Q1

HRIS – An Introduction

HR is one of the most significant departments of an organization. Giant corporations often prefer

to have acquired and implemented an HRIS solution to manage their staff in different countries

of the world where they are operating. Acquisition and implementation of a new HRIS solution

sound exciting as organizations and employees believe that this will improve their daily lives,

increase efficiency, decrease workload, and save time. But many organizations often face

challenges to install and implement the software and end up failing to utilize potential benefits. 

Challenges with Selection & Implementation of HRIS

Understanding the key challenges will help properly address them and ensure greater success in

implementation. Following are some of the common challenges during the selection and

implementation of an HRIS (Rietsema, 2022).

Employee and Manager Training 

Training about the acquisition, implementation, and usage of the software is a very important

prerequisite. The value of training should not be undermined because if people of the

organization are unfamiliar with the appearance or the functions of the new system, they may not

be able to exploit and adapt to it. Their non-acquaintance with the system may also lead to not

being able to make the most out of the software and thus a fair amount of time and finances will

be wasted (Rietsema, 2022). Moreover, the staff will also have to do the work themselves.

Employee Change Management 

It is a huge change and often employees resist change. Managing this change is crucial and is

different from usual training. Additional support may be required even after the training and
daily to ensure that employees are capable to use it and are not facing any issues (Rietsema,

2022).

Evaluating Quality and Accuracy

An organization that has never used HRIS may find it challenging to determine how to assess the

accuracy and quality of the software. HRIS Analysts and vendor representatives may be required

for this who may charge additional fees (Rietsema, 2022).

Legal Compliance

Since organizations have to adhere to various local, state, and federal regulations, it needs to

comply with the legal requirements for privacy and safety of the data, it's processing, and

structure that the organization has or else it may experience penalties and susceptible audits

(Rietsema, 2022).

Ensuring Data Security

Data security threats and breaches are common for organizations implementing such software

(Rietsema, 2022). Handling these vulnerabilities and risks to the organization’s such important

software may be a challenge for the organization.

 
Q2

As given, the company is a sportswear retailer which implies most of its workforce will be the

sales representatives rather than the labor force, the manufacturers. Moreover, a company with

1000 employees is classified under Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). On the

contrary, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System is usually adopted and implemented by

large organizations to manage their resources.

Being the Director of HR in the company with 1000 employees, I would choose to implement a

stand-alone system rather than an enterprise-wide system because of the potential benefits of a

standalone system in comparison to the drawbacks associated with the enterprise-wide system.

Installing and implementing an ERP from scratch is time taking particularly when the

organization does not have updated hardware (Wood, 2020). Generally, ERP implementation can

take up to two or three years. This requires extensive planning in advance so that disruptions can

be avoided. Though ERP based on cloud is faster to be adopted, they are also time-consuming in

comparison to stand-alone systems.

Moreover, every single user in the organization needs some degree of training to be able to use

the software properly and the learning rate of each user may vary. This can slow down the

transition of the organization (Wood, 2020).

The author further asserts that ERP solutions require forecasting as well as reporting of a large

amount and diversity of data. It needs analytical tools that can go through past and real-time data

to offer the finest probable information for making organizational decisions. Acquiring these

tools for analysis, predictions, and reporting is costly. So, starting an upgrade with ERP is

expensive.
Additionally, it demands a high level of data security and accessibility to keep it secure from

viruses, breaches, and other vulnerabilities (Wood, 2020). Also, initially, it can take longer to

migrate all the data into the software from manual logs to digital format.

On the contrary, a stand-alone system is straightforward. It has more control and built-in

features. It has a greater capacity to control damages. For example, since all the systems are not

integrated into any of the systems that get affected or damaged, the others will not be affected.

Other than this, simplicity is another preferred cause of implementing a stand-alone system as

managing an enterprise-wide system requires a high level of skills and expertise. Additionally,

setting up or troubleshooting a single system is easier and more convenient. It also does impact

other users on the network and does not impact the network or performance speed of other users

in the system ("Stand-alone vs integrated HR and payroll system", 2020).

 
Q3

Environmental Scanning

It is a systematic process to conduct a survey of the environment and interpret relevant data to

recognize potential opportunities and threats in the organizational environment that can impact

future choices. It is more like SWOT analysis and is thus regarded as an important component of

the strategic human resource planning process.

