Human Resource Information

Systems and Technology

Sub Code - 695

Developed by
Prof. Chinmay Kamat

On behalf of
Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research
Advisory Board
Chairman
Prof. Dr. V.S. Prasad
Former Director (NAAC)
Former Vice-Chancellor
(Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University)

Board Members
1. Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe 2. Dr. B.P. Sabale 3. Prof. Dr. Vijay Khole 4. Prof. Anuradha Deshmukh
Group Director Chancellor, D.Y. Patil University, Former Vice-Chancellor Former Director
Welingkar Institute of Navi Mumbai (Mumbai University) (YCMOU)
Management Ex Vice-Chancellor (YCMOU)

Program Design and Advisory Team

Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Mr. Manish Pitke

Dean – Marketing Faculty – Travel and Tourism
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Management Consultant

Prof. Kanu Doshi Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Dean – Finance Dean – Marketing
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Prof. Dr. V.H. Iyer Mr. Smitesh Bhosale

Dean – Management Development Programs Faculty – Media and Advertising
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Founder of EVALUENZ

Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Prof. Vineel Bhurke

Dean – Marketing Faculty – Rural Management
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Prof. Venkat lyer Dr. Pravin Kumar Agrawal

Director – Intraspect Development Faculty – Healthcare Management
Manager Medical – Air India Ltd.

Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse Mrs. Margaret Vas

Dean – IT/Business Design Faculty – Hospitality
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Former Manager-Catering Services – Air India Ltd.

Prof. Sandeep Kelkar Mr. Anuj Pandey

Faculty – IT Publisher
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Management Books Publishing, Mumbai

Prof. Dr. Swapna Pradhan Course Editor

Faculty – Retail Prof. Dr. P.S. Rao
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Dean – Quality Systems
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Prof. Bijoy B. Bhattacharyya Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Dean – Banking Dean – Marketing
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Mr. P.M. Bendre Course Coordinators

Faculty – Operations Prof. Dr. Rajesh Aparnath
Former Quality Chief – Bosch Ltd. Head – PGDM (HB)
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Mr. Ajay Prabhu Ms. Kirti Sampat

Faculty – International Business Manager – PGDM (HB)
Corporate Consultant Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

Mr. A.S. Pillai Mr. Kishor Tamhankar

Faculty – Services Excellence Manager (Diploma Division)
Ex Senior V.P. (Sify) Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

COPYRIGHT © by Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.

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1st Edi(on, January 2020

 CONTENTS

Contents

Chapter No. Chapter Name Page No.

1 An Introduction to Human Resource Information 4-23

System
2 Management of Information in HRIS 24-39
3 Application of HRIS for Strategic Processes 40-64
4 Software Applications for HRIS 65-85
5 Creating Secure HRIS 86-107
6 Personnel Information Systems 108-168
7 Enhancing Support for Learning and Development 169-207
Functionality through HRIS
8 Contemporary and Emerging Trends in HRIS 208-250
9 Role of Artificial Intelligence in Developing 251-280
Robustness in HR
10 Cutting Edge Tools for Digitalization in HR 281-305
References 306-306

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Chapter 1
An Introduction to Human Resource
Information System
Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Explain the concept of HRIS and its importance
• Understand the need for HRIS to exist and function
• Describe the process of HRIS evolution
• Describe in detail the critical elements for the creation of an HRIS

Structure:
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Definition and Scope of HRIS
1.3 The Basic Need for HRIS to Exist
1.4 Understanding the Evolution of HRIS
1.5 Important Considerations for Creating Robust Human Resource
Information System
1.6 Activities
1.7 Summary
1.8 Self Assessment Questions

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) is a computerized system

used to acquire, store, analyze and distribute information regarding an
organization’s human services and to provide services in the form of
information to the clients or users of the system. Thus, HRIS is an effort
towards speedy, effective and professionally handling of information on
resources for efficient management of Human Resource function.

Maintenance and updating of manual records system is a labor-intensive

job, and transfer of data from one record to another increases the chance
of error which affects the accuracy and reliability of data held. The manual
records cannot provide all data of an employ at a time, different
information being stored in different files. It becomes difficult to provide a
single comprehensive picture of an employee on one record. In this
context, HRIS plays a competitive and comprehensive role to facilitate the
user with the required information at their fingertips.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Thus, HRIS is a system that enables storing of information of Human

Resource in every aspect such as personal, academic, qualification, family,
medical, career and performance evaluation, training and development,
and wage and salary of individuals. Unlike manual systems, the HRIS
enables availability of all such information in a single screen. Reports on
various parameters can be generated with ease. Moreover, reliability of
such records is assured.

The difficulty in maintaining manual records and their inability to provide

the ‘complete picture’ can be stated as the two basics reasons that gave
rise to the evolution of HRIS. The voluminous data on employees, which is
unfeasible to track manually, has become easier to update at frequent
intervals. Updating and maintaining of manual records systems is labor-
intensive as well as costly process, and at same time, increases the chance
of error. HRIS tracks all the aspects of employee administration perfectly
while reducing chances of errors. An HRIS is a software application planned
specifically for the collection and articulation of employee information.
These HR frameworks can furnish functions differing from payroll and
compensation breakdown to the pertinent association of accessible
positions with qualified provisions already existing inside the framework.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

The mechanization of the information altogether diminishes the probability

of mistakes in entries disparities between records. With the information of
the employees perfectly woven into a proper web of HRIS databases, HR
executives come to be allowed to seek after additional discriminating and
inventive thinking ventures. HRIS facilitates the development of an
integrated and vast repository of employee data, taking into account more
mind boggling and mixed investigation by organization executives,
expediting better choice making and enhanced business productivity. With
everything taken into account, this system cannot neglect to enhance the
execution of business operations, merging diverse HR forms and altering
the routes in which an organization administers its representatives.

Human assets are critical for any company and explicitly the IT industry
where employees perform the functions of the talent stores. Due to the
vitality of human assets, human asset data frameworks have come into the
spotlight. To use the employee’s productivity, it is basic to have full
depiction about the worker, and in addition, the employment for which he/
she is accessible. At times, the persons could be the legacy for the
association yet the person might not be successful in his present position
or part in the organization. In many instances, surplus and lack of workers
influences the organizations. HRIS supports the companies to overcome
such challenges by planning the amount of employees, and also their set of
responsibilities.

An attempt is made in this book to provide you with holistic information on

the topic of HRIS. Through the seamless progression the chapters, you will
be able to envision the growth of HRIS applications in the different aspects
of HRM. The first set of chapters prove useful in providing a clarity of the
topic. The next set of chapters focus on the inner working of the HRIS
applications. The last three chapters would equip you with knowledge of
the cutting-edge developments in HRIS.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.2 Definition and Scope of HRIS

According to Kavanagh and Tannenbaum, “A human resource information

system (HRIS) is the system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze,
retrieve, and distribute pertinent information regarding an organization’s
human resources.”

In simple words, “the HRIS is a systematic procedure for collecting,

storing, maintaining, retrieving and validating the data and information
needed by an organization about its human resources, personnel activities
and organizational unit characteristics.”

The scope of HRIS is very vast and it encompasses information about the
following sub-systems.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

a. Personnel administration sub-system information: It is intended

to keep personal records of each employee as regards leaves, transfer,
promotion, increments, etc.
b. HR planning sub-system information: It includes information that
could assist human resource mobilization, career planning, succession
planning and inputs for skill development.
c. Procurement sub-system information: Here, the advertisement
module, recruitment sources, applicant’s profile, selection procedure,
appointment and placement data are stored.
d. Learning and Development Sub-system Information: It provides
information for designing course material, training schedule, training
module, training methods, appraisal of training programmes, etc.

1.3 The basic need for HRIS to exist

HR functions were among the first to be automated alongside accounting

systems. HRIS grew over the years to take the shape of Employee
Relationship Management (ERM) Tools, Knowledge Management Portals
and Employee Portals. HR Self-Help, e-Learning and Knowledge Sharing
are some of the early benefits being reaped out of the system. A greater
sense of organizational bonding can achieve what traditional HR aimed at
for ages – lower employee turnover, high morale, effective personalized
training and skill retention. Any HRIS includes reporting capabilities. Some
systems track applicants before they become employees and some are
interfaced to payroll or other financial systems.

An HRIS is a management system designed specifically to provide

managers with information to make HR decisions. HRIS systems, thus,
integrates information from different applications into one universal
database. The linkage of various human resource modules through one
database is the most important distinction to the individually and
proprietary developed predecessors, which makes this software application
both rigid and flexible. Some of the key reasons for the emergence of HRIS
are provided below:

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. Efficiently storing each employee information and data for reference –

personal data management, payroll accounting, benefits management
and planning.
2. Enabling informed decision making in day-to-day personnel issues,
planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring Human Resource
function.
3. Providing data/returns to government and other public.
4. Facilitating decision making in areas like promotion, transfer,
nomination, settling employees’ provident funds, retirement, gratuity,
LTC and earned leave compensation.
5. Cutting costs.
6. Improving accuracy.

Being the most implemented project in enterprises, the potential for these
applications is huge and can be gauged from the fact that every large
software vendor, be it in ERP or CRM, is bringing out products in this
segment.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.4 Understanding the evolution of HRIS

The first computerized human resource application in business took place

at General Electric in the early 1950s. In the years that followed, HRIS
evolved rapidly and transformed into complex systems. The evolution of
these systems can be categorized into three distinct generations – first,
second and third.

First Generation: The first generation of computerized HRIS involves the

conversion of manual information keeping system to computerized system.
Often, a large external service bureau ran the resulting systems. In case of
very large firms, an in-house mainframe computer. Large, costly processor
crunched payroll, and other data and end uses had very limited access to
the system. Data had moved from the file cabinet to a mysterious
mainframe. Human resource data were now in the care of a computer
group that was either in-house or contracted outside. Requests from
human resource personnel for information had to be funneled through the
computer group. This system did result in a significant decrease in the time
required to produce most reports, but it also made Human Resource
personnel feel depend on the computer group. Many human resource
managers regretted not having direct access to their own data. Some even
longed for the old days of paper files.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Second Generation: As the 1970 advanced, the second generation of the

computerized HRIS was initiated with the introduction of the Mini-
computer. Mini-computers handle a network of simultaneous uses, and
have multiple input and output devices. These devices facilitated the
transition from strictly batch processing to interactive processing.

The second generation of computerized HRIS was completed in the early

1980s with the arrival of the personal computer. The low cost stand-alone
computers moved data processing to the desktop. The Data Repository was
moved to the human resource professional desktop. Software proliferated,
and before long, the human resource record keeping function was within
reach of every size of organization. At the same time, mainframe and mini-
computer system were being made much more accessible and user-
friendly. From a functional standpoint, however, human resource managers
were doing their job in the same basic manner they always had. The one
major difference was that computerization allowed them to do more and to
do it more rapidly.

This is quite an evolution to have taken place in just a few decades.

Undoubtedly, computer usage has increased since those early times.

12
 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Third Generation: Moving the data repository from some mainframe or

computer group to the desktop caused a great deal of excitement in the
human resource field. Human resource professional began to see the
possibility of new applications for the computers. Rather than merely
computerizing what had been done manually, they visualized ways to use
the computers to fundamentally changed the way they performed the job.
The basic idea was to integrate many of the different human resource
functions.

Software vendors observed the desires of human resource professional and

began to develop systems to integrate the various areas within their
applications. The result was the third generation of the computerized HRIS,
a feature-rich, broad-based, self-contained HRIS. The third generation took
system far beyond being mere data repositories and created tools with
which human resource professional could do much more. The extent to
which the organization has developed their HRIS varies from organization
to organization.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.5 Important considerations for creating robust Human

Resource Information System

The HRIS is a system designed to supply information required for effective

management of an organization. It is not simply hardware and HR-related
software system, but also includes people, forms, policies, procedures,
data and information. In simple words, “the HRIS is a systematic
procedure for collection, storing, maintaining, retrieving and validating the
data and information needed by an organization about its human
resources, personnel activities and organizational unit characteristics.”

The computerized HRIS virtually integrates the information relating to

various sub-systems of human resource management as discussed above.
In fact, it serves as a common database of information on jobs, people and
organization variables. The Integrated HRIS involves the following
elements:

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

It should now be accepted that HRIS is the prerequisite to effective and

strategic HRM. Every organization looking for growth and advancement
must adopt it. Further, the HRIS should be followed in tune with the overall
goal of the organization. The HRD managers must play a key role in the
planning and implementation of HRIS so that the organization could
anticipate and prepare for HR technology transaction. They have to play,
thus, the catalytic role and accept entire responsibility of ushering
appropriate, effective and efficient HRIS in their organizations. Necessary
information will have to be collected and analyzed in tune with the
particular organization’s HR strategy for transformation.

Successful technological transition is only possible when programs,

alliances and strategies are accordingly developed. The management must
prepare the staff and line, prior to introduction of HRIS, that they do not
have any indication to resist the system change. All implementers and
users must understand this phenomenon. All the people concerned must
get ready to pour in all their efforts and energy to successfully work out
the HRIS and also be conversant with its limitations and strengths.

Important considerations for HRIS: While planning the HRIS, the

following considerations should be made in addition:
a. Examination, scrutiny and study of entire business environment.
b. Understanding the HR goals of the organization clearly.
c. Deciding about new technology and clarifying the process.
d. Winning cooperation of employees and optimizing the HRIS
resources.
e. Gradual regularization of implementation process of HRIS.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

The organization must take care of the following considerations during the
above-mentioned stages:

1. Streamlining the HRIS: This demands constant watch, check, recheck

and double check. It has to be an integral part of overall business
process over a period of time.
2. Resourcefulness: At the outset, it should be made sure that the
organization has skills, talent and competencies to implement HRIS.
3. Dedicated team of people: The HR manager must locate and identify
those people who have sense of commitment to put in their best on full-
time basis.
4. Integrating the system: The cost of changes today and the cost of
maintenance later will have to be seriously considered to customize the
HRIS over the years.
5. Flexibility retention: Adaptation is a great thing. Having launched the
HRIS, a plan for handling subsequent changes will have to be chalked
out. The plan should integrate organizational design, job design,
leadership style, communication network, training and guidance, and
infrastructural support issues.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

As the HRIS has to be handled strategically, attention must be paid on to

the following points:

1. First of all, build a representative implementation team, the job of which

would be to canvas for HRIS and seek complete support from everyone
in the organization. Such team should be formed with representation
from every department. The organization- wise user identification
should be made.

2. Be clear with the objectives of implementing the system. Link it with the
projected scope of the HRIS, total time-frame for implementation, the
cost involved and resources required to implement, maintain and
monitor it.

3. Highlight the problems being faced with the current system in order of
priority.

4. Focus on the difficulties of the users under the existing system,

document the compliance issues and alternatives available for the
present manual processes.

5. Outline the functional performance of the new system.

6. Prepare a profile which would embody into it, the new HRIS to be
implemented.

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.6 Activities

1. Research online to find two of the prominent providers of HRIS in every

generation of HRIS evolution.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on aspects which the
organization must take care of while creating robust Human Resource
Information System.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

1.7 Summary

In this chapter, we have begun by introducing the concept of Human

Resource Information System which is commonly known as HRIS. We have
discussed that it is a computerized system used to acquire, store, analyze
and distribute information regarding an organization’s human services and
to provide services in the form of information to the clients or users of the
system.

HRIS facilitates the development of an integrated and vast repository of

employee data, taking into account more mind boggling and mixed
investigation by organization executives, expediting better choice making
and enhanced business productivity. With everything taken into account,
this system cannot neglect to enhance the execution of business
operations, merging diverse HR forms and altering the routes in which an
organization administers its representatives.

18
 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

A definition of HRIS, as provided by Kavanagh and Tannenbaum, has been

mentioned. It states “A human resource information system (HRIS) is the
system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve and distribute
pertinent information regarding an organization’s human resources.”

The scope of HRIS is very vast and it encompasses information about the
following sub-systems.

(i) Personnel administration sub-system information

(ii) HR planning sub-system information
(iii) Procurement sub-system information
(iv) Learning and development sub-system information

HRIS grew over the years to take the shape of Employee Relationship
Management (ERM) tools, Knowledge Management Portals and Employee
Portals. HR Self-help, e-Learning and Knowledge Sharing are some of the
early benefits being reaped out of the system. A greater sense of
organizational bonding can achieve what traditional HR aimed at for ages –
lower employee turnover, high morale, effective personalized training and
skill retention.

Some of the key reasons for the emergence of HRIS have also been
discussed in this chapter, which are as below:

1. Efficiently storing each employee information and data for reference –

personal data management, payroll accounting, benefits management
and planning.
2. Enabling informed decision making in day-to-day personnel issues,
planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring Human Resource
function.
3. Providing data/returns to government and other public
4. Facilitating decision making in areas like promotion, transfer,
nomination, settling employees provident funds, retirement, gratuity,
LTC and earned leave compensation.
5. Cutting costs.
6. Improving accuracy

19
 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

The evolution of HRIS has also been briefly covered, which includes a
generation-wise evolution and spans three generations. The first
generation of computerized HRIS involves the conversion of manual
information keeping system to computerized system. The second
generation of the computerized HRIS was initiated with the introduction of
the Mini-computer. The third generation took system far beyond being
mere data repositories and created tools with which human resource
professional could do much more. We have also seen that the
computerized HRIS virtually integrates the information relating to various
sub-systems of human resource management as discussed above.

The Integrated HRIS involves the following elements:

(a) Automated analysis methods
(b) Decision support
(c) Multiple applications

The organization must take care of the following considerations during the
above-mentioned stages:
• Streamlining the HRIS
• Resourcefulness
• Dedicated team of people
• Integrating the system

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.8 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief how the human resource information system is used for
efficient management of Human Resource function?
2. Enlist and discuss the reasons that can be stated as the two basics ones
that gave rise to the evolution of HRIS.
3. Explain the statement: “The HRIS facilitates the development of an
integrated and vast repository of employee data.”
4. Explain in brief the need for the human asset data frameworks to have
come into the spotlight.
5. Explain in detail the features of the third generation of the human
resource information systems.
6. Describe in detail the role played by an HRIS in the initiation of
successful technological transition.

