Human Resource Information Systems - Coursework Example

Human Resource Information Systems Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Human Resource Information Systems Table of Contents Introduction 2 Overview of Harvey Norman 4 Human Resource Information Systems 4 Applications Management 5 Access to HR Information 6 Processing of Recurrent Activities 8 Processing of Organisation Payroll 9 Organisational Workforce Analysis 10 Data Generation 10 Conclusion 11 Recommendations 12 Introduction Companies, both big and small require human resource systems for the management of their processes and activities since using manual methods is redundant, time consuming and wastes a lot of work hours. Human resource information systems can be described as the way through which large, medium-sized and small companies or organisations make use of software to manage their activities and this includes the processes and activities associated with human resource, management in the company, management of the payroll and accounting in the organisation (Chuang & Lin, 2017). Human resource information systems use further extends to tracking of employees, processing applications and much more with an aim at increasing efficiency in the company. This is in relation to decision making in human resource that directly translates to a raise in the quality of the services, processes and activities in the organisation. An increase in the productivity of a firm requires a system in use that takes over mundane activities and allows the energy of employees to be concentrated in other activities such as their work. Activities related to employee’s job description such as processing of leave and off, payments and others take much time thus reducing the productivity of employees in human resource department. Filing of paperwork traditionally involved manual processes and as such, activities such as payroll processing and leave processing required requests filed manually and the process of approval would take some days thereby making it a long process. Applications also underwent the same process and this required a lot of man hours for going through the applications and this resulted in loss of productivity or the decrease of the same in the human resources department. These hours would have been better employed elsewhere other than processing paper work and thus leading to an increase in the productivity of employees. Therefore, there is a high need for human resource information systems for the processing of activities that would otherwise have used a lot of man hours thus reducing productivity. This is because such a system results in an increase in the productivity of employees thus leading to high efficiency and this logically translates to profitability in the firm since an increase in efficiency is related to a similar raise in the profitability of a firm (Torres, 2008). Overview of Harvey Norman Harvey Norman, one of the best online stores in Australia, has strongly implemented an integrated human resource information system that has equipped it to give an excellent customer service as well as letting it give data for the day to day transactions of the company. Recruitment, as well as employee tracking use the same system. Its major activities include retail, franchise, property and digital enterprise that makes the organsiation an icon in Australia and a common name. The company gives an extensive merchandise range and current technology thus maintaining market control in its primary product categories. The firm’s success can be attributed, in part, to a functional HRIS Human Resource Information Systems The HRIS used is a comprehensive system with the capability to gather, save, manipulate and distribute human resource information in a firm (Torres, 2008). The system is adaptable, offering an array of human management resource features such as recruitment processes, training, payroll and HR tracking. Data is captured in an electronic database and transformed into useful information for the decision making and business operations. There is daily data capturing, updating, storing and dissemination for use. The data is shared by both human resource department and management thereby giving directions for the use of the data in decision making (Chuang & Lin, 2017). This helps organisations in cost management and increasing profitability. An effective implementation of the human resource information system sets a viable platfotrm for a firm to be such successful in the global market as Harvey Norman is. The greatest competitive advantage has to do with enhancing the efficiency of the human resource management administrative and operational processes. The HR information system has modules adaptable for processes such as recruitment and selection, management and organisation of employee training and merit-based promotion, payroll and remuneration management, etc. the information system has benefits for capturing, storing, organising, application of data for various process as well as providing regulated access for both administrative and operational uses (Morley et al., 2006). Apart from these benefits, Norman Harvey will benefit from the interactional module of the HRIS through which the management can communicate internally for its employees or externally for public relations (Nankervis, Rowly & Salleh, 2016). Operational as well as managerial support is provided by the system and this extends even to executive support in the whole organisation. The organisation’s leadership, through the system, receive support for decision making that involves staff, labour analysis for market forecasting and the assessment of employees’ skills, routine transactions automation, provision of high aggregate data and more. The company is also allowed to create and supply application forms, check the work hours and the attendance of the work force, process payroll and calculate per-capita merit increases through the system (O’Brien & Maeakas, 2006). Applications Management When it comes to recruitment, the system is involved in not only the collection but also the dissemination of the recruitment process to potential applicants for advertised positions. This means that the system provides a portal for the collection or receipt of applications and an advertising feature for the open position and this information can be obtained by both existing employees and potential employees or job seekers through the portal provided by the system (O’Brien & Maeakas, 2006). The HRIS also has a feature that allows it to go through the sent applications and choose the ones that meet the criteria while also replying automatically to the successful applicants as well as unsuccessful applicants. By using it, applications