I AM a personnel manager in a medium-sized advertising agency. I have heard there are software programs to help people in my position keep track of employees and statistics related to them. I don't mean an accounting program to work out their salary details but one that can be used to monitor their performance, among other things.
Name and address supplied Large companies usually detail their policies on salaries, benefits and employment procedures in an employee manual.
Most small companies - those with 20 or fewer employees - don't have an employee manual, simply because it's too costly to produce.
For those companies, Jian Tools For Sale Inc, a small American software vendor, has come up with an easy-to-use program called EmployeeManualMaker.
The program organises and defines more than 125 policies and 30 benefits. For example, the ''Employee Policies and Procedures'' section covers such topics as harassment, outside employment, when a spouse works for a competitor, the introductory period, security checks and bonding requirements.
Other examples: ''Wage and Salary Policies'' discusses how a company plans to deal with overtime, salary deductions, performance and merit reviews, breaks and tardiness.
''Benefits'' describes holidays, paid and unpaid leaves of absence, insurance, profit-sharing and retirement. ''Other Policies'' deals with such matters as dismissals and dress codes.
