Introduction of Information Systems
According to DeSanctis (1986), there has been a clear evolution of the human resource information systems from the less complex automated employee recordkeeping, to complex decision and recording systems. It is also true that these systems depend mainly on hardware resources, which are centralized, for their operations. However, they are also increasingly maintained, supported, and managed by a group of information system specialists residing within the human resource department (DeSanctis, 1986).
The main function of Human Resource Information System is to support the control, decision-making, administration, and planning of the human resource management activities. In addition, the human resource information system support such applications as the productivity evaluation, equity monitoring, career-path projections, training and intake projections, benefits and pension management, payroll, and employee placement and selection. This particular human resource department, according to this author operates as a MIS. Incorporation of the improvements in information systems (IS) into the workplace environment has had a considerable influence on the utilization of human resource in such sectors of the economy, which require a lot of IS, such as financial services and manufacturing industries (Thibodeau, 2012).
Development of HRIS
While the computer technology is moving fast, it is unfortunate that majority of the companies still employ relatively outdated software and hardware. Consequently, these companies use HRIS only for the human resource tasks that are only routine. Only the IT-Intensive companies make use of the more sophisticated computer technology. For a long time, until recently, it is unfortunate that most of the HRIS have been homemade, whereby basic human resource functions as benefits and payroll administration were being automated in mainframe computers. This resulted in long queues for services. The waiting time was also very long and unacceptable if measured by today’s standards. Currently, the HRIS used are still old despite the advancement in information technology (Thibodeau, 2012).
DeSanctis has described the current position of human resource information systems groups. He has also highlighted the issues faced by these groups in their endeavor to reinforce the company. He came up with a number of conclusions. In the first conclusion, the author claims that HRIS should, in the absentia of other factors, be located in an organization in the benefits/compensation area. This is because it is here where it can receive the largest application (DeSanctis, 1986). There is an existence of a major shortage of HRIS managers who are properly trained. Such managers require both IS and personnel skills.
The management of HRIS interfaces has to be done in line with other information systems in the management. The legitimate needs of HRIS users who are outside personnel area are ignored. There is no proper coordination of the HRIS planning with personnel planning as well as strategic plans of the organization; despite the high advantages of such organization. Increasing pressure is falling on the U.S. managers due to global competition. The pressure here is that of coming up with better and faster business decisions. In order to speed up and improve management decision making, businesses are considering the idea of infesting on information systems (Lippert &Swiercz, 2005).
Managers are struggling to lead in this global competition by controlling labor costs, motivating employees to offer high quality and customer-oriented services. They are also searching better and new ways of speeding up these obligations since the reliance on the manual labor is no longer bearing much fruits. The managers must meet these objectives despite the fact that the head count is shrinking (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 1997).
Apart from the shrinking head count, the employees in the current global environment are located all over the globe. These employees are also becoming more culturally diverse. With these changes, such relatively routine obligations as regulatory and legal compliance and employee record keeping are turning to be geometrically intensified. The development of human resource information system is therefore, being embraced by these managers in order to keep in touch with all these complex tasks. Apart from the U.S. managers, all the human resource managers all over the globe have the duty of exploiting information system.
Application of systems in business
Research has found out that for the companies that have adopted HRIS, they have used computer applications in managing fundamental human resource functions like benefits, payroll and compensation administration and record keeping. Adoption of HRIS has also been discovered to be having the advantage of enabling human resources to automate several transaction processes. These processes are not only automated, but they are also made available to employees and managers on line. This makes it possible for HR to cut down the time used in carrying out routine administration of activities. The HRIS also allow for the elimination of several positions that were performing these tasks. Human resource staff therefore, reduces significantly with the adoption of HRIS (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 1997).
HRIS also allow the managers and employees alike to complete the necessary HR forms on online basis before updating the employee data and initiating personnel actions. There is much efficiency associated with IS in business organizations. Through the incorporation of such IS aspects as productivity evaluation, equity monitoring, career-path projections, training and intake projections, benefits and pension management, payroll, and employee placement and selection, some efficiency has been realized by most business organizations. The problem is that most of the business organizations still have their IT at its rudimentary stages. In this case, there is only the existence of partial electronic employee record-keeping devises (Lippert &Swiercz, 2005).