for job can be tracked and managed with minimal or no paperwork. The module is used to do selection and recruitment of new staff digitally. Previously, applications for vacancies would be entirely manually dealt with – received, selected, and responded to. The human resource staff would read through various applications and resumes and do selection according to set criteria. Finally they would write letters to the applicants calling them for interview or otherwise a regret for not qualifying. With the HRIS, all these are done fast, objectively and efficiently within a few clicks. It has value for time-saving, efficiency and effectiveness. The HR staff can thus have a chance and time to engage in other strategic and administrative roles within the firm (Chuang & Lin, 2017). It thus plays an important role in maximising the efficiency of human resource staff and practitioners. By raising the bar for staff efficiency and effectiveness, the HRIS stands to boost overall organisational efficiency, cost management and higher profit margins. Access to HR Information The HRIS adopted is plays an essential role in organising human resource information and making it available for management decisions by various interested individuals and departments. It does so by providing a central place from which staff can share and obtain work-related information timely and safely. All those who need the information are plugged-in to the central location with varied access rights proportionate to the need for information. Such users include payroll section, recruitment, performance management and training among others. The information is available when needed and in the most usable form. With ease and efficiency in organising and distributing information the system enables the organisation reduce redundancy. The efficiency has a cost-management tag to it and stands to boost organisational profitability. There are both internal and external uses to this information management module. For internal use, HRIS gives a centrally organised and managed data capture, storage and controlled need-based dissemination. This is accessible to various individuals and departments as regulated by rights control. Workers are kept up to date on the developments in the company through email alerts, and announcements are also propagated in the same manner thus the employees remain updated on the activities and decisions of the company (Zafar, 2013). The shared information is received instantly by employees, and this is the instance it is disseminated by the management. All these processes involve minimal manual work and are programmed for precision. The system also has interactional benefits between and amongst individuals in the organisation. With such internal efficiencies, HR staff can be engaged in other strategic needs of the organisation boosting their productivity and growth. For external use, the system can be adapted to communicate to the wider public especially on HR issues such as policies. These may include policy issues on equity in employment, employee rights, labour relations, etc. This can be done on the organisation’s websites as well as a mailing system established on a needs-basis. This can be part of its public relations strategy using the HRIS. By organising and disseminating the information to the wider public, the organisation is building and managing its image (O’Brien & Maeakas, 2006). This can be beneficial for attracting high quality staff and more business. Processing of Recurrent Activities In addition to the uses discussed in previous sections, the HRIS is adapted to process various recurrent activities in the firm. This is done by automating these processes. These processes may include, but not limited to, application for leaves or off-days. The processes are based on using employee identification code integrated into the system. Using this code, the system can keep track of the employee’s work-hours and further designate time-offs for the employees when requested or as programmed. The system may be adapted to give a time-off after an employee accumulates a threshold. It may also be adapted to keep track of leave-days. Leave application is done on the system, received and processed. For operational employees, there is less task in terms of placing manual applications. They thus have more time to do other productive things in the organisation. In addition, the system facilitates well organised and regular rest periods. For the HR department staff, there is also efficiency benefits. All requests are received, processed and effected on the system. The automation or recurrent processes enhances productivity and efficiency. There also objectivity benefits in these processes. All decisions made in response to recurrent processes are done against an established and integrated framework. In view of this, there is high accountability for the HR department staff (O’Brien & Maeakas, 2006). The traceability of decisions for automated systems is more efficient and fool-proof than would be in manual systems. On the system it is possible to follow on the approval system. Processing of Organisation Payroll The HRIS has features that are usable for preparing and processing salaries and remunerations for all types of works done in the organisation. It can be adapted to address needs such as full-time and part-time employees, over-times, task deliveries, etc. This is done by incorporating HRIS to the organisation payroll. In addition, it is adapted to work with business software used for computation of labour output and appropriate remuneration. The HRIS provides the staff identifications and job details such job titles, positions group, terms of employment and other contractual details. With the integration to the business software, the system is able to compute compensation appropriate to the set framework. The computations include salaries and allowances for full-time workers according to contractual frameworks. There also adaptations for deductions for requirements such as income tax and pension payments. Without the use of HRIS, all these tasks in payroll processes would have been entirely manual. They would have been characterised by immense work-loads, diminishing efficiencies and multiple errors for the HR department staff. Integrating the HRIS averts these inefficiencies, saves cost and is labour intensive. The system is also adapted to take care of part-time employees hired for various short-term engagements. In many cases, the part-time employees do not earn a salary. Therefore, the adapted system is programmed to determine the part-timers task output and hours recorded. Using a predetermined framework, it computes appropriate. The same also applies to temporary and contract workers