As observed, in practice, Human Resource Mangers really do not use software to manage
their day to day tasks of documents, records, etc. Most probable reason would be
that they don’t find software which seems useful & interesting or which
would give them value or maybe the ones which seems useful, are very expensive.
Whatsoever is the reason, but fact is it is an unattended issue in organization
that HR do not have software support.
Here we will carry forward this discussion and address the above mentioned concern.
The problem will be understood more precisely when we explore this from different
point of views, which will include:
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HRIS in a nutshell.
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Why HRIS software not used very often?
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Listing HR tasks and activities which can be automated with the help of software
or supporting tools.
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Does using software for HR activities bring value to HR Managers?
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Different types of HRIS software are available in the market.
Let’s get started with first one and will then move further with other points.
1. HRIS in a nutshell:
HRIS (Human Resource Information System) is popular and widely used term for solutions
that manages most important resource of any business i.e. Humans. Humans are different
from each other in every aspect, be it their needs, abilities, expectations, performance,
emotional quotient, intelligence, etc. And most importantly, they respond back to
a system, unlike other systems like computer which never reacts or retaliates. But
humans do and thus human management system becomes most complex from other system.
HRIS is a combination of science and art. HR managers have to make use of their
logical decision making capability for controlling professional issues, handling
grievance and many other such situations. When the exercise is in relation to individual
that’s an art and when it is applied to group of people then it becomes science
where HR manager has to take past statistics like appraisal process, into consideration.
Coming back to our heading, HRIS in a nutshell signifies to all the records, information
of all the human resources attached with the organization and handles smooth running
of functions, which consists of company’s internal functions like
2. Why HRIS software not used very often?
Usually HR Managers’ work is discretionary. Their nature of job or set of
work differs on day to day basis. This is the reason that HR do not felt the need
of having a software since they are not sure will the chosen software can handle
this ups and down of their job. And if the organization size is not large enough
then volume of work would also expected to stay low, which can be easily managed
by using office packages. This case-study also led to low choice of using a dedicated
HRIS system.
3. HR tasks and activities which can be automated with the help of software
or tools.
The most important thing to discuss (as this will take us onto our conclusion of
HR software as a Handy tool) is the list of tasks that HRIS software can automate
for HR. As we have discussed earlier, HR work is very dynamic and hence complete
automation is not possible but there are certain tasks which can be automated and
have value for the HR professionals. I am trying to mention few of them.
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Record Maintenance: The most tedious Job for an HR is to keep records
of each individual in folders, with dated month, year, other related documents and
many more such stuff. And retrieval of those documents takes lot of time and searching
hassles. This task can be easily automated with the help of software. The records
like appointment letter, offer letter, appraisal letter, etc. find space on HR computer
disk and retrieved by mouse click.
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Keeping the employee details: The document keeping provides input
when immediate reports are to be prepared for the certain purpose, like list of
employees having a passport, last served company details, experience, area of expertise
and many such useful facts & figures. This automated feature also helps HR to
provide quick details of the previous employees to his new recruiter on verification
call.
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Templates: In-built or pre-designed HR document feature can help HR to generate bulk documents which
would save a lot of time and efforts. The saved time and effort can be invested
in other more fruitful tasks.
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Organizing: This is an essential day-to-day activity which might
be scheduling of the training sessions, list of coordinators which can help, managing
the event details and keeping the information of assigned tasks with name of person
responsible for it. This organization reduces chaos among team members.
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Recruitment: This feature provides all essentials for the recruitment
process. The system can help in keeping the records of application from candidates,
list of candidates to be considered later and other relevant details. It can also
help in coordinating the activities on the recruitment day which includes written
test, group discussion, and personal interviews and recruiters’ panel creation,
etc.
4. Does using software for HR activities bring value to HR Managers?
Surely it does bring value for HR in two different ways – one, by automating
HR activities the HR managers can invest more of their time in analyzing things
and environment around them, and help employee with grievance handling, stress relaxation,
training and individual weakness development instead of investing time in generating
documents manually and managing them. Secondly, the HR managers can spare time for
their own personal development, which is much needed in today’s world where
business is very dynamic and challenges are many. The technology is changing rapidly
and companies making lot of efforts in the area of Human Resources to attain maximum
productivity. So HR Managers needs to upgrade themselves and introduce new practices
and approach of management which are in tune with the dynamic world of business.
5. Different types of software are available in the market
Of course there are lot of HRIS software’s available in the market. Based
on user needs there are standalone license software, which can be installed on the
HR machine and are comprised of set of HR functions like template software which
provides different document templates, document management, employee data management,
leaves management and similar features and some other very simple tool which just
performs certain operation like attendance record. These are normally available
as one time per license cost and not very expensive.
Other type of software available in the market are web-based applications which
work on cloud platform, where you can buy the users account online and can use the
application from anywhere in the world through the internet. In this approach, most
applications are large and expensive and have provision to pay per user/ per month,
which is a recurring cost for the company.
Altogether after discussing this I personally feel that HR software can be a Handy
tool for HR managers and we should give it a try. What do you say?
Before saying anything on the above topic, you can download HR Cube - Our HRIS software and help yourself to decide whether
you find this tool really helpful for yourself, being an HR personnel.