Automate your spreadsheets – Using Excel and VBA Part 1

C-Suite credibility requires mastery of planning techniques and the ability to model pay and performance options quickly and clearly for a busy, non-specialist audience. This requires an enabling technology.

Technology promises to deliver solutions, but often falls short. Core HR technology solutions are built to address the very important compliance and administration tasks of their profession, largely driven by Payroll, Benefits, and record keeping. It is very difficult to develop robust planning tools or administer multiple approaches with a payroll system

Even when using 'The Best’ software, you are tied to the capabilities and functionality of your HRIS system that often delivers a rigid and plain vanilla process. Add-on packages claim to solve your problems, but you soon discover you simply trade one set of limitations for another, or create information silos that restrict meaningful analysis - all at a considerable expense

And there is little interest in spending more money on expensive systems or system modifications that cannot demonstrate a positive ROI.

There are also many tasks for which there are no dedicated applications. These tasks need to be accomplished, and your day becomes consumed with paperwork or repetitive spreadsheets, which leads to higher costs and lower productivity. This is not what leadership wants.

There is an alternative. The bottom line is that you already have powerful software and a network available for employees to use, so the investment in software and computer infrastructure has already been made.

Spreadsheets provide all the power you need to administer even the most complex programs. VBA allows you to automate the spreadsheets, and develop powerful and sophisticated business tools in Excel. We will give an overview of:
• Why the Macro recorder simply doesn’t work
• The basic principles of the VBA language
• The concept of a VBA project.
• The concept of a VBA procedure.
• How to manage and use VBA modules that store VBA code
• The basic operation of the VBA Editor

In addition, we will show some specific examples of what can be done to simplify any process, and the specific VBA code that is used to automate many time-intensive processes.

This is the first of a two part VBA training course. We will show you an alternative to cumbersome spreadsheets, expensive system modifications, or costly “add on” software that usually trades one set of limitations for another and creates data silos. Excel and VBA can be part of an HRIS strategy that uses the core HRIS for what it does well, and Excel and VBA to give you all the ‘good stuff’ you need to be an effective business partner. Part 2 will focus on using GUIs to develop a flawless and foolproof workflow.

Anyone who wants to learn a new way to overcome the technology barriers to being an effective business partner.

1. There is an alternative to your rigid HRIS and cumbersome spreadsheets that is cost effective and powerful
2. Excel with VBA can create powerful and sophisticated business solutions that rival applications costing millions of dollars
3. We will present a 'road map' to the VBA process

There are many books on VBA

		Roy Farrell HR Value, LLC View Profile