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HRIS at Nissan: a new era in human resource

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Article in International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies · January 2013

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2013.058798

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Title: HRIS @ Nissan: A New Era in Human Resource Management

Abstract:

Information is the most vital part of survival or growth of the firm. Today
human resource has become the main competitive advantage for a firm, making
it a very critical resource. More so than ever, there is a need for fulfilling all
functions related to human resource with strategic purpose and technology
should be able to help in aligning them with the firm‟s objectives. Human
Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are one such technological innovation
which can efficiently help in standardizing such information about company‟s
employees. In this case we have tried to understand the issues faced during the
implementation of HRIS at Nissan. This case enlightens us with the information
about HRIS and its implementation in a real organization.

Keywords: HRIS; Carlos Ghosn; Nissan; Technology; Payroll Management; HRM;

Compensation Management; Recruitment; Selection; Training and Development
Introduction

“Our strategy was not just to develop HR shared services; it was to transform human resources
throughout the entire company, to add more to the business.” - Dwain Stevens, Sr. HR Manager,
Nissan, 3rd Feb, 20101

“There are probably 50 different things that we do. The only word I can think of which pulls it
together, is culture.” - Philip Ashmore, Nissan, Personnel Director, 25th Feb, 20032

Nissan Motors, one of the top selling automobile manufacturers and the world‟s first ever multi-
brand conglomerate after its collaboration with Renault, has over 130,000 people working for
them worldwide. This global corporation needed standardized HR practices in order to function
successfully. The firm was also concerned about the overall employee satisfaction. Having an
HRIS meant a strategic investment to reduce costs across the globe and therefore, in 2010, CEO
Carlos Ghosn3 introduced HRIS in Nissan, when Nissan was in troubled waters. His aim was not
only to automate the HR services but to transform HR services in the whole organization. He
implemented several plans to transform Nissan to take it out of financial disaster; one of the
strategies was to have a HRIS. The strategy behind HRIS implementation was standardization of
all HR practices throughout the organization around the world. Also he wanted to remove all
administrative and transaction type tasks from the HR personnel in all locations around the
world.

Some of the immediate benefits of implementing HRIS were an effective way of sharing
information which was HR centric. Nissan had an employee intranet but it was not designed to
be employee friendly and most of the employees did not have access to it. This ensured that there
was a need for new technology with a dynamic employee portal, where all kind of HR related
information could be made available to employees 24/7. This would allow the employees to
access information they wanted themselves, creating a help yourself attitude. The new forum
also allowed employees to make changes in the HR related information or benefits relation
information about them instead of waiting to fill forms and HR personnel doing it. These

1
Niamh Byrne, “Nissan North America Transforms HR Services”, http://www.humanresourcesiq.com, February
3rd, 2010
2
Daniel Thomas, “Merger forces HR to rethink IT strategies”, Personnel Today, Business Source Complete,
January 18th,2005
3
Carlos Ghosn was born in Brazil on March 9, 1954, to a French mother and Lebanese father Rose and Jorge
Ghosn. The exposure he had from traveling gave him various skills which included his fluency in five languages.
Ghosn graduated from the prestigious French Ecole Polytechnique. Ghosn‟s father had a business in Brazil but his
family shifted to Lebanon when he was six years old, though his father stayed back in Brazil because of work.
Despite the absence of his father from his day-day life his father played an important role in Ghosn‟s life by
instilling discipline and core values in him. Lebanese families are close-knit families. Ghosn spent eighteen years in
Michelin Tyre Company evolving himself. After this, due to certain changes in the management structure, he moved
on to Renault for personal growth in 1996 as executive vice president.
changes were approved by their reporting managers and reflected in their profile after required
approvals. The HRIS access has improved work life as it has helped employees obtain required
information faster as the transactions are faster. This has also helped HR people as duplicate
entry work and non-value adding tasks have been removed from their repertoire.

Ghosn had a long term benefit in mind while taking this decision; he maintained his reputation of
„Le Cost Killer‟ as this initiative helped the organization save money in efficient and effective
way. The required analysis was carried out on how a portal can help save costs and results
confirmed that apart from saving costs this was a more effective and efficient manner to carry
out administrative tasks. By February 2010, Nissan had standardized all its HR practices across
the globe. All administrative and transactional tasks were removed from HR personnel and the
dynamic employee portal was made accessible to all employees on a 24/7 basis. They could
access this information through intranet by simply logging in with their id and password to
access their information. This led to fast transactions handling for HR and it created transparency
in the system.

