Human resource information system is most crucial component in human resource management. How HRIS helps to manage HR effectively.
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How Human Resource Information System help manage HR effectively
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Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is also commonly referred to as Human Resource Management System (HRMS) is a human resource software which works as a bridge between information technology and human resource. The software is used by big or small organization to manage topics related to human resource, accounting, payroll and several others (Khera, 2012). The use of HRIS simplifies the need of allocating more than necessary resources to a certain task and helps to manage and control human resource costs as well. It also helps increase the efficiency of decision making of HR managers with the use of the system.
HRIS helps to manage HR effectively by increasing productivity, reducing errors and performance analysis to name some. More on those are as explained below:
Improves the productivity of Human Resources employees
A HRIS has so many benefits to an organization to the employees deployed in the human resource unit as well. With the use of the software focused on the management of the human resources itself, it improves the productivity of the staffs in the unit along with it speeding up the work process. An example of this can be when in recruitment process, it takes a lot of time to review through hundreds and thousands of resumes and profiles submitted for a post. Several of those may be ones that doesn’t meet the selection criteria. So, with the use of the system, filters can be placed to shortlist a number of applicants, simplifying work and speeding up the process as a whole (Berry, 1993).
Use of HRIS also helps to process payroll much easily. This is something which takes some time of the staff during a certain period of the month. The task are of repetitive nature and doesn’t differ much. This is something that can be automated and the human resources can be put into something productive for the organizational goal.
Reducing the errors
HR tasks are often highly regulated and a slight error may result in heavy damage to the organization like with lawsuit. For example during the hiring process if all the resumes aren’t scanned through properly in a fair manner, a lawsuit may be field which may result in company losing out their reputation and can cause financial damage as well.
The system also helps to make sure that the certain rules and regulations be it with gender, labor or anything else is followed. Like if the government wants the organization to at least have 40% of female workforce in the organization with hundred thousand people with several people joining and departing; it’ll be very hard to keep track of things. This is when the HRIS can be of help and it makes sure that the issue is resolved before it escalates and incur financial loss to the organization ("Applying Causal Layered Analysis to Explore the Impact of HRIS", 2017).
Performing Analyses
Review of the metrics and the analysis of the organizational performance helps to organization to make better decision and spot patterns. For example, when the human resource unit is analyzing the cost of hiring and calculating the overall turnover rate of a unit in the organization, the result obtained can be used to make important business decisions and to formulate the way forward for the organization to achieve organizational goals (Nawaz, 2011).
The system also provides HR employees the control and speed so they can make calculations much quicker, fetch desired result and ensure that the human oversight can be kept to minimum.
References
Applying Causal Layered Analysis to Explore the Impact Of HRIS. (2017). International Journal Of Advance Engineering And Research Development , 4 (01).
Berry, W. (1993). HRIS can improve performance, empower and motivate “knowledge workers”. Employment Relations Today , 20 (3), 297-303.
Khera, D. (2012). Human Resource Information System and its impact on Human Resource Planning: A perceptual analysis of Information Technology companies. IOSR Journal Of Business And Management , 3 (6), 6-13.
Nawaz, D. (2011). Time & Cost Savings Advantages With Usage Of Hris In Select Software Companies In Bangalore City. Indian Journal Of Applied Research , 1 (12), 161-163.
Those who are directly involved in an HR work can understand the level of work laid out for them in terms of employee tracking, record keeping, development and various other issues related to employees in an organization. Manual record keeping of these various aspects of an employee is an almost impossible job especially when it comes to bigger organization. According to Armstrong (2012), “The 2007 CIPD s urvey found that the 10 most popular uses to which respondents put their HRIS were: Absence management, Training and development, Rewards, managing diversity, recruitment and selection, others (usually payroll), appraisal/performance management, HR planning, knowledge management and expenses. (Armstrong, 2012, p. 468)”
To make the application of HRIS more effective and efficient, it is generally combined with the IT system. With the use of intranet, the HRIS helps to create a shared platform for all the staffs to log in and utilize the user friendly software. “The research conducted also gives an idea that HRIS is not only time saving and cost effective but it also improves quality of work. The data obtained are more accurate and reliable. (Makkar & Rinku , 2014)” The management can utilize these collected data in the software to analyze past periods and come to better understanding and decision making from recruitment, appraisal, promotion, development and even firing a staff.
