HUMAN RESOURCE

INFORMATION SYSTEM 1

Executive summary

In any organization, the human resource department is tasked with the role of data assimilation,

conversion of the data to useful information and drawing up conclusion based on the information

retrieved. Management of activities associated with the human resource or the employee,

recruitment process, promotion, training and record keeping is all the work of the human

resource. This paper will analyze the development of human resource information system giving

their role they play in any organization. Determination of cost effectiveness of the adoption of

information system in the human resource department has been weel covered and evaluate of an

ideal human resource information system explained in detailed.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary............................................................................................... 1
Development of Human Resource Information System.........................................3
Cost-benefit analysis................................................................................................. 5
i) They improve efficient in day to day operation:......................................................5
ii) Benefit for the employees and management;..........................................................6
iii) The human resource will to work as a strategic planner:.........................................6
iv) Communication:......................................................................................... 7
v) Saves time;................................................................................................... 7
vi) Performance analysis;................................................................................... 7
Return on Investment................................................................................................ 7
i) Benefits and costs time estimation;......................................................................8
ii) Identity made of the sources of costs value about benefits of the human resource led initiatives;
8
iii) Indirect benefits value calculation:......................................................................8
Evaluation............................................................................................................ 10
a) Compliance:................................................................................................ 10
b) Employee empowerment:...............................................................................10
c) The ease of integration...................................................................................10
d) Recruiting and onboarding feature.....................................................................11
e) Performance review;..................................................................................... 11
References........................................................................................................... 12
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Development of Human Resource Information System

The responsibility of analyzing information in the human resource department and

making a sound decision based on the information that would positively affect the running of

business operations lies entirely in the hands of the human resource department and the line

managers. The decision is base on the availability of the human resource as a factor of

production, expertise, skills, experience and specialization of the present human resources, the

availability of enough machinery that will be comfortably operated by the skilled labor at

different points of the production line and measures taken in the maintenance of the available

resource information to ensure continuous productivity (Slater et al., 2003). Hence this calls for

the duty of these two to carefully analyze data associated with current employees and prospective

new employees requirements. The human resource information system act as the fundamental

tool when the managerial decision has to be made with regards to labor force since the system is

responsible for the storage and updating of each employee's profile. The human resource

department is tasked with a reevaluation of its competence and develop new strategies that are

vital in the overall human resource information system development (Hendrickson 2003).

For most of the organization, the flow of information takes place at the center of the

organization. Many organization has to adopt current means passing and storing of information

since they are considered more effective and reliable when in comparison with the traditional

forms. The adoption of technological advancement with examples such as modern computers,

running of reliable software, use of internet as backup in cloud storage and the employment of

computer wizard in the management and maintenance of these aspect of technological

information flow who are familiar with the new technology forms the backbone for the best for

of information management in the human resource department (Kavanagh and Thite 2009). The
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aspect of information security is also a concern to any organization and protection of the business

information so that it doesn't fall into bad hands say the competitors who may use the

information to tighten their competitive advantage should be avoided at all cost. Research has

shown that an organization that maintains the best information system fail out to be among the

best decision makers since they make their cases based on facts delivered to the from the human

resource information desk. The information act as a reference database or a checklist when it

comes to analyzing the organization's potentials (Lippert and Michael Swiercz 2005). The

analysis made by the management regarding internal information will be the basis of

determination whether the business should exploit other potential venture if they have the

required resources, skilled labor, managerial capacity and financial base to sustain the project.

The information will also determine the probability of making a profit from the intended

veny=ture and provide the optimal operational practice to minimize the cost of production in an

attempt to maximize the returns (Matteson and Ivancevich 1987). All these will be provided

courtesy of how the information is handled, how fast and reliable the organizational information

is and drawing made from previous statics of engaging to a new venture. Employee information

system is a mode of integration where information from the machine and inventory skills are

developed that are essential for employees' portal. The main aim of this is to maintain employees'

profile and retrieval of hard copy when so required (Ngai and Wat 2006).

