Introduction
Top management professionals claim that the continued challenge among business executives in the present global environment is introduced by the art of human and humane-management and not technology. Organizations with the capability of attracting, developing and maintaining a diverse group have a better position in the future economic and strategic advantage. In order to maintain a competitive environment in business, a manager should balance firm’s available resources that are necessary in achieving profitability. Jay Morgan, who is the overall manager at Castle’s Family Restaurant, experiences a difficult task managing all the eight restaurants because they are located at different towns. In addition, the large number of employees working in these restaurants each requiring attention from the management also creates another challenge for the manager. In every organization, human resource department is viewed at the source of competitive advantage because they take care of employees’ welfare who in return determines the productivity of an organization (Thite and Kavanagh, 2012).
Castle’s Family Restaurant needs to implement a human resource information system (HRIS) in order to simplify the manager’s operations and reduce the cost of production. Morgan has to travel to every restaurant every now and then to solve issues arising in the process of conducting businesses. Coming up with a HRIS will be a better move for the restaurant because most firms today have realized that innovation and creativity among employees provides a suitable growth (Thite and Kavanagh, 2012). In addition, the implementation of the HRIS at Castle’s Family Restaurants will promote accurate and timely information sharing among the restaurant staff. Moreover, the process will be used in tactical, strategic, and operational decision making.
HRIS system
There are different types of HRIS form depending on the function an organization intends to perform. The best HRIS for Castle’s Family Restaurants is the Decision Support System (DSS). DSS will be more effective for Morgan because it focuses on data processing, storage, and effective flow of operations. In addition, the system cater for effective transaction processing, quality scheduling of business activities, efficient file keeping process, and keeps summary report for all management operations in a firm. On the other hand, implementing DSS as an HR information system will make the manager focus more on major business activities because the system is user initiated and controlled. The user initiated and controlled process will promote automated scheduling of employees in all restaurants and maintain all the relevant data of an employee including time of arrival, area of service, type of work done, and the number of hours (Gupta, 2013).
On the other hand, human resource decision support system will promote effective firm alignment between HRE strategy, HR programs, and firm strategy. Morgan complained of the high cost of fuel incurred every week when travelling from one restaurant to the other to cater for business and employees problems. With the integration of DSS, most of these operations will be conducted in a central place because all the restaurants will be connected via the internet and the manager will be in position to view all transactions from the comfort of his central office. In addition, the DSS gets rid of many human errors associated with manual methods of operations. The program enables an organization collect appropriate data and information and converting them into knowledge for effective and timely operations in a firm. With the resources available, this system will improve the status of this business and increase the competitive environment in the future (Thite and Kavanagh, 2012).
HRIS vendor choice
Different information technology applications have different vendors who charge prices depending on the location of the business, size of the business, and the intended use. The two best vendors for DSS are HRMS Solutions Inc. and Simple HR. These two vendors are internationally recognized for their quality services and timeliness.
Comparing the two vendors
In order to determine the best vendor to work for Castle’s Family Restaurants, a comparison between the operations of HRMS Solutions Inc. and Simple HR will be necessary. Firstly, HRMS Solutions Inc. is the recommended vendor because is easier to install, has a quick setup process, and required no special training to operate the software. In addition, HRMS Solutions Inc. provides the following important services. Salary history and benefits, performance review and training, health and safety records, HR Dashboard, and firm reports. Simple HR on the other hand, is a good vendor, but it has a complicated installation process and only professionals can install and manage it. Selecting this vendor will be of less benefit for the organization because it requires additional staff member to control and troubleshoot software problems that emerge. In addition, the vendor is not commonly used by many organizations because it is prone to many risks such as virus attack, computer crashing, and non-compatibility with some operating systems (Gupta, 2013).
Conclusion
The above analysis shows that implementing an information system in an organization are a costly approach, but cheap at the long run. Castle’s Family Restaurants has been recommended to use Decision Support System (DSS) because it is the only program that can cater for the problems encountered in the restaurants. In addition, the program buying, installation and running costs fall within the company budget of $5000. HRMS Solutions Inc. has been chosen as the best vendor for the restaurant management to use in installing and running the program.
References
Gupta, B. (2013). Human Resource Information System (HRIS): Important Element of Current
Scenario. IOSR Journal of Business and Management,13(6), 41-46.
Thite, M. & Kavanagh, M. J. (2012). Management and Human Resource Information Systems,
The role of information technology. Retrieved from:
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/25450_Ch1.pdf
