Cons of Excel Spreadsheets in Human Resource Management
The humble Excel Spreadsheets have been a trusted partner of HR professionals across the globe since its advent in ‘70s where it graduated in form and brand nomenclature starting with the initial VisiCalc, SuperCalc to improvised Multiplan, Lotus 1-2-3 and the very monopolistic Microsoft Excel. Whether it is attendance, payroll or leave management HR function gracefully progressed from paper records to excel sheets. Did it work? Well it did for some time, but not when it became increasingly evident that it has major lacunas, a reality which is surprisingly easy to ignore. So where is the epicenter of the issue with spreadsheets? One of the major drawbacks of Excel sheets lies in the fact that it is not sustainable for HR tasks that require complex correlations and real time analysis. Today a firm that uses Excel might have manageable employee strength and processes, but once the business operations expand, the use of spreadsheets becomes non-scalable. The other disadvantages of relying exclusively on excel sheets include compromise on the privacy of data and possibility of letting the information fall in wrong hands. Password protections don’t help as the files go through multiple hands at multiple levels. This makes any critical data highly prone to fraudulent use and worse even business losses. Not to mention the pain in consolidation that also sometimes leads to inaccurate status reporting considering there are various teams or departments involved. Testimony to the views expressed above is echoed in several organizational case studies that had to suffer losses in millions due to Excel Errors. We are sure you would be enlightened with the nuggets presented in the deck!
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