Saucha (Purity / Cleanliness)

Aphorism: Keep your data, and your intentions, clean.

HR Application: Saucha asks us to remove the noise and muck. This means that we need to be diligent in the integrity of the systems we manage and also consider the integrity of why we are doing what we are doing.

This is everything from keeping employee data current and accurate to making sure processes are consistent and serving the needs of the greater organization and not just the agenda of a few.

Clean data is a necessity, not just an administrative task. The hygiene of the entire people system is really important. If job levels are off, then there’s risk of pay inequity between people performing the same work. Data clean-up is a time intensive process that can be mostly prevented. There’s always something to clean up but you can keep things from becoming a disaster by being intentional in how you manage data in the first place.

I am just as guilty of letting things go and thinking that I can “catch up” at a later date. However later never comes. There’s always something else that needs to be done and that’s the trap. So how can you strategize about data management? Maybe it’s looking into data automation like finding ways to integrate systems through SFTPs or APIs that allow different systems to talk to each other. In HR, we often use systems (or inherit them from predecessors), that are cobbled together with a paperclip, held together by hopes and dreams. How can we ensure we remain steady in managing data in a way that is intentional and prevents messy outcomes? As cliché as it may be, consistency is key when it comes to data management.

The concept of saucha asks us to be intentional in practicing cleanliness (or purity of action), which is difficult in practice. The intentionality of data management may not be feasible because ‘good enough’ may be what works for an organization.

In the business world, organizations may not have the resources to have streamlined systems that make it easy to manage and organize data. That doesn’t mean an organization shouldn’t have a strategy for managing data. It means that a business should be aware of and account for the limitations of the system they use. Which should include regular reviews to see how the needle of “good enough” can be moved.