Employee data: types, best practices & management techniques

Understanding employee behaviors and motivations is key to retaining talented employees and maximizing your teams’ potential. Yet, many HR and people ops managers still underutilize one of their most valuable resources: employee data.

While most Chef HR Officers say people analytics is a core component of their strategies, only 42% of companies have a data-driven HR culture.* What’s holding them back?

Capturing, organizing, and analyzing the right employee data — all while navigating ethical concerns and ever-changing privacy regulations — is a huge challenge for HR teams globally. Many companies still rely on outdated data management systems, which makes it harder to store and analyze critical employee information.

Sound familiar? If you’re drowning in people data, keep reading! We’ll help you learn about all the different types of workforce information and how effectively collecting and managing your data can help you achieve your HR goals.

*McKinsey, 2022

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Why employee data matters for HR teams

Employee data includes everything you collect about your workforce — from basic contact details to engagement scores, learning records, and time tracking.

Today, this data is a goldmine of insights that can optimize processes and support decision-making. By effectively harnessing employee information, HR teams can reduce turnover, streamline core people management functions, and ensure compliance with labor and data privacy laws.

‍But how?

With the right processes and people analytics technology, HR professionals can use employee data to unlock insights, identify issues, and uncover opportunities for improving HR strategies.

For example, a McKinsey study found that making progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was a priority for at least 70% of organizations in 2023. Effective employee data management can be a powerful asset here, helping HR teams measure DEI-related metrics like employee sentiment in more detail and track the diversity of their workforce using demographic data.

Organizations that fail to leverage data and analytics (D&A) will struggle to stay competitive, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) transforms business operations.

So, what employee data should you collect — and how can HR software help you make the most of it?
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The 7 key types of employee data

Although employee data is an essential element of modern HR, many organizations lack the understanding to use it effectively and compliantly. 

If these gaps aren’t addressed, they can lead to mistrust, inaccuracy, and even legal issues related to labor laws, privacy regulations, and antidiscrimination policies. 

To help you avoid such problems, we’ve outlined the seven main types of employee data your HR strategy should cover.
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1. Demographic information

Demographic data provides basic socioeconomic information about your workforce — generally including gender, ethnicity, nationality, education, and sometimes, religion. 

This data is crucial for understanding diversity within your organization-. Moreover, they can highlight patterns and trends that help you refine your HR initiatives and hiring process.
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2. Personal information

Personal employee data covers basic information such as names, dates of birth, home addresses, and emergency contacts.

It’s essential to keep up-to-date records and ensure your people management systems meet privacy and security standards.

A comprehensive HR information system (HRIS) like Leapsome’s can centralize this information securely and offer an employee self-service portal to reduce admin burdens.
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3. Employee engagement data

Employee engagement data provides some of the most valuable insights to HR leaders looking to retain their people. By looking at key engagement metrics, it’s easy to find areas for improvement and drive positive change across your company.

Key components of employee engagement data include survey feedback, employee satisfaction scores, as well as insights from stay and exit interviews, 1:1s, and reviews.

At Leapsome, we offer a range of employee data and analytics tools designed to combine all this information and provide a comprehensive view of employee engagement. Our Surveys, Reviews, and Feedback modules automate data collection and analysis, empowering managers and HR to spot trends and take steps to boost engagement.
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4. Employee performance data

Performance data tracks an employee’s journey at your company — capturing goals, reviews, and other feedback and performance-related information.

Collecting performance and developmental data can help you create impactful performance improvement and development plans, enhance leadership skills, and ensure high performers are recognized.

5. Time tracking and attendance data

Tracking attendance and working hours is essential for compliance with local regulations, payroll accuracy, and identifying patterns like absenteeism or frequent overtime.

Time tracking and attendance data points include hours worked, overtime, vacation days, sick leave, and project time allocation. There are several practical applications for this employee data, from promoting work-life balance and avoiding burnout to calculating project costs, keeping track of PTO, and complying with all tracking regulations.

The good news is that Leapsome’s new HRIS integrates time tracking and absence management with other people enablement management functions to keep your teams happy and productive — and your organization, compliant.
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6. Payroll records

Keeping accurate payroll data is a core responsibility for any HR department. These records typically include:

• Benefits, promotions, and compensation management data
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• Payroll history and tax filings
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• Payslip records
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• Information on starters and leavers
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• Bonus agreements

Using a purpose-built, AI-powered system like Leapsome HRIS can help automate these routine jobs to minimize errors, optimize resource allocation, and boost efficiency within your HR team.
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7. Contracts and compliance data

Ops teams and people professionals need to securely manage employment agreements, policies, and other legal documents.

This data will usually cover employment agreements and contracts, including details such as employment length, job title, and working hours. It also encompasses tax documentation, work eligibility verification, training records, professional certifications, and any disciplinary records on file.

It’s vital to ensure these records are regularly updated with accurate information and stored securely to safeguard your employees and business from compliance and data privacy risks.

💜 With Leapsome’s people-first HRIS and people enablement platform, you can consolidate these data categories into a well-rounded view of your workforce, enabling you to mitigate risk and improve decision-making. 

‍The result? A healthier company culture, happier employees, and less burden on your HR team!

5 best practices for collecting employee data 

Once you’ve determined the employee data you need, you need a clear data collection strategy.

You’ll want robust processes to use this data to support your goals and guarantee regulatory compliance.

