Does your payroll match your org chart? I hope it does. There are many reasons why you need these two sources of information to match. There are requirements for accurate org charts within ISO, SOX audits, gaming commissions, energy legislation, and more. Those are all regulatory type requirements. However, even simple process inefficiencies can be very costly to an organization. One of the most expensive gaps in data accuracy I have seen actually occurred when a company continued to pay employees after they were terminated.

This was obviously a breakdown in process in a number of areas. The quick fix that helped stop the $800,000 annual bleed of unnecessary payroll spending was to implement consistent confirmation of payroll to the corporate org chart. Makes perfect sense: the org chart is the most visible representation used by an organization to understand who works there. When somebody leaves a company, people often check the org chart to see if it's up-to-date and if the position is currently open, removed, or filled with an existing employee. Any of these options may change dynamics for the employees, so they care about it. With all those eyes on the org chart, using a process that flags the org chart when one system shows a person terminated while another system still has them active, will guarantee the data gets cleaned up FAST.

Maybe now you'll look at some of the regulatory requirements a little differently. There are reasons they want to make sure your data is accurate.

Cheers,
Lois

Lois Melbourne is CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire, Inc., a provider of visual workforce planning and management solutions based in Irving, Texas.