Background Note

In 1933, Aikawa Yoshisuke (Aikawa) (1880-1967), established a manufacturing company

Jidosha-Seizo Kabhushiki-Kaisha. This later became Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. Aikawa believed in
expansion of business. By the end of World War II, he had the biggest Zaibatsu 4 in the continent.
Aikawa had some experience of American manufacturing firms, which he was able to implement
in Nissan at Japan as well. Though he steered away from the kind of cars Americans produced,
he imported their engineers and designs and used them in small car and truck segment. Nissan
was now the crown of the Japanese Industries. By 1972, Nissan had captured 33.7% market
share and was exporting vehicles.

Aikawa‟s ambition was not restricted to being an automobile manufacturer; he diversified into
real estate and insurance as well. He did not follow any philosophy, nor did he have any guiding
principles. This was a major reason why Nissan did not have a strong cohesive culture. This also
meant no proper HR policies at Nissan which was a reason for severed relationship between
workers and the management. After World War II, Nissan had more troubles on its door, with a
change in top management and with no direction due to the lack of culture. Between 1933-1951
Nissans‟ culture weakened further, as a minimum of seven presidents changed during this period.
From the crown of the Japanese industry it became the most unstable organization. However,
during this period, Nissan saw constant growth also. With the business running well, the
organization kept on growing, and the hierarchy kept increasing in tandem. Parochial decision
making started to devour the company from inside. By 1970s, this organization had high
specialization and departmentalization within. Nissan had several termites of unnecessary power

4
The term Zaibatsu was used in the 19th Century to refer to large family-controlled banking and industrial combines
in Japan.
and politics in the personnel department which designed an elaborate system of employee
evaluation. This was a beginning of complex rules and regulations which meant reduced hard
work for employees but burdened them at the same time.

In 1990, president of Nissan, Yutaka Kume, said –„The most challenging task I faced when I
became president five years ago was to reform the corporate culture. I consider it the most
formidable challenge I faced because Nissan‟s business performance suffered not only because
of the external conditions which existed not only for Nissan but also for whole set of other
companies. I decided that the major reasons for that suffering or business predicament lay within
Nissan itself‟ (Nayebpour and Saito, 2007). This message gave clear indications about Nissans
cultural inefficiency.

Nissan was the perfect example of a typical Japanese company; it had some of the best practices
in management and production but at the same time suffered from heavy bureaucracy. Nissan
depicted Japanese culture in its practices like giving respect to elders, role of the master and
imparting knowledge and experience. This led to senior positions being held by senior people in
the organization, who had been around for years. They were also the highest paid. New recruits
were picked from some of the best colleges in the country; they joined at entry levels in the
organization and were promised jobs till they retired. Their packages initially were meager but
increased with their seniority in the organization. This clearly shows the picture of personnel
management in the organization, where we can see that promotion and performance have no
relation. Japanese culture also does not promote performance based rewards; they believe in
egalitarianism and fairness. Japanese have poor work family balance as they come to work on
holidays and work overtime hours also, because they think it makes them more faithful to the
organization.

In 1980s Japanese economy was booming, Nissan had doubled its production to build its sales
network but in turn their debt rose to US$19.4 billion in 1998. Recession made things worse and
Nissan was soon caught in a debt trap. After going public in 1951, Nissan saw its first severe
losses in 1993. Its financial condition kept getting worse and by 1998, Nissan had incurred heavy
losses for seven consecutive years. Analysts saw several dimensions to Nissans problems. Some
said Nissan was not pursuing profits, they lacked vision to achieve, that mission was not in place
and management only took care of day-to-day operations. In reality, Nissan did not have any
quantified goals, neither was there any product planning. Toyota‟s policies and models were
copied often. The external environment was highly competitive but Nissan lacked the urgency
required to survive. Nissan lacked one of the main Japanese traits- „team-work‟.