Here are five best practices to get started:
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1. Determine the goal of data collection

What are you aiming to achieve with the data? Are you measuring employee engagement, ensuring compliance, or improving your recruitment strategy?

Articulating how your information initiatives relate to your organizational goals will help you focus on the most relevant employee data to support your HR objectives.
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2. Define your employee data sources

You’ll then need to decide where to collect employee data from. 

For example, if you’re trying to improve employee satisfaction scores and increase retention, you may want to collect employee data from 1:1s, annual reviews, and pulse surveys; if you’re evaluating salary budgets for the year ahead, you might look at employee contracts and benefits data.

With a tool like Leapsome’s HRIS, you can monitor multiple goals at once. Our centralized platform offers advanced analytics and a secure, unified view of your workforce — allowing you to address various areas for improvement at the same time.
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3. Prioritize employee privacy and consent

In an era of increasing data privacy concerns and stringent regulations, ensuring employee trust and legal compliance is critical.

Always obtain consent from your employees before gathering, storing, and using their personal information, and always consider the ethical implications of any data collection. This is crucial for adhering to privacy laws and establishing trust within your organization.
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4. Choose the right tools

Using outdated or ineffective software can lead to inaccurate data insights, skewed analytics, and wasted resources. You need a tool that’s easy to use, integrates with your existing systems, and can grow with your organization.

Leapsome’s comprehensive HR solution simplifies data collection and generates intuitive summaries, helping your team access the information they need in just a few clicks.

5. Integrate data collection with existing processes

Data collection can get complicated if you’re using different systems — but consolidating data in one centralized platform will give you a more comprehensive overview of employee performance.

With Leapsome’s integrated HR products, it’s easy to take a holistic people analytics approach that supports a deeper understanding of employee motivations and drives more strategic decision-making.
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Top techniques for employee data management 

Once you’ve defined your employee data collection methods, the next step is to outline a plan for managing the information you’ve gathered.

Doing this well will help you organize data, leverage insights for decision-making, simplify HR processes, and improve your workplace culture. Here’s how to get started:
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Build a secure employee database

If you’re still storing employee data in humble spreadsheets or across multiple tools (or filing cabinets!), it’s time for an upgrade.

A robust, centralized database will allow you to sort and filter data from various sources, saving your HR team time and stress.

For security, restrict access to sensitive information to authorized individuals. Leapsome HRIS enables customized access permissions to align with your policies and compliance requirements.
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Practice “data hygiene”

“Data hygiene” is the full process of ensuring your employee information remains accurate, clean, and reliable over time. 

Assure data integrity across your people management systems by regularly auditing and updating your records and processes for:

Data validation — Set up checks or system rules to verify that data is correct and properly formatted when entered into your system. 

Data cleansing — Regularly review your data to remove errors, duplicates, and inconsistencies (even a misspelled name can cause issues).
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Data standardization — Apply a uniform structure to your information, such as establishing naming conventions or using agreed abbreviations across the organization.

Good data hygiene helps you to avoid inefficiencies and minimize errors in decision-making. 

💡 Before deleting records, check the data retention policies for your industry — you may be required to keep certain records for years. An intelligent HR management system like Leapsome can help you safely store and manage your documents.

Educate your team on data security

Data security is a pillar of any employee information strategy. Yet research shows that 74% of workers would be willing to bypass security guidance to achieve their business goals.

It’s important to encourage your entire workforce to view cyber security as a collective responsibility. Start by ensuring your teams understand the “why” behind data protection rules and how they safeguard sensitive information. It’s also crucial to provide training so employees feel empowered to use best data security practices and identify, report, and prevent any incidents.

You can find the best data protection and privacy courses for your team directly on the Leapsome Learning Marketplace.
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Automate data analysis processes

In the era of big data and AI, automating data analysis has evolved from a luxury to a necessity.

When implementing more sophisticated processes and automations, ensure managers, reports, and HR teams understand how to use them effectively. In the words of Ramke Ramakrishnan, VP Analyst at Gartner: “It’s important that employees feel empowered through the use of AI in data and analysis, rather than causing them to feel threatened or frustrated by it.”

Leapsome AI can turn feedback into valuable insights in seconds, analyzing survey responses and providing actionable recommendations. That’s just one use case — our AI features can also show you performance trends, suggest tailored learning and development paths, give managers suggestions for performance reviews, and more.
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Harness insights to improve engagement

Collecting and managing employee data is just the first step. The real value comes from using these insights to boost engagement, productivity, and overall success.

This might involve identifying and addressing employee pain points, supporting workforce health, improving onboarding processes, developing personalized career development plans, or using performance data to reward top talent.

Whatever you want to get out of your employee data, Leapsome’s integrated tools can automate, streamline, and support these processes — fostering a positive company culture that benefits everyone.
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Leverage your people data to get ahead

More and more leaders are using employee data to refine recruitment processes, increase employee satisfaction, and future-proof workforce strategies.

However, effective people management depends on having the right HR software to securely collect, store, and analyze large volumes of data.

Leapsome’s upcoming HRIS is the backbone for your employee data infrastructure, ensuring compliance, streamlining storage, and delivering the insights your team needs. With secure, self-service access, employees can access their files, promoting transparency and autonomy while reducing administrative burdens for HR teams. 

A comprehensive, people-first HRIS and people enablement platform can transform your operations, providing a complete employee data solution that drives success for your company and your people.

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