What is Human Resources Information System (HRIS)? Definition, Benefits, Objective

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What is Human Resources Information System (HRIS)?

Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is an organized procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data needed by an organization about its human resources. It is usually a part of the organization’s Management Information System (MIS).

What is HRIS
What is HRIS

HRIS is a complete computerized package that provides the data about a human resource to the management so that the data can be communicated widely providing access to other users of the organization.


Human Resources Information System (HRIS) Definition

A human resource information system (HRIS) is a software application used to store employee information and support various human resource functions, such as benefits, payroll, recruiting, training, etc. – Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

HRIS is a computerized system that provides current and accurate data for purposes of control and decision-making in HR. – Gary Dessler “Book: Human Resource Management”


Information Provided by HRIS

HRIS provides various information to the organization which are as follows:

  1. Recruitment Information
  2. Career Planning Information
  3. Training Information
  4. Appraisals Information
  5. Provides Employee Data on their Remuneration
Information Provided by HRIS
Information Provided by HRIS

Recruitment Information

HRIS provides recruitment information to the management. It identifies the vacant positions in the organization and also provides the vacancy details. It also helps in shortlisting the right candidate for the job.

Career Planning Information

HRIS provides career planning information about the employees. If an employee is working for many years in an organization then HRIS will help in deciding his promotions, training, and development programs.

Training Information

HRIS makes available information regarding training needs. It also provides a schedule for training programs such as; how many days the training will be provided, what will be the course content of the training program, course specification.

Appraisals Information

The performance of the employees is appraised on yearly, half-yearly or quarterly basis depending on the organization’s requirement. Their appraisal is done by assessment of their performance and their goal accomplishments.

Provides Employee Data on their Remuneration

HRIS maintains data about employee wages, incentives, tax information, insurance benefits, employee attendance, and much more while wanting to make a decision.


Benefits of HRIS

There are several benefits of HRIS. It has become a backbone for the successful running of the organizations in today’s times:

  • Since it leads to automation of work to a great extend the need to maintain files and manually process payrolls and applications can be avoided. It also helps avoid manual errors. Hence it saves time and makes work easy. This can let the HR managers focus on other important strategic decisions.

  • It also helps in streamlining the administration of employee attendance, leave records, employee benefits etc. Employees can mark their attendance electronically, apply for leaves online, new employees may electronically enroll in benefit plans, current employees can log onto the system monitor and update their leave records, current benefit coverage and other important information throughout the year.

  • HRIS allows candidates in case of job openings to submit their resumes and contact information online. the software also allows current employees to electronically apply for new positions.The system then collects the information and archives it so it is easily accessible by the hiring manager.

  • It acts as a decision support system. HRIS maintains data about employee profiles, hiring records, tax information, insurance benefits, employee attendance and much more, while wanting to make a decision it can process out reports on the stored data with a few mouse clicks. It gives a very accurate information and does fast processing.Hence it becomes an important tool to strategic planning and its implementation

Objectives of HRIS

HRIS is very important for an organization to maintain. Nowadays, many organizations are working on HRIS to keep a sound and accurate record of their human resources.

Besides, there are some purposes and objectives of human resource information system in the organization which are as follows:-

  1. Provide Historical Information and Evidence
  2. Provides up-to-Date Information
  3. Helps in Personnel Research and Personnel Audit
  4. Needed to take Personnel Decision
  5. Deciding Payrolls and Career Path
  6. Supplying Information to the Government and Various Agencies
  7. Helps in Evaluation and Modification of HR Policies
  8. Helps the Company to Detect Frauds, Mistakes, and Errors
Objectives of HRIS
Objectives of HRIS

Provide Historical Information and Evidence

HRIS is a part of a management information system, which keeps track of their employee’s data like their joining date, cost incurred on recruitment, their performance record, their feedback, and all other important information which is very necessary for an organization.

Provides up-to-Date Information

The organization keeps each and every single detail about an employee. HRIS is updated every time when an employee joins or leaves the organization. It is updated every day with other important information.

Helps in Personnel Research and Personnel Audit

HRIS also helps in conducting the research or investigation about an employee because sometimes, employees provide false or fake data in order to join the organization.