By 1998 Nissan was under huge debt of US$20 billion and its creditors were building pressure
on them to find a partner. Nissans sales were declining, its margins were poor and it was nearing
bankruptcy. Japanese Keiretsu5 was another reason for Nissan being in trouble, as this implied
more bureaucratic decision making process. Nissan had almost US$ 4 billion invested in
Keiretsu‟s. This was not the only reason for Nissans troubles, its poor styles and design,
infrequent model changes, and high manufacturing and parts costs were also to be blamed.
Nissan needed heavy cash infusion and managerial expertise desperately. Nissan found its savior
in an alliance with Renault in March 1999 after considering various options. The blend was
complementary for both the companies. Nissan‟s market share in North America was what
Renault needed to expand its business. Also, Japanese companies are more popular for their
expertise in quality and manufacturing practices. Nissan also had several benefits involved like
the cash pumped in by Renault helped them reduce their debts. European market became more
accessible, also Renault‟s innovative design, marketing, and financing of sales and services
would be of great help to Nissan in the long run. Louis Schweitzer, CEO and Chairman of
Renault, appointed Carlos Ghosn to the post of COO of Nissan. By 2001, Carlos Ghosn rose to
the level of President and CEO. In March, 2002, Renault upped its stake in Nissan from 36.8%
(for US $ 5.4 billion) to 44.4% (Ghosn and Ries, 2005).

With the turn into the new millennium, Nissan also turned over into a success story under
Ghosn‟s leadership. The task which looked impossible till two years ago was now working out,
Ghosn turned into a celebrity in Japan. Ghosns multi-cultural background helped him a lot in
Japan, his energy charged people around him. His work style earned him a comic series
dedicated to him to energize managers. Ghosn was popular for being “Le Cost Killer” at Renault
for sweeping cost reduction and controversial plant closings which was dreaded at Nissan as
well.

Following are all the changes in various HR practices made by Ghosn:

S.No. HR Practice Changes Made

1 Recruitment New comers were given higher wage with
performance based rewards.
2 Talent Management It was introduced by Ghosn, this did not exist earlier
in Nissan
3 Compensation Compensation system was completely revamped with
more Performance-oriented pay system and a
“commitment and stretched-target”system.
4 Communication Oppose to old bureaucratic system, more open
communication was emphasized upon.
5 Benefits Financial incentives, rewards, promotions were
introduced.

5
Keiretsu refers to a uniquely Japanese form of corporate organization. It is a conglomeration or family of affiliated
companies organized around a single bank for their mutual benefit. Each major keiretsu is capable of controlling
nearly every step of the economic chain in a variety of industrial, resource and services sectors.
6 Training This was made necessary as the employees had to
implement changes for further improvements.
7 Career Coach System Internal self-career path was shown on company‟s
intranet.
8 HRIS The biggest change which helped Nissans HR
department was taking away all administrative and
transactional tasks from them and giving them a
dynamic portal which was available for employees
24/7

Source: Ghosn, C. and Ries, P. (2005) Shift: inside Nissan’s Historic Revival, Currency
Doubleday Publisher, New York.

Nissan’s HRIS Partners

An expert advice always ensures smoother delivery and good work. Hence, an HRIS specialist, if
hired, can give better results. HRIS professionals know the finer details and can give guidelines
to the organization based on their previous experience.

Nissan partnered with Enwisen6 to develop its world class HR Shared Serviced Center in 2007.
Enwisen was to provide them support for communication, decision support and case
management along with direct employee access portal. The expectation was to ensure that
employees got assistance with events like benefits services which could be accessed by
employees from anywhere and at anytime. Nissan also collaborated with PeopleSoft, a third
party technical business solutions provider, to design and implement the Nissan HRIS system. The

6
Enwisen (www.enwisen.com) – helps employers dramatically improve the employee experience by making "must
do" workforce communications more effective, more strategic and less costly. Their on-demand, personalized and
searchable HR communications solutions – for benefits decision support, onboarding, work/life events, employee
policies, total rewards statements, manager effectiveness and HR/Service Center staff – are rapidly deployed,
provide a broad range of features for significantly less money than traditional communication venues and are
maintained by Enwisen. Their AnswerSource Knowledge Center suite has produced measurable ROI for hundreds
of customers, including industry leaders like Yahoo!, Memorial Health Care, DHL, Harper Collins, W.L. Gore &
Associates, Hannaford Bros. Cos., Masco and MasterBrand.

They have three key business objectives:

1. Increase satisfaction and adoption of HR/Benefits programs while reducing costs.

2. Help employees fully understand and leverage their total rewards.
3. Improve employee communications and engagement.
PeopleSoft7 Enterprise Human Capital Management (HCM) 8.8 included PeopleSoft Enterprise
Human Resources, Base Benefits, Benefits Administration, ePay, eProfile, eCompensation,
eBenefits, eRecruit and eDevelopment solutions. This was expected to help the employees get
better access and clear information about their benefits plan, payroll and other HR related
information8.

