Four key HRMS reports for department managers' dashboards

The secret of good management is having the right data at the right time. Most if not all HRMS will offer a selection of predefined reports that can produced at the click of a mouse or swipe of a finger. If you cannot find what you need amongst these ‘readymades’, most systems make it easy to create customized reports by combining various search criteria and data points. Such reports can then be added to your dashboard for easy, if not instant, access. Here are four reports that we suggest department managers can’t do without.

1. Vacancies

This is simply a list of vacancies within the organization, showing each vacant position by job title and department or team, plus the period of time it has been left unfilled. This is possibly one of the simplest reports that can be done but it provide fundamental information regarding staffing and resources that no manager can do without. The information can be related to overall performance management and target achievement, resourcing and budgeting issues, and the progress of recruitment campaigns.

2. Leave and time off update

Every manager needs to know who is off work and when, and the larger your department, the harder it is to keep that information in mind. Hence, another simple yet essential report. This one gives the manager a ‘statement of accounts’ that shows not only which employees are in work and which are not, but also an update of the annual leave and paid time off earned and taken, and the sick leave that has been taken also. Usually, the parameters can be set to show an annual figure or data relating to a single pay period.

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3. Budgets and costings

This is something of an umbrella heading in that it probably represents a category of reports rather than an individual output. Still, any manager has to keep a close eye on their departmental budget forecasts and progress. Most HRMS will allow you easy access to budget headings, expenditure during the accounting period to date, and forecast expenditure. Depending on the complexity of your staffing structure and capability of your software, you should be able to view costings according to the whole department, individual roles, and even by project.

4. Payroll

Yes, payroll is largely automated these days and the likelihood is that your payroll or accounting team take care of any human intervention. However, departmental payroll reports can be useful, not least to check prior to a payroll run that the data (and therefore the remuneration) is correct. Core data included in this type of report is hours worked, overtime hours worked, leave taken, and relevant bonuses and allowances due.

Naturally, depending on your system, these and other reports may be named uniquely but most HRMS will be capable to producing this information in some form or another.