RESEARCH PAPER

HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

BY:-

Ankita Bansal

MBA-II YEAR

00661203909
Abstract
Even though the first Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) only abided for
administrative tasks, the uncertainty and high competition that most firms have to presently
confront made essential to enhance their applications by means of a strategic re-orientation. This
occurrence has turned HRIS into a principal strategic means, capable of providing information
about the actual capacity of the firm and of the external potential that it may develop, or that of
their competitors.
Considering this framework, this paper aims to study the use of HRIS as a tool for assisting
various HR decisions. Particularly, it will focus on the Human Resource Management System at
IBM and Shaw’s Supermarkets.

Introduction

In today’s corporate world human resources has come to play a very critical role in a business.
Whether it concerns the hiring and firing of employees or whether it concerns employee
motivation, the Human Resources department of any organization now enjoys a very central role
in not only formulating company policies, but also in streamlining the business process. To make
a human resource department more effective and efficient new technologies are now being
introduced on a regular basis so make things much simpler and more modernized. One of the
latest human resource technologies is the introduction of a Human Resources Information
System (HRIS); this integrated system is designed to help provide information used in HR
decision making such as administration, payroll, recruiting, training, and performance analysis.

HRIS is a system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information
regarding an organization’s human resources. It is not simply computer hardware and associated
HR-related software. Although an HRIS includes hardware and software, it also includes people,
forms, policies and procedures, and data. It is a system that lets us to keep track of all our
employees and information about them. It is usually done in a database or, more often, in a series
of inter-related data.
Human Resource Information System (HRIS) merges human resource management with
information technology to not only simplify the decision making process, but also aid in complex
negotiations that fall under the human resource umbrella. The basic advantage of a Human
Resource Information System (HRIS) is to not only computerize employee records and databases
but to maintain an up to date account of the decisions that have been made or that need to be
made as part of a human resource management plan.

The four principal areas of HR that are affected by the Human Resource Information System
(HRIS) include; payroll, time and labor management, employee benefits and HR
management. These four basic HR functionalities are not only made less problematic, but they
are ensured a smooth running, without any hitch. A Human Resources Information System
(HRIS) thus permits a user to see online a chronological history of an employee from his /her
position data, to personal details, payroll records, and benefits information.

The advantage of a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in payroll is that it automates
the entire payroll process by gathering and updating employee payroll data on a regular basis. It
also gathers information such as employee attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes
on salaries, generating automatic periodic paychecks and handling employee tax reports. With
updated information this system makes the job of the human resource department very easy and
simple as everything is available on a 24x7 basis, and all the information is just a click away.

In time and labor management a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is advantageous
because it lets human resource personnel apply new technologies to effectively gather and
appraise employee time and work information. It lets an employee's information be easily
tracked so that it can be assessed on a more scientific level whether an employee is performing to
their full potential or not, and if there are any improvements that can be made to make an
employee feel more secure.

Employee benefits are very crucial because they help to motivate an employee to work harder.
By using a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in employee benefits, the human
resource department is able to keep better track of which benefits are being availed by which
employee and how each employee is profiting from the benefits provided A Human Resource
Information System (HRIS) also has advantages in HR management because it curtails time and
cost consuming activities leading to a more efficient HR department. This system reduces the
long HR paper trail that is often found in most HR divisions of companies and leads to more
productive and conducive department on the whole.
Advantages of HRIS

 Producing a greater number and variety of accurate and real-time HR-related reports

 Streamlining and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of HR administrative

functions
 Shifting the focus of HR from the processing of transactions to strategic HRM

 Reengineering HR processes and functions

 Improving employee satisfaction by delivering HR services more quickly and accurately

to them

The ability of firms to harness the potential of HRIS depends on a variety of factors, such as
 the size of the organization, with large firms generally reaping greater benefits;
 the amount of top management support and commitment;
 the availability of resources (time, money, and personnel);
 the HR philosophy of the company as well as its vision, mission and organizational
culture
 managerial competence in cross-functional decision making , employee involvement and
coaching
 the ability and motivation of employees in adopting change, such as increased automation
across and between functions

Types of HRIS

Operational HRIS

Operational human resource information systems provide the manager with data to support
routine and repetitive human resource decisions. Several operational-level information systems
collect and report human resource data. These systems include information about the
organization’s positions and employees and about governmental regulations.