PeopleSoft has become the HCM and self-service portal for the employees at Nissan. Enwisen
provides the on-demand communications and decision support for the whole organization. The
information related to a particular can be accessed by only them with the help of an id and
password. All those who have access to information available at HRIS are shown below, they
have different accessibility as per their rights or hierarchy in the organization. Exhibit 2 has the
users of HRIS in an order of rank for the reader‟s perusal.

Exhibit 2:
Employees Managers Senior Managers Director CEO

Through the service provided by Enwisen, managers at Nissan were able to integrate various
services provided by People Soft, like case reporting, managing records etc. We can have an
elaborate explanation with the help of Exhibit 3 of employee‟s record keeping. This allows
Nissan‟s HR staff to manage employees easily as they have real time access to specific
information related to them. This helps them respond to every individual employees query faster
which would earlier require several hours or days.

This strategic move has helped Nissan‟s HR become more comprehensive and cost effective
opposed to their earlier style of work which was manual. Barbara Levin, Enwisen‟s Vice
President, believes that „the integrated Service Center should provide excellent service to their
workforce while freeing HR to operate in a more strategic, vs. administrative role, and we‟re
committed to helping them realize their vision.‟9

7
PeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided human resource management systems (HRMS) and customer
relationship management (CRM) software, as well as software solutions for manufacturing, financials, enterprise
performance management, and student administration to large corporations, governments, and organizations. It
existed as an independent corporation until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2005. The PeopleSoft name and
product line are now marketed by Oracle.

8
Our Bureau, “Infosys deploys PeopleSoft 8.8 at Nissan units”, http://www.thehindubusinessline.in, September 19th,
2006.

9
Novato, CA (PRWEB), “Enwisen Partners with Nissan North America to Build World Class HR Shared Services
Center and Direct Access Employee Portal”,www.hr.com,August 21,2007
The technology requirements of Nissan were to make an employee portal available to all
employees 24/7; this had to be made available to all employees working for the organization.
This meant single sign-in facility, this service also had to be HR centric, and this clearly kept all
generic or standard services out of the facility. An integrated solution was needed rather than two
separate systems for report generation and information access. Enwisen met these requirements
both technology-wise and was of great value too. Some of the major computer applications and
their types are enclosed in Exhibit 4 for better understanding.

The implementation of this plan gave rise to three tiers, where „Tier One‟ was represented by the
HR service center staff, „Tier Two‟ had the benefits administrators and „Tier Three‟ catered to
the CEOs. All the above tiers are explained with the help of an example of data and its
applications in Exhibit 5. In „Tier One‟, all 12000 employees had eight people to answer their
queries and two were available at nights. Though the calls did not come at nights, still night
shifts were maintained to send a clear message of availability of the services and to enhance
employee relations. This showed Nissan wanted to hold its people‟s hands and ensure their
availability even at unconventional hours. This improved customer service for employees
immensely.

Apart from the Three Tier system, HR has divided itself into seven operational teams. Three
groups out of seven take care of administrative tasks, provides executive support, technical
support, managerial reporting and one group for attending to more challenging cases. All this
was done to maximize performance. Nissan received nearly 3500 requests per day by email and
telephone put together. The HRIS had to provide:

-Increase in productivity of 30%

- Tracking every case with record and its resolution process
- All the reports regarding daily performance, queue management & strategic objectives had to b
made.
- Increase in employee satisfaction by 40% 10

All the cases were handled by executives at level one. If they were not able to handle it then
they escalated the issue to the required person. Also, all these activities were being monitored by
supervisors through sophisticated analytics and real-time dashboards. Nissan required enhancing
operational efficiency also. Hence, they made sure that workflows like standardization and
procedures along with employee empowerment and case reduction were taking place. This surely
decreased the number of inbound inquiries.

10
Case Study: Renault-Nissan betters HR, www.onwindows.com, April1, 2009.
 Exhibit 3: HRIS Users by Rank

Source: DeSanctis, G., 1986, “Human Resource Information Systems: A current assessment”,
MIS Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 15-27.

Earlier, HR managers at Nissan used to be burdened with manual administrative tasks like
updating inquiries, etc. Now with the help of HRIS these types of requests have receded and now
HR managers are available to handle strategic issues. Security of information on HRIS was also
given high priority as it concerned integrity and security of sensitive employee information. The
results achieved by Nissan after implementation of HRIS were highly impressive.

