HRIS Solution: Strategic Review Grade Course Establishing

HRIS Solution: Strategic Review

Grade Course

Establishing and running any organization is not an easy task. It is difficult not only because of the unexpected profit or loss that it would generate but also because it requires a great effort to recruit and hire employees and to manage each and every intricate detail of the company. To cope up with such a system, organizations benefit from the Human Resource Information System (HRIS).

HRIS incorporates a specific database which deals with maintaining the appropriate data which is accessed by the users. Therefore, HRIS provides a system which could easily be used and managed by the users to enter data and also refer to the pre-existing reports. In other words, it is a database designed to store retrieve and distribute data. For this reason, Human Resource Information System is a solution to all the problems of an organization. In today's advanced world, problems dwell and it often becomes difficult to run a business. With HRIS, the right information can be accessed at the required time. HRIS takes care of all the information which otherwise would have been missed by HR managers working manually. This is because of the underlying fact that HRIS provides with executive and decision support, management reporting and transaction processing. These are some of the basic functions in which this system excels. These are actually required by every organization to work effectively and efficiently. With the HRIS application, the manual work is put to an end. For instance, without an HRIS, evaluation forms would be printed, distributed to the employees and its result would later be entered into the computer and then printed to store it for future use. However, with the help of the HRIS, an online evaluation form could easily be filled and stored on the computer for later use.

HR functions and work activities have been supported by the information system for a long period of time. With the advancement in HRM, the IS system has also excelled with time. The organizations which realize the strategic nature as well as the advantage of HRM are running for using HRIS and incorporating it in their Enterprise Resource Planning systems. As mentioned earlier, HRIS supports a number of different business processes and is therefore considered as a major infrastructure for companies. This is seen by the fact that the last decade has observed the sales of HRIS to be approximately about U.S.$300 billion (Carlino, 2000).

With time, the HRIS system has evolved and became more efficient. Previously it created trouble for many companies. For instance, High Tech Inc. Company used HRIS to manage the work load of their organization. Although the access to HRIS was limited to the Human Resource department, the network administrator was able to track employee information. Through these details he was able to discover the employees who were highly compensated along with the differences in employee salaries. The information was leaked and cause widespread distress amongst the employees. Consequently, the human resource director who was not even involved in the whole matter was forced to leave. Similar yet more troublesome experiences have been noticed in several other companies which have relied on HRIS. This is one of the most sensitive sides of HRIS where all the confidential details entered are available to the employees creating a high risk of misusing the information. This might be a disadvantage of using HRIS but this shortcoming could be minimized if a proper selecting procedure is carried out while choosing the right and trustworthy HR team. Therefore, apart from the technicalities of HRIS, organization can ensure the security of data and broadening the use of HRIS by publishing policies in association with the maintenance as well as the use of HRIS data. There should be a policy whereby which the organization clearly and formerly states its concern regarding safeguarding the privacy of employees. In a similar manner, the organization should also state and have strict policies regarding the consequences of misusing the data. Such steps would not only protect the employees but also help the organization in making the most out of the HRIS (Bill, L, 1991).