TalentCompass HRIS v1.0

A lightweight, terminal-based Human Resource Information System (HRIS) built in Java. TalentCompass Core is designed to give HR teams fast, no-frills access to workforce analytics and candidate pipeline management — all from the command line, with no database or internet connection required.

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Project Scope

TalentCompass is a single-user, local-run HRIS intended for small to mid-sized teams that need structured HR reporting without the overhead of enterprise software. The system covers two core domains:

Analytics — Read-only reporting on the existing workforce loaded from a CSV file at startup. This includes headcount distribution, attrition metrics, pay parity analysis, and gratuity compliance flagging.

Data Entry — Append-only logging for recruitment activity (new candidates and their hiring cycle time) and candidate rejection tracking with Pareto-style pipeline analysis.

The system is not a full HRMS. It does not support real-time database writes to the employee master, user authentication, or multi-user access.

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Features

Analytics Modules

• Master Employee Directory — Tabular view of all employees with ID, name, department, and tenure.
• Workforce Distribution — Active headcount grouped by department.
• Attrition & Risk Report — Turnover rate calculation with a Six Sigma-style control limit flag (⚠️ triggered above 15%). Breaks down active, notice period, and exited headcounts.
• Gender Pay Parity Report — Average salary comparison across male and female employees, with a parity ratio and bias alert if the gap exceeds ±2%.
• 5-Year Gratuity Compliance Report — Lists all active and notice-period employees who have crossed the 5-year tenure threshold and are eligible for statutory gratuity.

Data Entry Modules

• Log New Candidate — Records candidate ID, name, applied role, application date, offer date, and offer status to candidates.csv. Automatically calculates hiring cycle time in days and flags if it exceeds 45 days.
• Log Rejection & Pareto Chart — Records a candidate rejection with a standardised reason code to rejections.csv, then immediately renders a ranked Pareto analysis of all rejection reasons to help identify the top pipeline bottleneck.

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Limitations

• No live editing of employee records — The employee master (startup.csv) is read once at boot. You cannot add, update, or delete employee records from within the application.
• No authentication or access control — Any user who can run the application has full access to all modules.
• Flat-file storage only — All data is stored in CSV files. There is no relational database, so there are no joins, foreign key constraints, or transactional safety.
• Single-user only — Concurrent access from multiple users will cause data corruption in the CSV log files.
• No data validation on CSV input — Malformed rows in startup.csv are skipped with a warning, but there is no pre-import validation tool.
• No export functionality — Report output is printed to the terminal only. There is no option to export reports to PDF, Excel, or any other format.
• Gender binary assumption — The pay parity report currently only computes averages for M and F gender values. Non-binary or undisclosed entries are excluded from the calculation with a warning.
• Date parsing is strict — All dates must be entered in YYYY-MM-DD format exactly. Any other format will throw an error and abort the operation.

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Roadmap

The following enhancements are planned or under consideration for future versions:

• Employee record management — Add the ability to onboard new employees, update existing records, and flag exits directly from the dashboard, with changes written back to the master CSV.
• Role-based access control — Introduce a login layer with at least two roles (e.g., HR Admin and Viewer) to restrict data entry operations.
• Database backend — Migrate from flat CSV files to an embedded database (e.g., SQLite via JDBC) for safer concurrent reads, proper indexing, and transactional writes.
• Report export — Allow any generated report to be saved as a .txt, .csv, or .pdf file with a timestamped filename.
• Configurable thresholds — Move hardcoded values like the 15% attrition control limit and 45-day cycle time threshold into an external config.properties file so they can be adjusted without recompiling.
• Full gender inclusivity in pay parity — Extend the pay parity report to handle non-binary and undisclosed gender categories.
• Candidate pipeline dashboard — A dedicated view showing all candidates logged, their current status, and average cycle times by role.
• Automated gratuity notifications — Generate a printable or email-ready notification list for Finance when employees cross the 5-year milestone.
• Unit test coverage — Introduce JUnit tests for the Employee, Candidate, and HRSystem classes to guard against regressions.

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Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

Requirement	Version
Java Development Kit (JDK)	11 or higher
A terminal / command prompt	Any

No third-party libraries or build tools (Maven, Gradle) are required. The project compiles with standard javac.

Project Structure

HRIS_project/
├── Main.java                  # Entry point
├── startup.csv                # Employee master data (required at launch)
├── candidates.csv             # Auto-created on first candidate log
├── rejections.csv             # Auto-created on first rejection log
├── model/
│   ├── Employee.java
│   └── Candidate.java
├── service/
│   └── HRSystem.java
└── ui/
    └── Menu.java

Data Files

startup.csv (required) — The employee master file. Must be placed in the same directory as Main.java before running. The application will fail to load data if this file is missing. Expected column order, with a header row:

ID, FullName, Gender, Department, Role, JoiningDate, BasicSalary, Status

• Gender: M or F
• JoiningDate: YYYY-MM-DD format
• BasicSalary: numeric (monthly, no currency symbols)
• Status: Active, Probation, Notice Period, or Exited

candidates.csv — Auto-generated in the working directory when the first candidate is logged. Do not manually edit this file while the application is running.

rejections.csv — Auto-generated in the working directory when the first rejection is logged. This file feeds the Pareto chart; clearing it will reset the analysis history.

Compilation

From the project root directory:

javac -d . model/Employee.java model/Candidate.java service/HRSystem.java ui/Menu.java Main.java

Running the Application

java Main

The system will boot, attempt to load startup.csv, and display the main dashboard menu.