Challenges Faced:

Change is the only thing constant in the world and also the most difficult. The major challenges
Nissan had to deal with were at employee level regarding facing the change. The whole Human
Resource (HR) was being transformed. HR was going to change like never before in its way of
delivery of services in the whole organization. This change was going to affect everyone from
employees, managers and HR department to the management as well.

Selling change to the internal customers necessitates a committed and well resourced internal
marketing program. Change infrastructure refers to identifying the players in the change
initiative and a definition of their roles. Training needs to be undertaken to ensure that the
contemplated relevant change is inculcated by every person within the organization. It involves
altering the employee mindset to make the organization more customer-centric as well as
imparting the specific skills needed to function effectively under the new processes, designed
with appropriate practices in mind.

Nissan particularly tried to tackle the problem by maintaining open communication, they were
clear in communicating about what was being one, when and how. They made sure that
employees were encouraged in being proactive to adapt change; they were assured about the
benefits it would bring to all from employees to organization. This was a major hurdle in the
whole process as suddenly after several years of performing a job it was going to change what
they did, where they did it and even the technology was new to use. Their world was turned
upside down by one change. For employees also it was a big change as they were use to meeting
HR people for any information and now they had access to it at one click, they had to now look
for this information themselves instead of having someone else do it for them. This technological
change meant everyone had to tend to their needs themselves. Most of the employees are used to
tending to their own business and felt that this was HR department‟s work which they had to do
now, it was a resistance to being empowered.

This change was accepted by the employees as they did not have any choice, the HR people are
still available as affiliates. But the role of HR in the organization has completely changed now.
One more reason why the change has been well accepted is because any change in policies or
new initiative is communicated to the employees easily and effectively. So the HR initiatives are
well accepted now. Employee queries are still handled on call or on one-one basis if the
employee is not clear about anything, it is just that the volume has gone down for such queries.

Benefits:

There are several benefits of implementation of HRIS. From an employee‟s perspective the HR
related information is now readily available like policies, personal information, etc. Any kind of
information from their pay slips to leaves, holidays is available a click away. This kind of
technology has changed employee‟s attitude as they help themselves now. People get
information when they want it and don‟t have to depend on anybody for it, this helps them
improve the quality of work life. It also has environment friendly benefits like less paper work.
For example, any changes that need to be made can be done by filling an online form, or any
notice which needs to be sent is simply posted on intranet. Now there are fewer delays as forms
don‟t get lost. The transactional process has become very fast.

HR people are also happier and more satisfied in their work as the administrative/transactional
work has been removed and they can now focus on more important tasks. Though there is still a
group of HR people looking at the administrative and transactional side but they are not
overloaded with calls like earlier. They are only flooded with calls when some major change has
been announced. We can also see a comparison of benefits of using HRIS with the old manual
method of maintaining records in exhibit 6.

Nissan management has always maintained that they are the partners of employees when it
comes to administering a change. Management feels they bring in the expertise and open
communication which facilitates the change. HRIS information has helped management in
decision making, now through the reports access and open communication and feedback,
management knows what its employees like and don‟t like. This information is used effectively
in planning other changes. Business is also helped as there is higher efficiency and satisfaction
amongst the employees. Management has saved money, time and manpower. HRIS
implementation has proven to be a win-win situation for all from employees, HR, management to
the business. During the implementation of HRIS at Nissan, Ghosn was very clear about the key-
performance indicators (KPI) of HRIS. These included reduced response time in employee‟s
query and faster communication regarding policies to employees. This basically boiled down to
service given to employees, response rate and customer service. Nissan is currently at world
class measures in all the KPI‟s stated.

This goal assessment helps organization to chart out a road map of what is happening, is it going
in the right direction, it also keeps the cost factors in check. This assessment starts from the top
management and then works its way down to resources that uses HRIS. The assessment gives us
information about what has been saved with the implementation of HRIS. Before implementing
HRIS Nissan was in top quartile of expenditure for HR but after HRIS its expenses came down
to lower quartile. This complete transformation of HR services took two to three years, but at the
end it was worth the money saved.

HRIS implementation benefits are not restricted to the above discussion, there is more to it like
after one understands the capabilities of current HRIS along with considerations for the future
then HR can become the strategic partner effectively. In the initial days of HRIS in early 80s to
90‟s HRIS was mostly used to feeding data and getting compliance reports. It is only now that
HR has started assisting as a business partner by providing critical data for decision making with
the help of HRIS. During the merger the data available on HRIS helped a lot in strategic
planning.

