Maximizing your HRMS/HRIS in 5 Simple Steps

The purpose of the HR department is to ensure that employees welfare are well taken care of effectively and efficiently while working with C-suites to design and implement company HR strategy in talent acquisition, development, succession and retention. With the latter taking up more and more of the HR department’s responsibilities, it is instrumental that they obtain all the help they need.

With the ever-increasing pressure on businesses and HR department, an integrated HRMS (Human resource management system) or HRIS (Human Resource information system) or more recently known as an integrated human capital management system (HCM) is known as HRMS/HRIS tool that should work for you and not other way round, to empower you and the department to deliver the services efficiently and timely.

Here is a checklist you can use to see if your HRMS / HRIS is working for you and giving you the maximum benefits:

• Do you have multiple pieces of HRMS/HRIS software and hardware that resulted in multiple manual entries and hence, more work?
• Do you have difficulty in producing ad hoc reports that your management team wants at a short notice for decision making?
• Are you facing challenges such as not having the right IT resources, expertise, budget or security to maintain HRMS/HRIS  hardware and software in house?
• Does your HR software vendor provide only HR/payroll software and not talent management such as performance appraisal, recruitment and training management software. i.e. They cannot provide you with a strategic, single integrated and easy to use human capital management that take care of core HR functions and talent management.
• You face a constant turnover of staff in your HR department that affects the quality of HR services such as payroll, statutory reporting, recruiting etc.
• The HRMS/HRIS software company you work with is not based locally and/or does not give timely and knowledgeable advice. Service level is not up to expectation that affects your HR service delivery?
• You don’t get a clear idea form the HRMS /HRIS vendor regarding how they are going to take advantage of new and emerging technology to support your department in the near future.
• Is your HRMS/HRIS integrated with your ERP/ accounting system etc?
• Do you have a business continuity plan for HR department?

If you find that you have more than 5 areas that do not meet the expectations you may want to seek a total HR solution which is more than just HR payroll software typically provided by a HR software vendor. HR solution encompasses HR software for the daily HR operation, plus the hardware and its services, HR services such as payroll outsourcing, HR advisory services, talent management software and services etc.

Here are the suggested 5 steps to maximize the benefits of HRMS/HRIS to empower you to be productive, competitive and drive your business performance:

• Managing and working with your current software or IT vendor:

You should have a comprehensive list of both short and long term requirements to work with your current vendors to identify possible solution and services to meet the requirements. The present HRMS software vendor may have functions that you need and can increase your productivity. It may just be a matter of more modules like training & Learning Development, performance appraisals etc.

Identify the gaps and decide if you should continue to work with the current vendor(s) to reach your departmental objectives. Alternatively, if you want to engage other supplier/ service provider to complement or even replace the current HRMS/HRIS with an integrated HRMS and Talent management system.

• Consider using cloud service or cloud HR software

You can consider subscribing to HRMS software as a service (SaaS) or host your current HRMS and the associated hardware in the cloud. This will reduce your challenge in sourcing for the right IT resources to maintain the hardware and software. In addition, you can work with the vendor regarding your business continuity plan for your HRMS and the associated hardware and systems software in the event of major disruption or disaster. A good software vendor would be able to provide you with hosting services and give you advice on preventing data disasters.

• Consider implementing an integrated human capital management (HCM) catering to both HR core services (HRMS) and talent management.

To be a HR partner to the top management of your company, having an integrated HCM system is critical. You can either replace the current HR payroll software system with a totally integrated human capital management system with good reporting and analytical tools, or consider starting with just a comprehensive talent management system and integrating with your current HRMS. While both works perfectly fine, the latter approach will require less budget, change management but provide you with lesser benefits.

• Outsourcing HR and talent management services

With the challenge of internal resource turn over and at times lack of expertise and knowledge, one has to look at the external service providers that may be able to do the job at the right time and hopefully at the right price. It will augment your staff availability and the expertise that are required. There are many firms provide payroll outsourcing, training (general and tailored), performance management advisory, recruitment services, learning management planning and advisory, leave and claims management services.

• Process management and resource planning

It will be critical that the HR department documents the company HR processes and service delivery expectations explicitly and comprehensively. The head of HR department can use the blueprint to implement a HRMS /HRIS that helps the department to be competitive. A clear process descriptions will help to manage the HRMS software vendors in terms of their HR software and their service delivery. In addition, the HR management will be able to decide which processes can be outsourced and what service level are required and what processes can be in-source ( ie contract staff or contract services for expertise in HR matters etc).

In summary, a clear HR departmental process and service standards together with well executed management process in managing the HRMS/HRIS vendor will be key to success. It is also important that the vendor that you work with can be a HR solution provider, ie they provide more than just an integrated human capital management but also provide seamless HR services. Ie It will be very advantageous to find a supplier that can be your HR partner that provide total HR solution.

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The iqDynamics group consist of companies that specializes in providing integrated human capital management software, cloud hosting and IT services and HR services such as payroll and HR processing and advisory services.