Needed to take Personnel Decision

HRIS also helps in making personnel decisions. HRIS helps the management in forecasting the demand and supply for manpower in the organization. It also helps in taking decisions like recruitment, selection, placement, training needs, and promotions, etc. of an employee.

Deciding Payrolls and Career Path

HRIS records all the information about the human resources of the organization. On the basis of the qualification, experience, past performance HRIS helps the management in deciding the payroll and career path like promotion, demotion, training, development, transfers, etc about the employees.

Supplying Information to the Government and Various Agencies

HRIS also supplies the information to the government and various agencies for additional use.

Helps in Evaluation and Modification of HR Policies

It helps in evaluating and modifying the HR policies from time to time. If there is any need to change or update any policy, HRIS will help the organization in making the necessary changes.

Helps the Company to Detect Frauds, Mistakes, and Errors

HRIS also helps the company to detect the frauds, mistakes, and errors made in the data recorded in the information system. It checks all the frauds and corrects mistakes and errors wherever required.


Advantages of HRIS

HRIS is needed in the organization and it provides the advantages of HRIS in the following way:

  1. More Accurate than Manual Files
  2. Available Centrally and Accessible to all
  3. Easy to Analyze Records than in Manual Recording
  4. Easy to Operate and Saves Time
  5. Administer Employee Information
  6. Apply Electronically to the Organization
  7. Decision Support System
Advantages of HRIS
Advantages of HRIS

More Accurate than Manual Files

HRIS is a computerized package. It maintains all the records on the computer and avoids the manual process of payrolls and applications.

HRIS is an automated system therefore; it saves time and avoids manual errors. It also provides accurate and timely results.

Available Centrally and Accessible to all

HRIS is a computerized package that records, stores, manipulates and communicates the information with increased capacity with access to many users.

It is stored centrally in the main system which is linked to other users that can be accessed by them as per their requirements.

Easy to Analyze Records than in Manual Recording

HRIS makes it easy and convenient to analyze all the records of the employees. HRIS maintains all the information on the computer system and it becomes easy for the managers or any other user to access the information that is accurate and on time.

Manual recording by the clerks or the specialized persons appointed for this purpose is very time-consuming.

Easy to Operate and Saves Time

Since it leads to automation of work to a great extent the need to maintain files and manually process payrolls and applications can be avoided.

Hence it saves time and makes work easy. The manager saves time and is able to devote time to other important strategic decisions of the organization.

Administer Employee Information

It also helps in streamlining the administration of employee attendance, leave records, employee benefits. Employees can mark their attendance electronically, apply for leaves online, new employees may electronically enrol in benefit plans, current employees can log onto the system monitor and update their leave records, current benefit coverage, and other important information throughout the year.

Apply Electronically to the Organization

HRIS allows candidates in case of job openings to submit their resumes and contact information online. The software also allows current employees to electronically apply for new positions.

The system then collects the information and archives it so it is easily accessible by the hiring manager.

Decision Support System

It acts as a decision support system. HRIS maintains data about employee profiles hiring records, tax information, and much more while wanting to make a decision it can process out reports on the stored data with a few mouse clicks.

It gives very accurate information and does fast processing. Hence it becomes an important tool for strategic planning and its implementation.


Essentials of an HRIS

  1. Should Fulfil the Objective
  2. Should Follow a Proper Procedure and Format
  3. Clear and Easy to Understand
  4. Reasonable Cost
  5. Easily accessible
  6. Accurate
  7. Should be Verifiable
Essentials of an HRIS
Essentials of an HRIS

Should Fulfil the Objective

An HR record is maintained in order to be able to derive some sound and accurate information from it for further analysis. It should keep a record of all the necessary information that is required to fulfil the objective behind maintaining the records.

Should Follow a Proper Procedure and Format

It should be maintained systematically. So that at the time of need accurate and timely information can be easily retrieved. For that purpose, it must follow a proper procedure and format.

Clear and Easy to Understand

It should be clear and easy to understand. A complex HR record is always difficult to maintain and not understood by the employees of the organization.

Reasonable Cost

It should be cost-effective. This means that it should not involve more cost than the benefit derived from it otherwise it will become difficult for the organizations to obtain and maintain it.

