Human Resource Information Systems

◦Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) - are an integral part of most HR departments

- As the global economy takes on a more defined shape, the state of international, regional, and local competition becomes apparent

- The need to utilize resources in a more effective and efficient manner becomes important

- The human resource (human capital) is the most valuable and indispensable

- Growing strategic importance of the human resource function with organizations is realized by the need to mobilize, nurture and make use of people

◦HR manages information about people in all other departments of the organization

- HR must understand the information needs of these other departments and how policy/procedures influence and are influenced by the other functions

- HR must also understand that external forces influence the management of information within HRHR department must understand the nature of the organization's operations, what it does, markets and production processes

◦3 main themes why HR information management has become very important:

1. More complex employment laws that need to be dealt with - caused HR to collect, store and report more information than before

2. More people in the service sector - service sector requires management through information

3. Greater need to compete - information must be collected, analyzed and reported faster now than before to gain and maintain a competitive advantage

◦The Decision Support System (DSS) - system of making decisions

- The DSS includes:

o Yourself

o Other people

o Paper

o Technology

- DSS influenced by knowledge and command of

o Policies/procedures

o Rules/regulations

o Corporate culture

o Society

o Economy

o Government

- Decision Support Tools (DST) - include ay technology which serves to provide the information when you need it, where you need it, and the form you need it in

◦Personal influences on decision making

1. Technical knowledge - the actual textbook information a person has

2. Personal experience - individual experiences (mistakes/practices) over a life time will somewhat influence decisions

3. Beliefs and expectations - personal value system, beliefs and tolerance will influence decisions

◦Data vs. information

- Sources of HRIS data

o Employees

o Supervisors/managers

o Government

o Media

o Industry associations

o Customers

o Grape vine (informal channels of communication)

o Think tanks ( Conference Board of Canada)

- HRIS is fueled by data - data is collected on paper, electronically or verbally from various sources (i.e. surveys, reports, forms, notes, etc)

- Data has no meaning until it is analyzed an interpreted within a particular connect

- When data is layered with meaning, it becomes information

◦Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - large scale software packages that are installed companywide (i.e. SAP and People Soft)

- ERP systems allow for easy sharing of data between applications

◦The Concept-Production Model - gives clear guideline to introduce an HRIS to an organizations' HR environment

- The process starts with a concept where someone in the department has the idea to look into an HRIS or has the idea to actually go ahead with a purchase and implementation

- After the concept is put into action several steps are carried out to develop the project, search for a system and implement it

- The model finishes off with a system going into production where the system is fully implemented and people are using it for what it was designed for

- Concept → project team → justify HRIS → Barriers to success → needs analysis → type of system → purchase → implement → production

◦Gantt Chart - very useful tool when planning the HRIS project

- Like a timeline

◦HRIS project team - committee

- A full, typical committee consist of members who have maximal and minimal involvement from the day to day running of the project

- A typical HRIS committee should include:

o HRIS coordinator

o Maximal members:

 HR 1 & HR 2 - any HR department staff member who can serve on the committee

 Assistant

o Minimal members:

 Senior HR

 Payroll

 IT

 Finance

 Purchasing

o Outsiders:

 Software vendor

 Hardware vendor

 Legal counsel

 HRIS consultant(s)

o Department managers and union/employee representatives

o Steering committee - senior management to provide guidance, support and make sure that resources are not being wasted

- 3 conditions that the HRIS committee