Covid Time has proven its worth as an interdepartmental communications solution, making effective project completion dependent on reaching all involved at just the right time. Employee directories are among the most requested products of Covid's digital workspace; these help employees collaborate more seamlessly without exerting much effort themselves. Before we dive further into this article, let us first briefly glimpse what an employee directory entails and why your business requires one.
What Is The Employee Directory?
An employee directory contains contact details of all employees of an ambitious organization and photographs of everyone. In addition, the directory tracks an employee's position, department and boss, which makes identifying who belongs where much easier. You'll save time and effort by not needing to send individual letters to every department member in one go.
Employee directories go by many names - just like people. An Employee Directory could also be called Company Address Book and sometimes Organization Chart; its best use is helping employees connect quickly. It's the ideal solution to allow your staff members to stay in the know easily.
Is A Directory Of Employees Really Necessary?
Your business may already run smoothly without an employee directory, and that one is no longer necessary, yet why not leverage technology's advances to enhance communication? Lack of clear communication is often responsible for missed deadlines; finding an efficient solution will increase efficiency while helping finish key projects on schedule.
Average worker spends 20 percent of their time searching for colleagues to assist them with tasks they are undertaking, which equates to roughly one day out of every five spent searching. Since this can consume much time and focus more effectively on more essential endeavors - an intelligent employee directory can be helpful here.
Employee Directory Features
SharePoint Employee Directory helps create a more social workplace, optimize onboarding processes and identify suitable experts at just the right time while encouraging collaboration within an organization by skill. Other wide range of SharePoint Directory features allow businesses to operate efficiently and effectively.
Employee Information
An Employee Directory's main advantage lies in providing all the contact details of every employee in one convenient place - this makes finding each one quick and simple, including their names, email addresses, telephone numbers, departments they work for and reporting structures so coworkers can easily connect.
Add more personal details than simply the basics by including birthdays, languages and profile pictures for employees to quickly learn more about themselves, including interests, abilities, hobbies, nicknames and social profiles this allows employees to connect more closely and make the workplace experience even more pleasant.
Seamless Integration With User And Data Source
SharePoint Employee Directory gives you easy access to data via your SharePoint profile, with customization features such as adding fields as needed. Display modes may range from the list view or card view - though its primary feature lies within its integration with Microsoft 365 products remote Team, Skype & Chat are among many, giving staff better communication channels and helping increase staff efficiency.
Advanced Filtering and Search Option
SharePoint Directory boasts many powerful features which make it a useful listing tool, including Advanced Filters that quickly locate employees by department, position title, manager location or employee ID; Search tool is another time saver by quickly searching departments or names into its search field; quickly tracking down staff allows you to focus your energy elsewhere.
Employee Data
At any point in time, it could become necessary for you to access employee details - be it to invite them to an event, send gifts directly or attend special ceremonies. With over 100 employees to keep track of, keeping this data organized manually could become cumbersome; with a company employee directory you can export employee info directly.
Export employee information from SharePoint Directory in whatever format suits you best: pdf or Excel. Select which properties from SharePoint to export and employee names - then, once complete, use an employee directory to modify user properties as desired.
Employee Option Exclusion
Microsoft 365 integrates employee directories created on SharePoint into employee directories created using SharePoint, thus retrieving any licensed, blocked, or unlicensed users as well as accounts set up as user accounts that will add unnecessary clutter to your computer and require manual filtering of this pool of information this takes much less time with its options to exclude certain employees allowing you to expel several employees at once quickly.
You can filter users out of a directory using their names or filters like domain, department, title or location. Blocking users also helps narrow your search results for more suitable matches.
Five Important Uses Cases For Employee Director Software
Research revealed that two-thirds of employees switch apps up to an hour a day, and over 50% prefer doing their chores or paying their bills rather than switching applications. A user-friendly directory housing all contacts and data for efficient communication and collaboration employee directory software is an ideal solution in this respect.
Find Contact Details Easily
A survey on the State of Remote Work 2021 reported that 16 percent of respondents indicated loneliness as their main difficulty with remote working conditions; another 16 percent highlighted communication problems as their top difficulty. Companies would do well during COVID to minimize friction within collaborative processes to facilitate more fluid collaborations.