1. Employee Information Systems

The human resource department must maintain information on each of the organization’s
employees for a variety of decision and reporting purposes. One part of this employee
information system is a set of human resource profile records. An employee profile usually
contains personal and organization-related information, such as name, address, sex, minority
status, marital status, citizenship, years of service or seniority data, education and training,
previous experience, employment history within the organization, salary rate, salary or wage
grade, and retirement and health plan choices. The employee inventory may also contain data
about employee preferences for geographical locations and work shifts. Another part of an
employee information system is an employee skills inventory. The skills inventory contains
information about every employee, such as work experience, work preferences, test scores,
interests, and special skills or proficiencies.
2. Position Control Systems

A job is usually defined as a group of identical positions. A position, on the other hand, consists
of tasks performed by one worker. The purpose of a position control system is to identify each
position in the organization, the job title within which the position is classified, and the employee
currently assigned to the position. Reference to the position control system allows a human
resource manager to identify the details about unfilled positions.

3. Applicant Selection and Placement Information Systems

After jobs and the employee requirements for those jobs have been identified and after a suitable
pool of job candidates has been recruited, the candidates must be screened, evaluated, selected,
and placed in the positions that are open. The primary purpose of the applicant selection and
placement information system is to assist human resource staff in these tasks.

4. Performance Management Information Systems

Performance Management Information Systems include performance appraisal data and

productivity information data. Performance management information systems data is frequently
used as evidence in employee grievance matters. Careful documentation of employee
performance and of how the performance was measured and reported is critical to acceptance of
appraisal information in grievance hearings. Performance management information can lead to a
number of decisions beyond merely supporting the operational decision to retain, promote,
transfer, or terminate a single employee.

5. Government Reporting and Compliance Information Systems

Government Reporting and Compliance Information Systems provide information needed both
to maintain compliance with government regulations and to improve productivity and reduce
costs associated with employees.

Tactical HRIS:

Tactical information systems provide managers with support for decisions that emphasize the
allocation of resources. Within the human resource management area, these decisions include
recruitment decisions; job analysis and design decisions, training and development decisions,
and employee compensation plan decisions.

1. Job Analysis and Design Information Systems

The information inputs to the job analysis and design information system include data from
interviews with supervisors and workers and affirmative action guidelines. Inputs also include
information from sources external to the firm, such as labor unions, competitors, and government
from sources external to the firm, such as labor unions, competitors, and government agencies.
The outputs of the job analysis information system are job descriptions and job specifications.
These outputs provide managers with the basis for many tactical human resource decisions.
2. Recruiting Information Systems

To direct the recruiting function, the organization needs to develop a recruiting plan. The plan
specifies the positions to be filled and the skills required of the employees for these positions. To
develop the plan and to monitor its success, a recruiting information system is necessary to
collect and process the many different types of information needed to construct the plan,
including a list of unfilled positions; the duties and requirements of these positions; lists of
planned employee retirements, transfers, or terminations; information about the skills and
preferences of current employees; and summaries of employee appraisals. Other inputs to the
recruiting plan include data about turnover rates and about the success of past placements.

3. Compensation and Benefits Information Systems

The Compensation and Benefits Information Systems may support a variety of tactical human
resource decisions, especially when compensation and benefits information is related to
information from internal and external sources. Compensation and benefit plans can play an
important part in improving an organization’s productivity. Tying employee productivity to pay
or encouraging increased productivity with incentive pay plans can often improve an
organization’s productivity substantially.

4. Employee Training and Development Systems

The training offered by the employee training and development systems must meet the needs of
jobs available in the organization as identified through the position control system and the job
analysis and design system. The training should also be directed at those persons interested and
capable of benefiting from it, as identified by the skills inventory and human resource files.

Strategic HRIS:

1. Information Systems Supporting Workforce Planning

Organization involved in long-term strategic planning, such as those planning to expand into new
market areas, construct factories or offices in new locations, or add new products, will need
information about the quantity and quality of the available workforce to achieve their goals.
Information systems that support workforce planning serve this purpose.

2. Information Systems Supporting Labor Negotiations

Negotiating with craft, maintenance, office, and factory unions requires information gathered
from many of the human resource information systems. The human resource team completing
the negotiating needs to be able to obtain numerous ad hoc reports that analyze the
organization’s and union’s positions within the framework of both the industry and the current
economic situation. It is also important that the negotiating team be able to receive ad hoc reports
on a very timely basis because additional questions and tactics will occur to the team while they
are conducting labor negotiations.
3. Specialized Human Resource Information Systems Software

A great deal of software has been specifically designed for the human resource function. This
software is available for all types and sizes of computers, including microcomputers. Software
specifically designed for the human resource management function can be divided into two basic
categories: comprehensive human resource information systems software and limited-function
packages that support one or a few human resource activities.

Comprehensive HRIS:

In the last few years, the software industry has produced several products that organize the
various human resource information systems into integrated software referred to as human
resource information systems, or HRIS, software.

