The term HRIS stands for a human resource information system. It is an automatic database, which is used for collecting and managing information about the employees. At a broader level, the primary function of HRIS is to help the management in decision making. The HRIS comprises information such as employee’s performance record, recruitment, identifying training needs, benefits, and compensation, payroll, etc (Heathfield, 2009).
Functions of HRIS
The main function of this system is to reduce the manual workload of all these HR activities and facilitate the managers with better decision-making. The functions of HRIS depend from organization to organization according to their need and size. Some common functions of HRIS are:
- Organizing employee information
- Updating employee information
- Payroll and financial information
- Application and resume management
- Compensation and Benefits management
All of the above are some general functions that any HRIS would have. If one closely analyzes the functions of HRIS it would be very easy to determine that its most important function is to facilitate the managers in decision making (Reh, 2008). Employee information includes general information about the employees. Updating information refers to the changes which have been made in the status of the employee, address change, or any other personal information which needs to be updated. The payroll section is an integrated system that works together with the company’s other financial software to provide better results in developing a schedule for pay raises. The application and resume management system is not an essential part of the HRIS; it is mostly present in a large organization where the applicant tracking is high where the employers receive a large number of job applications.
In today’s dynamic world HRIS can play an important role in facilitating the management to analyze and track down information of any employee. An organization should have an HRIS system and it should be customized and designed to fulfill the need of that particular organization (Small business bible, 2008).
Vendor’s of HRIS
- Simple HR (Track it, Retrieve it, Document it)
- HRMS Solutions( Simplify your life)
- Checkpoint HR(Point of difference in HR)
The simple HR system helps in maintaining the record of salary history and benefits leave tracking, performance review, attendance, training needs, skills, and education, etc. A trial demo of this system is available for testing purposes. It’s economical at just $199 also ranked #1 on CNN’s list (Simple HR ).
The second system on the list is HRMS solutions. It mainly deals with recruitment and talent management, payroll system, time management, labor-related issues, etc. they have a current clientele of more than 300 organization’s in the industry with a professionally driven team.
Checkpoint HR is another HRIS provider with a test drive demo before purchasing it is also a reputable system. They are primarily serving in the health care, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, and manufacturing firms.
One should not forget that the HRIS systems are operated and worked by humans, so chances of human error are very much likely to happen. In such a case where the employee reviews their file and they have some concerns over it, there may be several areas in which they feel discomfort like the payroll process, bonuses, attendance, etc.
The problem might have occurred because of any error in the manual reporting system through which the data is transformed in the system. Or in other case there could be some data entry error that would have caused this disruption. Whatever the issue might be it could be sought out by properly communicating it with the respective authority.
The consequences of private information disclosure can result in lots of issues including biasness, disobedience, envy, demoralization, etc. all of these can cause some serious problems for that particular individual.
This could also result in a lack of trust in the management, which would eventually turn into dissatisfaction and would have a direct impact on the employee’s performance. It can also cause favoritisms for a particular individual which would create a chaotic situation inside the organization and affect the organization’s goals.
Salaries, benefits, performance reviews, and other documents are the personal information of an employee and require a high level of confidentiality. If leaked out that individual should be taken in confidence and reassure that it won’t have much effect on their status of the job.
Reference
Heathfield, S. (2009). Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Web.
Reh, F. (2008). HRIS. Web.
Simple HR. (n.d.). Simple HR. 2009. Web.
Small business bible. (2008). Advantages of a human resource information system. Web.