Environmental Scanning in HRM and HRP

Whether it is in-house human resource management or it is the case of outsourcing candidates,

environmental scanning has a significant part in effective HRP. Organizations adopt HRP to

maintain their standard awareness of the potential threats and risks as well as the bandwidth of

opportunities in the micro and macro environment to be better able to display its agility in

response to the information received from the environment (Gulraj, 2016).

Several organizations strategically conduct these scans on a provisional basis as a consequence

of a crisis or any unforeseen events (Gulraj, 2016). But some organizations plan and organize

these scans more frequently to be more competitive in the market.

Environmental Factors

Detailing an environmental scanning incorporates several trends to be monitored because of their

varying nature (Gulraj, 2016). These incorporate global trends, economic trends, political trends,

industry trends, business trends, technological trends, competitive trends, employment trends,

and demographic trends.

Being an HR professional for HRP at MCIS Zurich, I will monitor several environmental factors

to assess the environment. I will look into recent trends of HRP in the marketplace and industry

that can have any positive or negative impact on the organization like workforce diversity,
globalization, and its implications, corporate downsizing, changing skills requirements, etc. I will

explore competition and their strategies that are providing them an advantage and there they are

lacking behind to benefit my organization in both situations. I will also reconnoiter the latest

technological developments in HR like HRIS, the use of AI in recruitment, and others to exploit

them and make my organization more effective and efficient. I will also investigate what

insurance and other relevant products customers are demanding and how the organization and its

staff can deliver them. In addition to that, I will also study how the economy and its stability can

impact the organization and business we are in. Furthermore, looking at the current labor market

and supply available according to demand will also help in ensuring ready access to high-

demand workers.

 
Q4 

Recent Recession

The pandemic of coronavirus brought global economic downturn and recession nearly almost

every country of the world. Many organizations saw a huge decline in their businesses and had to

shut their activities and operations to witness the social distancing measures like lockdowns and

isolations at home to control the spread of this lethal disease. Since the organizations were not

under their regular operations and employees were either not working at all or working from

home, organizations have had a huge supply of labor that was in surplus. This labor supply was

in excess because it could not be utilized in such isolated situations and thus was a burden to the

company in terms of costs (salaries) and provision of other facilities. Therefore, organizations

are experiencing challenges to deal with the excess labor in their firms.

Strategies

As a VP of Human Resources at a Malaysian automaker, the major strategies that I think are

available to me to deal with the labor surplus in my organization include:

I believe layoff is not the ultimate option in times of recession and excess labor supply. So, this

will be the last option that I will ponder over. 

However, the ability to handle labor surplus is largely dependent on the current financial stability

and goals of the corporation (Smyth, 2020). I will do a deep analysis of various jobs and their

responsibilities in my organization to see if I can switch the roles or responsibilities of my staff

members to keep them employed. In this way, my organization will not have to bear the cost of

paying employees in vain. 

I will make sure to put a freeze on further hiring till the organization recognizes the best path

forward.
I will also cancel all the contracts with the outsourcing agencies to hunt talent for my

organization and will delegate the tasks dedicated for the new candidates to the current workers.

For hourly-based workers, I will reduce their working hours to decrease the burden on the

company. Furthermore, I will introduce strict policies like pay cuts on absenteeism or being late.

I will also encourage some of the older workers to plan their retirement early.

In case the organization is striving to make payroll and probability of further lack of business in

the coming time, I will inform my workers in advance so that they can find jobs for themselves

and then let some of my staff members leave (Smyth, 2020). 

 
References

Gulraj, R. (2016). Importance of environmental scanning in HRM. Linkedin.com. Retrieved 24

January 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-environmental-scanning-

hrm-reenu-gulraj/.

Rietsema, D. (2022). Challenges to HRIS Implementation. Matchr. Retrieved 24 January 2022,

from https://matchr.com/hris-software/challenges-to-hris-implementation/.

Smyth, D. (2020). How to Handle a Labor Surplus. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved 24

January 2022, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/handle-labor-surplus-33192.html.

Stand-alone vs integrated HR and payroll system. Global HRIS. (2020). Retrieved 24 January

2022, from https://www.globalhris.co.uk/stand-alone-vs-integrated-hr-and-payroll-system/.

Wood, L. (2020). ERP Benefits: Advantages and Disadvantages. Software Connect. Retrieved

24 January 2022, from https://softwareconnect.com/erp/benefits/.