Objective Type

1. From the context of HRIS, to facilitate the user with the required
information at their fingertips, what role needs to be considered for the
HRIS?
(a) A simplistic role
(b) A complicated role
(c) A comprehensive role
(d) A structured role

2. Updating and maintaining of manual records systems is labor-intensive

as well as costly process, and at same time, this process is said to
__________.
(a) Reduce the chance of precision
(b) Reduce the chance of error
(c) Have nothing to do with reducing the chances of error
(d) Increase the chance of error

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

3. Mr. Abraham Smith is an HR Professional and understands that human

assets are critical for his organization. Being from the IT industry, he
should know the fact that representatives most importantly perform
which of the following function?
(a) The functions of the stores of knowledge
(b) The creators of security
(c) The functions of the talent stores
(d) The functions of the innovators

4. It is a well-known fact that HRIS disintegrates information from one

universal database into a diverse number of applications.
(a) True
(b) False

5. From the context of the evolution of the HRIS, the HR functions were
among the first to be automated alongside which other business related
systems?
(a) The security systems
(b) The accounting systems
(c) The interviewing systems
(d) The learning and development systems

6. The second generation of computerized HRIS was completed in the early

1980s with the arrival of which of the following?
(a) The mobile phone
(b) The personal computer
(c) None of them
(d) The tablet

Ans.: 1. (c), 2. (d), 3. (c), 4. (b), 5. (b), 6. (b).

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 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

Chapter 2
Management of Information in HRIS

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Explain the essential elements of information retrieval in HRIS
• Understand the process of utilizing critical Information in HRIS
• Develop awareness to create effective HRIS
• Describe in detail the way transactions are conducted

Structure:
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Analyzing the Needs of a Modern HRIS
2.3 Essentials of Information Retrieval in HRIS
2.4 Creating Robust HRIS Solutions
2.5 Processing of Transactions in HRIS
2.6 Activities
2.7 Summary
2.8 Self Assessment Questions

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

2.1 Introduction

From the beginning of the HRIS development, the Human resources

department are collecting and storing vast amounts of employee-related
information. From information related to recruitment and workforce
characteristics to payroll and employment history, these HRIS provided
organizations a customized access to critical information. Such information
can help hire new talent, identify skills gaps and measure performance.
They also create a whole new set of challenges for HR managers.

Most organizations currently utilize web-based employee applications or

other technologies in human resource management for storing and
retrieving information. A significant benefit for online systems is the
existence of automation. As we know that employee paperwork for new
and existing hires is often a time-consuming process, technology in human
resource management allows a company to find new ways of handling
paperwork relating to employee hires and benefits. For example, all new
hires may need to fill out paperwork for medical, dental, retirement or
other benefits.

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

Moving traditional activities from a manual to technological process can be

time-consuming and expensive. Additionally, the potential for hardware or
software to fail is also a problem that a company may need to consider.
Being prepared for all technological issues is a must as failure to properly
handle employee data can result in heavy fines or penalties. The use of an
online system, thus, has become common and beneficial. In today’s
contemporary world, most organizations possess an intranet that all
employees can access in order to fill out documents, review current
benefits or handle other tasks related to specific benefits. Having said this,
the organizations must also have secure environments for storing
employee documents. While all organizations typically have specific storage
rooms devoted to this purpose, technology in human resource
management can also be beneficial.

2.2 Analyzing the needs of a modern HRIS

In order to create better and more robust HRIS processes and functions,
we should thoroughly analyze the requirements of a modern HRIS. At
every stage of the development of the HRIS, the HR managers began to
see the possibility of new applications for the automated software
applications. The notion is to integrate many of the different human
resource functions. Everything nowadays is becoming computerized and
especially when it comes to human resource information systems, the HR
have to be aware about the system in a manner such that all sub-systems
become more integrated.

26
 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

It has been observed that the latest HRIS have been transformed from
being mere databases of information to well-articulated tools with which
human resource professionals could do much more. Human Resource
Management (HRM) functions in organizations have seen big changes over
the years. Being a critical business unit, HRIS does not exist in an isolated
world and is developing rapidly. HR professionals have realized that HRIS
functions, if aligned to business as strategic partnership, can yield
unimaginable results. Today, in fact just not HR, but every business unit, is
on board for supporting the strategic mission(s) of the organization. Many
organizations have seen a need to transform the way Human Resource
operations are performed in order to keep up with new technology and
increasing numbers of employees. In the past, recording keeping was done
on paper and with spreadsheets. HR professionals realized that there was a
need to change to a more computerized system and looked into the use of
Information Technology. By making this transition to IT-based HR function,
they became able to keep more accurate records as well as better prepare
for future growth. The modern human resource information system is able
to drastically reduce waste and cost with the use of Internet-based
technology programs like artificial intelligent applications, electronic
recruitment systems, electronic timesheet software and time-off system. It
also helped the IT managers to provide more reaches to employees in
empathetic way. Thus, from the above discussion, we can understand the
need of an HRIS in a thorough manner.

2.3 Essentials of information retrieval in HRIS

It is a known fact that HRIS have been existed using technology since the
early 1950s. Due to increasing competitive pressure, the process got
accelerated in 1980s in the wake of cost reduction, improved productivity
and advancements in technology leading. The literature on e-HRM and
human resource information system (HRIS) recognizes many key
advantages of leveraging technology in the delivery of HR services such as
transaction costs reduction, cycle time, etc.; streamlining and
reengineering HR process; enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of HR
processes and functions; improving employee satisfaction by delivering
quick HR services and shifting the focus of HR from the transaction
processing to strategic HRM.

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

Information, communication and knowledge are interrelated words. To be

precise, knowledge is not possible without pertinent and timely
information; and information; without organized and regular
communication; is worthless and undependable. Studies indicate that the
organizations of the future are going to be communication-based
organizations. Communication is the necessary foundation for organizing
activities. It is the glue that binds the entire organizational structures
together. Thus, organizations are not very dissimilar to the living systems.
They too establish and maintain themselves through communication with
their environments and amongst their parts. HRIS has three sources of
information:

1. Analytical information from other departments.

2. Through various survey methods and engagement information.
3. From external sources (e.g., outsourcing the data collection or
from external data warehouses).

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The study of HRIS practices across the globe companies has resulted in the
establishment of the fact that the enhanced functionality hardly had any
positive effect on employee competencies, but rather it resulted more in
cost reduction and reduced administrative chaos. This proves a point that
information retrieved in the proper manner can result in more effectiveness
of the system. The HRIS uses an organization-wide network of HR data,
information services and databases which are based on HR transactions.
This, therefore, can be termed as a system based on web and voice
technologies for managing HR functions and delivering HR services. The
function of an organization comprises essentially of two kinds of resources:
technical (raw material, equipment, capital, etc.) and human (work, ideas,
skills, etc.). Basically, an organization exists due to pooling of resources,
individuals can accomplish potentially more together then they can
individually. Properly designed HRIS are like teams working together, who
can accomplish much more.

Even though the recent HRIS framework is perceived as complicated,

because at times, it appears complex due to comprehensiveness, yet due
to its user-friendly and feature-rich nature, can be customized to the
specific needs of the HR function. Today’s HRIS concentrates primarily on
web-based functionality and usually focuses on an integrated database
system encompassing several business modules under an enterprise
resource planning (ERP).

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2.4 Creating robust HRIS Solutions

Human Resource managers began to see the possibility of new applications

for the computer. The idea was to integrate many of the different human
resource functions. Everything, nowadays, is becoming computerized and
especially when it comes to human resource information systems, the HR
manager has to be aware about the system well at least for the sake of
minor things like payroll, compensation, etc. Thus, information technology
plays a vital role for any department and especially HR department in any
organization. As we know, these days, HR managers use third generation
of HRIS. Third generation of the computerized HRIS is a feature-rich,
broad-based, self-contained HRIS.

In order to enhance the robustness of the HRIS applications, the

organizations need to focus on improved reporting and processing that will
be realized from cutting-edge refinements in upcoming systems. Thus,
these are the reasons most firms choose to implement an advanced HRIS.
A key factor to consider the advanced HRIS will most likely affect the
company much more deeply – it will challenge the operating structure and
principles of all the HR-related departments. To create robustness, the
most essential element is to make an attempt to join the HRIS with the
other existing applications to make it an ‘integrated system’. An integrated
HRIS system results is a drastically different environment than a cluster of
related but separate systems. The core concept of a centralized data store
inherent with an HRIS demands integrated work processes for consistently
managing that store. The two attributes – centralized data storage and
integrated work processes – will affect the organizations in ways most
managers do not expect.

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It is important to note that the term “systems” does not just refer to
hardware and software. Systems also include the people, policies,
procedures and data required to manage the HR function. In reality,
information technology is not the key to being successful at managing
human resource information, but what it does well is provide a powerful
tool for “operationalizing” the information—making it easier to obtain and
disseminate, and ensuring that it is specific to the organization’s HR
policies and practices. A sound HRIS system accommodates the
assimilation and integration of HR policies and procedures in a seamless
fashion. If the data required to produce the necessary information have
been recorded and maintained appropriately, all reports can be generated
with ease. It is important that not only executive management should have
access to human resource information, but also the operational managers
need to have access to human resource data relevant to their sphere of
responsibilities.

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Documentation defining the information required for basic regular monthly

reports, such as payroll expenditure, should be generally apparent in the
organizations.

2.5 Processing of Transactions in HRIS

Processing of transactions in HRIS, procedures and guidelines should be

located on the organization’s intranets, thereby giving access to the
employees. Displays on intranets are usually supplemented with circulars,
forms, checklists, templates and guidance material to assist users when
entering data, and also to assist in the completeness, accuracy and
management of information. Intranet technologies allow companies to
process HRM applications over their corporate intranets which allows the
HRM department to provide information service to their employees. The
concerned HRM department can provide round-the-clock services to large
number of customers. There can be faster dissemination of information for
timely action through appropriate decisions. Intranets can collect
information online from employees for input to their personal files.

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Employees can easily download instructions to get the required

information. Human resources are the people that work for an
organization, and human resource management is concerned with how
these people are managed efficiently. However, the term Human Resource
Management (HRM) has come to mean more than this because people are
different from the other resources that work for an organization. People
have thoughts, feelings, aspirations and needs. Thus, the organizations
tend to communicate policies and procedures through their intranets. It is
also important for the organizations to ensure that information on the
intranet is up-to-date, as documents are generally only reviewed when
they are considered a priority topic.

The last major wave of implementing standardized solutions happened at

the start of the new millennium. Since then, the organization’s budgets for
new IT projects have dropped drastically, even while their demands for
information technology have grown considerably. The applications must be
able to call up their information in real time, so that they can react flexibly
to markets that are growing more quickly all the time. This can be
achieved only if existing applications are integrated and modernized.
Providers must offer their customers integrated applications that are
customized for their needs, which are developed in close consultation with
the customers. A commercial enterprise’s competitiveness depends on its
ability to innovate. HRIS must be able to react ever more quickly to
increasing corporate demands, such as short product lifetimes and greater
innovation speed.

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2.6 Activities

1. HR professionals have realized that HRIS functions, if aligned to

business as strategic partnership, can yield unimaginable results.
Research online to find more information about this statement.

——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on properly designed HRIS
that function like teams working together.

——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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2.7 Summary

In this chapter, from the beginning of the HRIS development, the Human
resources departments are collecting and storing vast amounts of
employee-related information. From information related to recruitment and
workforce characteristics to payroll and employment history, these HRIS
provided organizations a customized access to critical information.

Most organizations currently utilize web-based employee applications or

other technologies in human resource management for storing and
retrieving information. Moving traditional activities from a manual to
technological process can be time-consuming and expensive. Additionally,
the potential for hardware or software to fail is also a problem that a
company may need to consider. In this chapter, we have also discussed
about analyzing the needs of a modern HRIS. In order to create better and
more robust HRIS processes and systems, we should thoroughly analyze
the requirements of a modern HRIS. At every stage of the development of
the HRIS, the HR managers began to see the possibility of new applications
for the automated software applications. Many organizations have seen a
need to transform the way Human Resource operations are performed in
order to keep up with new technology and increasing numbers of
employees. In the past, recording keeping was done on paper and with
spreadsheets.

The literature on e-HRM and human resource information system (HRIS)

recognizes many key advantages of leveraging technology in the delivery
of HR services such as transaction costs reduction, cycle time, etc.;
streamlining and reengineering HR process; and enhancing the efficiency
and effectiveness of HR processes and functions. The function of an
organization comprises essentially of two kinds of resources: technical (raw
material, equipment, capital, etc.) and human (work, ideas, skills, etc.).
Basically, an organization exists due to pooling of resources, individuals can
accomplish potentially more together then they can individually. Properly
designed HRIS are like teams working together, who can accomplish much
more.

Human Resource Managers began to see the possibility of new applications

for the computer. The idea was to integrate many of the different human
resource functions. Everything, nowadays, is becoming computerized, and
especially when it comes to human resource information systems, the HR

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

manager has to be aware about the system well at least for the sake of
minor things like payroll, compensation, etc. A sound HRIS system
accommodates the assimilation and integration of HR policies and
procedures in a seamless fashion. If the data required to produce the
necessary information have been recorded and maintained appropriately,
all reports can be generated with ease. Processing of transactions in HRIS
procedures and guidelines should be located on the organization’s
intranets, thereby giving access to the employees. Displays on intranets
are usually supplemented with circulars, forms, checklists, templates and
guidance material to assist users when entering data, and also to assist in
the completeness, accuracy and management of information. The last
major wave of implementing standardized solutions is the turn of the new
millennium. Since then, the organization’s budgets for new IT projects
have dropped drastically, even while their demands for information
technology have grown considerably. The applications must be able to call
up their information in real time, so that they can react flexibly to markets
that are growing more quickly all the time.

2.8 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief why most organizations currently utilize WEB-based

employee applications?
2. In order to create better and more robust HRIS processes and functions,
what steps need to be taken?
3. Explain the statement: “Many organizations have seen a need to
transform the way Human Resource operations are performed.”
4. Explain in brief why communication is the necessary foundation for
organizing activities?
5. Explain in detail why properly designed HRIS are like teams working
together, who can accomplish much more?
6. What are some of the steps that organizations need to take in order to
enhance the robustness of the HRIS applications?

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 MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION IN HRIS

Objective Type

1. Which of the below provided aspect in human resource management

allows a company to find new ways of handling paperwork relating to
employee hires and benefits?
(a) Complexity
(b) Technology
(c) Leadership
(d) Hierarchy

2. From the context of HRIS, moving traditional activities from a manual to

technological process can be __________.
(a) Time-consuming
(b) Low-cost
(c) Expensive
(d) Both (a) and (c)

3. By making a transition to Information Technology based HR function,

the organizations of today became able to __________
(a) None of them
(b) Retain manual records
(c) Keep more accurate records
(d) Reduce the rate of accuracy

4. It is a well-known fact that properly designed HRIS are like

dysfunctional teams not capable of working together.
(a) True
(b) False

5. What kind of HRIS results is a drastically different environment than a

cluster of related but separate systems?
(a) Secure
(b) Integrated
(c) Centralized
(d) Developmental

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6. Which kind of HRIS accommodates the assimilation and integration of

HR policies and procedures in a seamless fashion?
(a) A centralized system
(b) A sound HRIS
(c) None of them
(d) The systematic HRIS
Ans.: 1. (b), 2. (d), 3. (c), 4. (b), 5. (b), 6. (b).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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 APPLICATION OF HRIS FOR STRATEGIC PROCESSES

Chapter 3
Application of HRIS for Strategic Processes

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Develop the awareness of the creation of Strategic Information needs
• Understand the need to design robust Intranet Technologies
• Describe the process of decision making systems in HRIS
• Describe in detail the elements of documentation in HRIS

Structure:
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Factors that Need to be Considered for Strategic Information Needs
3.3 Designing of Intranet Technologies for Smooth Propagation of HRIS
3.4 Critical Aspects of Strategic HR Information Systems Planning
3.5 Elements of Decision Making Systems in HRIS
3.6 Elements of Documentation in HRIS
3.7 Activities
3.8 Summary
3.9 Self Assessment Questions

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3.1 Introduction

The rapidly changing technological landscape of HRIS includes numerous

opportunities and challenges that HR strategists must consider as they
utilize these applications. Some of the trends which have been globally
accepted in this domain include: enhanced customer focus practices,
organizational hierarchies that have been flattened, ever-increasing
reliance on intellectual capital, greater reliance on outsourcing and
strategic alliances, changing demographics and a need to organize and
control an increasingly complex and turbulent environment. An interesting
point to become aware of is that, evolving strategy is often at the heart of
environmental complexity and turbulence, often causing organizations to
spend millions of dollars to remain competitive.

The challenge becomes one of balancing

constrained resources with a need to

remain strategically competitive.

In years past, the assumption was that HRIS was a support function that
provided technology to help HRM meet its objectives. Gradually, strategic
transformations began taking place and the scene started changing. These
changes require new competencies for HRIS users. They also require new
competencies for end-user employees and senior managers. The
complexity and uncertainty of these changes create a constant need for
continued evolution and system updating, along with increasing demands
for strategy. All of these changes are associated with significant costs for
any organization, both in terms of financial investments and effort to
manage the related changes processes themselves. The strategic potential
of HRIS is well recognized as effective HRM practices support business
goals and objectives.

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 APPLICATION OF HRIS FOR STRATEGIC PROCESSES

3.2 Factors that need to be considered for Strategic

Information needs

The changing paradigm gives us the confirmation that HRIS is a strategic

partner of HRM in executing important HR initiatives. Dedicated HRIS staff
are often responsible for outsourcing, purchasing or developing new
technological solutions. Choosing to grow requisite expertise and
knowledge in-house makes for a much more versatile and stable
workforce, but doing so requires a close partnership between HR and IS
functions. HR provides input into the typical functions of compensation,
training management, etc. HRIS provides needs assessment related to
expertise, often along with actually providing much of the technology-
related training necessary. The specific knowledge, skill sets and technical
competence that are needed is often a difficult question to answer.
Partnering with HRM is the obvious solution for many of the coordination
issues related to bringing contracted human capital to bear on corporate
initiatives. Similarly, HRM typically evaluates in-house delivery of services
vs. outsourcing, particularly those involving HRIS vendors. Organizations
need to have the right HRIS applications that can work seamlessly. This
proves instrumental to encourage, foster and assess collaboration between
those involved in order to maintain efficient and effective staffing and HRM
structures.

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 APPLICATION OF HRIS FOR STRATEGIC PROCESSES

Given the expanding role of HRIS and the growing tendency for
organizations to rely more heavily on knowledge capital rather than skill
capital, it is often the case the required knowledge capital must be
acquired. Developing the talent of displaced, highly skilled workers may be
a strategically sound solution for manning highly specialized HRIS
software.

