Human Resource Information Systems Implementation - Essay Example

HRIS Implementation Introduction Greatest assets that organizations can possess are their workforce. One of the greatest challenges that these enterprises may face is managing their employees effectively while treating them in a fair and consistent manner. The ability to maintain crucial records, access them expediently whenever needed, and informing the right parties on important occurrences so as to instigate proactive decision making is critical in day to day human resource processes. HR managers are therefore tasked with the responsibility of managing information which could range from job applicants, employees and even board members and the challenges posed could be daunting as well. HR managers are therefore mandated by their organizations to extend companies operational excellence to management excellence as the next strategic imperative to these enterprises regardless of their sizes and market. During such period of economic volatility, operational excellence is crucial and organizations seldom afford cost-heavy operations, quality concerns, or even extensive time to market cycles. It is due to this background that operational excellence has to be seamlessly combined with management excellence via sound HR strategies. It is due to this background that HR stakeholders have to find ways of automating the difficult and time consuming processes of HR related activities. HR departments enjoy central role in formulating company policies and also streamlining the available business processes. In order to make such departments more effective and efficient, newer technologies have to be introduced on a regular basis to make things simpler and organized. For instance, there is the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) which has been designed to provide vital information which is useful when making HR related decision in the areas of administration, payroll, recruiting, training, and performance analysis. HRIS has the capability to merge human resource department with the Information Technology (IT) not only to simplify the operational processes but rather assist in complex negotiations which are under the human resource umbrella. HRIS Requirements A New HRIS has the potential to save incredible amount of time and make staff far more effective in their day to day duties, Nevertheless it is still important to understand that work that is required to maintain the underlying database in order to maximize on results. This is so because most of the companies that use HR related software’s stop using these products within six months because they are unable to match the required input for maintaining the data (CompareHRIS, 2011). The company has to understand that before acquiring any HRIS they should possess in depth knowledge of the type of data that will be imported in the system and where the data will mainly come from. The data may exist in other third party applications such as excel or Quick books, but there will be still some required input. Data which cannot be imported or not available in another system has to be manually entered and it is proper for the company to ask for an exact list of data fields which can be populated from external sources. This specific information should be included within the contract documentation together with the scope of the engagement. Integration of HR software interfaces Interfaces will assist data to be transferred from one system to another. These interfaces have the potential to save significant amount of time when transferring data that are associated with manual entry. This saved time will eventually draw the line between helpful products that employees find useful and cumbersome products that are abandoned. Maintaining the Data-base system In order for the company to reap maximum benefits from its HRIS, they have to ensure that their underlying data-base application is consistently updated and accurate. For instance, code tables associated with job titles, department titles, and benefits codes will be developed during set up, however, there are likely to be additions and alterations along the way. There should also be a plan in place as to who will enter and maintain the data in the repository. User Requirement Windows or Linux Based Database Application (SQl, Oracle, IBM DB2) Hosted application or client server system Need Of integrated payroll Is there need of any special payroll requirements Will there be need to export payroll data to GL applications The handling of tax filling requirements Training management Turnover reports Job and Pay history Attendance and Accrual tracking Report writing Ease of use If the company can find a product which can handle the above needs then the organization has a better informed decision because they can preview a comprehensive list of available HR software features that closely match the requirements of the company. HRIS software requirements Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Integrated HR & Payroll Yes Third Party Yes Attendance Tracking Yes Yes Yes Training Management Yes No Yes -Training Requirements Yes No No Turnover reports Yes Yes Yes -Standard or custom Standard Standard Custom Job and Pay history Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Interfaces -To GL Custom Created Third Party Third Party -From time clock No Yes No Prices -Software -Annual Support -Implementation Days Implementation cost Total cost Monthly Costs Option Cost Methodology to evaluate the different commercial and in-house packages Ascertain the HRIS budget The company has to determine the exact amount that they are willing to spend on a solution. This initiative should be embarked by involving other departments such as risk management, training, and accounting in the system selection and determining the HRIS list of needs. During this process it is inevitable that the budgets of the involved departments will add to the amount the company is spending for the application. However, involving other departments will clearly showcase how HRIS applications are meeting the organizational goals. Most applications in the market come with a total amount that may be spread out in equal monthly installments over the leasing period. There are also hosted solutions that can enable the company to pay per month per employee. Picking software vendors for review Immediately the company has defined its needs, requirements, and budget, then they may embark into the process of selecting and short listing HRIS vendors. The company will have to evaluate only the products which meet their budget, needs, and requirements. This process can be performed searching the internet by reading reviews from third parties, asking fellow HRM practitioners from companies with similar operations, or even posting for recommendations from various HR message boards, forums, or blogs. The company will then visit third party website to assist in reviews, and after doing the first pre-qualification they may proceed on to the vendor’s website and view the available HR software demos. During this process the company should have its needs spreadsheet in hand and use it to score each product on how well they meet the organizations needs. This is quite simple because most vendors tend to show where their HR software is the strongest. The company can also create some brief questionnaire for the vendor which will assist the vendor to provide some answers in your requirement spreadsheets. How to effectively use the live demo The company should involve representatives from the departments that will be impacted by the new system. The company HR practitioners and IT personnel should tell the vendor representatives what want before hand