Aside from the usual work of the HR, the HRIS these days have also been targeted to be used at time of emergencies. “In trying times, companies must be able to contact their employees and resume business after all types of crises, not just terrorist attacks or natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. (Hanson, Giannantonio, & M, 2008)”
The HRIS holds all information of employees in an organization and also helps in communicating with their staffs at times of emergencies. This helps the company to cope better under difficult unforeseen times. “The best thing any organization can do to prepare for a crisis is to prepare its defense and that means planning and communicating, beginning with the HR department via information systems down to all levels of a company. (Hanson, Giannantonio, & M, 2008)”
Thus it can be seen that the use of HRIS can be very useful to the HR work. The data are updated on real time, are accurate, can be compiled and analyzed as and when required and give the detail of every staff throughout their sojourn in the organization. These aspects helps HR to make quicker and better decisions on behalf of the employees. The application of HRIS extends a little further than the regular work but also helps the organization plan for crisis beforehand.
References
Armstrong, M. (2012). ARMSTRONG’S HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE (12 Ed ed.). Kogan Page.
Hanson, H., Giannantonio, A. E., & M, C. (2008). HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN CRISES. Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Strategic Management. Proceedings; Arden , 23-27. Retrieved from search.proquest.com/docview/192411...
Makkar, U., & Rinku , S. (2014). Determining Employees Perception through Effective HRIS: An Empirical Study. Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management, 3(3) . Retrieved from search.proquest.com/docview/173321...
As defined by Tannenbaum 1990 in (Gupta, 2013), “ HRIS, One which is used to acquire, store, manipulative, analyze, retrieve and distribute information about an organization’s human resources.” Technology is developing continually, at this time organizational leaders need to update themselves to improve organizational effectiveness. Human Resource Information System, also known as Human Resource Management System allows a company to plan its HR costs more effectively, as well as to manage them and control them without needing to allocate too many resources toward them (hrpayrollsystems, 2017).
HRIS increases the efficiency of human resource management and helps in decision-making. It allows the company to estimate its HR costs, ways to manage them and control those using limited resources. HRIS are flexibly designed with integrated databases, a comprehensive array of features, and powerful reporting functions and analysis capabilities that you need to manage your workforce (Dresser & Associates, n.d.). HRIS work towards enhancing the human resource management to optimize stability and credibility of workforce data and helps in simplifying workflow. For example, the HR manager needs to prepare payroll sheet of employee each month. The system of checking all the register and keeping data in it takes much time and energy. By using HRIS, the manager can get the stored data in a second and utilize the remaining time into something useful.
HRIS can be used to:
Besides that, it helps to manage the HR effectively in following ways:
1. Setting goal
HRIS makes employees clear about the goals and ways to achieve it by using SMART ways. Setting optimal goals will help both the employers and employees.
2. Helps in tracking performance
HRIS helps to reduce the paper work which the efficiency and saves time. With employee performance being tracked on paper, it is difficult to see the continuous process of employee development and performance (HRIS Payroll Software, 2018). HRIS helps in recording the data of employee at one place. The data may include the record of employee like absenteeism, performance appraisal, number of leave taken and so on.
3. Provide feedback regarding employees performance
When the data about the employee is gathered in one place, this helps to give feedback faster on a regular basis. This helps the employees to improve their performance with time.
4. Ties Actions to Consequences
Employee performance need to be organized systematically and timely. HRIS allows managers to give immediate response to employee’s performance i.e to reward and punish at that particular time.