This means most organizations rely chiefly on charts and paper reports. However, it is clear that in the next years to come, comprehensive electronic employee information systems will have been developed and deployed. With the information systems technology in place, the business managers at different departments and locations can access information faster and share the same information, thus improving both operational efficiency and better customer care service delivery (Lado & Wilson, 1994).
Competitive advantage in adopting IS
HRIS has also made it possible for such companies as Chevron to document such things as delivery costs, determine the human Information systems will bring an overall shift in the business organizations that will be directed toward positions that require more training and education, while commanding higher salaries. The cost savings that are likely due to the reduction of repetition, waste, as well as costly wrong or erroneous employee records will fund these higher salaries. The information systems make this reduction possible (Murphy, 2012).
Upon the implementation of the abovementioned technologies, the business organizations can be in the position of improving the quality of service delivery by reducing duplication, streamlining processes, and reducing the risk of errors.
With the incorporation of human resource information systems in the business organizations, there will be more time for the human resource managers to attend to the employees since the IS will be making the administrative loads lighter. Information systems will also allow for Electronic communication to be conducted between organizations, meaning that human resource managers will be in the position of accessing employee records as well as other data at the point of need, thus ensuring that the employees get a more effective and rapid service delivery. Research will also be facilitated by the employee information databases since these databases will provide a more effective way of collating and evaluating performance data (Olavsrud, 2012).
Implementation of IS
The implications of Information systems from a human resource perspective include:
Increased training will be needed so that all the human resource professionals get the skills of using information systems. The low-tech and clerical positions will have to be eliminated since information systems will substitute these positions.
The need for informatics specialists in human resource will dramatically increase. These specialists will be both those having human resource training as well as those having no human resource management backgrounds if they have received training to meet the complex IS needs and demands of business organizations. These needs include the electronic databases management, maintenance and development of systems providing universal access and standards, the support and development of business decision systems, and supervision of data access from both a workplace ethics and a database security standpoint (Olavsrud, 2012).
Conclusion
Human resource department constitutes the business organization departments whereby the use of information systems cannot be underestimated. The human resource department deals with sensitive aspect of employee management. This means that the sector requires extreme accuracy. Consequently, competitive advantage in this sector is determined by among other things like the better service delivery.
This means that if a business organization can deliver a quality services faster, it will acquire a competitive advantage over other organizations. The adoption of information systems, as explained above, has made the human resource in these organizations to be able to achieve this efficient service delivery. The information system brings competitive advantage through the cost reduction, hence increasing the profits of the organization (Gross, 2012).
This paper therefore, recommends that information systems should be adopted by any other business organization for better competitive advantage. The human resource managers have to embrace the human resource information systems if they are to be in the position of supporting the control, decision-making, administration, and planning of the human resource management activities (Batt, 2002).
References
Batt, R. (2002).Managing Customer Services: Human Resource Practices, Quit Rates, and Sales
Growth. The Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jun., 2002), pp. 587-597
Broderick, R. & Boudreau. J. (1992).Human Resource Management, Information Technology,
and the Competitive Edge. The Executive. Vol. 6, No. 2 (May, 1992), pp. 7-17
DeSanctis, G. (1986). Human resource information systems: A current assessment. MIS
Quarterly, 10(1), 15-27.
Gross, G. (2012). Expanded IT trade pact would bring huge benefits, study says.
Computerworld. March 15, 2012 03:48
Huselid, M., Jackson, S. & Schuler, R. (1997).Technical and Strategic Human Resource
Management Effectiveness as Determinants of Firm Performance. The Academy of
Management Journal.n Vol. 40, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 171-188
Lado, A. & Wilson, M. (1994).Human Resource Systems and Sustained Competitive
Advantage: A Competency-Based Perspective. The Academy of Management
Review. Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 699-727
Lippert, S. &Swiercz, P. (2005).Human resource information systems (HRIS) and technology
trust. Journal of Information Science October 2005 vol. 31 no. 5 340-353
Murphy, P. (2012).Computing Cartels Shake up IT Purchasing. Information Week. March 27,
2012 11:30 AM
Olavsrud, T. (2012).IT Must Provide Enterprise Collaboration Tools Employees Will Use.
Computerworld. March 27, 2012 02:14 PM E
Thibodeau, P. (2012).What IT managers say to get the CIO's OK. Computerworld. March 23,
2012 06:30 AM
