4 Reasons Why Educated Users Equal Secure HRMS Data

HRMS data is a highly sensitive asset. Access to salary data, bonuses, birthdate, social security number and bank account can be devastating when used for malevolent purposes. User training is essential when it comes to HRMS data, and here are 4 reasons why adequate education will help users to improve HRMS data security.

Training Creates Data Awareness

When you work with HRMS data every day, it starts to become meaningless on the surface. Data is left sitting on the printer, spreadsheets of salary increases are emailed without encryption. Anyone with access to HRMS data needs to be aware of the power of the data, and to treat it with care and consideration, lest an informal or casual approach leave it vulnerable to theft and misuse. Training helps to instill a refreshed awareness of how important secure HRMS data is.

Educational Sessions Strengthen Data Handling Processes

Often you have robust processes that can handle any audit . . . but users find a workaround to the process and the workaround then becomes the new de facto process, leaving your data vulnerable. A remedy to this issue is educational sessions that ensure that the approved and standardized processes are being followed, the processes that have been designed with secure HRMS data in mind.

Training Encourages Employees to Question HRMS Data Usage

HRMS data is often used throughout the organization and can prove quite helpful to other systems - when trying to figure out if a downstream system user is terminated, for example. However, should you be releasing a list from the HRMS of all user names and social security numbers to an unknown contractor who says that he’s working on a finance project? HRMS data security training reminds us to be mindful of data purpose and to always have a business reason for data release.

Security Training Is a Long-Term Investment

Can your company afford bad publicity due to an employee inadvertently leaking personal data? Training is an investment in the skills of your staff and will ultimately protect you from more expensive mistakes and blunders through better staff understanding of HRMS data risks.