Emerging trends in information management in the human resource department is that

software companies are now engaging in the development of programs that is best suited to

particulars of a specific company. This is made possible when the company gives them they

specification requirements (Asosheh et al., 2010). This specified software information system

that has been engineered to a particular company are considered more strong in structure and
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provide utmost security to information when compare to the general information system meaning

they are less likely hackable. On the downside the are more costly. However, their operational

functionality is exceptional and can be employed by an organization in which the created

database is used to manage the labor force on machine allocation pointing to areas of their

expertise and specialization in the apparel industry. This provides a platform for easy

management of the employees since the only work is to maintain and update the employee

information system.

Cost-benefit analysis
The computerization and adoption of technology in the human resource information

system have been considered among the key elements in the reduction of the cost incurred during

the production process. This witness in fact when there is a conflicting pressure by the

management to the human resource to provide valuable information while at the very same time

the management requires them to reduce of the overhead production costs (Darmstadt 2005).

Therefore this begs the question are the human resource information system cost effective? Yes

they are, and here is the reason for the adoption of a viable human resource cost effect

information system and any particular productive organization:

i) They improve efficient in day to day operation:

The adoption of human resource information system enables the running and storage of

information digitally. Storage can be done on hard drives and backups made of an external disk

and cloud-based backups. This minimizes the use of hard copy data operation that has been

known to be tedious, easily lost, unreliable and even corruptible. Aspects of storage of

employees' details and profile can be tiresome especially in a large organization. The making of
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changes can lead to unimaginable paperwork as compare to an institution that has adopted the

information system in employee record keeping since the information can be easily rectified

when the need arises. Cases of recruitment can be ready cumbersome in case the only form of

application is through paperwork (Ball 2001). However an organization that has adopted

information system will just upload the form online on the website where it will be accessible

and unlike paper application which is limited to geographical area application, the application

form on the website can be accessed on a worldwide scale hence bringing in the best employees

for the job as there is plenty of applicants to sample to get the best. This improves on the human

resource functionality as more reliable and strategic decision are made when the system of

information is technological.

ii) Benefit from the employees and management;

The automation of the human resource system help in upholding transparency. Unlike an

organization dealing with paperwork, facts can be buried in a pile of the document making it

harder to unveil certain information. Say for example in the case of promotion of employees, the

electronic information system shall be keyed in o provide a cut of line of employees' profile that

meet the required specification and from there the management will access their suitability

unlike in paperwork where finding employee that have to meet the required criterions is tedious

and could take day and possibility of omission is likely. Hence the information system improves

on both the employee and management satisfaction when relating to requiring affairs. Programs

can be used to generate screening filters to screen out and watch the profile of certain employee

to determine who is much suited for a particular position.

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iii) The human resource will work as a strategic planner:

The adoption of information system in the human resource department has helped the

department to play a key role in the organization's decision-making. Since they are the keepers of

information far from raw data to the processed information, they form a crucial part of the

decision-making process since they provide valuable information for an in-depth analysis of

record and prediction of future expectation. This comes in handy especially when the

organization wants to expand its basis of operation or is attempting to indulge in the production

of an additional commodity that it wishes to introduce into the market (Tansley et al., 2001).

iv) Communication:
Adoption of human resource information system is also crucial in enhancing efficiency in

employee communication. Integrating the system into the organizational communication system

can help relay instant notification to certain employees or maybe a change or enhancement to the

company policy.

v) Saves time;
The adoption of human resource information system has been proven to save time

especially when it comes to searching and retrieval of routine data and information. Paperwork

can be tedious, misplaced, lost or even destroyed unlike the system which you can easily retrieve

the information needed and in case the computer has been destroyed there is backups too.

vi) Performance analysis;

The information system in the human resource can help create a pattern and thus help in a

better decision-making process. For instance, since the human resource is tasked with

recruitment of new employees, analysis was done on the hiring costs and turnover calculations

can be used in development of patterns for strategic developments required when making
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decision of the type and number of new employees required so that the business can make

exemplary profits in the coming financial year (Bacon 1992).