Start by streamlining the process of gathering information. Employee directory software makes this easier than ever by giving access to phone numbers, email addresses, titles of jobs held and locations; now, all that remains is searching the database to obtain what information you require.
All Your Data Is Stored In One Place
Modern employee directory solutions go far beyond providing contact details of each employee; profiles also contain hobbies, social media pages and birthday information, which allows coworkers to form closer bonds within their workplace environment. Your employee directory software also contains other relevant data about employees, such as engagement metrics, learning & development metrics, demographic information or skills proficiency rates, for instance.
Search Advanced
Employee directory software enables users to refine searches using various criteria, including name, office location and skills. It's especially helpful for new employees searching for coworkers they still need to meet. Your org chart shows how many connections there are across your company, helping new marketers transition from sales into marketing more seamlessly.
Mobile Friendly
Smartphone users frequently check their phones up to 150 times daily, making an employee directory app indispensable. Many vendors now provide an experience similar to or better than what can be found on desktops. Employees can search the directory from any phone without opening separate windows on their computers; texting can even be enabled to enhance internal communications and save time and resources.
Employee Engagement Is Heightened
Employee directory software features tools that encourage employees to feel like part of a group and are essential when considering that engaged workers perform 17% better on average in their jobs. Pingboard, for instance, features tools to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. At the same time, Sift allows you to customize terminology. Hence, your employees are no longer identified as "employees" but as humans or " key team members."
A collaborative research reveals that 63% of employees who regularly get recognized tend to seek employment within three to six months - even subtle qualities can save your company money by deterring new employee recruitment efforts.
How to Create a Successful Employee Directory
As you have probably witnessed, various people's directories range from ancient stone tablets carved with lettering and numbers to fully automated, dynamic products available today. Deciding which employee directory best satisfies your business depends upon factors like size, diversity in educational backgrounds and specialties, and quality coding/front-end components that need to be in place for effective operation.
The software that you choose should be able to:
Complete Listings: For your directory to be useful, it should include all the necessary information. At the least, it should include every employee's name and contact information.
Provide Data-Rich Listings: Knowing Bill works in IT can be exciting, but more than basic contact info is needed. Employee directories that Excel might offer birthday and work anniversary reminders and an interest section - providing even greater convenience than simple names and phone numbers alone.
The Software should Run Smoothly: If your program is written poorly or does not integrate seamlessly with its OS, its usefulness will quickly diminish. Invest in good shoes to walk around a room more freely before turning on any software for searching purposes; best-of-breed directories won't compromise their smooth running in desktop and mobile environments.
Make your Look Professional: Impressions count, and having an impressive directory of employees is essential if executives want to convince clients that their engaged team consists of qualified members. Otherwise, their trust could quickly fade after viewing your forward interface.
Custom Search Capability: Auto-completion of search queries can either be helpful or annoying; choosing the appropriate algorithm to power autocomplete can often make the difference between having an excellent employee directory (ED) and one which merely meets nominal standards; your search should reflect company size, business model scope and abilities to deliver world-class talent management capabilities to ensure success for all.
Assembling and designing an employee directory requires close consultation between all development team members. Our staff wants to understand quickly which tasks need to be accomplished quickly before gathering capabilities, departments and any additional data about every employee that might help create an employee directory with complete listings and advanced search features and helps your team collaborate, innovate and produce competitive value faster.
We've compiled a list with five essential elements that you must look out for when selecting an employee directory software:
Quick Load Times
Slow-loading web pages are no longer acceptable. A directory of employees should load quickly, whether your business has 50 or 50,000 staff. If it doesn't make everyone's life easier, it's unfit for purpose.
Intelligent Search
Search your employee directory efficiently without wading through thousands of irrelevant search results to quickly and accurately find what you're after.
Search terms such as 'Mar' can help you quickly identify someone named Mary. Instead of scrolling through search results for the Marketing Department, Office or Marketing Assistant, smart people search allows you to discover people sharing the name Mary easily.
Great User Experience
If something is designed well, users will be more inclined to adopt it. A clean and user-friendly design may seem like a soft requirement, but it can be the key to success.
Navigation Intuitive
Smartphone and tablet navigation has never been simpler; anyone, young or old, can quickly locate their ideal device. Your employee directory should follow this same principle.
Find a business directory that makes navigation straightforward. Information should, where applicable, be clickable similar to how a website would have key details linked so people could gain more knowledge.
