• How can a well-maintained database help my organization?
• What does it mean to maintain a database on applicants and employees?
• What is the main purpose of collecting and maintaining demographic data on employees who have been assessed during a training needs analysis?
• Why should I even bother to document hiring decisions?

How can a well-maintained database help my organization?

Complete, accurate information about applicants and employees can benefit your company in many ways. Reports that you generate will be more useful if you make sure that records in your database involve little or no missing data. Moreover, keeping your database up-to-date means that you will be able to generate reports on turnover rates, which can help you address certain problems in your organization.

What does it mean to maintain a database on applicants and employees?

Maintaining a database involves changing information in records that are inaccurate and adding new information that becomes available over time. In most cases you will not need to add anything to the information that was provided by applicants and employees during assessment sessions. In some situations, however, you may need to add information that was not provided earlier. For example, you may want to add pertinent demographic information about people after they are hired.

What is the main purpose of collecting and maintaining demographic data on employees who have been assessed during a training needs analysis?

Sometimes organizations administer assessments to their employees to conduct an analysis of training needs. A training needs analysis may involve an evaluation of individual employees, groups of individuals, or all employees in a given job or job family. Demographic data are very useful when conducting these analyses. For example, you may find that individuals with a higher level of education significantly outperform their counterparts with less education on some assessments. Findings such as these could be helpful in establishing employment qualification requirements for jobs.

Why should I even bother to document hiring decisions?

Hiring decisions should be documented for legal, administrative, and business reasons. Someday you made need this kind of information for legal or administrative purposes. Maintaining hiring data is also necessary if you want to monitor employee turnover for different jobs in your organization.