you may have to make compromises, and it probably isnt as satisfying

 

[boblarson]

one other point = if you can find a suitable commercial app, its almost always cheaper than doing it yourself, but you may have to make compromises, and it probably isnt as satisfying

A BIG AMEN to that. How many times have I seen someone try to make something that wound up costing 5, 7, 10 times as much than if they just purchased an off-the-shelf solution. I think sometimes people start out thinking "How hard could that be?" and wind up with "oops!"

 

[jepoysaipan]

Hi guys,

Sorry been out for a while, anyways I managed to deploy the HRMS it's been stable so far. I'm sorry for not posting the screenshots but I will try to squeeze some time to post it to get someone off the hook when get stucked.

As far as I am concern, for beginners I agree to Bob in buying off-the-shelf software, but the common problem with those products is the lack of customization specially reports and from where I am located it is impossible to deploy such, that's why it leads me to create one for them.

Keep searching the forum I know you will find pieces of informations that will lead you to finish your task. That's what I did!

Thanks again for the two guys who are helping you on this Gemma & Bob, both of you helped me a lot...

Cheers.

Jeff

 

[arifmasum]

I have the data, should I start from scratch or find a database that I can modify? I don't know a whole lot about access but i do know that there has got to be a better way to keep track of employee items than 4 different spreadsheets.

Hi all,

Natale, can u post ur existing data in the format currently is. Then we can see and advice u to develop ur own database setup..

Thanks everybody...