Introduction
Implementing an HR information system (HRIS) in any organization is not easy. It requires rigorous planning in all phases of software development life cycle (SDLC) (Jain and Ugrasen 2015). HRIS system affects almost all employees in an organization. Therefore, it requires more planning and analysis than any other software implementation. The hardware side of the implementation for HR projects is not as intensive as software configuration and graphical user interface (GUI) design. As HR systems typically are used by users 5-10 minutes per day or less so there is not much impact on the network as well (Jain and Ugrasen 2015). Riordan currently has diverse and extremely manual HR systems. There are almost no integration between processes, which may be creating data redundancies. This paper will discuss the HRIS implementation proposal for Riordan with primary focus on stakeholder analysis, information gathering process, key factors for success, project scope, and project feasibility analysis.
Stakeholder Impact Analysis
The implementation of an HR system will impact all the employees of Riordan. Although all employees may not get affected in a similar way but they will get affected none the less. The main stakeholders that will be impacted most are HR managers, Payroll clerks, Training Specialists, Managers, Recruiting Analyst and Employee Relations Specialist.
HR mangers will be the key stakeholder in the whole HRIS implementation (Pandey and Batra 2013). Presently, there are no HR involvement in the maintenance of employee personal data. It is updated by Payroll clerks with the information provided to them by line managers. Before the implementation process starts, it is important for the management to create a team of HR mangers (from existing HR department and include some payroll clerks) whose primary responsibility will be maintaining the base HR data in the new HRIS system. As the current employee personal data is maintained by finance department, in the initial phases of the project implementation, it is a good idea to create a clear hierarchy about changes in responsibility.
As can be seen from the above figure, a new group of stakeholder (HR Managers) will emerge as the result of the implementation and they will be primarily responsible for all the HR data management and other HR related activities. The role of Payroll clerk will reduce as they no longer need to update personal data in the system. HR managers will be responsible for managing the personal data, which then will be integrated with the finance system. Finance system, instead of maintaining its own personal records, will fetch personal data required for payroll from the HRIS system. Managers in the plants and in the headquarters will continue to have the same responsibility. If the automation of the personal data update process is easy, then managers, instead of notifying manually of any personal data changes, will raise a change request in the HRIS system, which, once approved by the HR managers, will take effect.
Employee grievance specialist role can be integrated with the HR manager role where each employee can log in to the HR system using the login ID and password and raise a grievance. Once raised, the grievance will be forwarded to the inbox of the HR managers by the HRIS system. The current tool can be discarded. This means employee grievance specialists will have a completely different role in a new HRIS system. This will be a huge change for this group. Similarly, for other groups such as training and hiring, HRIS system will be used in the future instead of excel based training planning and execution. If the learning management system (LMS) system is not available, then training specialist will use the current methods for training material creation and delivery and use the HRIS system for training need identification instead of using excel sheet based planning (Pandey and Batra 2013).
Information Gathering Process
Before getting into the final decision about implementation of the project, it is important to do a thorough analysis of the existing system and desired future state and how a HRIS software can help achieve that state. The process starts with fact finding, also known as information gathering process, inside and outside the organization (Pandey and Batra 2013).
First, one needs to understand the present state of the HR system in Riordan Manufacturing. Presently, the process is fragmented and manual. Finance system for the purpose of processing payroll implemented a payroll software that maintains personal information fields only required for payroll. Other HR systems such as hiring, training, employee grievance and time and expense are managed manually through excel based planning. Also, updates are made based on input from the managers. There is no organization wide policy or integration of any of the HR functionalities. However, apart from the payroll system, as all other systems are offline no dependency on server, hardware or network exists.
Riordan Manufacturing has plants in Albany, Pontiac and Hangzhou. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Riordan has two options while selecting the HRIS system. It can select a cloud based solution where the software will be hosted by the software vendor in the vendor’s own server and can be accessed by any Riordan employee from any location via the internet. This will require good, secure and reliable internet connection from all the locations (Pandey and Batra 2013).
Riordan Manufacturing can also go for PC based software. The main software can be installed in a server in the headquarter and then internet based user interface can be designed for end users. Users from any location can access the central server via Wide Area Network (WAN). This will require a new dedicated server and a switch/router from that server to the Ethernet (Pandey and Batra 2013).
Key Success Factors
The critical success factors for this project are
1) Defining the Scope of the project accurately.
2) Selecting a solution that is easily implementable, less expensive and does not involve huge hardware requirement.
3) The software should provide flexibility in terms of integration with the existing HR systems.
4) High involvement of the stakeholders is essential. As HR managers, payroll clerks, employee grievance specialist, recruiting analyst and training specialist will have a significant role to play in the new HRIS system, getting input from them in the design, build and test phase is essential for the success of the project (Pandey and Batra 2013).
Project Scope
The above diagram shows the project scope and the stakeholders who will get affected by the HRIS implementation. The scope of this project will include automating the HR processes such as training, hiring, payroll, employee information management, time and expense and employee grievances through the implementation of a HRIS system. This will automate the current process and also all the HR processes will be driven by the data maintained in the Core HR system (Pandey and Batra 2013). For example, Payroll will process pay based on job information, organization position and other relevant data maintained in Core HR system. Similarly, training requirement of employees will be decided based on employee personal information such as present job title, department and desired career path.
Presently, many data fields are not maintained by the HR but for the proper functioning of HRIS system, a lot of employee and job related fields need to be maintained in the Core HR system.
Feasibility Analysis
Feasibility analysis of the new system should be done in the following areas: operational, economic, technical, human factors and legal (Jain and Ugrasen 2015).
There is no doubt that a new HRIS system will improve the operational efficiency of the HR processes (Jain and Ugrasen 2015). It will increase the efficiency and transparency. If Riordan does not want to invest a lot of capital for the software at once, then it may opt for cloud based HR solutions. Then the company will have to pay only the license cost without incurring any cost for additional hardware and software maintenance. However, there may be an additional cost for improving the internet connection in plant locations for easy access to cloud based HR software. Technically, the project is not challenging, if the company decides to buy existing software from a vendor and use the vendor’s expertise to customize it. However, Riordan can also plan to develop the HR system itself. Then it will be an extremely technically challenging project (Jain and Ugrasen 2015). Finally, the project requires the involvement of a good many different types of stakeholders, but Riordan can use its current network of HR professionals to come up with proper design and delivery.
Conclusion
Riordan presently uses highly manual HR practices. Payroll maintains the employee personal data and uses that to disburse salary to the employees. All the other systems function on a standalone basis and do not interact with each other. Riordan definitely requires a HR system that will integrate the HR processes across the organization. Core HR module will drive all the other HR modules such as hiring, time and expense, and payroll. Riordan can purchase a software system and host it in an internal server. Alternatively, it can purchase a cloud based solution that will ensure that no additional hardware is required apart from a small upgrade of the existing network speed and infrastructure. The involvement of all the HR teams is critical to the success of the project as they will be instrumental for defining the future state of the HR system.
Work Cited
Pandey, S., and Batra. M. “Formal Methods In Requirements Phase Of SDLC”. International Journal of Computer Applications 70 (13). 2013. Print.
Jain, Ritu, and Ugrasen Suman. “A Systematic Literature Review On Global Software Development Life Cycle”. SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes 40 (2). 2015. Print.
