What is Metadata and Why is it Important to HR?

What is Metadata and Why is it Important to HR?

Wikipedia defines metadata as “structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource.”

Examples of the most basic metadata attributes associated with documents include ‘author,’ ‘date created,’ and ‘file size.’

By applying metadata to a document or object, the user is effectively describing what that document or object is. For example, metadata could be applied that defines a document as an “employee contract” for “John Smith” with a start date of “January 1, 2017.”

By applying this metadata, information can be found and managed based on “what” it is, rather than “where” it is stored, and the user is able to find that information through multiple routes.

Using the example above, an HR Manager could locate the employee contract with a search by that class of documents (“employee contracts”), by employee (“John Smith”) or by a specified date range (“employee contracts from January 2017”). The same file would appear in each search with no duplication of content.