In terms of supporting the Strategic HRIS function, there are several types
of applications that are available currently. Some enhance organizational
performance through decreasing transactional costs, others enhance
business intelligence, and still others foster employee collaboration. The
needs met by early versions of these systems were simple and common to
most businesses, which led to general-purpose HRIS software. Highly
specialized systems have developed over the years that require a more
technology-heavy management process. Dedicated HRIS servers, often
with ties to enterprise-wide processing systems, typically require
specialists to maintain. Hence, the importance of a solid relationship
between HRIS and HRM. The second type of application focuses on
management information in a strategic manner. These business intelligence
systems include a broad category of systems for analyzing and providing
access to specialized data to help enterprise users make better business
decisions. Though business intelligence is a term often used to describe the
collecting of information regarding the environment external to the
organization, it also refers to understanding the strategies at work within
the organization. HRIS provides the technology platform, and HRM works
with the employees to define appropriate levels of information regarding
the human component to production and management.

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A prime example of a strategic HRIS software is the Enterprise Resource

Planning (ERP) application. It has evolved from being a standalone payroll
solution to improve the efficiency and accuracy of processing payroll. Due
to the HRM’s increasing complexity and frequency of change with regard to
regulatory compliance needs, ERP has evolved strategically and
systematically. Applications have been developed to replace the paperwork
and related processes for each sub-domain in this application. Over time,
vendors such as SAP and PeopleSoft have used technology to assist firms
with costly HR processes and integrate them with other organizational
information systems. With Oracle’s release of latest PeopleSoft version,
end-to-end HR, from planning, hiring, on-boarding, setting business
objectives and starting the employee working is brought into one holistic
solution. Such applications continue to transform the way HR functions.
Strategic developments have made it possible for small to medium
enterprises, which are now able to pay vendors for only the application
modules they want, such as payroll or training management, and only for
the time used. This type of solution is known as utility computing, in which
the user of an off-site information system is charged only for the amount of
processing time used, much like one pays a small amount for electricity

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when only a small amount is used. This significantly lowers the cost and
startup time for new application implementation and factors in the
strategy. It also often removes the need for the organization to spend
valuable manpower maintaining a routine system. The routine maintenance
of these HRIS solutions is performed by the outsourced HRM application
provider. An added benefit of these systems is that employees typically
have the ability to access their employee information while away from the
organization. Most of the times, employees are able to perform majority
tasks online.

3.3 Designing of Intranet technologies for smooth

propagation of HRIS

One of the most relevant and critical ways of propagating HRM services is
the Intranet. This feature has become pretty common in many
organizations. In many sectors of the industry, employees prefer to work
from home rather than by physically going to the workplace. The
functionality provided to employees on a remote basis is known as
Employee Self-service. These Employee Self-service modules enable
employees to access their data anywhere, such as payroll information,
updating contact information, accessing copies of the employee handbook
or benefits manual, signing up for training workshops, and in some cases,
applying for vacation and notifying their Manager of a sickness-related
absence. A mention of the use of ERP is also made in this section as well.
Though many organizations are becoming more cautious in implementing
organization-wide ERP solutions in such a changing competitive
environment, the HRM functions of ERP seem to be here to stay. Similar to
the employee self-service portals, enterprise portals enable individuals to
interact electronically with corporate systems, or even with other
employees.

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 APPLICATION OF HRIS FOR STRATEGIC PROCESSES

While these types of systems improve access for legitimate users, they also
bring security concerns. In this context, the solution lies with a strong
partnership between the HRIS function and the HRM function to oversee
security needs. There is evidence to support the claim that employee
retention is improved when an effective ERP is in place. These solutions
that provide off-site access for employees also facilitate the continuation of
many HRM functions following catastrophic work stoppages such as during
natural calamities or strikes, or when employees are located in extremely
remote regions without easy access to HRM departments. All that is
required to access these systems is often a source of electricity and an
available satellite signal. In short, a small and relatively secure HRM
department with solid a HRIS partnership can provide HRM functionality
anywhere in the world. Newer developments in Human Resource
Information Systems (HRIS) include e-HR or HR functions made available
through computers and mobile telephone devices. These Intranet systems
often facilitate group collaboration by allowing workflow to be routed
through smartphone devices. The most significant development in allowing
workflow routes to include mobile devices which specifically relates to
corporate social networking. These tools support collaboration in online
social networking systems such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others.
They have been useful in recruiting both employees and customers,

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advertising and marketing products and organizations, and knowledge

sharing between customers, employees and other stakeholders.

The use of these types of systems is currently in an expansive stage of

growth. The Intranet is being regularly used for promoting innovative
learning techniques, which is proving extremely valuable and is thus
rapidly growing. The L&D professionals are constantly partnering with the
HRIS team to create training solutions that harness the power of gaming,
social media and virtual worlds from the context of enhancing training. A
recent survey, with a sample of more than 5000 organizations that was
conducted in India, reveals that Intranet propagation of HRIS-related
services is a common practice throughout. A critical finding from the
sampling in the survey indicated to the strategic advantage provided by
seamless services provided over the Intranet. The survey included a broad
range of industries and sizes of organizations. One finding indicated that
the size of the organization was a significant factor related to adoption,
with adoption rates being higher among medium- and small-sized firms.

While there are tangible benefits to adopting these and other HR-related
information systems, one intangible benefit relates to employee
satisfaction, which often improves with quicker and more accurate
responses from the HR department. More importantly, these systems free
valuable HR manpower to focus on strategic utilization of available human
resources to sustain competitive advantage. Just because a great
technology for a HRIS has been found and has enthusiastic champions,
successful implementation is not always guaranteed. There have been
many costly failures. Security is an important issue, particularly because of
legal privacy obligations with personnel information. Such information can
have a significant intellectual value, or can be valuable to dismissed
employees as they seek employment with competitors. It is important in
planning to identify potential vulnerabilities to the criminal use of corporate
information, such as can be found in HR and other divisional systems.
Thus, the partnership between HRIS and all other functions becomes a
necessity when securing these strategic assets. Hence, organizations must
provide this sense of security to their stakeholders – consumers, partners
and investors – and do so while meeting their own objectives. Keeping in
mind that security is about the provision of value, several trends related to
HRIS are pertinent to discussions of developing strategies related to
enhanced security. As is the case with other organizational functions, HRIS
has often been considered a support function, but this is no longer the case

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as security concerns have increased radically. Changes in the technological,

societal and competitive environments have prompted radical shifts in this
role of HRIS.

In this survey, senior HR Professionals shared critical people requirements

that are key to successful information systems implementation:

Critical People Requirements

1. Leadership awareness and support of the change
2. Involvement of people in creating and sustaining
successful change process
3. Support for employees to change their behaviour
to fit new ways of working
4. Solid, consistent plans for communication,
training and rewards
5. Commitment to change at all levels of the
organization
6. Measuring and monitoring measurable related to
changes
7. Developing change leadership in the organization

Note that these place primary emphasis on the people issues and
secondary emphasis on the technology related to the recent advancements
and changes happening in technology. Apart from addressing these people-
related issues, proper and complete documentation of the planning and
development of HRIS is thought to be one of the most important
determinants of successful system implementation and continued
improvement. One key vulnerability associated with the increased use of
HRIS is the potential for HRIS failure due to employee sabotage. One only
needs to look at online news sources to see that many organizations have
been the victim of employee-placed viruses, deleted files, corrupted
databases, and even stolen customer identity information and proprietary
corporate information assets. Applications of HRIS to a secure strategy are
generally intended to keep the organizational risk to a lower level. Thus,
the above factors need to be considered while designing and implementing
the Intranet systems of the future.

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3.4 Critical aspects of Strategic HR information systems

planning

As we have recognized by now that the HRIS is critical to the development

of organizational strategy and is central to the provision of value, several
trends related to HRIS are pertinent to discussions of strategy and
planning. As is the case with other organizational functions, HRIS has often
been considered a support function, but this is no longer the case. Changes
in the technological, societal and competitive environments have prompted
radical shifts in the role of HRIS. From a behind-the-scenes support
function, HRIS has now become an integral part of an organization’s efforts
across the value chain. Applications of HRIS to a value strategy are
generally intended to keep unit costs low. HRIS had early and significant
contributions where it was heavily involved in creating efficiencies in
supplier cultivation, logistics and operations.

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 APPLICATION OF HRIS FOR STRATEGIC PROCESSES

The trend for some time now has been for HRIS functionality to move
outside organizations and interface directly up and down the value chain,
integrating and automating much of the communications process. In
particular, sourcing, outsourcing and co-supplier collaboration are three
areas of rapid growth in value-chain integration that are being driven by
HRIS. It is not just the communication channels that are being redefined,
but also the products themselves.

Strategy improves as organizations require improved integrated

communication channels between remote sites, organizational functions,
and even between individuals, security remains a key consideration.
Planning and Strategizing can create a difference as many organizations
adopt a product leadership strategy that drives the technology
development of production and operation functions. Presence of strategy
helps in potentially bringing in a wide variety of associated benefits.
Strategic HRIS allow organizations to develop specialized communication
channels that facilitate group work efforts throughout the entire product
development, production and delivery processes. HRIS can be used to
create a team design approach that includes team members from within
and outside the HRM department and communication happens through
specialized knowledge portals. The efforts related to strategy development
can be spread across a larger array of people, locations and organizational
functions to help eliminate problems that may remain undiscovered until
implementation of the completed design.

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When organizations adopt a value strategy that involves high levels of

consideration for the needs of the employees, the focus is on fostering
long-term customer relationships. Consumers have shifted from a largely
brick-and-mortar world in the past with its inherent restrictions, such as
limited hours of operation and the associated travel time, to one that
incorporates e-business as well. The competitive environment has shifted
to a world in which a larger body of consumers expect and desire
communication from anywhere, and at any time on any day or night, for
information gathering, decision making, purchasing, arranging delivery,
and product support. Additionally, by integrating organizational databases
with online customer portals, customers have come to expect the ability to
customize the communications channel to their individual needs. For firms
to meet the expectations of this new breed of customers, HRIS cannot be
considered a mere support function. Rather, as was mentioned before,
HRIS takes the lead role in developing these customer-side communication
channels with other organizational functions taking on a support role.
Another trend that requires consideration involves how organizations have
come to view the typical customer. The trend has been for organizations to
shift from treating consumers as one large market with uniform needs, to
treating them as smaller and smaller segments of a market with differing
groups of needs.

This has been one factor in driving the demand forces from primarily a
supply-push environment to a demand-pull environment. In supply-push,
organizations typically developed and produced products for a group based
on the needs of the average group member, then “pushed” what they
produced to consumers. Consumers might or might not get the blend of
benefits and costs that they truly desired but options were limited. The
application of HRIS technology has radically changed this perspective.
HRIS has allowed organizations to reduce the size of market segments
down to smaller and smaller numbers, even down to individual consumers.
Closer contact, even one-to-one relationships, between the buyer and the
seller have driven the development of a different business model, that of
demand-pull. In this model, interaction between the consumer and the
organization is unique to the individual, customer communication is more
personalized, and the customer is more involved in the product
development process. One way in which product customization may be
implemented is by allowing customers to select among the components of
a good or service so that it more fully fits the individual customer’s
preferences and provides greater value. Under this model, consumers

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create demand for a personalized version of the product, which is then

“pulled” through the organization to the individual consumer. This approach
capitalizes on consumer desires to have goods and services tailored to their
individual needs and thus more fully providing the benefits they desire and
restricting the costs they want to avoid.

While this seems fundamentally simple, it has one underlying requisite. It

is imperative that the customer receives what the customer asks for. This
one requirement often places the demand-pull model outside the reach of
mass production, unless a system can be brought to bear that can track
individual customer specifications, along with the specific production unit,
throughout the production, delivery and servicing processes. The sheer
volume of information that must be tracked through a mass-customization
production system is typically beyond the reach of organizations without
heavily integrated production systems, driven by HRIS-backed production
management systems. Though it could be argued that HRIS still is
primarily a support function when it comes to tangible product production,
heavily integrated production systems are not as easily reconfigured as
they once were. Proper operation of such systems requires strong ties
between the HRIS and the production functions of an organization for the
production system to satisfy customer demands. Customer demands for
situational control do not begin with getting what they ask for. Rather,
these demands actually begin during the customer’s intelligence-gathering
process, when the customer is deciding what to purchase in the first place.
Consumers want to be able to access a firm’s website to collect
information, compare products, and make purchases if desired. Such
processes rest on the proper integration of HRIS throughout the
organization.

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The strategic value to the organization lies in encouraging consumer

empowerment, thus creating greater value in the eyes of consumers.
Organizations may also gain additional intangible benefits from the greater
loyalty that consumer involvement fosters, as well as from freed-up
employees being able to shift their efforts from customer interaction to
other types of work. HRIS designers need to be able to compute in a
planned manner the tangible and intangible gains realized by passing some
control to the customer are often accompanied by increased exposure to
risk, especially as it relates to the management of information assets such
as confidential customer data, regulatory compliance records and other
confidential organizational information.

A symbiotic relationships between organizations often lead to strategic

advantage, one must recognize the fact that technologies facilitate
relationships. Whether the relationships are with customers, front line
employees, strategic allies, or other senior leaders, HRIS creates an
environment of accessibility that fosters productive relationships. In this
way, it helps level the competitive playing field for many organizations,
allowing small, i.e., geographically localized, organizations to have global
access to customers, and global organizations to have seemingly local
access to employees. In terms of governance, use of HRIS can create
ethical issues with any of these stakeholders. Designers need to address
the multiple issues that are involved when using information technologies
to monitor employees and opens the discussion for leaders’ consideration
before implementing an information technology.

Since communication is the process through which people are connected

with others to create relationships, then HRIS has become the conduit for
efficient networking. Taken together, these assumptions along with the
changing environment and emerging governance roles are a call for HRIS
managers to revisit strongly held beliefs about the HRIS function, because
they may point to potentially serious gaps in HRIS strategy, which often
lead to error and strategic disadvantage. The fundamental error that most
companies commit when they look at technology is to view it through the
lens of their existing processes.

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3.5 Elements of Decision Making Systems in HRIS

An important fact that every HRIS Manager needs to understand is that

there is persistent ambiguity throughout strategic decision making.
Understanding the underlying assumptions that provide strategic
advantage can give any organization a significant advantage through the
strategic application of HRIS resources. Since the environment is dynamic
and turbulent, strategic managers are less capable of making precise
forecasts about the future. Less precision in forecasts indicates a need for
current, accurate and transparent information, one of the competencies
that can be developed through tactical HRIS implementation. Precisely
engineered HRIS processes provide leverage against the ambiguity that is
inherent in a turbulent environment and provide transparency in an
environment that demands increasing accountability. Another assumption
that senior managers need to be aware of is that, because of rapid
technology proliferation, the window for creating strategic advantage
through HRIS implementation is considerably shorter than it has been in
years past and continues to grow even shorter. This indicates a need to
recognize opportunities as they emerge, so that strategies can be
developed in a timely manner to create advantage through HRIS
implementation. Related to these systems are those that provide highly-
specialized analytical power that augments knowledge workers in the
middle tiers of the organization’s hierarchy. These decision support systems
(DSS) are often used to assist, or even replace, workers with tasks that
have in times past been labor-intensive. Maintaining inventory levels in a
organization would be impossible without a small army of inventory
managers or a very specialized inventory management system. Decision
support systems are often more efficient at detecting quality problems
through statistical methods than are their human counterparts.

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Since systems now work in real time and with a much lower variance in
data measurement than when performed by humans, losses related to
poor quality are much more tightly controlled. Additionally, cost of labor
entails much more than wages, salaries and benefits. Costs related to
recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, turnover, compensation, labor/
employee relations, legal compliance, health and safety, conflict resolution
and HR information security drive up overall labor costs. HRIS helps to
lower these costs by partnering with HRM to provide and maintain
applications related to reducing transaction costs related to these HRM
functions. The fact now is that an HRM department cannot be effective
unless these functions are managed by an HRIS solution that ties HRM to
the rest of the organization’s business systems.

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3.6 Elements of Documentation in HRIS

Documentation in the HRIS holds a very critical place and is vital for all
functionalities including staff benefit calculations and charges, review and
correction of human resource accounts. HRIS documentation includes both
standardized and customized reports. Standard reports feature templates
for various administrative purposes including employee reviews, record
keeping, workers’ compensation, employment history and absence
tracking. Customized reports are created that incorporate categories and
information unique to business. Most HRIS applications have a
comprehensive tracking system. HRIS tracking capabilities can maintain
grievances filed by or against the employee stemming from discipline,
disputes and complaints. Quick reference guides can be available relating
to all areas of the Human Resources Information System, including staff
benefits, benefit contribution rates, calendars, personnel change reason
codes and the payroll process flowchart. Detailed instructions regarding
establishing and changing employee benefit and deduction information,
including retirement, pension, health care, flexible spending accounts and
employee selected deductions.

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Instructions and forms for employees to establish or change their

employee information related to the Human Resources system, including
name, address, retirement, pension and health care.

Organizations possessing contemporary HRIS have realized the criticality of

documentation and hence have sufficient policies and procedures in place
to collect the majority of necessary human resource data. For those not
having sufficient policies and procedures in place, this deficiency limits
their ability to extract, report or analyze performance in areas where
information is not collected and maintained in a structured format. The
organizations themselves should be aware of many of the shortcomings in
their HR functionality due to the lack of necessary documentation. Partly,
this may be the result of a number of internal audits that had been carried
out in the organizations, and partly, feedback from staff and external
bodies. Issues surrounding documentation and data quality indicates that
data collection policies and procedures are not always implemented
successfully in practice.

The organizations, which take planned and measured approach to the

documentation and ongoing management of their HRI, tend to make more
effective use of their systems. These organizations are better positioned to
generate information for a greater range of strategic and operational
human resource purposes. The other organizations take a less structured,
more urgent approach, as short-term human resource processing
requirements drive their management of the system. Only some of the
organizations have sufficient policies and procedures in place to collect the
majority of the necessary HR data. For those not having sufficient policies
and procedures in place, this deficiency may limit their ability to extract
report or analyze performance in areas where information cannot be
collected and maintained in a structured and easy-to-access format. Proper
documentation ensure the smooth transmission of information between
systems, persons, departments, and organizations. This is essential, as it
indicates that data is actually used, rather than just stored. In order to
emphasize the actual use of data, there is need for information or
knowledge. When data is in motion, there is not only a change of place or
position, but also change in other aspects. The data “format” may change
when it is transferred between systems. This includes changes in data
structure, data model, data schema, data types, etc.

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The level of detail of documentation may change from the specific context
departments or organizations. In this aspect, changes are often seen in the
level of detail by the application of abstraction, aggregation, generalization
and specialization. The ability of the database application program to
employ robust documentation practices, combined with the capacity to
handle searches expressed, as complex, large formulas is critical. A
significant dimension of a documentation system is its ability to define and
accommodate systematic information-related procedures. This critical and
useful dimension is usually missing from most systems because complexity
in implementation must be incorporated at the time of storage and
retrieval.