In general, the computerization of HRIS has resulted in an integrated database of human resource
files. Position files, employee files, skills inventory files, job analysis and design files,
affirmative action files, occupational health and safety files, and many other human resource
files are constructed in a coordinated manner using database management systems software so
that application programs can produce reports from any or all of the files. Thus, the human
resource management director can produce reports listing likely internal candidates for open
positions by running an application program that queries position files, job requirements files,
and skills inventory files.

Limited-Function HRIS:

Numerous commercial software packages are sold for use on mainframes, minicomputers, and
microcomputers that are designed to handle one or a small number of human resource functions.
Microcomputer versions of these single-function software packages are relatively inexpensive
and easy to operate and allow the human resource manager to automate a function quickly and
easily.

Training Software

Many training software packages are available for all types and sizes of computers to provide on-
line training for employees. They include

 Management training software

 Sales training software
 Microcomputer training software
 Word processing training software

These software packages can be used in computer-based training programs designed by human
resource department for training specific employees in-group and independent study programs.
Computer-based training aids often simplify the trainer’s job and allow the trainer to
individualize instruction more easily than in traditional, group-based training classes.
Historic development

Pre–World War II

In the early 20th century and prior to World War II, the personnel function was primarily
involved in record keeping of employee information. During this period the central thrust was to
maximize employee productivity. As there were very few government influences in employment
relations, employment terms, practices, and conditions were left to the owners of the firm. As a
result, employee abuses such as child labor and unsafe working conditions were common. Some
employers set up labor welfare and administration departments to look after the interests of
workers by maintaining records on health and safety as well as recording hours worked and
payroll. However, there was simply no computer technology to automate the records. Thus paper
records were kept, and still paper record HR systems can be seen in many smaller firms.

Post–World War II (1945–1960)

The main aspect during this period was to classify workers according to job description which
could also be used to design appropriate compensation programs, evaluate individual employee
performance, and provide a basis for termination. Because of these trends, the personnel
department had to establish specialist divisions, such as recruitment, labor relations, training and
benefits, and government relations. With its changing and expanding role, personnel departments
started keeping increasing numbers and types of employee records, and computer technology
began to emerge as a possible way to store and retrieve employee information. The payroll
function was the first to be automated. Large firms began harvesting the benefits of new
computer technology to keep track of employee compensation, but this function was usually
outsourced to vendors since it was still extremely expensive for a firm to acquire or develop the
software for payroll. Record keeping was still done manually.

Social Issues Era (1963–1980)

It was about this time that personnel departments were beginning to be called Human Resources
Departments and the field of human resource management was born. As a result, there was an
increasing demand for HR departments to adopt computer technology to process employee
information more effectively and efficiently. T he decreasing costs o f computer technology
versus the increasing costs of employee compensation and benefits made acquisition of
computer-based HR systems (HRIS) a necessary business decision. However, the personnel
departments were still slow in adopting computer technology, even though it was inexpensive
relative to the power it could deliver for the storage and retrieval of employee information in
MIS reports. So, the major issue at this time in the historical development of HRIS was not the
need or capabilities of technology but how to best implement it.
Cost-Effectiveness Era (1980 to the Early 1990s)

In this period, even small and medium firms could afford computer-based HR systems that were
run by increasingly user friendly microcomputers, and could be shown to be cost-effective. The
HR personnel shifted their attention and time from the transactional record keeping to more
transformational activities that would add value to the organization. This change in the function
of HRM could then be clearly measured in terms of cost-benefit ratios to the “bottom line” of the
company.

Technological Advancement Era and Emergence of Strategic HRM (1990 to Present)

The economic landscape underwent radical changes throughout the 1990s with increasing
globalization and technological breakthroughs. The people management function has become
strategic in its importance and outlook and is geared to attract, retain, and engage talent. These
developments have led to the creation of the HR or workforce scorecard as well as added
emphasis on the return on investment (ROI) of the HR function and its programs. With the
growing importance and recognition of people and people management in contemporary
organizations, strategic HRM (SHRM) has become critically important in management
thinking and practice. Thus HRIS became very important which can be found in the human
resources planning (HRP) function. HRP is primarily concerned with forecasting het need for
additional employees in the future and the availability of those employees either inside or
external to the company. Therefore, in determining the strategic fit between technology and HR,
it is not the strategy that leads to competitive advantage but rather how well it is implemented,
taking into account the environmental realities that can be unique to each organization and,
indeed, between units and functions of the organization.