Since Nissan has international workforce HRIS has helped by standardizing all practices for all
employees across the globe. HRIS helped manage organization structure with the cross border
employees and international workforce. Smaller details like multiple languages, salary
administration in multiple currencies were implemented.

All the efforts boil down to customer service, where employees throughout the organization are
catered to by the Human Resource department. Employees are the focus for HR to become the
effective strategic business partner. Online benefits plan and registration is one example of
transparency and open communication this also ensures efficient service to employees through
HRIS. Earlier organizations adapted the most popular software but now they are becoming more
customized as per the business requirements and to meet customer‟s requirement. PeopleSoft
HRIS is one of the best software around the world; it almost comes with a legacy. Its database
integration helps the organization in several ways.
Road Ahead:

Automobile industry in the past has faced severe resistance to any change; it is possible this time
as well. The right approach would be to recognize nature of change and its impact on the
organization. Human resource will be the guiding factor in moving to the next era of HRIS.

The basic design of the petrol-driven engine has not radically changed since the 1920s. Like the
arrested state of development of the petrol driven engine, the software industry is approaching a
similar stage where the fundamental design of business software applications may not radically
change for many years. The future will focus on HRIS production technique, packaging and
presentation to the market (Macy, 2007).

During the times of recession, the HR function has helped in Nissan‟s re-engineering efforts. The
Nissan HR department was able to restructure themselves without affecting too many people
with the help of HRIS. Layoffs were the least; people were open to the idea of voluntary leave
with appropriate incentives. Re-engineering and cost cutting efforts were high hence the
organization sailed through the bad times. Nissan did go in losses for one quarter, but then paced
up in the next three quarters in terms of profit. Nissans market share surprisingly went up during
recession without any intervention from government in terms of funds.

It is difficult to initiate HRIS in an organization. If organizations don‟t have clear objectives for
implementation then the results would also be dubious. Hence, we should be clear about the
requirements and specifications so that the vendor can work upon them. Also an organization
should try to keep the deliverables fixed. If they are changed constantly, then the vendor looses
focus (Lynch, 2010).

On the technology front, transformation is the key for successful human resource initiatives. If
the human resource professionals know how to use the technology to their best then it is a
smooth sail for them. Certain uses like productivity boosting strategies, tracking employee
information, etc. Technology has great impact on work and people and this can be understood
with the help of HRIS implementation.
The dependence on HRIS and its several complex data elements has become a challenge for the
management. One of the difficulties is the alignment of HRIS with the corporate mission. The
unique contribution of HRIS to all corporate strategies is its people inventory aspects,
supplemented by employee cost information and the planning of human resources, careers, and
succession. In the future there would be requirement for more quantitative data and more
sophisticated analysis of the information. All the technological advancements would help HR to
get models from the employee‟s data available (Pasqualetto, 1993).

HRIS evolution has reached a critical point in the personnel area; the annual budgets of
organizations are growing by 42.8% for the same. HRIS is becoming technically sophisticated
and expanding its influence on „human resource decision making, critical issues concerning the
management of HRIS must be addressed. These issues include: definition of HRIS objectives,
developing effective strategies for servicing the needs of various user groups, and coordination
of planning with the personnel and MIS areas of the firm. Security and privacy concerns
associated with employee record keeping, interfacing with information systems in other
functional areas, career path development for HRIS employees, and lack of cooperative
relationships between human resource and management information system (MIS) staff are
additional problems confronting the organizations.

Organizations are keen to devote resources to improving management of HRIS. But top
management, personnel management and MIS management all differ in their views of the role of
HRIS and the meaning of HRIS effectiveness. Perhaps this issue is one that cannot be resolved,
but there should be recognition of the problem prior to allocation of resources. These days due to
departmentalization HRIS may face more hindrances as all departments manage their own
independent MIS. Due to this managing information in an organization has become highly
complex as HRIS is continuing to evolve these complexities will also increase (de Sanctis,
1986).

