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In today's fast-paced business world, keeping track of employees and their information is more important than ever. The HR team is tasked not only with storing the information securely but also leveraging it in a proper way for employee engagement, communication, and staffing management.
One way to do this is by creating an employee directory template that your HR team can use to store and update employee information across departments. In this blog, we'll go through the benefits of having an employee directory and how to create one that caters to your business needs.
What is an employee directory template?
An employee directory template is a reusable framework your HR team can use to store a unified list of all employees' contact information, job titles, and other relevant information.
This employee directory template enables your HR team to collect new employee information, make edits based on employment status, and scale as your business grows. For instance, when you hire more part-time workers for your stores during peak seasons, this template should allow you to store information about your part-time employees. It should come with enough rows and column types to add them while differentiating their records from your full-time team.
Why should your business adopt an employee directory template?
Stay organized
An employee directory helps you keep track of your staffing situation and improve HR clarity. By having a centralized list of all employees, you can quickly see who is available to work and who is not.
Help managers understand their team better
By knowing about the basic information of all team members through the directory, managers can quickly get to know their team. This is especially beneficial for those working on the frontline, where workers might be part-time but required to ramp up in a short period of time. For example, a store manager can get to know the new part-time salesperson and make warm introductions immediately.
Engage better
A directory provides team members' contact information so that you can easily reach out when necessary. You can also keep track of important dates, such as employees' birthdays, work anniversaries, probations, and more to boost engagement.
Save time by easily locating information
With an up-to-date directory, you can quickly find the information you need without having to search through multiple sources or outdated Excel sheets.
Now that you understand the importance of an employee directory, let's explore how to create one. Here are four steps to creating an up-to-date and easily managed directory:
1. Information you need to collect is set as different fields on the table
While each company has different requests for what information to collect during employee onboarding, here is some basic information that we recommend including in your employee directory template, so that you can keep a basic profile of your employees and contact them when needed.
2. Create a form that's connected to your employee directory table
Whenever there is a new employee, you can easily collect their information without seeing other team members' personal information. This form can not only be used by your new employees but also by your own HR team - when you have a lot of rows in your directory, using a form to add new records will help avoid accidental editing. While every business has a different format, this form should generally allow your team to:
Upload their photos, signed documents, and other materials as attachments
Select their department name from a standardized list
Add dates by choosing from the calendar
Key in numbers easily without messing up the format
3. Segment access for different employees
To make the employee directory template more useful, it is good practice to enable your employees to use it conveniently while ensuring no information leakage. We recommend setting up different access to the same employee directory in order for your employees to be able to connect with each other without breaching any privacy. For instance:
All employees should be able to see each other's name, email address, and department for business communication and alignment purposes
Line managers are able to see the responsible team's details, including birthdays, start dates, and other preferences to better know and engage the team members
The team controls the editing access to the employee directory
4. Set up reminders for important days in the employee directory
This includes birthdays, work anniversaries, performance review dates, contract ending dates, etc. This helps you stay ahead of hiring status changes and take actions proactively. Additionally, set up recurring reminders to review and update the directory for clarity.
Conclusion
A unified list of all employees can help you keep track of staffing situations, improve human resource clarity, and facilitate timely communication and engagement. With an up-to-date directory, you can quickly find the information you need, stay on top of key dates for employees, and save time in the process.
By following the four steps outlined above, you can create an easy-to-use and flexible employee directory that will help you onboard and engage with your teams better using the information.If you are looking to build a flexible, automated employee directory template that your HR team and people managers can fully leverage,
Lark is a great solution. In Lark, HR teams can manage employee directories on Lark Base and make the directory even more powerful by connecting it to other processes such as shift schedules, time-off calculations, payouts, and more, thereby increasing people management efficiency.
Contact our team today for a free demo on how to achieve so 🪄
