Employee Database
	Performance Appraisal of Employees

Making Small Business Management Easier Using Today's Technology

FAQs

1) Is Data-Aide a payroll program?
No. While Data-Aide will track and report on a variety of payroll, withholding and benefits data, it does not currently generate payroll calculations or checks. Our plans in the future are to either develop this capability, ally ourselves with a payroll software vendor, or develop an interface with one of the current 3rd party providers.

2) Should I do peer reviews or traditional one-on-one's?
That is a difficult question to respond to because there is no universal answer. This depends on your company culture, organization and management philosophy. Evalu-Aide allows you to work either way. While this sounds simplistic, the key is to conduct reviews, and make the process as simple yet effective as possible.

3) What minimum employee information do I need to have on file?
From the strict letter of the law, to satisfy minimum federal regulatory requirements, not a lot. Name, current address, SSN or alien registration number, verification of I-9 information. However, there is a variety of other information that you may choose to keep that will help you manage your business. Data such as benefits eligibility and costs, dependents and emergency contacts, census data, etc. (Note: It is up to the user to determine what data actually constitutes a "bonafide occupational qualification".)

4) Should I tie pay to performance?
Absolutely! But, this is a different issue than doing a salary review and adjustment at the same time as a performance review. Current philosophy is to separate there activities, so that the manager and the employee can focus on developmental issues during the performance review. Otherwise, the employee is primarily concentrating on dollars.

5) What minimum information do I need to load in Data-Aide or Evalu-Aide to get started?
Name, and SSN are enough to get you started in either of the two programs, but we strongly suggest that you take the time to organize the employees data at the very beginning. We include in the Forms section an employee data profile sheet that helps you collect all relevant data.

6) Why should I automate my appraisal system?
According to Mark R. Edwards, Ph.D., TEAMS, Intl, automating your appraisal system benefits the organization by

• Making it easier for respondents (if peer review)
• Results in more respondent honesty (if peer review)]
• Cuts administration burden by 80%
• Provides better flexibility
• Results in immediate respondent training (if peer review)
• Increases comments 4 to 8 times (if peer review)

7) Must I use the traits listed in Evalu-Aide?
No. I listed these common behavioral traits as a guide; they are certainly valid, but they won't fit the needs of all users. One of the features of Evalu-Aide is the capability for you to edit these fields as you see fit. Add department specific goals, your corporate mission statement, performance measures, or any other activity you want to measure.

8) What kind of support do you provide with your software?
For buyers who send in their signed software license agreement, Goode Enterprises will offer 30 days free phone or e-mail support related to the installation and proper configuration of our product. While Goode Enterprises is not a Human Resources consulting firm, we are developing a national network of HR consultants who can assist you on a fee basis.

9) Can I import data from other sources?
At this time, no. We are developing an import/export module that will allow data transfer in ASCII flat file format. We expect to have this module available in late 2000.

10) I'm concerned about security. What safeguards do you provide?
Both Data-Aide and Evalu-Aide provide use definable login and password protection. Both also provide multiple levels of data access, dependent on the login and password of the user. 'Users' can see only data that relates to them; managers can see only data relating to their department, etc.

11) Where can I get HR help?
Society of Human Resource Management, or other professional associations.

12) Why use Data-Aide or Evalu-Aide?

a) A major cost in litigation is the expense of "Discovery". Data-Aide and Evalu-Aide both enable rapid retrieval of critical employee data.

b) Ever have the health insurance agent ask for a shot to quote you on your business? All you need to do is give him or her a "census" of your employees. Now you go and ask Sally how many children she has on her plan, or Joe for his SSN.

c) Do you constantly have to go to the telephone book to look up your night manager's phone number?

d) Have trouble remembering what Debbie did well in the last 12 months to justify a pay increase?

e) You need to find someone on your staff that is fluent in Spanish? How do you determine this in the next 20 minutes?

f) The boss just said that you need to limit your department's salary increases for next year. Who deserves a merit increase and who doesn't?

g) You have a safety plan that says you will have a person on staff in each department that is certified in CPR. Do you know who has the requisite training hours completed this year?