because when the demonstrators have the idea of what is required they make an easier and valuable presentation. The company HR practitioners should go for the currently available software’s rather than prototypes which are in beta form. This will make the company safe rather than being surprised (Harisi, 2008). Researching each HR software company During such point in time the company should arrive at a narrow list of HRIS that meet its needs and requirements and this should be recommended four or five vendor applications. Prices should be a determining factor in the final decision even though there are some other crucial details that needs to be considered before finally making the overall decision according to cost of acquisition. There also quite a number of factors which have to be considered, these include; How long has the vendor been in business? How many install do they have? Their reputation from different clients The answer that will be unearthed will therefore go a long way in establishing how a vendor and its product are stable. The company should also make use of online forums, message boards, and blogs to see the opinion from companies which are using products from certain vendors. HRIS Implementation Plan Immediately after the company has confirmed participation in deploying the proposed solution, a pre-defined process for collecting and agreeing on business information will begin and continue until the organizations data-base has been fully configured. This process may take approximately 3-6 weeks depending on the amount of data that has to be input into the system. Some of the activities that are likely to be carried during the course of this particular activity will entail. Kick of call During this activity the vendor and the HRIS project team are introduced to each other whereby the implementation process will be communicated and any queries answered. Details about the organization are also discussed, together with the constraints and unique circumstances. A preliminary live go date will also be possibly discussed during this stage. Requirements gathering Phase Immediately after the kick off the requirements gathering is initiated and a starter kit will be sent by the vendor to the company. This should be followed by a visit to the organization and the HRIS project team will collaborate with the vendor in order to alleviate any possible scheduling and resource constraints. Training During requirements gathering phase, the company’s staff will be inducted on HR and payroll training. The staff will be shown how to effectively maximize the advantages of the proposed system. Database Access and configuration At the end of the training the company will be granted access to the database and the HRIS team will configure the company’s database with their requirements. At the end of this particular stage, there will be a pre-production database which will be configured and used for testing purposes. At the end the pre-production database will then have to be replaced by the company’s main production database. Testing HRIS project team has to thoroughly test the newly configured database by simulating a payroll run. After completing this particular testing there will be some parallel runs where the company will perform various formal parallel runs to validate business requirements and calculations. Go Live After a successful completion of a formal parallel run, the company will formally agree on a go live date. Data conversion Due to the huge volumes of the data that previously had been entered into the system the organization is advised to start converting some of its data. This can be done either by in-house or the job can be outsourced externally to third party companies. Expert systems should be used to avoid time consuming and frustrating errors. Such as plan can be performed in various ways including: Determining demands and the limits of each company database. For instance, even though it is possible to populate the HRIS with an import, a good number of applications will not easily import history records. Developing a data conversion routine mostly by defining the file layout Testing the import routine by using small quantity of sample form the database for importation into the new HRIS. Finally verifying the results and data if they are appearing at the correct fields. Data entry and Audit This stage can be accomplished by setting data entry priorities. Initial part of the project is that the team has to identify the condition of the files, followed by assigning the task of reviewing and consolidating employee records. The team will have to identify the information which is missing or existing in another department. For instance, do payroll have the number of exemptions and other tax related information that are required by the system. Some of the key tasks in this stage include: Reviewing and consolidating employee records Entering sample records (5-10 sample) coming from wide range of employees so that the various circumstances such as different job titles, salary, departments, and benefit choices. Perform data entry. There should be dedicated time for this task because it is a process that should go uninterrupted. Printing profile report and performing and audit. Most systems come with a built in standard report which enables HR to print employees record. A third party should audit the records for any possible error before the system goes into production. Some reports can also be sent to employees for further verification and updating. Developing reporting systems Systems success is mostly determined by the reports published. The reporting process may comprise of: Gathering the current reports and determining their value Reviewing vendors standard report and printing samples from the employees database Interviewing line managers to ascertain the kind of information they require and in which format. Testing of the reports Printing sample reports for records management System Administration Computer systems have to be properly maintained and personell have to be responsible and accountable for each application that they are using within their own department. Each individual should be accorded restricted privileges as to who is allowed to view which data and who is also allowed to modify certain type of information. Key tasks for system administration are: Clarifying relationships between payroll and Human resource for system access and maintenance Assigning responsibilities for backing up, archiving, and training both existing and new users. Coordinating system administration tasks with IT department and recruiting system administrator within the HR department. Communicating the changes All changes will then have to be communicated to the company. This will be to the executives, line managers, and other employees. Some of the steps that can be followed when issuing the communication plan include: Identifying systems impact on the different groups Identifying information or participation required such as data verification or responding to certain surveys. Communicate on the progress of the initiative through various media such as internal newsletters, blogs, or other publications. Described some of the envisaged changes and benefits after implementation by providing some specific examples The plan should then be monitored consistently according to the timeline, week by week and task by task. Refferences Compare HRI, 2011, Understand the HRIS Input requirements. Retrieved 6th September, 2011 from http://www.comparehris.com/A-Full-Understanding/ Sam Harisi, 2008, Evaluating HRIS systems: Get a good demo, retrieved 8th September, 2011 from HR tech news http://www.hrtechnews.com/evaluation-hris-systems-getting-a-good-demo/ Read More