who are selected based on a particular project or craft. The details of the workers are fed into the system concurrently with the required payment, and the algorithm for such a calculation is employed in determining pay. There is automation of pay determination and actual paying without the paper-work. Organisational Workforce Analysis One of the key needs met by workforce analysis is need for training and promotion (Yadapadithaya, 2001). The HRIS is also adapted in the management and organisation of employees’ training and skill development. When there is a need for the firm to train employees for a reason or the other, the HR information system generates a list of personnel to be trained. This report is generated according to parameters of qualifications, skill base and experience of the employees. According to it adaptation, the system uses the talents and skills data for analysis and determination of employees to undergo training. The HRIS also does track the education of employees ensuring that there is a real-time and updated information of the firm’s intellectual value (Yadapadithaya, 2001). Eventually, the decision on selection for training is faster, labour efficient, cost efficient and based on traceable parameters. The promotion process is equally enhanced based on merit. Thus, there are performance and efficiency benefits on the side of HR staff. In addition, the system facilitates objectivity in the selection which bolsters the awarding and capacity building system of the firm. Data Generation The HRIS produces records for use in organisational operational and administrative tasks. Concerning operational tasks, the HRIS creates and updates daily use reports for various operations. As indicated in previous sections, the HRIS is integrated to all operational processes on HR management. All HR data is centrally managed and published as regulated by access rights (Zafar, 2013). Consequently, there are benefits for speedily and accurate operational decision making. These decisions are labour and cost effective. This data is available for operational tasks such as recruitment, promotions, remunerations, leaves, etc. This is because the data of employees’ is already in the system and as such the processing of payroll is done easily without the association of paperwork and fewer man hours are needed. For operational needs of the firm, the firm acquires data as produced and organised by the HRIS regarding the employees’ times and appearance. The data is received, saved and managed electronically from which it is used to generate output such as time-offs. The data generated is also critical in computing payments and bonuses appropriately to the employees. The HRIS is also adapted to automate other everyday transactions in the company with a focus on cost management and maximizing labour output (Torres-Coronas, 2008). The HRIS also facilitates key managerial functions. For instance, the system produces reports from vacancy application data for use by management in processes such as recruitment and selection. The HRIS records are also organised to facilitate objective decisions on employee placement according to expertise, experience and skills. Therefore, the HRIS provides important lead in contracting and compensation. Conclusion The HRIS as adopted by the firm has been economically beneficial to the organization especially with the benefit of enhancing the productivity and efficiency its human resource staff. The adoption of systems that reduce the time required for some operational processes is important in enhancing company productivity. The long term benefit is a in guarantee that the firm will maximise returns on its human resource investments. Therefore, the human resource information system utilized by Harvey Norman has borne fruit in meeting the company’s human resource management needs such as recruitment, selection and remuneration. The HRIS adopted boosts operational efficiencies, reduces workload on HR staff and facilitates the deployment of these staff to other strategic areas within the organisation. Increasing the HR productivity by adapting such a human resource information system results in performance improvements. There are also profitability improvements related to the higher productivity and improved efficiencies. Therefore, companies ought to invest in systems for information in HR that appropriately adapt to processes of the firm therefore guaranteeing the efficiency and cost maximisation in the management of HR issues. This is because the systems generates and organises reports and information efficiently and precisely for use in administrative and operational decisions and tasks. Recommendations Adjustment of the system, in my opinion, is not required. As demonstrated, the HRIS adapted has proven effective and reliable. It delivers efficiency in data organisation and report generation for human resource management operational and administrative processes. By creating such efficiencies the HRIS have contributed to overall performance of the company as a global leader in the industry. What may be required of the system are frequent updates and adapting to emerging organisational needs. There may also been need to update in response to emerging statutory requirements such as labour laws, etc. In addition, there are emerging systemic security challenges to HR information systems. These updates will certainly require capacity building for HR staff and others who work using the system for administrative or operational tasks. ReferencesTop of Form Chuang, S and Lin, H., 2017. Performance implications of information-value offering in e-service systems: Examining the resource-based perspective and innovation strategy The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Volume 26, Issue 1, Morley, M.J., Gunnigle, P., O‘Sullivan, M. and Collings, D.G., (2006). New directions in the roles and responsibilities of the HRM function. Personnel Review. 35(6), 609-617. Nankervis, A., Rowley, C. and Salleh, N.M., 2016. ntroduction: Human resource management and organisational effectiveness – an overview and synthesis. Asia Pacific Human Resource Management and Organisational Effectiveness,  O'Brien, J.A. and Marakas, G.M., 2006. Management information systems. McGraw-Hill Irwin. Torres-Coronas, T. ed., 2008. Encyclopedia of Human Resources Information Systems: Challenges in e-HRM: Challenges in e-HRM. IGI Global. Yadapadithaya, P.S. (2001) “Evaluating corporate training and development: an Indian experience. Training and Development”. 5(4), 261-273. Blackwell Publishers Zafar, H., 2013. Human resource information systems: Information security concerns for organizations. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 23, Issue 1, Read More