Examination of current issues

IBM

The Situation:

IBM is a global organization offering research, software, hardware, IT consulting, business and
management consulting, ring and financing. It employs around 340,000 people, speaking 165
languages across 75 countries, and serving clients in 174 countries. In January 2007, IBM
established a separate “new media” function within its corporate communication department.
IBM main goal is to educate, support, and promote programs that utilize social media. IBM
Europe decided to expand internal communication by blogging guidelines. The recognition was
that blogging was already happening among IBMers, just in an unregulated way. In a similar
way, institutionalizing a function to deal specifically with new media is not a corporate move, or
establishing from scratch. It’s a response to the issues already emerging in the company. Now
that those technologies are here, people are using them, they’re growing and there here to stay-
we’re just going to put some structure around them so that we can try to optimize their use.” The
users decide what technologies they want to use and how they want to use them. That main idea
is that IBM understands that they must remember to respect the fact that social media are social.
IBM had the need to connect its 340,000 global employees more effectively

The Response:

IBM’s intent around social media has now been officially formalized. From January 22 2007, the
company established a separate “new media” function within its corporate communication
department. “Its remit: To act as expert consultants inside and outside IBM on issues relating to
blogs, wikis, RSS and other social media applications. The main idea is to educate, support and
promote programs that utilize these tools. IBM has a history of being a t the forefront of
technology based corporate communication. From the multimedia brainstorming “World Jam”
that made news headlines back in 2001 in which 50,000 employees worldwide joined a real time,
online idea-sharing session about the company’s direction. IMB has always prepared itself to use
breakthrough technologies to establish a two-way dialogue with its employees. The need for
social media was necessary and could no longer wait.

The Outcome:

In the last few years IBM has been recognized as being the vanguard of social-media use: IBM
was on of the first Fortune 500 companies to get behind collaborative wikis, published internal
blogging guidelines as far back as 2003, and is now moving fast beyond RSS and podcasts into
videocasting and “virtual world” technologies like Second Life. The intranet search facility
extends to all areas of the site, including new media aspects. When an employee logs onto their
portal an executes a key word search, the results they get back not only come from the main
intranet pages, but include results from IBM forums, wikis, blogs and podcast/videocasts tags.
IMB has an understanding that employees are no longer staying in a company their entire lives.
It’s just not like that anymore. In Belgium for example over 50 percent of 2,300 employees have
been there fewer than five years. The company has come to the conclusion that with an
increasingly young and mobile workforce, the likelihood is that an employee population full of a
younger generation, for whom these tools are part and parcel of life, is not that far away. In years
to come IBM will have to deal with employee base for which blogging is just the natural way to
interact over a web platform. IBM has created centralized platforms for most tools that fall under
its remit, which includes wikis. For Philippe Borremans, new media lead Europe for IBM, has
the potential business applications of a wiki cover two broad benefits: Collaborating and
knowledge sharing. IBM has scored some notable successes on both fronts in the near 5000 wiki
pages now up and running in the organization. The company has been a huge pick-up in interest
in podcasting over the last 18 months writing can seem such a technical skill, whereas people
feel they can talk more freely than they can write. One of the most consistently popular IBM
podcasts, with over 20,000 downloads a week.
Shaw’s Supermarkets

The Situation:

Shaw’s Supermarkets is the second largest supermarket chain in New England. With a workforce
of 30,000 located at 180 stores throughout six states, Shaw's HR staff is responsible for
managing employees' personal data. Their employee mix includes approximately 70 percent part-
time employees, consisting of students, senior citizens, second-job part-timers, and career part-
timers. One third of the workforce is made up of union associates, and Shaw's staff oversees the
company's involvement with three unions and six separate contracts. In order to help manage the
workforce, the HR staff became interested in centralizing its HR operations.

The Response:

In order to centralize HR operations Shaw’s decided to implement an ESS (employee self-

service) solution. The use of self-service applications creates a positive situation for HR. ESS
gives HR more time to focus on strategic issues, such as workforce management, succession
planning, and compensation management, while at the same time improving service to
employees and managers, and ensuring that their data is accurate. With this solution, employees
have online access to forms, training material, benefits information and other payroll related
information.

The Outcome:

Shaw’s has had positive feedback since implementing the ESS solution. The reaction from the
employees was extremely positive. There was a significant increase in medical coverage costs,
and it was almost a non-issue because the online enrollment featured the plan choices, the
employee cost, and the company subsidy. An employee self-service application makes it very
easy for them to understand their contributions and coverage options. By giving the employees
more access to their information they are able to see the benefit choices available to them.
Employees are also able to update their information online, which helps reduce the paperwork of
the past. Shaw’s has also seen improvement in productivity because employees are updating
information at home, not during work hours.

References

Byars, Lloyd L. & Rue, Leslie W. (2004). Human Resource Management, 7e. The McGraw-Hill
Companies

Clarifying IBM’s Strategic mission for social media (2007). Strategic Communication
Management. Retrieved June 1, 2007 from http://proquest.umi.com

www.citehr.com

www.wikipedia.com