There is a legal dimension to HRIS as well which should be known to human resource managers.
The laws keep changing and there are regulations pertaining to personnel files. During HRIS
implementation we should ensure that no such problems or lawsuits can happen due to
infringement of employee‟s right to privacy and protection. HR managers have access to a lot of
data but it is their responsibility to maintain high ethical standards in their organization (Hubbard
et al., 1998). In the near future we can expect that decisions for an organization would be taken
through a properly managed information system. The high automation is being supported by
HRIS throughout the organization. To automate these decisions we only need to keep in
consideration the programming decisions, mathematical tools being used and the scientific
approach to solve problems and finally certain predetermined decision rules should be induced in
the programming being done.
By automating Human Resource practices, HRIS saves time and money, effectively reallocates
work processes and thus provides competitive advantage and adds strategic value to the
organization. To leverage upon this exciting tool, HR managers must make use of HRIS to
achieve improved performance. Removing routine administration also will allow them to devote
their time and efforts towards more productive initiatives for their organization. Through this
description of the ways in which HRIS can be implemented and assimilated within an
organization‟s work culture we have hoped to urge HR practitioners to move towards that
direction.
References

Annual Report (1999) „A new alliance for the millennium, Nissan‟, http://www.nissan-
global.com/, (Accessed 5 April 2012).

Annual Report (2009) „Nissan: Enriching people‟s lives‟, http://www.nissan-global.com/,

Accessed on 5 April, 2012).

Annual Report (2005), Nissan, http://www.nissan-global.com/, (Accessed on 7 April, 2012).

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Footnotes:
1
Niamh Byrne, “Nissan North America Transforms HR Services”,
http://www.humanresourcesiq.com, February 3rd, 2010
2
Daniel Thomas, “Merger forces HR to rethink IT strategies”, Personnel Today, Business Source
Complete, January 18 th,2005

3
Carlos Ghosn was born in Brazil on March 9, 1954, to a French mother and Lebanese father
Rose and Jorge Ghosn. The exposure he had from traveling gave him various skills which
included his fluency in five languages. Ghosn graduated from the prestigious French Ecole
Polytechnique. Ghosn‟s father had a business in Brazil but his family shifted to Lebanon when
he was six years old, though his father stayed back in Brazil because of work. Despite the
absence of his father from his day-day life his father played an important role in Ghosn‟s life by
instilling discipline and core values in him. Lebanese families are close-knit families. Ghosn
spent eighteen years in Michelin Tyre Company evolving himself. After this, due to certain
changes in the management structure, he moved on to Renault for personal growth in 1996 as
executive vice president.
4
The term Zaibatsu was used in the 19th Century to refer to large family-controlled banking and
industrial combines in Japan.
5
Keiretsu refers to a uniquely Japanese form of corporate organization. It is a conglomeration or
family of affiliated companies organized around a single bank for their mutual benefit. Each
major keiretsu is capable of controlling nearly every step of the economic chain in a variety of
industrial, resource and services sectors.
6
Enwisen (www.enwisen.com) – helps employers dramatically improve the employee experience
by making "must do" workforce communications more effective, more strategic and less costly.
Their on-demand, personalized and searchable HR communications solutions – for benefits
decision support, onboarding, work/life events, employee policies, total rewards statements,
manager effectiveness and HR/Service Center staff – are rapidly deployed, provide a broad range
of features for significantly less money than traditional communication venues and are
maintained by Enwisen. Their AnswerSource Knowledge Center suite has produced measurable
ROI for hundreds of customers, including industry leaders like Yahoo!, Memorial Health Care,
DHL, Harper Collins, W.L. Gore & Associates, Hannaford Bros. Cos., Masco and MasterBrand.

They have three key business objectives:

1. Increase satisfaction and adoption of HR/Benefits programs while reducing costs.

2. Help employees fully understand and leverage their total rewards.
 3. Improve employee communications and engagement.
7
PeopleSoft, Inc. is a company that provides human resource management systems (HRMS)
and customer relationship management (CRM) software, as well as software solutions for
manufacturing, financials, enterprise performance management, and student administration to
large corporations, governments, and organizations. It existed as an independent corporation
until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2005. The PeopleSoft name and product line are
now marketed by Oracle.

8
Our Bureau, “Infosys deploys PeopleSoft 8.8 at Nissan units”,
http://www.thehindubusinessline.in, September 19th, 2006.

9
Novato, CA (PRWEB), “Enwisen Partners with Nissan North America to Build World Class
HR Shared Services Center and Direct Access Employee Portal”, www.hr.com,August 21,2007.
10
Case Study: Renault-Nissan betters HR, www.onwindows.com, April1, 2009.

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