THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

How it works
iHRIS: Time and Attendance • Data from the duty roster
(http://hris.health.go.ug/h
The integrated Human Resource Information System (iHRIS) is a computerized rattendance/) and iHRIS
Human Resources management tool consisting of electronic databases for (http://hris.health.go.ug/)
storing, reporting, and analysing data from the time professionals enter pre- are synced once a day in
service training to when they leave the workforce to ensure timely availability of order to collect the latest
accurate information for policy, planning and management. iHRIS Plan is updates.
designed to support the key HRH functions of planning; iHRIS Train to support • Before the beginning of
pre and in-service training; iHRIS Qualify for regulation of registration and the month, every facility
licensure; iHRIS Manage for management and iHRIS Retain for retention of the schedules the duty roster
health workforce. for the following month.
• Daily attendance is
In 2016, the Ugandan Informatics team developed an Attendance module in entered into the duty
iHRIS which was piloted in Amolator district for three months. In 2017, the pilot roster system.
was scaled-up to all districts districts and central institutions. • At the end of the month,
summaries for both duty
The module was continually updated based on user requirements and findings. roster and attendance are
For example, the initial module only took note of attendance. Over time, we uploaded automatically
discovered that in transferring a health worker to a new facility, data would not into iHRIS.
specify whether it was for the previous position or the current position. The • iHRIS populates a monthly
report by both individual
current position field was added to address this challenge.
and facility on attendance
Additionally, duty roster fields were added to improve the accuracy of the and absenteeism.
attendance data after one year. The derived fields computed and analysed days • Facilities that have
scheduled for duty, leave, off-duty, and other pre-authorized leave. These fields biometrics have their data
can be used to determine the number of days absent, the number of absolute uploaded onto the duty
days absent, and the number of days not at the facility. roster system.

• The number of days absent is derived from the number of days in a month
minus the number of days present, off-duty, official request, and leave.
• The number of absolute days absent is derived from the number of days a
health worker is scheduled to work minus the number of days present.
• The number of days not at the facility is derived from the number of days
• Data is then sent to the
in a month minus the number of days present.
HRH dashboard
(http://hris.health.go.ug/d
ashboard/) on a monthly
basis for further analysis.

In using these various fields, stakeholders can generate specific analyses and
reports depending on the definition of absenteeism that is relevant to them.
 iHRIS Manage
Currently, the module is split into two parts: Using iHRIS, HR professionals
can create a centralized
• Attendance information base on all HR
• Clock In management aspects such as
standard titles, job
classifications and job
The attendance module begins with the facility daily register where staff sign-in descriptions spreading over
and sign-out. At the end of the month, the records officer or facility in-charge geographic locations, offices,
populates the tally sheet with a summary of present, off-duty, official request, and and facilities. HR managers can
leave for all staff. The tally sheet is then submitted to the HRIS focal person who solicit job applications for open
positions, assign employees to
enters the summaries into the attendance module for all facilities. HRIS populates
fill positions and maintain a
a monthly report by both the individual and the facility on attendance and
searchable database of all
absenteeism. Data is then sent to the HRH dashboard on a monthly basis for employees, their identifying
further analysis. information and their
qualifications; track each
employee's history with the
organization, including their
The clock-in module currently operates at the Ministry of Health (MOH) and 14
position and salary histories,
Regional Referral Hospitals, NMS, etc. Data from the biometric computers at the and record the reason for
facilities are submitted to the MOH servers twice a day. The data is then uploaded departure when the employee
automatically to the clock-in module. leaves – thus a decision maker
can analyze this data to answer
key HR management and policy
questions, such as:
Improved Attendance Tracking incorporating the Duty Roster • Are employees deployed in
positions that match their
A duty roster is a spreadsheet that schedules when health workers should be on
qualifications and
duty and off duty. Each department in the hospital creates an independent duty education?
roster and submits it to the facility in-charge. The in-charge then integrates all the
submitted rosters into a general roster for the entire facility.

• Are employees optimally

It was however noted that tracking attendance which is not compared with the deployed in locations to
duty roster is incomplete. The informatics team designed a web-based duty roster meet needs?
system outside of iHRIS for several reasons with the ones stated below being the • How many workers need to
most outstanding. be recruited to fulfil
vacancies?
• To give access to facilities in-charges who do not have the mandate to • Are employees reporting
access HR data. for duty as per roster?
• HRIS is not mobile phone compatible, yet the majority of facilities do not
have computers therefore a smart phone based system was created.

Contact: Toll free telephone: 0800100066, email: info@health.go.ug