Importance of Database Functionality in Documentation Processes:

While single-site databases require no special characteristics, database
systems intended for multiple-site configuration pose special problems.
This is true if the data control and security benefits inherent in single-site
databases are not to be compromised in an effort to catalog individuals at
multiple sites and/or to provide multiple-site access to the database. Data
retrieval can be regarded as a natural instance of multi-criteria decision
making. Queries are formulated as selection criteria aggregated by means
of appropriate operators. Retrieval is then performed as a process by
evaluating the degrees of satisfaction of the criteria by each document, and
then aggregating them. Another decisional instance concerns the problem
of improving retrieval performance by taking into account user indications
on document’s relevance.

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Relevant feedback mechanisms exploit user system interaction in order to

improve retrieval results by means of an iterative process of query
refinement. In this process, the main decisional issue is that of finding new
concepts, with which to expand-modify the initial query so that it better
reflects the user’s information needs.

3.7 Activities

1. Integrating organizational databases with online customer portals is a

critical need in HRIS. Research online to find more information about
this context.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on work done in the
Documentation systems that are essential for robust HRIS functioning.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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3.8 Summary

In this chapter, we have begun by understanding the rapidly changing

technological landscape of HRIS includes numerous opportunities and
challenges that HR strategists must consider as they utilize these
applications. An interesting point to become aware of is that, evolving
strategy is often at the heart of environmental complexity and turbulence,
often causing organizations to spend millions of dollars to remain
competitive. The changing paradigm gives us the confirmation that HRIS is
a strategic partner of HRM in executing important HR initiatives. Dedicated
HRIS staff are often responsible for outsourcing, purchasing or developing
new technological solutions. Choosing to grow requisite expertise and
knowledge in-house makes for a much more versatile and stable
workforce, but doing so requires a close partnership between HR and IS
functions. We have also realized that organizations need to have the right
HRIS applications that can work seamlessly. This proves instrumental to
encourage, foster and assess collaboration between those involved in order
to maintain efficient and effective staffing and HRM structures.

In terms of supporting the Strategic HRIS function, there are several types
of applications that are available currently. Some enhance organizational
performance through decreasing transactional costs, others enhance
business intelligence, and still others foster employee collaboration. The
needs met by early versions of these systems were simple and common to
most businesses, which led to general-purpose HRIS software. Highly
specialized systems have developed over the years that require a more
technology-heavy management process. Though many organizations are
becoming more cautious in implementing organization-wide ERP solutions
in such a changing competitive environment, the HRM functions of ERP
seem to be here to stay. Similar to the employee self-service portals,
enterprise portals enable individuals to interact electronically with
corporate systems, or even with other employees.

The Intranet is being regularly used for promoting innovative learning

techniques, which is proving extremely valuable and is thus rapidly
growing. The L&D Professionals are constantly partnering with the HRIS
team to create training solutions that harness the power of gaming, social
media, and virtual worlds from the context of enhancing training. HRIS has
often been considered a support function, but this is no longer the case as
security concerns have increased radically. Changes in the technological,

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societal and competitive environments have prompted radical shifts in this

role of HRIS. Applications of HRIS to a secure strategy are generally
intended to keep the organizational risk to a lower level. Thus, the above
factors need to be considered while designing and implementing the
Intranet systems of the future.

Applications of HRIS to a value strategy are generally intended to keep unit

costs low. HRIS had early and significant contributions where it was heavily
involved in creating efficiencies in supplier cultivation, logistics and
operations. The trend for some time now has been for HRIS functionality to
move outside organizations and interface directly up and down the value
chain, integrating and automating much of the communications process.
We have seen how strategy improves as organizations require improved
integrated communication channels between remote sites, organizational
functions, and even between individuals, security remains a key
consideration. Planning and Strategizing can create a difference as many
organizations adopt a product leadership strategy that drives the
technology development of production and operation functions. Presence of
strategy helps in potentially bringing in a wide variety of associated
benefits. Strategic HRIS allow organizations to develop specialized
communication channels that facilitate group work efforts throughout the
entire product development, production and delivery processes. HRIS
designers need to be able to compute in a planned manner the tangible
and intangible gains realized by passing some control to the customer are
often accompanied by increased exposure to risk, especially as it relates to
the management of information assets such as confidential customer data,
regulatory compliance records and other confidential organizational
information.

An important fact that every HRIS Manager needs to understand is that

there is persistent ambiguity throughout strategic decision making.
Understanding the underlying assumptions that provide strategic
advantage can give any organization a significant advantage through the
strategic application of HRIS resources. The fact now is that an HRM
department cannot be effective unless these functions are managed by an
HRIS solution that ties HRM to the rest of the organization’s business
systems. We have also seen that documentation in the HRIS holds a very
critical place and is vital for all functionalities including staff benefit
calculations and charges, review and correction of human resource
accounts. HRIS documentation includes both standardized and customized

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reports. Standard reports feature templates for various administrative

purposes including employee reviews, record keeping, workers’
compensation, employment history and absence tracking. The
organizations, which take planned and measured approach to the
documentation and ongoing management of their HRIS, tend to make
more effective use of their systems. These organizations were better
positioned to generate information for a greater range of strategic and
operational human resource purposes. Proper documentation ensure the
smooth transmission of information between systems, persons,
departments and organizations. This is essential, as it indicates that data is
actually used, rather than just stored. In order to emphasize the actual use
of data, there is need for information or knowledge. The level of detail of
documentation may change from the specific context departments or
organizations. In this aspect, changes are often seen in the level of detail,
by the application of abstraction, aggregation, generalization and
specialization. The ability of the database application program to employ
robust documentation practices, combined with the capacity to handle
searches expressed, as complex, large formulas is critical. A significant
dimension of a documentation system is its ability to define and
accommodate systematic information-related procedures. This critical and
useful dimension is usually missing from most systems because complexity
in implementation must be incorporated at the time of storage and
retrieval.

3.9 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief why evolving strategy is often at the heart of

environmental complexity and turbulence?
2. Write a brief note on the functioning of Enterprise Resource Planning
System.
3. Explain how the Employee Self-service modules enable employees to
access their data anywhere?
4. Explain in brief how HRIS has now become an integral part of an
organization’s efforts across the value chain?
5. Explain in detail why a symbiotic relationships between organizations
often lead to strategic advantage?

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6. What is the basis behind the statement “Documentation in the HRIS

holds a very critical place”?

Objective Type

1. In terms of supporting which of the below type of HRIS function, there

are several types of applications that are available currently?
(a) Critical HRIS function
(b) Strategic HRIS function
(c) Transactional HRIS function
(d) Managerial HRIS function

2. A prime example of a strategic HRIS software is which of the below

provided application?
(a) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Application
(b) Material Resource Planning (MRP) Application
(c) Expense Planning Application
(d) Manpower Planning Application

3. One of the most relevant and critical ways of propagating HRM services
is the __________.
(a) None of them
(b) Internet
(c) Intranet
(d) World Wide Web

4. Internet systems often facilitate group collaboration by allowing

workflow to be routed through smartphone devices.
(a) True
(b) False

5. Applications of HRIS to a __________ are generally intended to keep

unit costs low.
(a) Innovation strategy
(b) Value strategy
(c) Applied strategy
(d) Developmental strategy

Ans.: 1. (b), 2. (a), 3. (c), 4. (b), 5. (b).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

Video Lecture - Part 3

Video Lecture - Part 4

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Chapter 4
Software Applications for HRIS

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the broad types of HRIS applications
• Describe the HRIS Office Automation Software applications
• Describe in detail the critical functionalities of HRIS
• Develop the understanding of critical Transactional Processing Strategies
in HRIS

Structure:
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Broad Types of HRIS Applications
4.3 Elements of HRIS Office Automation Software Applications
4.4 Robust Transaction Processing Strategies in HRIS
4.5 Activities
4.6 Summary
4.7 Self Assessment Questions

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4.1 Introduction

Leading Management thinkers suggest that it is not technology, but the art
of human – and human management that is the continuing challenge for
executives in the contemporary times. It is a known fact that future
economic and strategic advantage will rest with the organizations that can
most effectively attract, develop and retain a diverse group of the best and
the brightest human talent in the marketplace. As discussed previously, a
human resource information system (HRIS) is defined as a computer-based
application and database system developed to support the HRM system in
decision making and reporting. It is an IT-enabled HR service for managers
which is available for analytics.

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HRIS contains structures that allow users to input information and edit
existing information. The HRIS programs allow users to select and
generate a series of pre-defined reports that could be printed or displayed
on a monitor. HRIS includes tools by which users or system administrators
may generate ad hoc reports and select specific cases or subsets of cases
for display. HRIS supports activities such as identifying prospective
employees, maintaining comprehensive database of all the current
employees and developing modules for honing employees’ skills, talent and
competence. Hence, HRIS is used by all three levels of management – Top
Level, Middle Level and Lower Level. The top level management use hris in
a strategic fashion in order to meet the company’s goal and objectives. The
middle management uses HRIS to supervise and review the salary
structure, benefits and recruitment of employees. The lower level
employees use HRIS to track the recruitment and selection of employees.
The emergence of the HRM field gave the human resource function greater
credibility within the managerial setup, calling for more sophisticated use
of information as it is related to the strategic management function.
Organizations have experienced increased competitive pressures leading to
greater cost containment demands from upper management, giving rise to
greater automation of the record-keeping function in HRM function. Many
HRM departments in larger organizations have also developed internal
information system capabilities and HRIS units have been established.

4.2 Broad types of HRIS Applications

The field of Human Resources Management has changed rapidly over the
past three decades and the constant infusion of technology has reshaped
this domain considerably. By this chapter, we are well aware that human
resource information systems (HRIS) are properly-defined software
programs that allow HR professionals to store and organize vast amount of
data pertaining to employee information. There are different types of HRIS
applications that every organization makes use of in order to carry out its
daily tasks of managing employees. We are now going to discuss the broad
types of HRIS. They are as follows:

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I. Operational HRIS

Operational HRIS is of immense help to the Manager as it provides the him

with all the required data to support routine and repetitive human resource
decisions. Many operational level human resource systems collect and
report human resource data. These systems usually include information
about the organization’s employees and position, and also about
governmental regulations. Three major sub-types under operational HRIS
comprise the following:

1. Employee Information Systems: Employee information systems is a

major part of operational HRIS. Organizations need to keep a track of
an employee’s records and details pertaining to all kinds of personal and
professional details including name, address, sex, minority status,
citizenship, education, past professional experiences and much more.

2. Position Control Systems: The concept of position control systems is

introduced in an organization in order to identify each position within
the organization; the job title within which the position is classified; and

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the employee currently assigned to the position. Referring to the

position control systems, a HR manager can identify the details about
an unfilled position.

3. Performance Management Information Systems: Performance

Management Information Systems include performance appraisal data
and productivity information data. This system is frequently used as an
evidence in employee grievance matters. Careful documentation of
employee performance, and of how the performance was measured and
reported is critical to acceptance of appraisal information in grievance
hearing. Performance management systems can lead to a number of
decisions beyond merely the decisions to retain, promote, transfer or
terminate an employee.

II. Tactical HRIS

The next broad type of HRIS Application is the Tactical human resource
information systems. These provide Managers with support for decisions
that emphasize the allocation of resources. Within the domain of HR, these
include recruitment decisions, job analysis, design decisions, training and
development, and also employee compensation plans. Tactical HRIS also
have a few sub-parts that are explained below:

1. Job Analysis and Design Information Systems: The inputs to the

job analysis and design information system include data form
supervisors and workers, and affirmative action guidelines. Inputs also
comprise of information from external sources to the firm, such as labor
unions, competitors and government agencies.

2. Recruiting Information Systems: In order to direct the recruiting

function, the organization needs to develop a proper recruiting plan. The
plan is designed in order to address gaps such as vacant positions to be
filled and skills required for the employees for these positions. If this
plan is to be executed, a proper recruiting information system is pretty
much required, so that everything is executed with proper ease.

3. Compensation and Benefits Information Systems: These particular

information systems may support a variety of tactical HR decisions,
especially when it comes to compensation and benefits systems.
Compensation and benefits play an important role in the overall

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productivity of the organization.

4. Employee Training and Development Systems: Another major

aspect where HRIS is extensively implemented is the domain of
employee training and development. The training must be directed at
those individuals who are not only interested but also capable of
benefiting from it.

III. Strategic HRIS

Strategic HRIS focuses on supporting labor negotiations, workforce

planning and certain specialized human resources software. The main
purpose of this is to have an overall good idea about labor resources and
workforce planning. Major types of strategic HRIS comprise of the
following:

1. Information Systems Supporting Workforce Planning: The

organizations that are involved in long-term strategic planning, such as
those planning to expand into new market areas, construct factories or
offices in new locations, or add new products, will need information
about the quantity and quality of the available workforce to achieve
their goals. Information systems that support workforce planning serve
this purpose.

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2. Specialized Human Resource Information Systems Software:

There have been a great deal of software applications that have been
designed for the proper functioning of the human resources. These can
be divided into two basic categories: comprehensive human resource
information systems software and limited-function packages that
support one or a few human resource activities.

IV. Comprehensive HRIS

The computerization of HRIS has resulted in an integrated database of

human resource files, employee files, position, skills inventory files,
affirmative action files, job analysis and design files, occupational health
and safety files, and many other human resource files are constructed in a
coordinated manner using database management systems software so that
application programs can produce reports from any or all of the files. Thus,
organizations have created Comprehensive HRIS.

4.3 Elements of HRIS Office Automation Software

Applications

As the HRIS Software Applications have evolve,d they have given rise to a
systematic rise to office automation applications. This refers to the varied
information technology and software used to digitally create, collect, store,
manipulate and relay office information needed for accomplishing basic
tasks and goals. Storage of critical information, electronic transfer and the
management of electronic business information comprise the basic
activities of an office automation system. Office Automation helps in
optimizing or automating existing office procedures.

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All office functions, including dictation, typing, filing, copying, fax, telex,
microfilm and records management, telephone and telephone switchboard
operations fall into this category. Office automation has been a popular
term since the 1980s, as the desktop computer exploded onto the scene.
The diverse Software Application used for this purpose perform customized
functions and operations depending upon the type and size of the
organization. There can be creation of original documents and providing
inputs to the automation system from documents received outside. There
is extraction of data for further presentation as required, storing and
retrieving it for subsequent reference. Additional comments, notes and
references can be helpful for decision making and duplicating the
d o c u m e n t s f o r d i s t r i b u t i o n . Fo r t ra n s f e r r i n g d o c u m e n t s a n d
communications to different individuals, the Office Automation Software
makes extensive use of data communications and networking facilities.
Another function of office automation is presentation of data either on
screen for visual inspection or in the form of printouts or in any other form
required by the users.

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One critical variable affecting the success in office automation is user

acceptance. No matter how technologically superior the equipment is,
there may be failure if users reject it. Office Automation Software for
different organizations should include the following important functions:

• Generate presentations from external data

• Automatically send e-mails to customers or groups in Microsoft Outlook
• Create custom data entry mechanisms for Microsoft Office Documents
• Create custom procedures for CAD programs
• Maintain and organize data stored in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access
• Create stand-alone executable to automate your office environment

It is observed that there is rapid growth in the use of Office Automation

systems from the past few years.

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Large numbers of organizations are being benefitted by office automation

due to the following advantages related to the human resource information
system.

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4.4 Robust Transaction Processing Strategies in HRIS

A transaction is a unit of program execution that accesses and possibly

updates various elements of information related to the HRIS functioning. It
refers to collection of operations that form a single logical unit of work.
Transaction processing is designed to maintain a database in a known,
consistent state, by ensuring that any operations carried out on the
database that are interdependent, and are either all completed successfully
or all cancelled successfully. Bringing robustness and improvement to the
existing transaction process should be on the top priority of the HRIS
strategy.

The transaction processing system ensures that either all operations in a

transaction are completed without error, or none of them remain in the
system. If some of the operations are completed but errors occur when the
others are attempted, the transaction processing system “rolls back” all of
the operations of the transaction (including the successful ones), thereby
erasing all traces of the transaction and restoring the database to the
consistent, known state that it was in before processing of the transaction
began. If all operations of a transaction are completed successfully, the

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transaction is “committed” by the system, and all changes to the database

are made permanent; the transaction cannot be rolled back once this is
done.

Transaction processing guards against hardware and software errors that

might leave a transaction partially completed, with a database left in an
unknown, inconsistent state. If the HRIS system crashes in the middle of a
transaction, the transaction processing system guarantees that all
operations in any uncommitted (i.e., not completely processed)
transactions are cancelled. For the transaction processes to become
effective, the HRIS should have the ‘Transaction Manager’ component. This
is the core component of a transaction processing environment. Its primary
responsibilities are to create transactions when requested by application
components, allow resource usage, and conduct the two-phase commit or
recovery protocol with the resource managers.

A typical transactional application begins a transaction by issuing a request

to a transaction manager to initiate a transaction. In response, the
transaction manager starts a transaction and associates it with the calling
thread. The transaction manager also establishes a transaction context. All
application components and/or threads participating in the transaction
share the transaction context. The thread that initially issued the request
for beginning the transaction, or, if the transaction manager allows, any
other thread, may eventually terminate the transaction by issuing a
commit or rollback request.

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Before a transaction is terminated, any number of components and/or

threads may perform transactional operations on any number of
transactional resources known to the transaction manager. If allowed by
the transaction manager, a transaction may be suspended or resumed
before finally completing the transaction. Once the application issues the
commit request, the transaction manager prepares all the resources for a
commit operation (by conducting a voting), and based on whether all
resources are ready for a commit or not, issues a commit or rollback
request to all the resources.

Along with our discussion about Transaction Processing, let us also discuss
about the basics of transactions. A transaction is a unit of work that has
the following properties:

Atomicity
A transaction should be done or undone completely and unambiguously. In
the event of a failure of any operation, effects of all operations that make
up the transaction should be undone, and data should be rolled back to its
previous state.

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Consistency
A transaction should preserve all the invariant properties (such as integrity
constraints) defined on the data. On completion of a successful transaction,
the data should be in a consistent state. In other words, a transaction
should transform the system from one consistent state to another
consistent state. For example, in the case of relational databases, a
consistent transaction should preserve all the integrity constraints defined
on the data.

Isolation
Each transaction should appear to execute independently of other
transactions that may be executing concurrently in the same environment.
The effect of executing a set of transactions serially should be the same as
that of running them concurrently. This requires two things:

1. During the course of a transaction, intermediate (possibly inconsistent)

state of the data should not be exposed to all other transactions.

2. Two concurrent transactions should not be able to operate on the same

data. Database management systems usually implement this feature
using locking.