Easily accessible

A good HR record should be easily accessible by all the departments at any time. It becomes easy to maintain if accessed from anywhere.

Accurate

HR records should provide accurate information. This will save the time of the managers and they can involve themselves in many other decision-makers of the organization.

Should be Verifiable

An HR record should be easily verifiable at any time by the managers of the organization.


Limitations of HRIS

HRIS is a very helpful tool for every organization. It provides all information about the human resource which is relevant for an organization. But besides being very popular and advantageous for the organizations it is also criticized on certain grounds.

  1. Failure in Forecasting
  2. Perception of Top Level Management
  3. Defects in Implementation System
  4. Lack of Proper Training to HRIS Operators
Limitations of HRIS
Limitations of HRIS

Failure in Forecasting

Human Resource Information System is totally based on computers. The information is stored by the experts appointed for operating HRIS.

If they have entered any wrong information about the employees or the organization or they made any omission in entering the data, it will be very harmful for the organization. This will lead to failure in forecasting because if the data entered is wrong.

Perception of Top Level Management

Sometimes, top management does not support the decision of operating on HRIS. Management still wants to continue with the manual procedure.

Management thinks that this is a wastage of time and money. Therefore, management, in order to save time and money, does not agree with the installation of HRIS.

Defects in Implementation System

There can be errors, faults, and failures of output generation in the system. The implementation system or execution of HRIS can defect sometimes.

This will not be able to provide the actual results and the information provided can be wrong, misleading, and vague. Therefore, complete trust in HRIS cannot be maintained.

Lack of Proper Training to HRIS Operators

HRIS is an automated system, which requires some specialized persons to operate on it. Every employee cannot run or execute programs on HRIS.

Extra training and development need to be provided to these specialized employees operating HRIS, otherwise, they will face problems in providing accurate data to the organization.


Significance of HRIS in Today’s Corporate World

HRIS helps in keeping all the information about the human resource of an organization in a systematic order. This will help the managers in taking other important strategic decision about the organization.

HRIS keeps the complete information in detail about every employee like their name, date of birth, marital status, academic qualifications, professional qualification, previous employment records etc.

All these information is very helpful in deciding the pay roll of the employee, deciding the training and development program for them, providing health and safety benefits etc. HRIS is very useful for the organization in many ways. In the present context, many organizations have started their functioning on HRIS. HRIS is very significant in today’s corporate world because of many other reasons also.

Some of them are as follow:

  • It helps in providing the important information to the managers about the employees.

  • It also helps in recruitment, selection, training, development, orientation, placement, transfers, promotion and many other important matters.

  • It helps in building harmonious industrial relations and helps in conducting the in depth study about the industrial relations and goodwill of the firm in the market.

  • It helps the managers in deciding the wages, salaries and benefits of the employees.

  • It provides the equal employment opportunity to the employees on the basis of their qualification, past experience and performance.

  • It keeps an up to date track of employee’s leaves, transfers, turnovers etc.

  • On the basis of the present requirement of the organization it helps the managers in deciding the best training and development programs for the employees.

  • It also helps the government organizations to gather data in respect to turnover, rate of absenteeism and other personnel matters.

  • HRIS also helps the organization in planning and analyzing the HR demand and supply.

FAQ

What is HRIS in HR?

HRIS is an organized procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving and validating data needed by an organization about its human resources. (Read Complete)

What is the purpose of HRIS?

Purpose of HRIS is to provide historical information, up-to-date information, Helps in personnel audit, Needed to take Personnel decision, deciding payrolls and career Path, Supplying information to the government, Helps in evaluation and modification of HR policies, Helps the company to detect frauds, mistakes and errors. (Read Complete)

What are some HRIS systems?

The best-known HRIS systems include Workday, Oracle’s PeopleSoft, SAP’s SuccessFactors, Ultimate software, Ceridian, and ADP. Garnter (2018) identified these providers as HRIS leaders.

What is an HRIS analyst?

The HRIS analyst provides support for the HRIS. This includes researching and resolving problems and being a liaison with other parts of the business, like finance and payroll.


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