5. Foster feedback
HRIS collects, store feedback and information about employees from other employees, their managers, department heads, and the customers. Collecting feedback from all will enlarge the opportunities to track the performance of the employees.
6. Performance Reviews
Wan hen employee’s performance, rewards, punishments, training is tracked by HRIS, this reduce the work stress of managers. HRIS provides corrects facts and information at the time of requirement.
References
Dresser & Associates. (n.d.). HR, Payroll & Talent Management Solutions. Retrieved from What is a Human Resources Information System (HRIS): dresserassociates.com/what-is-hris...
Gupta, B. (2013). Human Resource Information System (HRIS): Important Element of Current Scenario. IOSR Journal of Business and Management Volume 13, Issue 6, 41-46.
HRIS Payroll Software. (2018). What is HRIS Software? Retrieved from Using HRIS to Optimize Employee Performance Management: hrispayrollsoftware.com/hris/emplo...
hrpayrollsystems. (2017). HRIS. Retrieved from What is HRIS?: hrpayrollsystems.net/hris/
Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a computer-based information system for managing the administration of human resource processes and procedures (Armstrong, 2012). It is a software package developed to aid human resource professionals in managing data. HRIS helps to facilitate workflow, improve efficiency and store and collect information. It can be referred to as employee portal that contains information about different aspects related to human resource such as benefit management, demographics and compensation, time and attendance, applicant trading, performance management, workflow and communication and reporting. The major components of HRIS are database, time and labor management, payroll function, benefits, employee interface and recruitment and retention. (Majumder, 2016).
HRIS is a software or online solution for the data entry, data tracking, and data information needs of the human resources, payroll management and accounting functions within a business. A well implemented HRIS provides:
Depending on the need of the organization, the following types of HRIS is used:
Operational HRIS: Operational HRIS is related with data and consists employee information systems, position control systems and performance management information systems.
Tactical HRIS: Tactical HRIS is related with allocation of resources and consists of job analysis and design information systems, recruiting information systems, compensation and benefits information systems and employee training and development systems.
Strategic HRIS: Strategic HRIS is related with labor negotiations, workforce planning, and specialized human resource software and consists of information systems that support workforce planning and specialized human resources software.
Comprehensive HRIS: Comprehensive HRIS is related with overall information of the employees and consists of human resource files, employee files, position files, skills inventory files, affirmative action files, job analysis and design files and occupational health and safety files.
Managing human resource is a very tough task. According to CIPD, 2007 (as cited in Armstrong, 2012) HRIS helps in managing human resource effectively by:
Tn addition to these, HRIS is important for:
Recruitment and Selection: HRIS maintains detailed employee record including number of employees working in different departments, skills and capabilities of each employees along with the employee turnover analysis. This helps human resource managers to plan for the recruitment and selection process by forecasting the future trends of human resource.
Training and Development: HRIS helps to identify the need for training and development by providing information about the gap between the expected and actual performance of the employees.
Rewards and Absence Management: By providing detailed information about the employees and their performance, HRIS assists in finding out the best performing employees and the employees with less attendance.
Diversity Management: HRIS gives idea about the combination of the workforce in terms of cultural background, educational background, religion, gender, prior work experience and geopgraphy that helps aids in diversity management.
Report Generation: Time and again, the organization has to prepare different reports based on the people they are working with and HRIS eases the process by making those records available instantly.
Self-Service: HRIS allows the employees and managers to access and upload data which facilitates the devolution of responsibility and reduces the burden of human resource managers. It eliminates the communication problem between different departments as the department heads can have easy access to the information at once.
References
Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Mangement Practice. London: Kogan Page.
Healthfield, S. M. (2018, January 28). The Balance . Retrieved from Human Resource Information System: thebalance.com/human-resource- 1 information-system-hris-1918140
Majumder, S. (2016, March 22). Medium . Retrieved from 6 Components of Human Resource Information System: medium.com/@realitynewsIndia/6-com...