How to design employee ID codes

What a good employee code does

A good code identifies one person for as long as they work with you and is never given to anyone else. It is short enough to type on a punch terminal, sorts correctly in a spreadsheet, and survives transfers, promotions and department changes without changing. It also works in every system that needs it: payroll, the attendance machine, ID cards, email IDs and reports sent to auditors.

What to include and what to leave out

The safest format is a short, fixed prefix followed by a running number of fixed width. Everything that can change about a person should live in the employee record, not in the code. Codes that carry meaning go wrong the first time that meaning changes.

• Include a two or three letter company prefix if you run more than one entity
• Include a running number with enough digits for ten years of growth
• Leave out department, designation and grade, which change with moves
• Leave out branch or city, which changes with transfers
• Leave out the joining year unless you are sure you need it
• Avoid characters that look alike, such as O and 0 or I and 1

Formats you can copy

Take Mehta Engineering with plants at Rajkot and Morbi and 640 employees. It uses ME followed by five digits, so ME00001 to ME99999. The plant is recorded as the employee's location, not in the code, so when an operator moves from Morbi to Rajkot the code stays ME00412. Its biometric machines accept only numbers, so the device ID is the numeric part, 412, which is unique across both plants. A group with a second company might use a different prefix, such as MF, with its own running series.

• Single company: ST0001 to ST9999
• Group companies: MEC00001 for one entity, MEF00001 for another
• Trainees and apprentices in their own series, such as TR0001
• Numbers only, where machines need them: 100001, 100002 and so on

Rules for exits, rehires and transfers

Write three rules down before you need them. First, a code is never reused, even years after the person leaves, because old payroll and attendance records still point to it. Second, decide what a rehire gets. Many companies issue a new code and note the old one on the record, so each stint's history stays separate. Third, a transfer within the same company keeps the code, while a move to another group company usually means a new code in that company's series.

Step by step

1. List every place the code will be used. Include payroll, the attendance machine, ID cards, email IDs, access cards and reports. Each place may limit length or characters.
2. Check your biometric device's ID format. Find out whether your attendance machines accept letters or only numbers, and the maximum length, before fixing the format.
3. Choose the prefix. Use a short company or entity prefix if there is more than one company in the group. A single company can use a prefix for readability.
4. Fix the width of the running number. Allow enough digits for ten years of hiring, including people who will leave, since codes are never reused.
5. Write the rules for exits, rehires and transfers. Record that codes are never reused, what a rehire receives, and what happens on a move between group companies.
6. Set the format before importing. In ZeniaHR, the first step of the HRMS Setup wizard covers company basics and the employee code format, so set it before you import employees.
7. Convert existing codes once. If you are changing formats, build a mapping sheet from old codes to new ones, update every system in one go, and keep the sheet for audits.

Frequently asked questions