How Should I Assign Employee Codes: By Designation or Joining Date? Seeking Your Advice!

Dear All,

I am working in a small department where almost 15 employees are working. I need to assign them employee code numbers. Can you please advise me on the best criteria to allocate these employee codes? Should it be based on their designation or date of joining?

Please provide your guidance at your earliest convenience.

Regards, Aarti

Hi Aarti,

I believe you already have the format you wish to use for the Employee Code. As far as the criteria in which the series should be allocated, my suggestion would be to allot them according to the Date of Joining for employees. The reason for not suggesting it in Designation/Rank order is that later on, when new joinings happen, you will not be able to maintain the Employee Code series.

Regards,
Neeraj K. Singh

Dear,

Employee codes must be issued according to the Date of Joining only.

Regards,

Karamdeep Kaur (Varsha)

Dear Friend,

An employee code is used for identification. For example, the code may be zhc07, where:
- Z may be the starting letter of the company (e.g., Zebra).
- H may be the starting letter of the HR department.
- C may indicate a contract role for employees.
- 07 is the person's unique identification code.

There may be instances where multiple people share the same name, initials, or even birthdays. To avoid confusion in retrieving someone's information, a unique code is utilized to reference employee details. When the HR or admin personnel input the code, they can access all information related to salary, provident fund, loans, grievances, promotions, etc.

Using the code proves more beneficial than relying on names. It can also facilitate attendance marking (an automated system may require barcodes, and eventually, the data will be linked to the respective code).

Moreover, it serves as a means of identification.

Aarti,

I have just finished an employee coding exercise for our ERP implementation and handled a complex coding issue covering more than 1300 employees at various locations, grades, and joining spans.

In your case, it seems you are looking for a unique identification, and the basis you would like to use is designation or date of joining. I would suggest going with the date of joining for two reasons:

1. The employee code itself will reveal how old the person is in the system.
2. The employee designation may keep changing based on his/her role and responsibilities, promotions, transfers, etc.

It is suggested to keep the codes numeric to ensure correctness.

Thanks,
Pankaj

Dear,

You can give an employee code based on departments, making it easy to understand which department he or she belongs to. Use a code starting from four or five digits for clarity. For example: 1001 to 1050 could represent one department, while 1051 to 1100 could signify another.

Since we cannot accurately predict future manpower needs, please estimate your current needs, and assign code ranges accordingly.

Naid

Dear Arti,

I would suggest that the employee code is very important. You can use numeric numbers as it is easy to make the ID of the employee. You can use 3 and 4-digit numbers as banks do, and this number can show the date of joining and other details.

Dear Arti,

A few tips that you'll find useful:

- Have only numeric (and not alpha-numeric) Employee Code. It's convenient in the long run when you automate your system.

- You can have a 6-digit Employee Code, where the first two digits signify the department, office, branch, unit, location, etc. For example, everybody at a Sales Office in Mumbai will have a code starting with 45, while employees at a Plant location will have a code starting with 11, Corporate Office with 01, etc.

- Always have the Employee Code based on the Date of Joining. It serves many other purposes.

- Throughout the lifetime/career, an employee will have only one Employee Code.

- Once a person ceases to be an employee, that Employee Code is not to be used again. (In any case, it's not possible as it's based on the Date of Joining.)

- Don't assign the code immediately upon the joining of a person. If it's a multiple location organization, ensure that all new joinings for the day have been accounted for. If necessary, wait for a day or two to take care of any omissions.

Hope you'll find these tips useful.

Regards.

Hi,

As per my personal experience in the HR department so far, I would suggest the following:

1) The Employee code can be alphanumeric. For example, for the Accounts department, it could start with AC, for Sales SA, or for Credit Control, CC.

2) I would not recommend using the Date of Joining (DOJ) because often when I hire employees based on the request of reporting managers, there may be two or more employees starting on the same day in the same department. Therefore, the DOJ is not practically applicable in my company. Instead, I use codes like AC1000 to AC2000 or CC1000 to CC2000.

3) Never repeat the Employee code for any other employee that has already been used.

Regards,

Liz

Hi Ash, can you tell me about the 4 types of employees and how to separate and differentiate them?

Thank you.