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Durability

The effects of a completed transaction should always be persistent and

durable for the human resource information system of different
organizations. Transaction management is one of the most crucial
requirements for enterprise application development. Most of the large
enterprise applications in the domains of finance, banking and electronic
commerce rely on transaction processing for delivering their business
functionality. Given the complexity of today’s business requirements,
transaction processing occupies one of the most complex segments of
enterprise level distributed applications to build, deploy and maintain.
Enterprise applications often require concurrent access to distributed data
shared amongst multiple components to perform operations on data. Such
applications should maintain integrity of data and information which is
flowing through the systems.

4.5 Activities

1. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on work done in the
Transaction Processing Systems that are essential for robust HRIS
functioning.

——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the Tactical human

resource information systems.
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——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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4.6 Summary

In this chapter, we have seen that a human resource information system

(HRIS) is defined as a computer-based application and database system
developed to support the HRM system in decision making and reporting. It
is an IT-enabled HR service for managers which is available for analytics.
HRIS supports activities such as identifying prospective employees,
maintaining comprehensive database of all the current employees and
developing modules for honing employees’ skills, talent and competence.
Hence, HRIS is used by all three levels of management – Top Level, Middle
Level and Lower Level. Many HRM departments in larger organizations
have also developed internal information system capabilities and HRIS
units have been established.

There are different types of HRIS applications that every organization

makes use of in order to carry out its daily tasks of managing employees.
Operational HRIS is of immense help to the manager. It provides the
manager with all the required data to support routine and repetitive human
resource decisions. Three major sub-types under operational HRIS
comprise the following:

1. Employee Information Systems

2. Position Control Systems
3. Performance Management Information Systems

The next broad type of HRIS Application is the Tactical human resource
information systems. These provide the managers with support for
decisions that emphasize the allocation of resources. Tactical HRIS also
have a few sub-parts that are explained below:

1. Job Analysis and Design Information Systems

2. Recruiting Information Systems
3. Compensation and Benefits Information Systems
4. Employee Training and Development Systems

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Strategic HRIS focuses on supporting labor negotiations, workforce

planning and certain specialized human resources software. Major types of
strategic HRIS comprise of the following:

1. Information Systems Supporting Workforce Planning

2. Specialized Human Resource Information Systems Software

The computerization of HRIS has resulted in an integrated database of

human resource files, employee files, position, skills inventory files,
affirmative action files, job analysis and design files, occupational health
and safety files, and many other human resource files are constructed in a
coordinated manner using database management systems software so that
application programs can produce reports from any or all of the files. Thus
organizations have created Comprehensive HRIS. One critical variable
affecting the success in office automation is user acceptance. No matter
how technologically superior the equipment is, there may be failure if users
reject it.

Finally, we have discussed about bringing robustness to HRIS through

Transaction Processing Strategies. A transaction is a unit of program
execution that accesses and possibly updates various elements of
information related to the HRIS functioning. It refers to collection of
operations that form a single logical unit of work. Transaction processing is
designed to maintain a database in a known, consistent state, by ensuring
that any operations carried out on the database that are interdependent
are either all completed successfully or all cancelled successfully. Bringing
robustness and improvement to the existing Transaction Process should be
on the top priority of the HRIS strategy. A typical transactional application
begins a transaction by issuing a request to a transaction manager to
initiate a transaction. In response, the transaction manager starts a
transaction and associates it with the calling thread.

We have discussed that a transaction is a unit of work that has the

following properties:

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Atomicity: A transaction should be done or undone completely and

unambiguously.

Consistency: A transaction should preserve all the invariant properties

(such as integrity constraints) defined on the data. On completion of a
successful transaction, the data should be in a consistent state.

Isolation: Each transaction should appear to execute independently of

other transactions that may be executing concurrently in the same
environment.

Durability: The effects of a completed transaction should always be

persistent and durable for the human resource information system of
different organizations.

4.7 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief the various organizational activities that the HRIS

supports activities.
2. Write a brief note on how the field of Human Resources Management
has changed rapidly over the past three decades?
3. Explain how the Operational HRIS is of immense help to the Manager?
4. Cite the concept of position control systems is introduced in an
organization.
5. Explain in detail how the Office Automation helps in optimize or
automate existing office procedures?
6. Explain why bringing robustness and improvement to the existing
Transaction Process should be on the top priority of the HRIS strategy?

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Objective Type

1. The HRIS programs allow users to select and generate a series of

__________reports that could be printed or displayed on a monitor.
(a) Structured
(b) Pre-defined
(c) Pre-structured
(d) Functional

2. Which kind of HRIS systems usually include information about the

organization’s employees and position, and also about governmental
regulations?
(a) Compensation and Benefits Information Systems
(b) Strategic HRIS
(c) Comprehensive HRIS
(d) Operational HRIS

3. Office Automation helps in which of the following functionality along with

automating existing office procedures?
(a) Optimization
(b) Innovation
(c) Amalgamation
(d) Either (b) or (c)

4. As the HRIS Software Applications have evolved, they have given rise to
a systematic rise to office automation applications.
(a) True
(b) False

5. The Office Automation Software makes extensive use of data

communications and which kind of facilities?
(a) Operational facilities
(b) Creative facilities
(c) Networking facilities
(d) Structured facilities

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6. A transaction should be done or undone completely and unambiguously.

This attribute of transactions is known as __________.
(a) Consistency
(b) Atomicity
(c) Isolation
(d) Durability
Ans.: 1. (b), 2. (d), 3. (a), 4. (a), 5. (c), 6. (b).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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Chapter 5
Creating Secure HRIS

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the methods of securing HRIS Systems
• Describe the procedures for designing security control systems
• Describe in detail the importance of audits
• Understand the planning practices against attacks to the system

Structure:
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Key Practices for Creation of Secure HRIS
5.3 Designing Security Control Systems
5.4 Security Enhancement through Audits
5.5 Planning against Intrusions in HRIS
5.6 Activities
5.7 Summary
5.8 Self Assessment Questions

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5.1 Introduction

In today’s changing times, a well-articulated and properly secured HRIS

system is mandatory and has to be conceived in the design process from
the very beginning. For this to be successfully implemented, the security
developers need to take a holistic and systematic approach. It is a known
fact that however good the design may be in concept, an HRIS system can
only be secure if it is a part of an organization with a positive attitude
towards security. Hence, it is critical that the HRM Manager ensure that all
the security related best practices are incorporated into the management
of the organizational context.

This requires a blend of foresight and experience, but the best results can
only be achieved when decision making is based on a holistic view of the
organizational security and its HRIS system. Only an all-embracing
overview allows the construction of appropriate security measures to meet
the known vulnerabilities. Finally, when taking design decisions, managers
should recognize that there is a difficult balancing of factors to achieve,
namely that although automated controls are less costly to operate and
more consistently applied than their manual equivalents, the automated
systems that fail to take account of the people who are to operate them
are likely to be ignored or by-passed. By design, HRIS systems hold

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confidential and sensitive information. Therefore, administrators need to

ensure the security of these systems from unintentional mistakes or
malicious attacks that may compromise such vital information. Current
systems’ design and training procedures of HRIS unintentionally help
reinforce unsecure behaviors that result in non-malicious security
breaches. Measures to improve security through design and training may
only occur by breaking the use/impact cycle that individuals have
habitually formed. Using strong contexts and cues allow HRM Managers to
interrupt individuals’ habits. Then, they have the opportunity to enforce the
repetition of the desired behavior. This chapter introduces us to the diverse
security practices that create a secured HRIS.

5.2 Key practices for creation of secure HRIS

It is known that organizations need to protect their employee’s data in an

efficient manner. Several studies have focused on how to educate
employees, and to develop more effective and secure acceptable use
policies. A high number of serious security breaches continue to trouble
organizations. Thus, HRIS Managers should consider a diverse range of
factors such as interface design and unconscious employee behaviors to
counter attacks or breaches in security.

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Organizations have made it a convention to use HRIS to capture, store and

use data about their employees. HRIS include a great deal of sensitive and
confidential data about employees, e.g., social security numbers, medical
data, bank account data, salaries, domestic partner benefits, employment
test scores, and performance evaluations. The more employee information
in each data record, the more valuable the record becomes for harmful
attacks. For that reason, aggregated data from HRIS is designed to be
shared among only an appropriate and approved audience. Also the system
features are designed to help force good practices. Thus, the risk of a
security breach presents significant challenges for human resources and
employees. Organizations can be liable for identity theft caused by these
data breaches and employees can be stigmatized if negative personal data
leaks.

In order to understand the secure practices in purview of HRIS Security, it

is critical to understand people’s perception towards information.
Traditional research in human-computer interaction (HCI) has examined
the design and usability components of technology as intended rather than
the use/impact cycle. The use/impact cycle concerns how individuals and
organizations actually use technology and the related impact they have on
them. By under-emphasizing the use/impact cycle of technology,
researchers have predominantly ignored the impact that unconscious
behavior may have. In this context, a behavioral model needs to be
considered, along with propositions that build on existing theory, to guide
future research in this area. It is vital to expressly examine secure and
unsecure behaviors in the context of HRIS due to their criticality in
organizations.

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Given the growing concern about identity theft and the security of
employee data in HRIS, many developed nations have passed privacy laws
that require organizations to adopt reasonable security practices to prevent
unauthorized access to personal data. it is possible that the interface and
technology interaction contribute to complacency in employees. A
particular result of such interaction is the use of weak passwords, a major
culprit of security breaches. As systems grow more complex, HRIS
password requirements grow in terms of strength and incorporation of non-
meaningful items. Unfortunately, employees may find it more natural to
continue using weak passwords. From a human-computer interaction (HCI)
perspective, recalling a strong password is a tough task. Thus, from the
perspective of enhancing secure practices in HRIS, it is important to
improve the strength of the password.

According to a recent Global study, almost 40% of all security breaches in

organizations are non-malicious in nature and typically result from
complacency or negligence. It may be possible that non-malicious behavior
is closely tied to cues from the interface (both software and hardware), and
the nature of the interaction that employees have with HRIS. Essentially,
information security relies on designing solutions that work diametrically

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opposite to the way employees’ brains work naturally. It is important to

avoid unaided recall wherever possible because it places a burden on a
person’s cognitive process and ability to perform. As a result of this
cognitive overload, an employee may default to some unconscious behavior
that ultimately results in an error or security breach. As a practice to
improve security, it is necessary for employees to receive education on
proper procedures and HRIS feature conscientious design features, but
they still engage in unconscious behaviors that are unsecure. For example,
employees who are logged into HRIS may absent-mindedly plug
unauthorized USB drives into their computers and, thus, cause a chain
reaction that leaks sensitive employee data without realizing it.

In another common example, due to stringent HRIS password

requirements, employees may write passwords on a piece of paper stuck
on the side of their monitors. Thus, unconscious behavior can defeat the
best efforts of security and design experts. In other words, all of the
security protocols in the world are powerless in the face of a stressed-out
worker. We consider unconscious behaviors here as similar to habitual
behaviors because something done repeatedly becomes ingrained. Once
that behavior becomes habitual, deliberate intentions have less impact to
the point of irrelevance. Thus, HRIS are particularly prone to creating
habit-based security risks at the individual or enterprise level. Research
has also pointed to the role habits play when users ignore warnings or
routinely acknowledge notifications. For example, users click through half
of all Secure Sockets Layer warnings in less than two seconds, which is
consistent with warning fatigue. Further, employees’ brains stop registering
the novelty of security notifications due to the routine nature of clicking on
similarly presented notifications over time. Research has also investigated
the concept of warning and alert fatigue in clinical settings, which
demonstrates the widespread applicability of habit formation.

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5.3 Designing security control systems

In order to design security control systems, we have to understand the

dynamics of human behavior among other parameters. Powerful research
from diverse fields including neuroscience; cognitive, social and behavioral
psychology; and behavioral economics reveals that most human behavior
predominantly results from unconscious mental processes. When a person
is in a familiar situation doing repetitive tasks, behavior rapidly becomes
automatic and less open to conscious control. This can prove to be fatal for
the HRIS as it can constitute a breach in the security. This research
challenges the conventional wisdom embedded in most models of human
behavior that posit humans are rational agents who make conscious
decisions. The impact of these research studies conducted help to increase
the robustness of HRIS security and make it profound.

From this perspective, it seems logical to assume that explaining the

policies to employees should be sufficient to obtain compliance. Yet, we
argue that unconscious employee behavior causes a high percentage of
security breaches, which is immune to all appeals that rely on conscious
mind attention and control. A balanced approach should be developed that
serves as a basis for understanding how we may develop an improved
approach to HRIS security achieved through more informed interface

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design and training. Thus, the practice of creating awareness through

training employees is quintessential to secure HRIS. Training is a common
method to raise awareness of proper security measures in an organization.
For a new employee, training presents an unfamiliar situation in which to
consciously practice sound security procedures. It is logical to think that
employees may then repeat these sound security procedures and, thus,
make the correct behavior habitual. On the contrary, it is also observed
how habits can sabotage information security training in spear-phishing
where e-mails and other message forms use specific information about an
individual to trick people into lowering their guard and compromise a
system. While employees consciously know that they should not click on
suspicious e-mails but when tired or stressed, they are likely to
automatically click on an e-mail that looks normal.

Critical information is vulnerable to spear-phishing attacks that could easily

defeat the reliance on an employee’s conscious-level vigilance. Like
phishing attacks, malicious e-mails can potentially allow privileged
information to leak to non-authorized sources, which amounts to trying to
create a new context for employees: a malicious e-mail context. It is easy
to see why this awareness fails because individual do not encounter
malicious e-mails in a stable situation. The sender is trying very hard to
make the e-mail look like it belongs to the employee’s familiar context.
Once an individual creates a habit in a context, a cue can activate it. Cues
can be crafted to launch a behavior, such as the beep or vibration that
signals an incoming text. The cue launches the behavior automatically,
which eliminates the need for conscious processing to initiate behavior.
Unintentional HRIS security lapses often happen when something cues a
routine behavior as perhaps one learned in training in what appears to be a
normal context.

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Administrators of HRIS would be high-priority targets due to their access to

the most valuable personnel data. HRIS Managers wishing to enhance the
security may design studies that incorporate more traditional psychometric
tools, neurophysiological tools, or both. Inherently, a study will be broad-
based and comprehensive in nature to allow for the repetition of desired
behavior to occur. They should observe and survey participants, and record
their neurophysiological responses. However, we must note that, in
recording neurophysiological responses, one creates a new context for the
participant that will not mimic an everyday situation. After one administers
a pre-test, training would begin. One should present and repeat different
scenarios. During behavioral repetition, to reinforce desired behavior, one
should provide strong cues alongside feedback for correct and incorrect
behavior. This repeated process would help reinforce desired action in the
face of activities that threaten security when interacting with HRIS.

Practical implications of these HRIS practices encourage managers to

incorporate such repeated drills into training procedures that consider
preferred actions in light of different security scenarios. As another
preferred practice, the HRIS Managers could also incorporate stronger cues
into HRIS to counteract risky behavior. Once practitioners appreciate the
need to modify existing systems design and training procedures to
counteract unconscious behavior, they will reinforce desired security
behaviors and significantly reduce the risk undesired behaviors can have.

5.4 Security enhancement through Audits

Complete and secure information communicated to an HRIS manager

should be precise and meet all needs. Incomplete information can be
misleading and may result in wrong decisions and vulnerable to attacks.
That is why, a manager must insist on his involvement in defining the
information that shall be made available to him. In case, providing
comprehensive information is not feasible for one or the other reason, the
manager must be made aware of this fact, so that the incomplete
information is used with caution. This need for security enhancement can
happen in an effective manner through audits.

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Clarity of information is an important attribute of good information.

Information must be unambiguous and should be communicated in such a
way that it conveys the same meaning to different users. Modern
databases maintain data dictionaries that clearly define the variables used
in the information in order to standardize the terminology used in reports.
In addition, there are other attributes such as quantifiability, verifiability,
unbiasedness, etc. that one may attempt to incorporate to improve the
quality of information. To what extent the quality of information can be
maintained, it shall depend upon the cost considerations, nature and
source of information, time available for generating information and such
other factors.

Since people operate systems and effectively form part of them, secure
systems performance requires robust and secure performance from the
people. Thus, if the individuals operating a system do not perform well —
through ignorance, indolence, negligence or ill-will — that system will be
defective or in the worst-case scenario even fail completely. The special
needs and concerns of security systems make particular demands in regard
to staff loyalty, efficiency and cohesion. There is need to impose quite
severe requirements for the planning, control and monitoring of the human
input. These priorities must be addressed by the organization’s security
managers and the related issues of team commitment, and ethical
behavior must be seen to be important in its corporate culture. When

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planning the audits related to HRIS security, the organization should

identify a specific individual who is provided the responsibility for advising
on and maintaining security. This should be a senior management post,
visibly supported by the most senior managers. The function should be to
advise both horizontally and vertically within the organization, and to
assume overall responsibility for the enforcement of obligations at all levels
within the organization and against third parties. The creation and support
of such a post will, in the event of subsequent legal action, show that the
management was acting prudently. But the appointment must not be in a
vacuum.

The security audit should be designed with very specific responsibilities in

respect of the:
• Organizational procedures for the screening and appointment of staff
• Criteria of confidentiality for the classification and protection of
information
• Commercial and ethical screening of new investment opportunities, both
internal and external to the organization
• Prevailing statutory and professional data protection standards

The depth and detail of these responsibilities will, of course, vary with the
size and complexity of organization involved. There also has to be
significant commitment to education and training at every level within the
organization so that the process of change can be properly managed. All
those actually or likely to be affected by changes in working practices must
understand the new systems and the problems of using them efficiently.
Even after these changes have been introduced, employees who do not
begin using the systems immediately will need refresher courses, and
those who have regular practice should be shown how to consolidate and
improve upon their skills and be updated in any amendments to the
systems. It is a good policy to ensure that all relevant staff are well versed
in the standard operating procedures that are the basis of the Security
Audit. This audit will provide a robust security cover and a good response
in the event of an emergency when flexibility of response from employees
may be the key to a successful recovery.

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When planning the security audit for the staff, it is important to consider
face-to-face consultations, discussions and briefings between groups of
employees and their managers. Although audit related meetings can
disrupt normal working schedules, the benefit lies in the opportunity for
people to ask questions and to feel that they are, to some extent, in
control of the process of security. Once the auditors feel that they have
some ownership of the concepts underlying the new systems, it is sensible
either to prepare accessible documentation which assumes nothing and is
regularly updated, or to provide computer-based training (CBT) systems.

