Bulk Updating Existing Employee File Information
When we initially added employees to the system, we only entered basic information. Now, we need to supplement additional information for the employees or if there have been significant changes in their information, we need to update their employee files.
Manually entering each employee into the system is both time-consuming and error-prone. Workstem provides the 'Import Employees' feature, which allows bulk updating of employee files (except for Email Address) by importing an Excel spreadsheet. These include:
Name, Join Date, Staff ID, HKID/Passport Number, Basic Salary, Bank Account Information, and Emergency Contact Information
Gender, Marital Status, Country/Region, Employment Type, Salary Type
Department, Position, Location, Salary Type, Payroll Policy, Leave Policy, Manager, Cost Centre
Note⚠️: Email Address serves as the unique identifier for employees in the system and must not be duplicated with others. If an employee's Email Address changes, it must be manually updated in the system. Otherwise, the system will treat it as a new employee and insert a new record upon import.
This article will use updating the department information of employees as an example to introduce this feature.
Step 1: Export Existing Employee Information
Navigate to "Employees" --> "Export" to export existing employee information from the system. You will find a file named "People-List" in the download path.
Step 2: Download the Import Template
Navigate to "People" --> "Import People" then click the "Download Template" button in the "Import" dialog box that appears.
Step 3: Template Download Successful, Open the Template
After successful download, you will find a file named "People-template" in the download path. Open it as shown in the image:
Step 4: Copy the first three mandatory fields from the template exported in "Step 1" to the "Template" and fill in the new information.
Join Date, Name (Display Name), and Email Address are mandatory fields. You can copy the information from the "People-List" file exported in Step 1.
Columns D and onwards are optional fields. If not applicable this time, you can delete this column or leave it blank.
If the column we want to import is not included in the template, we have the option to add it ourselves.
For example, inserting a "Department" column in the template, enter the department data of the employee and save the template.
Attention⚠️: As departments are not directly entered into the system but selected from a dropdown, the values we want to import must first be entered in "Company" -> "Department". Ensure that the department names to be imported already exist in the system's "Department" list.
Step 5: Upload the modified data template
On the "Import" interface, click the "Select a File" button, select the updated import spreadsheet from step 3, and choose "Update Duplicate Records", then click "Ok".
Attention⚠️: "Do not import when errors exist": For example, if there are 100 employee records in the template and one of them contains incorrect data,
Checking this option means that none of these 100 records will be imported.
If unchecked, it means that out of these 100 records, 99 will be imported normally, with only the erroneous data being excluded.
Attention⚠️: "Update duplicate records": Selecting this indicates that data in the system will be updated based on matching Email Addresses from the Excel spreadsheet.
Attention⚠️: "Do not import duplicate records": Selecting this means that if an employee with the same Email Address as in the Excel spreadsheet already exists in the system, the data from the spreadsheet will not be imported. This option is commonly used for adding new employees.
Attention⚠️: Upon successful import, the system will display "Import successful" and update the employee files in the system.
Attention⚠️: If import fails, the system will display "Error importing file". Click "Download the bug report" to obtain a file named "ErrorExcel", which can be opened and dragged to the far right of the table to view the reasons for import failure.
Attention⚠️: If "Department No Search" is prompted, it indicates that the department data entered in the Excel spreadsheet under "Company" → "Department" does not exist. Check whether the data in the spreadsheet is entered correctly or add the necessary data to the "Department" list for import. You can modify it and re-import it afterward.