Why you need an employee database (with free Excel template)

An employee database is where a business stores information about its employees. 

And an employee database template makes it easier to set up an employee database in the first place.

Without an employee database, you'll likely have important information about the individuals in your team scattered all over the place — in different emails and drives,  making it a faff to locate information when you need it. 

Employee databases (also known as HR databases) come in different formats, including software and spreadsheets. The format you choose should fit the needs and size of your business, and be secure, easy to access, and quick to update. 

For ease and security, many new and small businesses choose employee database software, and save themselves the time and hassle of filling out spreadsheets every time they take on someone new or have to update an employee’s details. 

If you’re looking to store your employee data in a spreadsheet, use our free employee database Excel template. The data columns in the employee database template are pre-populated, so you just need to make a copy of it, add the information for each employee, and download it as an Excel sheet:

As the person responsible for HR, you've probably experienced all or some of the following obstacles when trying to manage your employee database:

• Lack of time - Despite your best intentions, updating the employee database spreadsheet regularly falls to the bottom of your to-do list.
• How to store and organise it - You’ve yet to find an easy, reliable and affordable way to store and update employee data. 
• Confidentiality and data privacy - Ensuring and maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of sensitive personal and financial information is far from simple, and you don’t have a huge budget.

For these reasons and more, we’ll examine employee databases in more depth. By the end of this blog you’ll be able to confidently identify the best solution for your small business.

And if you’re looking for a free employee database Excel template, you'll find that here too.

What is an employee database?

An employee database is a central place to store data about your employees.

The information held in an employee database is typically a mix of standard and business-specific related to employee records:

• Standard - date of birth, address, emergency contacts etc.
• Business-specific - job title, rate of pay, department, line manager etc.

And this information is stored about every member of your team. 

If you use employee database software, you’ll probably also gather other useful data, like performance reviews. 

A good employee database is especially important for small businesses starting to build their workforce, as all the information about your team is securely stored in one place from the get-go.

Why do you need an employee database?

An employee database is a vital HR tool for safely storing and managing employee data.

Without an employee database, it’s difficult (not to mention frustrating and time-consuming) to find information when you need it. An employee database keeps all the data relating to your team in one safe and accessible place — which makes a big difference to small businesses that don’t have the luxury of an HR department!

And if you choose to use employee database software like Charlie, you can onboard your employees and track their engagement and performance through the same system. 

Charlie is the ideal small business solution, as it gives you an employee database as part of a complete HR system. All of your people-related tasks and admin are streamlined and automated for one affordable price. 

What should an employee database template contain?

An employee database template makes it much easier to set up an employee database. 

But if you’ve never used an employee database before, then how do you ensure you’re collecting the right sort of information about your team? 

Over time, the information held in an employee database will vary from business to business, but there’s universal information that’s applicable across the board. An employee database Excel template should contain the following data columns:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Residential address
• Phone number(s)
• Email address
• Start date
• Role / position
• Department and line manager
• Salary / rate of pay

Any additional employee data will likely depend on whether you’re using a spreadsheet or software for your employee database. 

Why an employee database excel template may not be the best solution… 

Despite their traditional popularity, Excel spreadsheets are not the best solution for employee databases for small businesses. 

Most new business owners are struggling to get everything done and simply assume they’ll be more comfortable using an Excel template for their employee database (which is why we’ve provided a free employee database Excel template with this blog). But as we want you to feel confident you’re making the right choice for your business, we also want to highlight the limitations of using a spreadsheet for your employee database.

If you use an employee database Excel template for your employee database:

1. You have to update it manually

Regardless of your business, updates to employee data are a given. People move house, change roles, leave for other jobs, and new team members come on board. 

If you have to manually update the database every time something changes for one or more of your employees, it’s going to become a headache very quickly. 

Plus, an annual review of your employee database is HR best practice, and that will have to be done manually as well. 

2. You’re the bottleneck for all the updates

To ensure data privacy and confidentiality, updates to the spreadsheet have to go through the person responsible for HR. So your employee database task list never gets any lighter. 

3. It’s prone to errors

Mistakes on spreadsheets are common, so they’re as likely on an Excel file of employee data as they are anywhere else. 

And if information gets lost, it’s up to you to find and restore it.

4. It’s not secure

Spreadsheets (and shared drives) do not comply with employment law as they’re not secure enough. This is because of the lack of security around permission settings and the risk of data breaches. 

Ultimately, spreadsheets were not designed for storing the sort of confidential information recorded in an employee database. (Which is why they don’t comply with GDPR and ISO 27001 certification.)

5. It’s unsustainable 

The more your team grows, the more the problems above will increase. 

For a secure, effective, and easy-to-use employee database, you need a better solution than a spreadsheet. 

Why employee database software is a better solution than an employee database Excel template…

When you stop and think about it, employee database software is basically a sophisticated employee database template. It prompts you to collect the right information and enables you to store it, just in an automated and compliant way. 

So a spreadsheet isn’t your only option for an employee database template. 

And if we’re talking about employee database software then that’s where Charlie can help:

• Charlie is designed to collect and store all employee data required by law, so there’s no chance of forgetting something vital and you’ll always be in compliance — everything is under one profile for each employee
• Employees are responsible for uploading their own information because the system is ‘self service’. All you need to do is enter an employee’s name and email address — Charlie automates the rest.
• Information can be accessed easily and updated anytime, anywhere, in just a few clicks. 
• You’ll save hours of admin time onboarding every new employee.

And Charlie’s also got your back when it comes to data security:

• The software is fully GDPR-compliant and ISO 27001-accredited. 
• You can set permissions in Charlie to decide who can and can’t see your employee data.
• When someone leaves the team, Charlie archives records instead of deleting them. So you can still access the data if you need to. 
• And if you need to permanently delete any employee data, then you can do that safely through Charlie as well.

Try Charlie for free for 7 days and see how easy, safe and effective it is for storing your employee data. You can compare it directly with the employee database Excel template and see which is the best fit for your business. 

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