This desire to train people, and to produce flexible and effective HRIS
Security Audits must be seen against the need, in some organizations, to
control and restrict general access to information about the operating
procedures. In such audits, there may be some procedures and facilities
that are sensitive to certain organizational practices. The answer is that all
these audit procedures should be designed bearing in mind the level of
security required in each aspect of the workplace environment. One
important consideration for the auditors is that the levels of security
specified for the design must be realistic. Hence, levels of security
appropriate to mainframe operations in a sensitive establishment will not
be appreciated nor be appropriate in a conventional commercial office.
Moreover, whatever the overall system in operation and the level of

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security considered appropriate, the auditors and the employees should

understand why things are to be done, what policies underpin those audit
procedures, and what the likely effects of applying those procedures will be
to them. People are generally more supportive if they understand the
reasons for the audits to be conducted. Finally, the organization will
consolidate the loyalty of its employees if it is seen to meet the moral and
statutory requirements of providing a working environment which is both
healthy and safe.

5.5 Planning against intrusions in HRIS

To commit a computer fraud, the criminal must have access to the

computer. So, both physical and logical access must be controlled, and
planning must take account of known vulnerabilities. Once access has been
achieved, most frauds depend on the falsification of input. Most frauds
have obvious symptoms, and the principal detection strategies rely on
noticing deviations from the norm. Once management suspicions have
been raised, a good rule is to follow the asset and to ignore the apparent
records.

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Similarly, if documents are missing, the auditor should suspect the person
who would have been suspected had incorrect documents been found. In
the short term, the bonus expected from the investigation is recovering
part or all the assets lost in the immediate fraud. The main objective in
prosecuting detected fraud is long-term deterrence. To that extent, being
seen to engage in the investigative process is an aspect of the ongoing
function of personnel management and it is intended to affect staff
attitudes. It should not be seen to a mere by-product of standard auditing.
To give it the necessary independence and authority within the organization
auditing is a function that requires separate resourcing. Once established,
the auditor‘s first task is to identify and watch all the vulnerable points.
This can usually be done discreetly, say by analyzing historical trends or by
testing reasonableness in comparisons between branches or with other
similar companies. The aim should always be to avoid any prejudice to
employer/employee relations. Audit checks should never be restricted to
statistical methods. Sampling checks should always be made on individual
items, regardless of the possible threat to labor relations. Hopefully, if the
auditing staff have properly trained, and the staff to be investigated have a
constructive view of the process, there should be minimum friction arising
from the disruption to the established routines.

It is a well-known fact that audits disrupt the normal working routines.

Hence, they should be carefully planned to maintain a good level of staff
morale and to avoid appearing either provocative or overly paranoid. In
this, the manner and attitude of the auditing staff is a critical factor. Those
selected for this critical task should not be the regular employees in the
area(s) under review. The expectation is that outsiders are more likely to
be objective, to see through plausible excuses and to avoid friendships
which might colour judgments. Once the team has been recruited and the
audit planned, it is best to carry out checks by surprise even though this
may introduce a confrontational element between the audit team and the
affected employees. Further, the team should not examine too large a part
of the organization over too long a period of time, because this may disrupt
the operation of that area too much. Thus, if a close supervision can
produce a period that is free from attacks, this will be a vital basis for later
comparisons. Such audits are expensive and depend on the effectiveness
of the auditing staff. A period of about a fortnight is a useful target. There
are a variety of reasons for this:

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• Online fraudsters often live up to their image and may need to continue
the fraud to meet newly acquired commitments.
• They may be arrogant enough to believe that the fraud is not detectable.
• They may consider the investigation as a challenge and enjoy the game
of continuing the fraud while under scrutiny.
• They may recognize that if the fraud stops, the operational pattern will
change, thus revealing the existence and method of the fraud. Such
factors may lead to catching the person in the act.

One way of focusing the investigation is to recognize that each job in every
organization has a different potential for fraud.

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No matter how good the audit and training, the possibility of accidental
error is always present, and this may allow major systems failures to arise.
As a result, reasonable steps must be taken to protect the data. Although it
is not very economic to protect the entire data all the time except in the
most sensitive application. In general, human error is more common than
dishonesty. The reduction of error incidents is essential to maximize the
auditing effectiveness. Thus, once it acknowledged that all people-based
threats cannot be prevented, designers should build detection systems to
allow rapid intervention to limit damage. All security design must be based
on good psychology and sociology.

5.6 Activities

1. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on the involvement of non-
malicious behavior from the context of the HRIS Security breaches.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the statement –

complete and secure information communicated to an HRIS manager
should be precise and meet all needs.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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5.7 Summary

In this chapter, we have understood that a well-articulated and properly

secured HRIS is mandatory and has to be conceived in the design process
from the very beginning. Only an all-embracing overview allows the
construction of appropriate security measures to meet the known
vulnerabilities. By design, HRIS hold confidential and sensitive information.
Therefore, administrators to ensure the security of these systems from
unintentional mistakes or malicious attacks that may compromise such
vital information. Current systems design and training procedures of HRIS
unintentionally help reinforce unsecure behaviors that result in non-
malicious security breaches. Measures to improve security through design
and training may only occur by breaking the use/impact cycle that
individuals have habitually formed.

Several studies have focused on how to educate employees, and to develop

more effective and secure acceptable use policies. A high number of
serious security breaches continue to trouble organizations. HRIS include a
great deal of sensitive and confidential data about employees, e.g., social
security numbers, medical data, bank account data, salaries, domestic
partner benefits, employment test scores and performance evaluations. In
order to understand the secure practices in purview of HRIS security, it is
critical to understand people’s perception towards information. Traditional
research in human-computer interaction (HCI) has examined the design
and usability components of technology as intended rather than the use/
impact cycle. Essentially, information security relies on designing solutions
that work diametrically opposite to the way employees’ brains work
naturally. It is important to avoid unaided recall wherever possible because
it places a burden on a person’s cognitive load and ability to perform. As a
result of this cognitive overload, an employee may default to some
unconscious behavior that ultimately results in an error or security breach.
In order to design security control systems, we have to understand the
dynamics of human behavior among other parameters. Powerful research
from diverse fields including neuroscience; cognitive, social and behavioral
psychology; and behavioral economics reveals that most human behavior
predominantly results from unconscious mental processes.

102
 CREATING SECURE HRIS

While employees consciously know that they should not click on suspicious
e-mails but when tired or stressed, they are likely to automatically click on
an e-mail that looks normal. Critical information is vulnerable to spear-
phishing attacks that could easily defeat the reliance on an employee’s
conscious-level vigilance. Like phishing attacks, malicious e-mails can
potentially allow privileged information to leak to non-authorized sources,
which amounts to trying to create a new context for employees: a
malicious e-mail context. Complete and secure information communicated
to an HRIS manager should be precise and meet all needs. Incomplete
information can be misleading and may result in wrong decisions and
vulnerable to attacks. Clarity of information is an important attribute of
good information. Information must be unambiguous and should be
communicated in such a way that it conveys the same meaning to different
users. It is a good policy to ensure that all relevant staff are well versed in
the standard operating procedures that are the basis of the Security Audit.
This audit will provide a robust security cover and a good response in the
event of an emergency when flexibility of response from employees may be
the key to a successful recovery.

When planning the security audit for the staff, it is important to consider
face-to-face consultations, discussions and briefings between groups of
employees and their managers. Although audit related meetings can
disrupt normal working schedules, the benefit lies in the opportunity for
people to ask questions and to feel that they are, to some extent, in
control of the process of security. To commit a computer fraud, the criminal
must have access to the computer. So, both physical and logical access
must be controlled, and planning must take account of known
vulnerabilities. Once access has been achieved, most frauds depend on the
falsification of input. Most frauds have obvious symptoms, and the principal
detection strategies rely on noticing deviations from the norm. Once
management suspicions have been raised, a good rule is to follow the asset
and to ignore the apparent records.

It is a well-known fact that audits disrupt the normal working routines.

Hence, they should be carefully planned to maintain a good level of staff
morale and to avoid appearing either provocative or overly paranoid. In
this, the manner and attitude of the auditing staff is a critical factor. Those
selected for this critical task should not be the regular employees in the
area(s) under review. We have also seen that no matter how good the
audit and training, the possibility of accidental error is present, and this

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may allow major systems failures to arise. As a result, reasonable steps

must be taken to protect the data. Although it is not very economic to
protect the entire data all the time except in the most sensitive application.
In general, human error is more common than dishonesty. The reduction of
error incidents is essential to maximize the auditing effectiveness.

5.8 Self Assessment questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief why is it critical that the HRM Manager ensure that all
the security related best practices are incorporated?
2. Write a brief note on how the risk of a security breach presents
significant challenges for human resources and employees?
3. Explain why is it important to avoid unaided recall of a password
wherever possible?
4. Explain why is it critical to understand the dynamics of human behavior
among other parameters for designing security control systems?
5. Explain in detail why the Administrators of HRIS would be high-priority
targets for any security attacks?
6. Describe why clarity of information is an important attribute of good
information?

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Objective Type

1. Only an all-embracing overview allows the construction of appropriate

security measures to meet which of the following security related issue?
(a) Creative biases
(b) Composed vulnerabilities
(c) The known vulnerabilities
(d) Functional attacks

2. What kind of factors should HRIS Managers consider from the context of
countering attacks or breaches in security?
(a) Interface design
(b) Strategic practices of behavior
(c) Unconscious employee behaviors
(d) Both (a) and (c)

3. What kind of data from HRIS are designed to be shared among only an
appropriate, approved audience, and system features are designed to
help force good practices?
(a) Optimized data from HRIS
(b) Secure data from HRIS
(c) Aggregated data from HRIS
(d) Automation data from HRIS

4. As systems grow more complex, HRIS password requirements grow in

terms of strength and incorporation of __________.
(a) Fantastic items
(b) Non-meaningful items
(c) Functional items
(d) Secretive lists

5. From a human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective, recalling a

strong password is a fairly simple task.
(a) True
(b) False

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6. One important consideration for the auditors is that the levels of

security specified for the design must be __________.
(a) Creative
(b) Realistic
(c) Optimistic
(d) Vulnerable

Ans.: 1. (c), 2. (d), 3. (c), 4. (b), 5. (b), 6. (b).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

Video Lecture - Part 3

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Chapter 6
Personnel Information Systems

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the important modules that are integral to the HRIS
• Describe the elements for the Personnel Information Systems that
support the organization
• Relate to the features of various sub-systems of HRIS
• Connect the functionalities of the diverse HRIS

Structure:
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Key Features of Performance Management Module
6.3 Key Features of Payroll Management Module
6.4 Key Features of Recruitment and Selection Module
6.5 Key Features of Leave Management Module
6.6 Activities
6.7 Summary
6.8 Self Assessment Questions

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6.1 Introduction

An HRIS not only has advantages for the business, but also for the
employees in that organization. With a wide range of user-friendly
features, the modern HRIS applications provide increased employee
satisfaction and engagement. The sub-systems of HRIS need to be
understood in a comprehensive manner in order to develop a complete
awareness of this topic. These systems must be capable of changing the
work performed by the Human Resources personnel by dramatically
improving their level of service, allowing more time for work of higher
value and reducing their costs. Despite extensive implementation of
various cost-intensive and integrated Human Resource Information
Systems, it is necessary that they constantly evolve to meet the
continuously changing needs of the organization.

Studies demonstrate that HRM teams across the industry have started
reducing their staffing levels over the last few years to complete the
organizational tasks. Moreover, it is found that most of the work that the
HR staff does on a day-to-day basis, such as staffing, employee relations,
compensation, training, employee development and benefits, can be
automated and improved from a functional standpoint.

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The organization could be restructured and the tasks handed out existing
or new staff. One of the most effective approach is to introduce new
technology to deal with the redesigned processes. An upgraded HRIS
system, with more integrated work processes, tends to pull related
departments together. Most organizations recognize this as they go
through the implementation process, and also implement a new
organizational structure with the HRIS roll-out. For example, HR and
Payroll may have reported to separate areas of the company, and parts of
HR business processes were scattered throughout various departments. As
a new HRIS is implemented, the previous organizations are transformed to
report to a single authority, and a shared-services group is established to
perform the integrated work processes that were once scattered.

This is a common, but often unexpected, result of HRIS implementations.

Thus, for HRIS systems to survive in this changing world, it needs to
possess an agile technology acumen. In this chapter, our objective is to
understand the key features of several critical modules which build the
comprehensive HRIS system. As the business grows, analyzing data
metrics becomes increasingly important. By creating custom reports, a
robust HRIS makes it easy for the HR managers to analyze hiring costs,
calculate turnover, employee engagement, and ultimately use data to help
inform business decisions. The modern HRIS applications have in-built
functionalities of employee engagement. They are also equipped with
effective payroll management and other critical functions like intuitive

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employee on-boarding, easy-to-access payroll and benefits, and leave

management features.

By automating recurring tasks such as benefits and payroll administration,

employee on-boarding, and time and attendance management, the HRIS
System helps make tedious HR processes quick and simple. An efficient
application helps the HR department reduce time wastage. So, they do not
have to waste time maintaining or editing information on a manual basis.
With fewer operational tasks to manage, the HR team can focus their time
and energy on strategic initiatives like maximizing employee lifetime value,
improving employee well-being and productivity, and driving the business
forward. Enlisted below are some of the best-in-class Global and Indian
HRIS providers:

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6.2 Key Features of Performance Management Module

The Performance Management module in the HRIS System supports the

practices related to meeting the objectives of the organization. It is a
combined procedure that includes both operational leaders and their
immediate reports who together distinguish regular goals/objectives which
correspond to the higher objectives of the firm. The Module on
Performance Management provides the HRM Managers with structures and
correct information on performance at a specific workplace location, a
department, or across the entire organization.

When the information is gathered, more assets and exertion are needed
with a specific end goal to present and provide details regarding
performance. Possessing a clear perception of this is not simple without the
right techniques. To meet these tests, organizations require devices which
permit them to supervise, investigate, enhance and cover their execution.

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This is a framework and methodology that connects the enterprises

objectives and systems to singular and group performance in order to
expand enterprise adequacy. Performance Management consists of
planning performance, managing performance, reviewing performance and
rewarding performance. This process brings about the creation of
performance related expectations and objectives that are used as
measures for input and execution appraisals/reviews. An organization's
ability to administer and write about their business performance assumes a
necessary part in the administration of their risk and improvement of
operational execution. Guaranteeing that KPIs (key performance indicators)
are created, conveyed and gathered over the enterprises might be tedious
to supervise. Likewise, the gathering of all the needed data from diverse
divisions, areas, and execution areas could be a testing undertaking and
can frequently consume a lot of time and money related assets. It is critical
to understand that Performance Management is not an extra responsibility
regarding operational supervisors. Intended to minimize and administer
risk in connection to organizational targets and methodology, this module
helps choice making, aids enhance team, individual, and in general
business execution, and furnishes a dashboard perspective of execution
over the business in a 'traffic signal' manner.

Execution administration is about distinguishing and empowering

exceptional execution and additionally helping workers to outperform which
is thought about through the Performance Administration module. The
Performance Management Module guarantees that KPIs are dependably
represented and recorded. The module has attributes to characterize and
set performance measurements at the organizational level. It helps in
reporting and screening the execution in connection to the measurements
that are relevant over the entire organization. This application has
impressive characteristics that furnish employees with precise and
immediate visibility on execution issues and issues with performance.

To provide you with more insights on the Performance Management

module, the below provided images are appended. These images show
elements of Performance Management Modules software.

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Some of the key features of Performance Management Modules software

are as follows:

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KPI Processing Applications

Most organizations utilize HRIS applications to process and track

performance against a target as it is a part of the exact principle that
makes up an organization. Some essentially decide to screen complex
data, through various customized sub-modules. At the top-end of the
range, a few organizations decide to interlace KPIs into a more holistic
business performance environment. Organizations seem to profit from
quicker and more precise information gathering with the help of these KPI
processing applications. Agility is also developed when a KPI is over- or
under-realized helping in the performance tracking in a focused manner.

Many Performance Management Modules possess specific applications

dedicated to Key Performance Indicators that furnish organizations with a
KPI-centered environment to establish, supervise and assess KPI
information. The applications facilitate organizations to input their Key
Performance Indicator information into one uniquely composed framework
as opposed to utilize customary strategies, e.g., spreadsheets – which by
their exceptionally nature are inclined to blunders. KPI applications
additionally give a perspective into organizations’ execution through
rearranged information visualizations, e.g., diagrams and dashboards.
These techniques permit you to keep an ongoing perspective of execution,
and if in any mistrust of the explanation for varieties in execution penetrate
down, usefulness effortlessly finds the cause.

A great amount of development is done in the field of KPI tracking and

processing. Thus, a lot of organizations have made it a preference to
include this feature in their Performance Management Modules. Today’s
leading applications in this field provide complete online KPI reporting,

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tracking and analysis system developed to simplify the process of

managing KPIs. They reduce the time taken to merge numerous data
sources like spreadsheets into meaningful real-time information. A typical
KPI tracking and processing application will have the following features:

• Entry: The system offers a simple and intuitive ‘one point’ of entry for
KPI figures, teams and individuals no longer have to juggle with sales
spreadsheets to submit their KPI figures. It is all controlled conveniently
in one place.

• Analysis: Drill down into performance data to determine the root cause,
highlight top performers and identify areas of concern.

To provide you with more insights on the KPI tracking and processing
application, the below provided images are appended. These images show
elements of KPI tracking and processing application feature of the
Performance Management Module.

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Performance Appraisal Applications

The Performance Appraisals are a core part of profession advancement and

comprise of ongoing assessments of staff performance inside companies.
Thus, this powerful feature has also been abstracted into a critical HRIS
sub-module. Appraising of employee performance is a system by which the
occupation execution of a worker is assessed. Performance administration
frameworks are utilized “to supervise and arrange” the greater part of an
organization’s assets so as to accomplish most noteworthy execution. How
execution is supervised in an organization figures out to a vast degree the
triumph or disappointment of the enterprise. Consequently, enhancing
employee appraisal for everybody should be around the most noteworthy
necessities of contemporary firms. The utilization of Information
Technology in Performance Management undoubtedly helps in making the
appraisal processing and tracking more accurate. Particularly where
numerous rating sources are included, yet it additionally raises numerous
inquiries regarding employee’s responses and conceivable impacts on
appraisal results. Vital to any Performance Management Application is the

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use for the Performance Appraisal which essentially needs to be

transparent, adaptable and client-friendly. As a computerized, self-
administration framework, it might as well enhance performance through
continuous audits and feedback to the staff members, and offers
opportunity to supervisors to adjust execution in time. The process of
administration of performance appraisals through ongoing employee
assessments is the core component of the performance capability
advancement methodology of any firm.

