7 Signs Spreadsheets and Docs Are Holding Your HR Team Back

Your HR team is humming along. You’ve got headcount to manage, offers to send, performance and merit cycles coming up, and a growing organization spread across time zones. You’re doing your best with what you’ve got: spreadsheets, Google Docs, maybe a handful of tools duct-taped together with manual processes. It all works. Until it doesn’t.

If your department’s “single source of truth” is still called SSOT.xlsx, and if you’re spending more time formatting columns than solving problems, it might be time for a change.

Here are seven painfully familiar signs that spreadsheets and docs are holding your team back and what to do before it gets too painful or stressful.

1. You can’t answer simple questions without asking, “Who owns the sheet?”

What should be a 10-second answer—“How many employees do we have in France?”—becomes a full-blown Slack investigation. You track down the person who “owns” the master spreadsheet. They’re on PTO. Or worse, they’re no longer working for your organization. And when you do get the sheet? It has not been updated for three months, so the only available information is outdated.

Why this is a deeper problem: When HR data is fragmented and ownership is unclear, you introduce systemic inefficiencies and information asymmetry. The cost isn’t just in wasted time; it can also result in strategic missteps. For instance, inaccurate headcount data during budget planning can lead to over- or under-hiring, both of which affect productivity and morale.

What you can do about it: A centralized, real-time data system (like an HRIS) ensures that HR leaders can provide instant, accurate insights during executive discussions, transforming HR from reactive administrator to proactive planner.

2. Your onboarding lives in a Google Doc and someone’s brain

You have an onboarding checklist somewhere on your document management tool or in your knowledge base. Meanwhile, a new hire starts work, and half of their equipment isn’t ready on the start day. Their onboarding session is “in the calendar somewhere,” and their contract is still in someone’s Drafts folder.

Why this is a deeper problem: First impressions count for your new hires. A messy onboarding suggests your company made little to no effort to welcome them. It also means that they won’t be productive as soon as they can since they lack access to tools and the knowledge to get up and running. Poor onboarding negatively affects time-to-productivity and early retention. Employees with a poor onboarding experience are twice as likely to quit.

What you can do about it: Structured onboarding systems with automation ensure consistency, help new hires feel welcome, and accelerate ramp-up.

3. You’re tracking PTO in a sheet called “FINAL_final_v4”

All PTO requests in your organization live in one document. And it’s not just vacation; it’s sick leave, parental leave, and regional holidays. Someone requests time off, and it sits in a manager’s inbox for four days. Then, you update it manually in a tab or a folder. You hope you logged it into the right place.

Why this is a deeper problem: Beyond administrative hassle, manual leave tracking creates compliance risks with labor laws, especially for global teams with country-specific requirements. Additionally, there could be cases where managers forget to approve holidays, leading to staff feeling resentful of the lack of responsiveness. Even worse, when critical deadlines are set, managers forget the limited capacity due to people being on PTO.

What you can do about it: A modern HRIS with geo-specific compliance rules enables proper tracking of accrued leave, public holidays, and statutory entitlements—reducing liability.

4. You’re flying blind on compliance—until it’s too late

Contracts, visa documentation, training completion records, and labor law requirements live in disconnected folders, inboxes, or spreadsheets. You scramble during audits. You’re unsure who has completed the required anti-harassment training, and your labor law posters are outdated in a shared drive.

Why this is a deeper problem: Non-compliance with key laws (e.g., FLSA, GDPR, OSHA, local employment laws) can result in fines, lawsuits, or bans from doing business in specific jurisdictions. Since 2020, the top 100 regulatory fines, criminal penalties, and class action settlements for corporate misconduct in the US alone summed nearly $222 billion.

What you can do about it: Proactive compliance tools with built-in alerts, e-signature tracking, and audit logs reduce legal exposure and protect brand reputation.

5. Only one person knows how to “use” the compensation model—and they’re terrified of breaking it

Your compensation model is delicate. It has linked tabs, fragile formulas, and color-coded cells that no one fully understands. It works until someone accidentally pastes values over a VLOOKUP. So now only one or two people are “allowed” to touch it. They’re gatekeepers, not by choice, but because this whole system is too fragile to share.