Return on Investment
The cost of adoption of the human resource information system can be calculated by

Return On Investment (ROI) on the human capital. This entails the assessment done on the

positive outcome or the benefits of adoption of the information system in the human resource

department and also cost evaluation as a form of negative outcome in the human resource

(Murray et al., 2003). This evaluation can be achieving on consideration of various factors such

as:

i) Benefits and costs time estimation;

This on essence interprets to a comparison made on the cost that the human resource department

incurred in the acquisition of the information technology systems and the benefits the system has

garnered to the organization over a period. This can be critically accessed during the policy

making process (Bartel 2000).

ii) Identity made of the sources of costs value about benefits of the human resource led
initiatives;
This mainly assesses the effectiveness of the information system in the human resource

department to access change in business environment, evaluation strategies and changing trends

in the organization (Russ-Eft and Preskill 2005).

iii) Indirect benefits value calculation:

This value calculation helps in understanding and determination of various factors that

influence the probability success of the HRIS project. Evaluation of the magnitude of success, a

better conclusion can be drawn regarding the planning process. This can be achieved by choosing

a proper metric, followed by direct estimation. Benchmarking and internal assessment shall the

follow shortly afterward. The steps are crucial to any organization taking benchmarking, for
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INFORMATION SYSTEM 9

example, they are used in better risk management in case of large scale projects. An internal

assessment, on the other hand, thrives on finding the firm own internal assessment of metrics

(Love and Irani 2003).

Return on investment of HRIS

We have established that a human resource department that has entirely adopted

information system in its activities will save on management time that would have been used in

processing paper transaction. On average the evaluation of a paper transaction could take roughly

about forty-five minutes to one hour. However, the human resource information system can

process the same transaction with a maximum of ten minutes say for example an organization

wants to recruit two hundred employees. The following table is showing the management time

taken n processing a transaction.

No HRIS With Savings Annual

Data entry & HRIS per month savings
processing done Automated data
manually entry and
processing
NO; of Requests 100 100 - -
Time of 100 16.6 83.5 (hrs) 125 (days)
processing (hrs)
Costs ($) 9,000 1997 6256 84036

The above shows that the human resource information system saves more time and hence

the cost that is used to hire the actual people while indulging in paperwork. The system does so
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by allowing several multiple requests at the same time. These time saving and cost effective

measures are experienced on an even larger scale when it comes to automated performance in the

management of the application of the employment of new workforce in our system above. This is

savings aided by the automated information system helps the employees to focus on another area

of production. It also cuts on the unnecessary monthly wage bill the system will only require a

few experts to maintain and retrieve its data. The savings garnered by the automation of the

human resource department is by itself enough to pay for the installation of the information

system in the department even with no need to explore the unquantifiable benefits like data

safety that the system has brought to the human resource department. The information system

cuts down on administration work that surrounds the management performance and the time

spent in trying to locate employees' files and documents

Evaluation
The evaluation of HRIS is meant to determine its effectiveness in the organization. An

evaluation report will help draw a clear picture of whether the system works as expected and

points out some major pit hole that needs to be improved in due time. Evaluation of the HRIS

provides information that is crucial in determining the functionality and viability of the

information system in the human resource department. Here are the key element of HRIS

evaluation factors:

a) Compliance:
Compliance forms among the basic factors in determining the effectiveness of an HRIS. This

gives a brief report of how the system can cope up with an ever-changing program that will need

a continuous change and rectification in the information stored or the routine of operation. An

effective HRIS should be flexible and easily compliable. The opposite can be said when it comes
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to paperwork human resource department since the actual correction is made on a paper and

seriously how many times can a correction be made on a single paper before it becomes

obsolete?

b) Employee empowerment:
A reliable human resource system creates trust and confidence within the employee

especially when it comes to promotion and awarding of bonuses. Adoption of HRIS boosts the

two as the system keeps an updated profile of the employees from which information can be

retrieved based on the best profile thus boost morale and confidence among them (Premkumar

and King 1994).