Relevant Information
An employee directory should make it simple to locate those (or things) you need quickly. A complete directory includes names, photos, office & department information, location details and skills/interest details, as well as job titles of its members additional functions can be fulfilled via employee directory software designed specifically for your company. When you can locate one that suits your requirements, your staff community is on track toward becoming strong and connected.
Read More: The Privileges of Cloud ERP Software for Finance Departments
How Advanced Employee Directory Systems Boost Productivity and Efficiency
At this stage in our conversation, we could explore the technical details of an employee directory system. You might talk about elegance as an integral component to creating a positive user experience and mapping functions to make every user case intuitive and easier; mapping also ensures every case works effectively regardless of who uses the business system; we could get into more technicalities since most potential users want an automated custom employee directory as it can make their business more efficient while increasing bottom lines.
There are various ways in which an effective employee database can enhance your company's competitive edge, including but not limited to:
Leverage Hidden Expertise
Your employees hold an abundance of knowledge that's just waiting to come out to help your company thrive. Who knew that receptionist, an amateur typist by trade, could be the granddaughter of three generations of leading real estate agents.
She may prove useful the next time you are looking for new offices, or you could invite her in for an employee directory meeting to discuss this issue further. These possibilities represent great opportunities to implement internal mentoring programs that could transform your organization's latent talent into powerful sources for its future growth and expansion.
Increase Employee Engagement
Small companies still possess vast expertise and know-how; using your employees as resources helps save both money and time while increasing team productivity. A list of employees encourages you to leverage them when solving problems and accomplishing tasks, saving both money and time and enhancing team productivity.
Making Leadership More Accessible
An advanced intranet provides free communication as needed, so employees may submit direct messages directly to leadership if they have urgent inquiries; employees could even use coded notifications indicating the urgency of these urgent messages. With such an interactive system in place, your team could solve problems and answer inquiries much quicker than previously possible, which ultimately benefits business operations as a whole and corporate culture alike.
Improve Shared Knowledge Management
The 100th Monkey Effect is an intriguing phenomenon. when 100 monkeys are taught a skill and taught it together, it spreads like wildfire. Humans possess neurons that make imitation easier, while stimulus and communication may make the information even more contagious - imagine its impact when amplified via advanced intranet technology. Human communication remains our strongest force - let this tech magnify it further.
Smooth Information Transmission Rate
A current employee directory has one main purpose: to improve internal communication and speed up the process. A good intranet is the difference between getting a question answered or not.
Easy Document Sharing
Accounting need some documents in 10-30 minutes; you could deliver and return them, email her (which could take 2 minutes or up to a week for confirmation), or use an intranet system like WeTransfer that allows document delivery almost instantly - time is money.
Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Employee Directory
An employee directory can greatly enhance any corporate team, whether on Post-It notes or fully integrated directories with features and automated features. The organization makes all the difference; even minimal efforts have an enormous effect. Our advanced employee directories will outstrip even these organizations.
How Can We Accomplish This Task Recall an employee directory created for an office team consisting of only three members in which all were shared between all? A post-it note with two numbers and names suffices - their Employee Directory was perfectly tailored to the company.
Consider an office building housing more than 100 floors and 50 departments; each sub-departments has multiple sub-departments to manage, and more diversity would exist between employees regarding professional experiences. A biased employee directory would help maximize your teamwork efforts as employees could list relevant skills within it.
Imagine having access to several problem solvers, who are independent professionals capable of working independently and conducting quality research while finding resources without leaving their offices. Now imagine offering them an app that gives them access to half of this expertise without ever leaving work.
Success depends upon scaled customization. An Employee Directory that fully and accurately represents your organization will maximize its strengths while mitigating weaknesses - ultimately leading to efficiency that pays for itself.
The conclusion
Employee directory software can help increase productivity while streamlining internal communications. This software makes it easier for employees to connect and locate key resources by providing them with a central place where they can locate information on colleagues, departments and hierarchies. Employee directory software strengthens teamwork by encouraging collaboration, building communities and encouraging interdepartmental interaction.
Customizable to meet the specific needs of each organization for efficient onboarding/off-boarding processes and smooth ongoing employee engagement initiatives, employee directory software allows businesses to improve internal communications while improving employee engagement levels. Get in touch with best and most reliable software solution for your organization.