Why this is a deeper problem: This single-point-of-failure approach leads to operational bottlenecks. If key personnel leave, so does critical institutional knowledge. Additionally, all participants in compensation decisions should engage in compensation decision-making without worrying about destroying the infrastructure that powers this process.

What you can do about it: Shared, intuitive tools with audit trails and permission levels allow compensation to be a collaborative process, reducing risk and increasing trust in HR’s recommendations.

6. Your merit cycle involves 20 spreadsheets and 40 emails

You know it’s merit cycle time when the spreadsheet circulation starts. Managers receive custom tabs via email. People forget to use the template. Someone accidentally deletes formulas. You spend three weeks reassembling versions with names like “final_final_V2_edit-JP.xlsx.”

Why this is a deeper problem: This is not just a productivity drain. One wrong update and someone gets the wrong compensation change. Or worse, misses one entirely. Errors can lead to pay inequity, exposing the company to legal and reputational risks. The effects can range from low trust and engagement to increased turnover. Needless to say, this is all affecting your people’s performance, hence your organization’s bottom line.

What you can do about it: Automating merit cycles enables HR teams to apply consistent rules and flag discrepancies, which enhances compliance and helps build a culture of equity and transparency.

7. You’re still chasing data instead of using it

Maybe the biggest sign of all that you’ve outgrown manual HR processes is that you spend most of your time wrangling data, not acting on it. You’re not able to forecast compensation costs. You can’t model new headcount plans easily. You’re stuck being reactive because it takes too long to pull together the necessary data to enable well-informed decision-making.

Why this is a deeper problem: HR should be a strategic partner, not a spreadsheet operator. Without real-time analytics, HR can’t perform workforce planning, DEI tracking, or predictive attrition modeling—all now considered best practices in modern HR.

What you can do about it: Data agility enables HR to contribute meaningfully to business strategy. A McKinsey survey reveals that high-performing companies are 57% more likely than their peers to report altering their long-term strategy in response to data and analytics.

From firefighting to forecasting: The strategic rise of HR

If you’re nodding along to two, three—or all seven—of these signs, it might be time to take the next step. The transformation from “spreadsheet operator” to strategic business partner starts with upgrading your systems. A modern HR tech stack enables:

• Predictive analytics (e.g., attrition risk)
• Strategic workforce planning (e.g., headcount vs. revenue modeling)
• Executive alignment (data-backed business cases)

Here’s how to start taking back control:

1. Inventory your tools and processes. Make a list of every spreadsheet and doc your team uses for core HR functions—onboarding, time off, compensation, contracts, etc. Chances are, there are redundancies (and risks) you didn’t even realize.
2. Start with your biggest pain point. Whether it’s onboarding delays or messy merit cycles, pick one area to streamline first. You don’t have to solve everything overnight—just create a quick win and build from there.
3. Talk to your counterparts in finance and ops. If they’re frustrated by the same inefficiencies, you may have allies ready to champion change.
4. Find systems that talk to each other. If you’re evaluating platforms, prioritize ones that can consolidate, not add to your tech stack. Integration and flow are non-negotiables.

Graduate your HR system with Deel

At Deel, we’ve experienced all of the signs we covered above. Our team used to manage everything from performance reviews to PTO approvals in spreadsheets across 100+ countries and worker types. These pains and experiences have informed our product vision for a global and interconnected stack of tools that can support HR as strategic decision-makers, Deel HR.

No more “final_final_v4” files. No more permission errors. No more lost contracts. No more inconsistent onboarding experiences. No more painful performance and merit cycles. Just one connected experience for HR and workers (EOR, direct employees, contractors) alike.

Streamline and compliantly manage everything in one place for all teams, regardless of location or worker type. Deel HR offers the following solutions:

• Deel Engage: Empower teams with performance, feedback, learning, and career tools
• Deel Talent: Find and hire contingent workers with one platform
• Deel Compensation: Design and manage competitive, global compensation structures
• Deel Workforce Planning: Strategically manage global workforce changes
• Global HRIS: Centralize worker data, streamline approval policies, track leave requests, store contracts and compliance forms, create custom reporting, and more

If you’re ready to trade spreadsheet chaos for clarity and control, we’d love to show you how Deel can help. Get in touch with a product specialist.