c) The ease of integration

An effective HRIS should be easy to accommodate all form of integration into the system. The

introduction of a new scheme or payroll procedure should be easily incorporated into the system

without any form of difficulty (Irani 2002).

d) Recruiting and Onboarding feature

The evaluation of an effective HRIS system should be accommodated with recruiting and

onboarding feature which should be optimized in the system. This should be a huge time saver

especially during the recruitment and promotional process (Laudon and Laudon 2004).

e) Performance review;
This can be highly tedious when done on paperwork. However, a good HRIS system

should include performance review features that make the process a whole lot more manageable

with special factors of details keeping and generation whenever needed being the key to the

system. This will enable the management to keep detailed performance report and enable the

distribution of feedback through electronic means whenever the need arises. The system should
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also be effective in the management of employees and machinery productivity as through this

performance determination will the company know if they are making any progress and profits

whatsoever (Mutula and Van Brakel 2006).

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INFORMATION SYSTEM 13

References
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evaluation: An integrated data envelopment analysis and balanced scorecard approach. Expert

Systems with Applications, 37(8), pp.5931-5938.

Bacon, C.J., 1992. The use of decision criteria in selecting information systems/technology

investments. MIS Quarterly, pp.335-353.

Ball, K.S., 2001. The use of human resource information systems: a survey. Personnel review,

30(6), pp.677-693.

Bartel, A.P., 2000. Measuring the employer's return on investments in training: Evidence from

the literature. Industrial Relations, 39(3), pp.502-524.

Darmstadt, G.L., Bhutta, Z.A., Cousens, S., Adam, T., Walker, N., De Bernis, L. and Lancet

Neonatal Survival Steering Team, 2005. Evidence-based, cost-effective interventions: how many

newborn babies can we save?. The Lancet, 365(9463), pp.977-988.

Hendrickson, A.R., 2003. Human resource information systems: Backbone technology of

contemporary human resources. Journal of Labor Research, 24(3), pp.382-394.

Irani, Z., 2002. Information systems evaluation: navigating through the problem domain.

Information & Management, 40(1), pp.11-24.

Kavanagh, M.J., and Thite, M., 2009. Human resource information systems: Basics,

applications, and future directions. Sage.

Laudon, K.C., and Laudon, J.P., 2004. Management information systems: Managing the digital

firm. New Jersey, 8.

Lippert, S.K. and Michael Swiercz, P., 2005. Human resource information systems (HRIS) and

technology trust. Journal of information science, 31(5), pp.340-353.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM 14

Love, P.E., and Irani, Z., 2003. A project management quality cost information system for the

construction industry. Information & Management, 40(7), pp.649-661.

Matteson, M.T. and Ivancevich, J.M., 1987. Controlling work stress: Effective human resource

and management strategies. Jossey-Bass.

Murray, T., Blessing, S., and Ainsworth, S., 2003. Authoring tools for advanced technology

learning environments: Toward cost-effective adaptive, interactive and intelligent educational

software. Springer Science & Business Media.

Mutula, S.M., and Van Brakel, P., 2006. An evaluation of e-readiness assessment tools with

respect to information access: Towards an integrated information-rich tool. International Journal

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Ngai, E.W.T., and Wat, F.K.T., 2006. Human resource information systems: a review and

empirical analysis. Personnel Review, 35(3), pp.297-314.

Premkumar, G. and King, W.R., 1994. The evaluation of strategic information system planning.

Information & Management, 26(6), pp.327-340.

Russ-Eft, D. and Preskill, H., 2005. In search of the holy grail: Return on investment evaluation

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Slater, F.A., and Smeaton, J.C., Sopheon Edinburgh Limited, 2003. Information system using

human resource profiles. U.S. Patent 6,526,404.

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pp.351-371.
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Appendices

Appendix 1:

The figure below shows the flow of information. The integration of information system in the

human resource department can be seen at the main frame and serves all parties in the

organization.

Appendix 2:

This figure presents an in-depth understanding of what happen. There are the various

departments sending the information to the database created by the information system. The

information is then used bt the management.

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