Cons of Excel Spreadsheets in Human Resource Management

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Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition Reasons why Excel may not be the best option for managing organizational workforce 8 Cons of using excel spreadsheets in hr


Evolution of SpreWadhsahteIetss Em- AploqyuiceekAtpimpreelinciaetion


1978 – VisiCalc: First ever electronic spreadsheet

Timely, formal or informal, expressed and appreciative acknowledgment of a person’s or team’s efforts above and beyond the call of duty or reasonable expectations in the course of their professional endeavors, or behaviors and results which uphold the company’s goals and values.


1980 – SuperCalc: Solution bundled with WordStar Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


What Is Employee Appreciation 1982 – Multiplan: Early spreadsheet program by Microsoft


1983 – Lotus 1-2-3: Improvised tool with charts & graphs

Timely, formal or informal, expressed and appreciative acknowledgment of a person’s or team’s efforts above and beyond the call of duty or reasonable expectations in the course of their professional endeavors, or behaviors and results which uphold the company’s goals and values.


1985 to present day: Progressive versions of Microsoft Excel made available Timely, formal or informal, expressed and appreciative acknowledgment of a person’s or team’s efforts above and beyond the call of duty or reasonable expectations in the course of their professional endeavors, or behaviors and results which uphold the company’s goals and values.


What’s behind Excel’s popularity? Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


The fact that it is free, readily available, configurable on basic machines and easily manageable for small business setups has backed its extensive use Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Around 81% of the organizations use spreadsheets to supplement their Corporate Performance Management solutions Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Does this imply it is the best solution for HR? Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Probably Not. It is not geared to face the challenges posed by large well-established organizations with evolved HR processes and soaring employee

strength Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


What are the major disadvantages of Using Excel In HR? Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Reason #1 - Privacy Issues and Poor Built In Controls

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


You can hardly control the viewership of the data making it vulnerable to alterations. Not to forget, there are no checks to test the accuracy of data sources gettinEmg ppulolleyedeinAtpoptrheecisaptiorenad&shPeretsoductive Recognition


Reason #2 - Prone to Human Errors

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


The reason why people love Excel is the scope for rework and manipulation. The chances of mistakes increase drastically when several versions of a spread- sheet are saved by several people. Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Reason #3 - Unfit for Dynamic Business Scenario Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Excel is incapable of error proof knowledge transfer. If a person X leaves, then person Y has to apply his own interpretation when working with spreadEmployee Appreciation & Productive Recognition sheets. Non-responsiveness to business agility leads to wastage of time, opportunity, productivity and competitive knowledge


Reason #4 - Doesn’t support automatic reporting

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Manual naturEmepolofhyaenedAlinppgrescipraetadionsh&eets,PromducaktesivescRheecogdulenidtiodenliveryof standard reports to multiple users next to impossible. Tedious E-mail is the only way out!


Reason #5 - Not Scalable

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Data grows with organization. Managing huge databases on excel without slips and misses is a non existent case. Larger organizations need solutions thatEmcanplodeycieephAerppcoremcipatlexionco&nnPreocdtioucntsivaenRdedepcogennitdenioncies


Reason #6 - Hinders Quick Decision Making

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Long drawn consolidation process with different versions of data and error checking mechanisms leads to handicap situation for business Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Reason #7 - Teams and Excel don’t go together

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Organizational activities are rarely individualistic. Excel in non-suitable for collaborative initiatives as there is no central database with realtime accurate information

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Reason #8 - A risky affair

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Excel spreadsheets constituting too many formulas and cell references becomes prone to costly mistakes as there is hardly any documentation available explaining the links with zero auto-correct features Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Cake HR - Your HR. Simplified. Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Are we blowing the issue out of proportion? People have been using Excel for years now!– We don’t think

so Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Seemingly benign human errors have led to dramatic and horrific business losses!

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Case #1 - The TransAlta Mistake

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


One of the biggest Canadian Power Generator in American Continent suffered a humungous loss of $24 million. Reason? You guess it right. Excel

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


TransAlta CEO, Steve Synder, reported that the losses was an outcome of simple copy paste error which went unnoticed prior to bid submission.

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Result of the spreadsheet error – Company bought more US Power transmission Contracts at higher prices leading to the fiasco.

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Case #2 – Centre for Regional Strategies

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Messed up Excel sheet led the company incorrectly report that only 11 percent of New Century’s population above 25 years old held a bachelor’s degree. The correct figure was 20 percent Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


How did it affect the company? Botched up its reputation and credibility How did it affect the region? PEmlaceplodyNeeewApCpenretciuratyiorneg&ionPrboedloucwtiovtehRerecogareanis tliokne Nashville and Athens which were thought to be better educated


Case #3 – Dominion Transmission Inc.

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


The Natural Gas Provider reported incorrect figures of weekly Gas Storage resulting in false inflation of gas prices

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


The artificial price hike was estimated between $200 million and $1 billion. Consumers of the company sued it for this atrocious mistake

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


What was the reason behind this big goof up? A naïve blunder of saving the excel sheet under same name for each weekly storage report. A classic case of oversight ! Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Case #4 – Fidelity’s Magellan Fund

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


The company had to face huge embarrassment when their estimation to make $4.32 per share proved to be a failure

Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition


Culprit – Data Transfer among Excel Spreadsheets The company accountant accidentally omitted the negative sign on the net capital loss of $1.3 billion treating it as net capital profit instead. All this while taWkinhgatDIsatEma frpolomyeSeheAetppAretcioaBtion


Trivial Mistake with huge implications Fidelity Fund’s estimate was off by a staggering $2.6 billion What Is Employee Appreciation


After Thoughts

What Is Employee Appreciation


For those who still believe in the comfort of familiarity offered by Excel Spreadsheets, can suffer both - in the short term or long haul owing to its offline and non-dynamic nature What Is Employee Appreciation


World is moving towards internet and cloud based Business Intelligence Tools and Software that make life easier and organized for HR Community What Is Employee Appreciation


Final Strokes

What Is Employee Appreciation


Excel is a useful tool for simple data entry and basic analytical tasks Sophisticated reporting and business analysis requires advanced software applications Spreadsheets are for support. Not the be all end all of Business What Is Employee Appreciation


Cake HR - Your HR. Simplified.

What Is Employee Appreciation


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