Employee FileBuilder and ManualMaker can save managers time and trouble - products for managing employee information - HR Systems to Benefit Smaller Employees - Evaluation

HR Magazine, March, 1998 by Jim Meade

A manager in a small company may ask, "What did I actually say during Steve's performance review? How many days off did he take in 1996? Where is that memo he sent me? I need all this, because he is challenging us in court."

Imagine scrambling to put together information for a lawsuit using just paper files. Then consider how that task and many employee record-keeping chores could be simplified and expedited by two new products - Employee FileBuilder and Employee ManualMaker from Jian Tools for Sales Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.

WHAT THE PRODUCTS DO

Employee FileBuilder (EFB) allows you to track and manage personal information on employees, benefits options and training completed, with the option of adding informal notes. The product and its Jian companion, Employee ManualMaker (EMM), probably are best suited to companies with five to 100 employees, though some larger companies do use them.

The program operates with just three on-screen file folders. Once people understand that, learning the rest of the program is a snap, says Neal Novotny, Jian's marketing manager. The tab for the visible folder is highlighted in yellow. To get to any other folder, you click on its tab.

To open an existing database in this Windows 95-based product, click on the name of the database in an opening screen to get all the pertinent information on an employee.

To add or edit information, you click a button at the bottom. To quickly get output, you click one of several buttons along the right side of the screen: Job History, Certifications, Performance, Notes, Time-off Benefits or other functions.

To generate a report, click the Reports option in the top menu, then choose the report you want, such as the Corporate EEO Code List. To view a graph, click Graph at the top, then choose one; Gender Comparison, for example, shows the company's percentage of male and female employees in a pie chart. EFB also does calculations, such as how much vacation time an employee has.

To set up the program initially, you would input your company's policies for sick days, vacation days, benefits and so on. You can create codes for the policies, then you use those codes as you enter employee information into the system. The policies and data are all you need. "I loaded it onto my computer, and that day I was working with it," says Jesse Akemann, HR coordinator at Met-Con Co. in Faribault, Minn.

Employee ManualMaker is a prewritten manual containing policies on everything from arbitration to work schedules. It's set up as a word processing file that can be adapted for each company. Like EFB, EMM saves time and trouble for both HR managers and department managers.

"As a small organization, we found these two programs really helpful in terms of making sure we got the information we needed," says David Glickman, co-director of Communities in Harmony Advocating for Learning and Kids in San Francisco.

WHAT I LIKE

First, I like this company's ambitious spirit and innovative name. Company literature explains that Jian is an ancient martial arts term meaning "a master of every art - the ultimate human with extraordinary acumen, power and resourcefulness."

I like the way Jian has automated the detail work most managers hate, and I like the low price.

The products afford managers a lot of freedom. "Perhaps the hardest thing an entrepreneur has to face is letting go and allowing employees to do their jobs," says Jian president Burke Franklin. With Jian products, he adds, "you can supply the boundaries, then let go."

I like the ease of use. "You do it, and it's done," says Novotny of ManualMaker, though the same could apply to EFB. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist. We get almost no tech support calls," he says. The tech support - which is unlimited and free for the life of the products - is most helpful if you do need it.

I also like the sophistication that is built into these products. For instance, if you want to design your own customized reports, you can use EFB with the report-writer, Crystal Reports.

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

I had to look hard to find limitations with these products. Ultimately, I found that the user's manual, though certainly adequate, is not indexed. The Help files have a bit too much jargon for my taste. And technical support may not be immediate.

As with any database, allow enough time to set up the data properly in the first place, and assign someone to keep it current.

Mostly, though, the limitations are in keeping with the program's streamlined nature. "Our products are for people who don't have time to read books or go to seminars," says Franklin. "They're for the hellbent do-it-yourselfer."

"Overall, these are great products," says Glickman, who has never had to use the manuals, the Help files or tech support.

SUMMARY

If you're lucky, you may never have to prepare for a company lawsuit. But should your firm face litigation, there is no substitute for having complete, detailed information. EFB and EMM can provide that information and more. And the two products are just as handy if used only for day-to-day tracking of employee information.