The people list, and one record

One record, three readers

Leila Mansour: Amara has her first one-to-one with Layla this afternoon, from Toronto. She wants everything we hold on her, in one place.

Mariam Saleh: One place is the whole idea. I'll walk her through the record.

Lina: Layla's second week at Northwind. Her record has readers in Dubai, in Toronto and in London — and this series follows it, tab by tab.

Lina: The people list, and one record: how to find anyone at Northwind, and what their record tells you before you open a single tab.

Nine chapters, one record

Lina: Nine chapters. This one is about finding a person, and reading their record at a glance.

Lina: The next seven take the record apart, one tab at a time.

David: And the last one is about keeping it true, long after the first week.

Everyone, in one list

Lina: The people list, grouped by department.

Lina: At the top, four numbers that follow the filters: everyone in view,

Lina: the departments they come from,

Lina: and the average length of service, with how many joined in the last ninety days.

Lina: Each person is one row: their photo and title, their department, their manager, how to reach them, and how long they've been here.

David: Why is the manager a column of its own?

Lina: Because the first thing most people want to know about a colleague is who they answer to.

Grouped by office

Lina: Northwind works from five offices, so the list can group by where people work instead.

Lina: Head office in London,

Lina: the engineering centre in Lahore,

Lina: and the customer success hub in Dubai — each with its headcount on the group line.

David: And a department can span offices?

Lina: Most of them do. Operations runs from London, Toronto and Dubai. Department is what you do; work location is where you do it.

The Dubai hub

Lina: Open the Dubai hub, and there are three people.

Lina: Layla, in Operations, reporting to Amara in Toronto.

Lina: Leila, the HR business partner for the Middle East, reporting to London,

Lina: and Mariam, who reports to Leila.

David: Three people in one office, and three different managers.

Lina: That's normal for an international company. The office tells you where they sit; the manager column tells you who they work for.

Starting soon

Lina: In Lahore, one row reads differently.

Lina: Farah has been hired, but hasn't started: instead of a length of service, the row counts the days to her first one.

David: So you can see who's arriving, not only who's here.

Five offices, one list

Lina: Put the offices on a map.

Lina: London,

Lina: Toronto,

Lina: Dubai,

Lina: Lahore,

Lina: and Singapore.

David: And sixteen nationalities between them.

Lina: Which is why nationality is a column you can group by, too — it's how HR sees who needs a permit, and where.

The org chart

Lina: The same people, drawn as the organisation.

Lina: The chief executive at the top,

Lina: and the four people who report to her, each card showing how many people sit below.

David: Is this drawn by hand?

Lina: No. Every line is the manager field on someone's record. Change a manager, and the chart redraws itself.

Find someone

Lina: To find one person, type a name.

Her place

Lina: The chart jumps to her, and the path along the top shows every step from the chief executive down: operations, then Amara, then Layla.

Lina: Her card: title, department, and how long she's been here.

Who this is

Lina: Open her record, and the header answers the first questions before any tab.

Lina: Her name, her employee code, and a new-hire flag for her first months.

Lina: Her title and department,

Lina: her nationality and when she joined, written as a sentence,

Lina: a chip saying her profile is still waiting for a review,

Lina: and how to reach her.

David: Nationality right in the header?

Lina: For a company like this one it matters every day: it decides which documents she needs, and which rules apply to her pay.

Read before anything else

Lina: Under it, a completeness bar: five of seven key fields filled, and a button to finish the rest.

Lina: Then a strip of tiles, none of them typed by anyone. Her tenure,

Lina: whether she's in right now,

Lina: her contract, with no end date,

Lina: her next birthday,

Lina: and her reporting line: her manager above, and nobody below her yet.

David: All worked out from other fields?

Lina: Every one. That's why they're always right — as long as the fields underneath are.

The fields underneath

Lina: Take them one at a time. Tenure is counted from her joining date: seven days so far.

Lina: Presence is read from her check-ins: in, out, or off-hours.

Lina: The contract tile shows the contract itself — which, today, has no end date.

David: And the birthday comes round from her date of birth.

Lina: Reports is the manager field again: Amara above her, nobody below.

David: So to put a tile right, you put its field right.

Lina: Yes. The tile only repeats what the field says.

Where the detail lives

Lina: The detail lives in the tabs.

Lina: And on the right, the facts you need whichever tab you're on: who she reports to,

Lina: her department and position, and where she works.

Nine tabs, eight chapters

Lina: Layla's record has nine tabs, and the rest of this series takes them in turn.

Lina: Personal info: who she is, on the record.

Lina: Work info: where she sits, who approves what — and, in chapter four, her contract and pay.

David: Skills and resume: what she can do, and where she learned it.

David: Documents: her file.

Lina: Private: her family, her health, her next of kin — and who may see them.

David: And the other three?

Lina: Activity,

Lina: insights,

Lina: and tasks — the living record: her time, her leave, her goals.

David: And HR settings, where her status is kept true.

One record, two screens

Lina: Nine tabs — but that's the record as HR opens it.

Lina: Mariam's screen has all of it: the header, the tiles and every tab.

David: And when Layla opens her own record?

Lina: She gets self-service: her own profile, laid out for her and not for HR.

David: With the same facts underneath?

Lina: The same record, on two screens — and her manager has a third.

Lina: Chapter seven shows who draws the lines between them.

One record, many readers

David: Why one record? Most companies keep five spreadsheets.

Lina: And every one of them is out of date in a different way. Here there's one place, and everyone reads the same thing.

Lina: But not everyone reads all of it: Amara sees what a manager needs, Layla sees her own, Mariam keeps it.

Lina: And each tab has someone who keeps it true — that's the rest of the course.

David: So the record is only as good as its keepers.

A one-to-one

Amara Okafor: I've got her record open. Seven days in, and it already knows a lot.

Mariam Saleh: It knows what we've told it. Her languages are empty, and nobody has reviewed her profile yet.

Amara Okafor: Then that's where we start.

Lina: Next: personal information — who Layla is, on the record.