An exceptional appraisal framework needs to arrange unique objectives

with the holistic enterprise objectives through an arrangement of proper
objective setting. It may as well empower the mapping of part KPIs and
KRAs, and additionally part abilities to guarantee objective arrangement
and objectives. Backing these objectives is an arrangement of evaluating
and advancing mapped part abilities. A good employee performance
appraisal system needs to align individual goals with the overall
organization goals through a system of cascaded goal setting. It should
enable the mapping of role KRAs and KPIs as well as role competencies to
ensure goal alignment and cascading goals. Supporting these goals is a
system of assessing and developing mapped role competencies.

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Examining single staff appraisals for end of the numerous inclinations,

standardization of evaluations and finally deciphering execution evaluations
into rewards, variable pay, additions and advancements are overwhelming
errands that tend to burden the HR department.The accomplishment of any
evaluation framework lies in its objectivity and convenience which requires
both privacy and also transparency. Numerous provisions today offer plug-
and-play features like net access and a straightforward interface that
permits staff, and supervisors to track and administer execution whenever
required. That means on the run reaction and constant objectives following
that decreases the load of memory loss when it comes time for execution
audits. With constant execution reaction like notes and objectives,
administrators and workers come to be savvy to issues and chances when
they trigger and can follow up on them. The progressing exchange gives
workers and administrators a level playing field as the year progressed,
making execution audits less troubled for all. As an organization grows, the
duties and responsibilities of employees and managers often overlap. When
employees change job positions, they are often tasked with additional
responsibilities and may no longer have authority over certain areas
previously under their control. Furthermore, not everyone may remember
the authority and expectations a particular manager may have. When
uncertainty exists, employees and managers can easily refer to the posted
job descriptions the performance appraisal system come in handy.

Some of the key features of Performance Appraisal are as follows:

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As a part of the Performance Appraisal Module, an essential sub-module is

the ‘360 Degree Feedback System’. This is a specially designed system,
which is focused on gathering and processing holistic multi-dimensional
feedback. In this context, the operating organization needs greater
investment of time/resources but tend to be more successful. To be
effective, 360 degree feedback needs an environment and culture of
openness, trust and mutual support. The 360 degree system should
operate anonymously and confidentially to create an ‘open’ culture. If the
organization views learning and the acceptance and management of
change as keys to business success, this can also help. For 360 degree
systems to be successful, people have to feel able to speak freely without
fear of reprisal. Managers, in particular, need to be willing and open about
receiving upward feedback.

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A culture of involvement, empowerment and consultation needs to be in

place and openly supported. Employees need to feel part of a participatory
culture where constant review of performance and regular assessment of
competence is fostered and encouraged in order to contribute informed
judgments on their own performance or that of colleagues and managers.
Generally, 360 degree feedback, whether used for performance evaluation
or for the personal development of the individual involved, makes demands
on the ‘central’ or participating individual which extend far beyond those
made by traditional Appraisal Systems. The 360 degree system requires
the individual to carry out self-assessment on some occasions, to make a
choice of those individuals (peers and internal customers) who are to be
requested to give feedback accept detailed and anonymous feedback.

HRIS designers need to consider some vital aspects in order for a 360
degrees questionnaire to be completed successfully. It should use
straightforward language and familiar concepts – a numerical rating scale
is one of the easiest methods to use. In choosing or designing a
questionnaire, the designers needs to avoid becoming fixated on the
instrument itself and to concentrate on the depth and quality of feedback
information it can produce. A questionnaire has most impact, and is easier
to use, when it asks about the detail of a specific job. For example, one
large insurance company uses a questionnaire for its sales force. It asks
about the planning of sales campaigns, quality of technical advice offered
to clients, use of sales support staff and other specific job-related issues.
The questionnaire is 100% relevant to job performance, and is written in
language which is clear and relevant to the job holders and their raters.

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Many 360 degree questionnaires contain generic questions based on

definitions of competences rather than job tasks and the rater has to work
out their relevance. One bad example of such a question is, ‘… fully
commits him/herself to achieving according to circumstances’. What
exactly does this mean and how could a group of different raters be sure to
use the same basis for rating performance against it? Also, such questions
could cause problems with interpretation for the recipients of the feedback.
Fortunately, today’s 360 degree feedback software is so flexible that you
can quickly create a special, high relevance, set of questions for each key
role or group of employees.

For organizations to leverage maximum benefits of this feedback method,

it is vital to implement a robust and easy-to-use 360 degree feedback
process to gain more participation across the organization. HRIS
practitioners need to design the survey questions to best address the skills
most critical at various levels of the organization. It is thus critical to
partner with a vendor that could deliver a highly flexible solution at a very
reasonable cost. The application needs to specialize the feedback reports to
not only provide critical information on strengths and development areas,
but also to allow individuals to interpret their feedback report without the
use of individual training.

The HRIS team needs to acknowledge that to achieve the above goals,
they needed to partner with a vendor who not only had extensive
experience working with large global organizations but also had a very
flexible technology and consulting experts who will support them along the
way. It is essential to provide departments with critical talent data. So,
each would not only have information on which employee strengths to
leverage but also what “talent gaps” may exist and need to be addressed.

These images show elements of the 360 degrees feedback application

feature of the Performance Management Module.

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6.3 Key features of Payroll Management Module

A well-known fact in the industry is that payroll is a critical function as it is

vulnerable to mistakes and errors. The essential objective of the HRM
managers is to ensure that all employees receive their payments in a time-
bound manner. This includes all forms of payments such as compensation
installments, taxation and the various deductions. This is critical in
maintaining continuous confidence of the employees. Thus, it requires the
payroll functionality to be utilized in a precisely and timely manner. It is
extremely essential to an organization from an accounting viewpoint.
Payroll is important on the grounds that it significantly influences the net
salary of most organizations.

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Before proposing a robust Payroll system, it is quintessential to develop

more clarity about this concept. Payroll, in accounting terms, means the
sum paid to employees for carrying out the organizational activities for a
certain duration. Payroll is the total of all budgetary records of pay rates for
a worker, compensation, rewards and findings. The methodology comprises
of estimation of salaries and employee tax deductions, providing the
retirement profits and payment of compensations to workers. It can
likewise be termed as an action coming under accounts which embraces
the pay organization of workers in the firm. Calculating the pay rates is a
fairly complex tax which the HRM and the accounts department work
together to figure and dispense the compensation to the workers.

Thus, as is realized from the above discussions, there is a need to

automate the payroll functionality. The Payroll management application is
responsible for automating payroll estimations for wages, rewards and
different manifestations of compensation. This application is intended to
provide solutions to the whole range of organizational payroll
requirements. HRM Managers expect the system to convert the payroll
functionality in a more robust and effective feature. It expedites the
designing of payroll parts, e.g., compensation, rewards, or different types
of recompense, direct taxes and deductions. It empowers the arrangement
of payroll transforming consistent with the enterprise’s strategies and
guarantees that payroll methodology is successful, correct and dependable.

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Critical Components of the Payroll Module

1. Payroll Management System

The crux of the module of Payroll is the Payroll Management System. This
application is responsible for processing the finished records, creating of
registers for attendance and pay-slips, figuring all remittances and tax
deductions and creating all statutory forms. This sub-module related to
Payroll deals with all pre-requisites concerned with administration of
employees’ payroll and the accounting process. The designers need to be
aware of the fact that the Payroll software should be created with a
practical objective. Preciseness should be kept in mind while processing
different remittances and deductions that should be provided to the
employees. It might as well offer exceptionally high adaptability in
characterizing different remittances and derivations in processing the
payroll.

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Additionally, it may as well create the compensation sheet that supports

the accounts department from various perspectives. These images show
elements of the Payroll application feature of the Performance Management
Module.

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2. Time Management System

The sub-module on Time Management is also critical to the Payroll

Management Application. This feature is designed with the intention to
back the time-identified requirements of an extensive variety of business
capacities incorporating enterprise management across sectors. This sub-
module encapsulates the requirements of time-related aspects for payroll,
accounting from budgetary and expense perspective, administration of
projects and incentives provided to employees.

Today’s organizations require robust applications related to recording and

processing attendance, and time-keeping. To empower better proficiency,
the module should function as a precise instrument for processing time.
The current requirement from the business is of an flexible time
management system that provides organizations the knowledge and power

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in a unified solution. Its powerful capabilities need to empower the

supervision in the fields of transforming, reporting and administering of
time in a worldwide manner.

Some of the key features of Time Management sub-module are:

The Time Management Module helps HRM designers in the organization to

integrate the attendance information through the use of the software
application. This Module empowers people in the organization to view their
time-related information. It helps in the precise and quicker preparing of
time-related payroll data, and picking up better control over critical
investment funds in both cash, time and payroll related information. It
needs to effectively support and apply payment arrangements for diverse
worker segments dependent upon rank level and designation.

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3. Employee Transfer, Promotions and Increments

The Payroll Software also includes the aspects of Employee Transfer,
Promotions and Increments. These three major elements should be
covered by the Payroll module. Some of the key sub-modules that need to
be included are:

When there are vacancies in an organization, they can be filled up by the

internal or external candidates. Though the organization prefers to fill up
the vacancies by the external candidates through the selection procedure,
the internal candidates may also apply for post, and may be tested and
selected for higher level job in the organizational hierarchy at par with
external candidates.

The HRIS modules play an important role in recording and processing this
critical information in a precise manner. The Office of Human Resources is
responsible for the administration of this information. However, every
employee and manager has a responsibility to ensure the success of the
processing of this information.

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Below provided are some screenshots of this sub-module:

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4. Income Tax Management System

The modules for Payroll Management Software also should define the sub-
modules related to the Income Tax Management requirements of the
employees in the organization. Many predefined reports should be
generated available for use. In addition, option should also be available to
configure and generate user-defined reports. The reporting formats should
also cater to income tax and other legal reporting requirements like
generation of Monthly/Yearly Statements, Tax Challan and Salary
Certificates.

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Calculating the income tax and understanding what reports to file can be
rather daunting and needs to be done carefully with the help of a robust
Tax sub-module. It is critical because missing deadlines from the context of
filing taxes can attract hefty fines and penalties. Payroll software programs
help companies by providing information and reminders about compliance
needs. The software is updated regularly. So, companies always have the
most current information regarding changes in tax laws and other
regulations. Some software can be set up to automatically generate reports
and file taxes. So, managers and employers simply have to submit
approval before finalizing.

After the gross income has been determined, payroll software

automatically calculates deductions such as national, state and local taxes,
insurance, and retirement savings. Deduction amounts are automatically
subtracted and a cheque is drawn or direct deposited into a specified bank
account. Some payroll software solutions may also be configured to
automatically add reimbursement for mileage, travel expenses and other
employee expenditures.

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The income tax module of the payroll software can automatically generate
all tax forms that are needed by employees, contractors and vendors.
Common tax forms can be generated and printed or sent with the push of
a button. Payroll software helps to relieve some of the stress at tax time.
Thus, these are used to maintain the records effortlessly as keeping
records with a manual system can be difficult, and requires a lot of space
for files and paperwork. Keeping records with payroll software is effortless
and requires absolutely no physical space, as all files are stored
electronically. Old files can also be accessed or deleted with the push of a
button. So, staying organized is simple.

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6.4 Key Features of Recruitment and Selection Module

The Recruitment and Selection Module is a critical sub-module which is

utilized by both big and small organizations, yet differ in practicality and
characteristics relying upon the requirements of the organization.
Organizations today have the design choices to create diverse features with
all types of social and business networking sites to link the module with the
employment needs on the organization’s website and blog page.

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Many organizations go through a process of comparing and evaluating

several HRIS Recruitment and Selection application packages. This is done
using a team of analysts or managers from the various departments before
making the choice. As this team prepares its evaluation criteria and
reviews HRIS features, much is learned about the goals and values of the
various departments related to inducting new employees. The HRM
department is constantly looking for improved recruitment practices for
employees. This is concerned with the application’s features and
procedures, and the designer may be constantly looking for a more
streamlined recruitment process.

Prospective employee profiles can be obtained by the application for

individual opportunities by leveraging the organization’s website to direct
job openings on the module. As an employee is recruited, hired and paid,
each department may have its own specialized system and process for
managing the employee data. As the HRIS evaluation team discovers
redundant processing and data storage, its members start to see ways to
make the process more efficient by aligning their part of the hiring process
with the requirements of the other departments. The team members are
excited to find a better way to get the work done, but scared by the
ramifications of closer ties to other departments. Thus, there is a need to
improve the efficiency of the recruitment process. The huge amount of
capital spent in supporting an arranged recruitment exertion, candidate

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listing internally and through general or industry-particular job forums and

sites, and administering an aggressive introduction of availabilities has
offered ascent to the advancement of a committed candidate tracking
framework. The recruitment and selection module determines the human
resource needs of the entire organization and its every department for
given future period for the various operations envisaged in connection with
the accomplishment of organizational objectives and departmental goals.
Human Resource Planning is the predetermination of the future course of
action chosen from a number of alternatives for procuring, developing,
managing, motivating, compensating, career planning, succession planning
and separating. To understand the functionality of this sub-module, some
screenshots are provided below.

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6.5 Key features of Leave Management Module

The sub-module of Leave Management provides a vast amount of features

related to the leave requisition procedure. The application robustly
encapsulates the functionalities into the system and helps the managers
and their employees to apply for their leave without interference from the
Human Resource department. This application incorporates web-based
electronic leave provision and approval, recording verifiable leave, including
support cycles into the framework. The Leave Management Software
module is an extensive application that mechanizes and streamlines the
whole leave administration workflow.

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This application facilitates the HR Managers to ensure that the matters

related to leave computation are done in a precise and simple manner.
Thus, mistakes in the work input, leave count and diligence in the work of
an employee are completely automated. Such efficient employee leave
management software is available online and can be easily installed in the
system for better and immaculate records of the employees’ leave patterns
and the remnants of your employee’s paid vacation days.

The leave request process is recorded and forwarded to the respective

manager of the employee. The approver, based upon the balance and leave
eligibility displayed by the module, can easily earmark the requisition or
reject it. Employees can apply for leave online and have their requests for
planned type of leaves, sent to their manager and the Human Resource
department. The system creates vital reports, e.g., documents such as
taxation forms and transfer forms letters. Workflow communicates with the
leave database to display employee leave history when the employee is
using the system. The system gathers information on absence in the run-
time, and also obtains the details of approved leave and applied leave.

The managers can track which leave procedures apply to the leave request,
and the leave administration result will track and manage these
simultaneously with the different sorts of leave. The eligibility for leave is
figured out by adaptable guidelines. They also determine the leave balance
calculation. The leave administration cycle is finished on receiving
confirmation from the HR Manager on the requestor’s leave status and
upgrades the leave balance function of balance checking and screening of

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leave utilization. The module on Leave management facilitates the building

of performance appraisals with respect to precise leave data since there is
no possibility of human lapse through the leave management frameworks.
Consequently, blunders in the data inputs, calculation of leaves, and
diligence on part of manual efforts are some of the aspects that are
automated by this system. Such proficient leave management module is
accessible online and could be effortlessly plugged in the existing
framework for better and faultless records of the workers’ leave trends and
the leftovers of the employees’ paid leaves. The precise job times and
leaves of the employees can be assessed, analyzed, recorded, screened
and tracked by the HR with the help of today’s Leave Management
modules.

Numerous Leave Management provisions today accompany inbuilt

practicality of liaising with the Payroll System for deducting the measure of
leaves of the unpaid category that the worker has availed. Job times for
work classifications might be set and reused throughout the organization.
Intuitive client interfaces are custom-made to suit the unique needs of
various important entities like HR Managers, operational supervisors, HR
experts, supervisors and Team Managers.

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The below provided are some of the screenshots of the Leave Management
Software module.

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6.6 Activities

1. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on how the HRIS Payroll
applications provide high adaptability in characterizing different
remittances and derivations in processing the payroll.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the common Indian tax
forms that can be generated from the income tax module of the payroll
software.
——————————————————————————————————————
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6.7 Summary

In this chapter, we have discussed about personal information system.

Here, we have seen that an HRIS not only has advantages for the
business, but also for the employees in that organization. With a wide
range of user-friendly features, the modern HRIS applications provide
increased employee satisfaction and engagement. The sub-systems of
HRIS need to be understood in a comprehensive manner in order to
develop a complete awareness of this topic. One of the most effective
approaches is to introduce new technology to deal with the redesigned
processes. An upgraded HRIS system, with more integrated work
processes, tends to pull related departments together. Most organizations
recognize this as they go through the implementation process, and also
implement a new organizational structure with the HRIS roll-out.

By automating recurring tasks such as benefits and payroll administration,

employee on-boarding and time and attendance management, the HRIS
helps make tedious HR processes quick and simple. An efficient application
helps the HR department reduce time wastage. So, they do not have to
waste time maintaining or editing information on a manual basis.

The Performance Management module in the HRIS supports the practices

related to meeting the objectives of the organization. It is a combined
procedure that includes both operational leaders and their immediate
reports who together distinguish regular goals/objectives which correspond
to the higher objectives of the firm.

Performance Management consists of Planning Performance, Managing

Performance, Reviewing Performance and Rewarding Performance. Some of
the key features of Performance Management Modules software are
providing a time-sensitive dashboard and measurement tool, building
rapport and creating open communication and feedback, ability to
determine the right disposition and conducts as per the organizational
strategies.

Many Performance Management Modules possess specific applications

dedicated to Key Performance Indicators that furnish organizations with a
KPI centered environment to establish, supervise and assess KPI
information. The applications facilitate organizations to input their Key

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Performance Indicator information into one uniquely composed framework

as opposed to utilize customary strategies.

A great amount of development is done in the field of KPI tracking and

processing. Thus, a lot of organizations have made it a preference to
include this feature in their Performance Management Modules. The
Performance Appraisals are a core part of profession advancement and
comprise of ongoing assessments of staff performance inside companies.
Thus, this powerful feature has also been abstracted into a critical HRIS
sub-module.

Performance Management undoubtedly helps in making the appraisal

processing and tracking more accurate. Particularly where numerous rating
sources are included, yet it additionally raises numerous inquiries regarding
employee’s responses and conceivable impacts on appraisal results. As a
part of the Performance Appraisal Module, an essential sub-module is the
‘360 Degree Feedback system’. This is a specially designed system, which
is focused on gathering and processing holistic multi-dimensional feedback.

A well-known fact in the industry is that payroll is a critical function as it is

vulnerable to mistakes and errors. The essential objective of the HRM
Managers is to ensure that all employees receive their payments in a time-
bound manner. This includes all forms of payments such as compensation
installments, taxation and the various deductions. Critical components of
the payroll module are payroll management system, time management
system, employee transfer, promotions and increments, and income tax
management.

The Recruitment and Selection Module is a critical sub-module which is

utilized by both big and small organizations, yet differ in practicality and
characteristics relying upon the requirements of the organization.

Human Resource Planning is the predetermination of the future course of

action chosen from a number of alternatives for procuring, developing,
managing, motivating, compensating, career planning, succession planning
and separating.

