TECH TIP: LOST HIRES – THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA INPUT

WHY DIDN’T MY NEW HIRE LOAD INTO MY HR SYSTEM?

Have you ever “lost” a new hire in your HR System? Why does this happen, and how can you prevent it going forward?

Is this scenario familiar? You complete the hiring process for an applicant and move their data over to the HR system.  But when you look for the applicant in the HR system, they are nowhere to be found.  Generally, this happens because of data errors in the new hire’s information.  This article will walk you through common mistakes occurring in data input and how to complete the fields to avoid “lost” hires.

MOST COMMON ISSUES:

Invalid date of birth 

The applicant often forgets to change the current year from the calendar selector to the birth year (i.e., 01/01/2020).

Invalid SSN

While applying, if the SSN is collected, many applicants will use an invalid SSN such as 999-99-9999 because of privacy concerns. Suppose you try to load an invalid SSN into the HR system. In that case, the system will detect it as either an invalid number or one already in use (there may already be another hire that used the same invalid SSN.)

Not Eligible for Rehire

On many occasions, when managers rehire former employees, the rehire eligibility flag in the HR system is unchecked. If the former employee is not eligible for rehire, the hire will fail.

Future Start Date for the Hire

Sometimes hires are processed weeks before they start working. The new hire data may have already been loaded into the HR system.  If this is the case, you may not be able to find your new hire when searching by date.  If possible, search by SSN to be sure no date filters are in place.

Position Doesn’t Match

Make sure to double-check your position number.  Problems can occur if you hire a candidate for a specific position, and then the position is later changed, which could happen for various reasons.  Suppose the original position information was already sent over during the pre-hire integration. In that case, your HR system will generate an error when it receives the new position information.

Invalid Dates

Your applicant may have entered license information that has expired (i.e., 01/01/2020) or education dates that are out of order (i.e., start date 01/01/2020, completed date 01/01/2019) in the applicant data fields.

ONE MORE THING TO CONSIDER

If your HR vendor provides error reports for the new hire integration, please be sure to use an email alias (i.e., NewHireHRTeam@mycompany.com). Instead of assigning an email address belonging to a specific person to receive error messages, use an alias email address.  Doing so will ensure that all appropriate team members have access to the error notifications. And if your staff changes for any reason, your team will still be informed of critical data errors.  Just ask your IT team to create an email alias to handle error monitoring.

IN CONCLUSION

It’s frustrating to “lose” a new hire in the system after you have spent so much time entering their data.  With these tips, you’ll quickly recognize where your data input errors might be hiding.  Taking steps to input data accurately the first time will save you frustration and time spent looking for your “lost” hires.