For all of our clients, security is a matter of the utmost importance. If you’re going to migrate your data from emails and spreadsheet programs (which themselves are very unsecured), you want to know for a fact that the new system will be properly secured. Two of the features we offer in our compensation management solutions are the ability to track audit history and separate users into separate classes, which are vital components of any secure information system.
To put it simply, an audit history (or audit trail) allows certain high-level users access to information regarding system usage. Users with the proper credentials will be able to see what changes were made to the system, when they were made, and which user made them. Not only does this allow obvious benefits in terms of maintaining the system’s integrity, but also can act as a preventative measure as well. An audit history discourages users from tampering with the system in some way, because they know that they’ll be held accountable for whatever changes they make.
This feature becomes even more powerful when married to our solutions’ ability to separate users into different classes, each with their own level of access and privileges within the system. Let’s say, for example, you have a supervisor in HR and a manager with a number of direct reports. They both need access to the system in order to complete the compensation process, but they don’t both need the same level of access. All the manager really needs to do is input compensation data for their direct reports, and then their need for the system is done. An HR supervisor, on the other hand, would need access to the information from all managers who are entering data, as well as merit and budget compensation amounts, among other things.
It would make little sense, then, to allow the manager to have the same amount of access that the supervisor does. For this reason, access to higher-level functions like audit history tracking would only be available to users who need to have that information. This way, nobody lower on the organizational ladder would be able to access more sensitive data. It also means that anybody who would want to tamper with the system in an unethical way would be unable to hide their tracks, as they wouldn’t be able to access the audit history (something which can’t be deactivated or modified by any user).
All of this may seem very basic, but it’s important to keep in mind, especially if you’re trying to move from emails and spreadsheets to a compensation management system. Transferring data over emails, especially sensitive data like compensation, is very dangerous as there’s little to no security in emails. Spreadsheet programs aren’t much better, even though they could be encrypted (which would make working with more than one of them an extra hassle in an already stressful process). If you’re looking for a system to handle compensation planning, it’s imperative that you get one which can secure your data adequately.