August 14, 2023

Inside Your CMMS - Human Resources

You already know a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is more than just a useful maintenance tool. It's even more than a way to control your purchasing. It can also track your employees and manage your barcoding process. This week, let's look inside your CMMS for more than just assets, inventory, and work orders.

Human Resources. Not all your employees use the system? No problem. You still have a database for everyone.

Having a human resource module is a great way to keep information centralized. You already have your lists of Assets, Inventory, Preventive maintenance, and Vendors, and can create work and purchase requests and orders. Go a step further and have a record of employees, note whether each is a system user, and even process timecard information.

Companies of all sizes would find this convenient. Let's look into some areas to see if they would interest your business. One of the advantages of a quality CMMS is the number of options for details there are. So, when looking at an individual employee's profile, what might you want included?

Obviously, name/address/phone. Have an international employee? Add the country.

What else? Title and email. Is this person part of a crew or craft? What shift does he work? Many employment applications and subsequent employee records have emergency contact information…so should your CMMS.

Shall we get more personal? Input social security number, date of birth, date hired, and pay type/rate. Do you want an educational background? How about a data field listing the employee's skills? Or dates of last and next employment review.

Family information. Any dependents? Marital status and spousal information.

Wouldn't you also like the CMMS to track compensation? Dates, hours worked, costs.

Many companies have multiple sites and zones. Including these on an employee's profile shows where the person is located. Also, you should be able to name the department he's in.

One benefit of assets, inventory, work orders, and other records, is the CMMS' ability to record any revisions to the listing. This revision history also should be part of your employee records. Revisions are a great way to stay accountable. A simple example is a system admin who inputs a cellphone number for Bob. Later, another person with access to the records changes the cell phone. A week later, when Bob's supervisor looks up the phone number and calls Bob, he reaches a different person. With the system keeping a record of the change, the supervisor can make the correction and inform the proper parties.

When it comes to timecards, you'd want to have all that information at hand, especially if the person is in maintenance and you're tracking work orders.

One important function you should look for in a CMMS is the generation of reports, breaking down the information as much as you want. This goes for everything covered in this series. Assets, Inventory, Vendor, preventive maintenance, work/purchase requests/orders, and employee information.

Some companies want basic information, and that's fine. Some want specific numbers and lists to track costs and accounting. Here in human resources, you want reports on labor costs. For those facilities with crafts or crews, you'd want reports on each. Another area of labor costs that your CMMS should include is attainment. This will help a supervisor determine if he's getting all he can out of the worker. If there is too much wrench time that's seeping into overtime or the work is taking longer to complete jobs than expected, a supervisor can have those figures separated to determine a course of action. Similar information from the CMMS can show if there isn't as much wrench time as expected. What's the worker doing when not assigned a particular job? Reports could be discussed in an entire post. To summarize, though, look at the filters offered by the CMMS. How much do you want the numbers or lists broken down? Larger operations may zero in on a certain target to look at efficiency, productivity, and related costs. The point is, don't be caught short by your system lacking adequate filters.

In addition, you should be able to discuss with the CMMS company to add extra filters and functions. Maybe your company tracks a unique parameter. You need to work with the CMMS reps to customize.

I've covered much of what a CMMS should do for you over this series. Here, two areas have been highlighted. They're parts of your company that you don't have to track from a separate system as your maintenance.

If you'd like more information on human resources from a superior and comprehensive CMMS, call 800-922-4336 and talk to a rep from Mapcon. Let our world-class system work for your company the way you want it.