The sub-module of Leave Management provides a vast amount of features

related to the leave requisition procedure. The application robustly
encapsulates the functionalities into the system, and helps the managers

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and their employees to apply for their leave without interference from the
Human Resource department. This application incorporates web-based
electronic leave provision and approval, recording verifiable leave, including
support cycles into the framework.

Numerous Leave Management provisions today accompany inbuilt

practicality of liaising with the Payroll System for deducting the measure of
leaves of the unpaid category that the worker has availed. Job times for
work classifications might be set and reused throughout the organization.

6.8 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief what factor is critical for HRIS systems to survive in this
changing world?
2. Explain why a dashboard perspective of execution over the business in a
‘traffic signal’ manner is essential in today’s times?
3. Explain in brief the key features of the ‘360 Degree Feedback System’.
4. Explain why is it critical to develop more clarity about the internal needs
of the payroll before proposing a robust Payroll system?
5. Enlist the key features of Time Management sub-module.
6. Describe in short how the Leave Management application facilitates the
HR Managers to process leaves?

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Objective Type

1. Vital to any Performance Management Application is the use of which

functionality that essentially needs to be transparent, adaptable and
client-friendly?
(a) Leave Management
(b) Performance Appraisal
(c) Strategic Management
(d) KPI Processing

2. What kind of functionality is developed when a KPI is over- or under-

realized helping in the performance tracking in a focused manner?
(a) Integrity is developed
(b) Interference is developed
(c) Agility is developed
(d) Ability is developed

3. The 360 degree system should operate anonymously and confidentially

to create which of the following?
(a) An integrated culture
(b) A secure culture
(c) An open culture
(d) An automation culture

4. Which application is responsible for processing the finished records, and

creating registers for attendance and pay-slips?
(a) The Leave Management System
(b) The Performance Appraisal System
(c) The KPI Management System
(d) The Payroll Management System

5. Today’s organizations require robust applications related to recording

and processing attendance and time-keeping.
(a) True
(b) False

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6. Which module helps HRM designers in the organization to integrate the

attendance information through the use of the software application?
(a) The Leave Management System
(b) The Performance Appraisal System
(c) The Time Management System
(d) The Payroll Management System

Ans.: 1. (b), 2. (c), 3. (c), 4. (d), 5. (a), 6. (c).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

Video Lecture - Part 3

Video Lecture - Part 4

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Chapter 7
Enhancing Support for Learning and
Development Functionality through HRIS

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the important functionalities that HRIS provide to L&D
• Explain the vitality of automation in Learning and Development
• Connect to the concepts of various sub-systems of the LMS system of
HRIS
• Understand the elements of Infusing Social Media in the HRIS systems

Structure:
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Leveraging the Power of Electronic Learning in L&D Module Design
7.3 Learning Management System (LMS) Applications
7.4 Infusing Social Media into Traditional L&D Practices
7.5 Applying Cutting-edge Technologies in L&D Propagation
7.6 Activities
7.7 Summary
7.8 Self Assessment Questions

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7.1 Introduction

In today’s competitive environment, it is essential to foster a culture of

learning and development by infusing various elements of knowledge gain.
These may include classroom-based training, e-learning and on-the-job
training to create an engaged workforce. Studies show that engaged
employees are better prepared to reach their own personal and company
goals, hence making them more productive. The need for today’s systems
is the creation of a holistic set of measures that can quantify the
effectiveness and value of the training, and then make better decisions
based on those metrics. The Learning Management System should
seamlessly connect employee training and performance metrics to give
managers a clear picture of how learning initiatives drive organizational
success. HRIS Managers today are expected to manage all your learning
assets easily from one central location. This means tracking all types of
learning activities including managing registrations, withdrawals, waiting
lists, cancellations or even creating a training program by grouping
multiple training activities.

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Employee’s training and development is the crucial tool which enhances

productivity of an organization. The traditional methods of training and
development are time-consuming and hence ineffective, since jobs have
become more sophisticated and influenced by technological changes. The
success in enhancement of employees’ productivity has become a focal
area for the HR department due to the fact that the employees need
constant improvement and motivation to achieve organization’s goals and
objectives. The competitive business environment is forcing the HR
professionals to optimize Learning and Development resources. As a part of
this chapter, we need to also be aware of the concept of Learning
Management Systems (LMSs). These systems have become a core part of
the L&D modules of the HRIS application. They began simply as
registration and record-keeping software to manage instructor-led
instruction. There are at least 500 LMSs in the market, not including
education and open-source LMSs. Many organizations and educational
institutions have developed their own but do not market them. As of early
2020, there are also at least 200 learning management content systems
(LCMSs), 350 course authoring tools and more than 100 virtual
classrooms. Some of the simplest LMSs just provide a platform for
launching and tracking e-learning.

We shall also gain insights on the use of Social Media platforms to make
learning a collaborative and social event. Finally, we shall discuss about the
infusion of technology like the Artificial Intelligence through Chatbots and
Augmented Reality Tools.

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7.2 Leveraging the power of Electronic Learning in L&D

module design

For any organization to grow in an organic manner, there is a vital need for
developing its human capital. It is one thing to possess knowledge but yet
another thing to put it to effective use. It is essential to help develop
skills and also update the knowledge. Especially, in a rapidly changing
society, employee training and development is not only an activity that is
desirable but also an activity that an organization must commit resources
to, if it is to maintain a viable and knowledgeable workforce.
Conventionally, training of employees has been more of a face-to-face
affair, but with the rapid changes, organizations have adopted electronic
mediums to disseminate the power of learning. Thus, the e-learning
environment has become common in the design of the L&D sub-modules.
On a conceptual level, electronic learning or e-learning is the design,
sequencing and integration of all electronic and non-electronic components
of learning to deliver optimum improvement in competence and
performance.

E-learning refers to the use of electronic media, and information and

communication technologies in education. It replicates and supplements
the process of classroom teaching in electronic form. In a classroom,
knowledge is delivered by the L&D professional who manages the portions
and sequence of content to be trained, and delivers a prescribed curriculum
to a set of learners. Similarly, e-learning involves efficiently managing and
distributing relevant content to the consumers/customers.

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E-learning industry can be said to be broadly comprising of four

components: content, management system, delivery/distribution system
and the consumers/customers. An efficient collaboration of all the three –
content, management system, delivery/distribution system – leads to a
satisfying and successful e-learning experience for a consumer. The power
of online training and knowledge management is magnified when they are
used in combination. But they are even more powerful when properly
integrated with more traditional classroom training programs. In following
this path, the organizations are required to move from building single
learning programs, courses, databases or tools to building an e-learning
architecture for the organizations for the development of human resource.

An e-learning program becomes essential for the purpose of meeting the

specific problems of a particular organization arising out of the introduction
of new lines of production, changes in design and the rapidly changing
demands of market. Thus, these powerful modules can help employees to
increase their level of performance on their present assignment. E-learning
programs increase the skill of employees in the performance of a particular
job. Increased performance and productivity, because of this kind of
training, is most evident on the part of new employees who are not yet
fully aware of the most efficient and effective ways of performing their job.
An increase in skill usually helps to increase both quantity and quality of
output. It has been observed that there has been a phenomenal increased
in morale, less supervisory pressures, improved product quality, increased
financial incentives and internal promotions due to such training program.

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Thus, this has subsequently resulted in improving the organizational

climate.

E-learning programs have also influenced the field of management

development. This is the critical element L&D which is a long-term
educational process utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by
which managerial personnel learn conceptual and theoretical knowledge.
Development is a related process which is comprehensively covered by the
current e-learning modules. Training a person for a bigger and higher job is
development. These not only the activities, which improve job
performance, but also those, that bring about growth of the personality. It
has been observed that e-learning modules help individuals in the progress
towards maturity and actualization of their potential capacities. In
organizational terms, it is intended to equip persons to earn promotional
and hold greater responsibility.

With e-learning modules, the aspect of management development starts

producing change in behavior quicker than conventional methods. The
change frequently consists of a number of small steps resulting from e-
learning but the cumulative effect is considerable. It is also basic that a
terminal behavior is identified before the development efforts starts. The
individual will not only be able to perform his/her job better, but also
increase the potential for future assignments through the acquisition,
understanding and use of new knowledge, insights and skills. Self-
development done through well-designed and properly articulated e-
learning modules is an important concept from the concept of management
development.

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The success of an electronic learning system is based on the premises of

quality of the content. There are some key factors affecting, and
sometimes challenging, different components of e-learning modules which
every designer must keep in consideration. The behavior of the learner is
affected by the robustness of learning, flexibility offered while learning and
also on the cognitive level of the learners. As e-learning serves an ever-
changing market, designers need to focus on a targeted set of consumers
when it comes to content generation or collation is very important.
Regulatory norms and curriculum (when catering to educational institutes),
corporate and consumer requirements have to be met through e-learning
content. Management systems have to be efficient, should support simple
and seamless integration of content from different sources and should be
scalable to support the needs of growing demand. Distribution and delivery
systems can take the form of immersive and game-based learning,
learning portals and hardware (tablet or phablet) based delivery. Inclusion
of adaptive learning models is also on rise these days with startups trying
to bring in this model to make e-learning very personalized. Getting
employees involved in learning has always been a challenge. The major
challenge faced by the L&D department is that a lot of employees do not
attend courses, even courses that are designed for them. It is also
observed that many employees often cannot participate fully, sometimes
leaving early due to the contingency of the business. With little time to
spare, the employees say they do not have the luxury to take time to
learn. It is not something they seek out to do. Instead the organization
should try to find the right course that would attract executives.

It is the time to change the approach to develop a learning architecture

that is designed for learners from the inception. Thus, designers of
modules in L&D should focus on building a robust e-learning architecture.
A learning architecture is not the same as a curriculum which generally
refers to organization and relationship of courses to create the appropriate
learning sequence curricula. It is important but insufficient to define a
complete learning architecture. From IT-enabled learning to classroom
training, independent study monitoring and work experience become the
most important components. L&D designers can use specific key
performance indicators to determine appropriate content and resources to
help learners achieve their goals through e-learning. It is vital to verify
whether existing courses facilitate the learning of key tasks and create new
e-learning content where there are gaps. The end result is a checklist of

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self-directed activities for a learner to complete that add value to the

learner. An e-learning plan checklist needs to include the following:

7.3 Learning Management System (LMS) Applications

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application or web-

based technology used to plan, implement and assess a specific learning
process. It is used for e-learning practices and, in its most common form,
consists of two elements: a server that performs the base functionality and
a user interface that is operated by instructors, students and
administrators.

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Learning Management Systems are beneficial to a wide range of

organizations in diverse types of Industries. The primary use of a learning
management system is for Knowledge Management (KM). KM refers to the
gathering, organizing, sharing and analysis of an organization’s knowledge
in terms of resources, documents and people skills. However, the specific
role of the LMS will vary according to the organization’s training strategy
and goals.

Some popular LMSs used by in the organizations today include Moodle,

Blackboard Adobe Captivate Prime, Docebo LMS, TalentLMS, iSpring Learn
and eFront. Employee training and on-boarding is one of the most
applications for an LMS in a corporate environment. In this case, the LMS is
used to help train new and established employees by providing
opportunities to access training materials across various devices. New
employees can be recognized when they add their own knowledge and
feedback, which will, in turn, help employers understand how effective the
training courses are and identify areas where new employees need more
assistance.

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LMSs can be used for extended enterprise training purposes which include
customers, partners and training of vendors as well. Customer training is
becoming common in manufacturing and information technology
organizations where users need to be taught how a system works before
they can use the new product. Providing ongoing customer training will
also help improve customer experience and increase brand loyalty.

A Learning Management System can be thought of as a large repository

that allows learners to store and track information in one place. Any
employee with a secure login and password can access the system and its
online learning resources. Or, if the system is self-hosted, the employee
must either install the software on their hard drive or access it through
their company’s server. Another common use of LMSs in organizations is
for employee development and retention. The LMS can be used to assign
the necessary courses to current employees to ensure they are developing
effective job skills, remain informed about product changes, and maintain
relevant knowledge through new product and compliance training. In the

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context of choosing an LMS, it must be easy to customize, modify and

learn how to use. The features of any HRIS solution should correspond to
the needs of the learners. Almost always the module needs to be
customized in accordance to the organizational needs.

Some common features found in a successful LMS include:

• User-friendly interface: The user interface (UI) should enable learners

to easily navigate the LMS platform. The UI should also align with the
abilities and goals of both the user and the organization. An unintuitive
UI risks confusing or distracting users and will make the LMS ineffective.
• Responsive design: Users should be able to access the LMS from
whatever type of device they choose, whether it is a desktop, laptop,
tablet or smartphone. The LMS should automatically display the version
best suited for the user’s chosen device. Additionally, the LMS should also
allow users to download content. So, it is accessible while offline.

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• Reports and analytics: This includes e-learning assessment tools.

Instructors and administrators must be able to view and track their
online training initiatives to determine if they are effective or need
adjusting. This can be applied to groups of learners and individuals.
• Course and catalog management: The LMS holds all the e-learning
courses and the related course content. Admins and instructors should be
able to create and manage these catalogs and courses in order to deliver
a more targeted learning experience.
• Content interoperability and integration: Content created and stored
in an LMS must be packaged in accordance with interoperable standards,
including SCORM.
• Support services: Different LMS vendors offer varying levels of support.
Many provide online discussion boards where users can connect and help
each other. Additional support services, such as a dedicated toll-free
service number, are available for an extra cost.
• Certification and compliance support: This feature is essential to
systems used for online compliance training and certifications.
Instructors and admins should be able to assess an individual’s skill set
and identify any gaps in their performance. This feature will also make it
possible to use LMS records during an audit.

Due to the diverse number of Learning Management Solutions with

advanced features, the selection of the appropriate application is a
challenging task. One of the things that L&D need to prioritize before
finalizing the application is the element of granularity. Designers need to
consider user-friendliness and flexibility in their decisions. It is essential
that the LMS is updated and has customized functionality catering to the
specific needs of the employees. This will prove beneficial in the design of
the online and conventional learning content. The LMS industry has
diversified in a very broad manners and choosing the correct application is
very critical. Some screenshots of the most popular LMS applications are
provided below:

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7.4 Infusing Social Media into traditional L&D Practices

With the swift changes in technology and overall thinking, the L&D modules
must stay ahead of the latest changes, techniques and models of training.
Among the many opportunities social media offers to businesses, it
presents effective tools to train employees both at the beginning of their
employment, and at a later stage, to further and update their skills. A
growing trend in this field of HRIS is the inclusion of Social Media
Technology to enhance and spread the awareness and benefits of training.
It is critical to take advantage of the engagement offered by the social
media platforms. It has an innate ability to connect people who may never
otherwise speak and is instrumental in driving collaboration and social
learning in organizations.

Professionals from L&D and HRIS Designers can facilitate the promotion of
social and collaborative learning at in organizations in the following
manner:

• Design meaningful forms and buttons to connect the Learning

Management Systems to connect and communicate clearly and
effectively with Social Media Platforms.
• Ensure interaction between modules and learners is two-way so that the
learners can improve the way they share information.

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• Capture data on informal learning and knowledge sharing through a

learning record store and spread it through photos and videos on the
social media.
• Incentivize participation and use marketing techniques to spread the
word.
• Incorporate social learning in formal training programs as part of courses
or to complement learning. Blended learning programs allow for hands-
on application and collaboration with experts, providing a best-of-both-
world’s approach.

Social Media is now being preferred as a medium of effective learning as it

provides tools that allow training to take place across geographical limits.
Hence, this expands the possibilities of learning like never before. Social
media platforms, like Skype, have the power to bring together people
located at different places in a common, single and virtual space. L&D
professionals can seamlessly engage employees from different locations to
attend a learning workshop.

Thus, tools such as Skype or Google Hangouts can be used to set up online
conference rooms where everyone can attend cross-geographically at no
cost. Social Media lays stress on Peer-to-peer Teaching and Learning. This
is a great advantage that social media provides in terms of training
employees is the ability to create virtual communities where everyone in

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the team can interact. This gives training an aspect that may not have
been as easy to create before social media: the ability to have indirect,
organic, peer-to-peer training. There are many social media tools that can
be used to create interactive, online, company-limited, virtual spaces,
including a Facebook Group, LinkedIn Group, Yammer Group, or a tailored-
made virtual social space, among other options. These groups can be as
large or small as the group creator decides, incorporating everyone in the
company or just a department, for instance. Within these private online
spaces, accessible at any time and from anywhere, people can share their
thoughts, give insights, ask questions, give answers, provide feedback, and
warn of past errors. New employees can learn from the expertise of older
ones by simply reading what is being said or asking questions of the forum.
Long-time employees can learn from others, too, by getting fresh
feedback, ideas and solutions to new challenges.

In the L&D domain, web seminars have become quite popular, and in this
context, many webinar tools are proving very useful. These social learning
tools can be used to develop powerful online seminars to provide either
pre-recorded or live lectures to large online audiences. Organizations can
choose between having either videoconferencing or audioconferencing.
Without reducing the benefits of face-to-face meetings, virtual ones help
save costs on travel, planning and related expenses, and potentially can
reach many more people than a physical space could allow. Moreover,
recording lectures and seminars online means people can go back to them
at any time. Some prominent applications in this domain are as follows:

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Using online tools to conduct these training sessions means that members
can interact across geographical boundaries and time zones, perhaps even
on the move if mobile applications are used. It is a time-efficient, cost-
effective and less burdensome method of training. Another prime benefit
for organizations is that they can also use social media to develop a
multifaceted, multimedia approach to their training programs. The
elaborate use of images and audio-visuals can be provided and shared with
learners through social media sites such as Flickr and Pinterest. Instructive
videos can be made and shared online through sites such as YouTube.
Online presentations can be developed on Prezi or Slide Share. Learning
posts can be created on Facebook walls and short messages sent through
Twitter accounts. Conversations can take place within LinkedIn Groups.
Company-specific encyclopedias can be developed through DIY Wikis and
made accessible at all times. Q&A threads can be created on Yammer.
Ideas can be shared, discussed and voted on in private company
communities through Crowdicity.

The possibilities offered by social media for training, thus, are abundant.
Whether the training program needs visual illustrations, videos, articles,
presentations or Q&As, social media offers the opportunity to have either
one, some, or all at no or very little cost. Hence, the combination of social
media tools that will need to be used for training will depend on the
organizational needs. However, the tools available today allow for
significantly diversified communication to take place between trainer and
the learner. Another aspect that HRIS designer from the context of creating
L&D sub-modules is the idea of creating diverse competitions. Social media
allows for competitions, contests, games and challenges to be created,
presenting a more entertaining and interactive way for employees to learn.
In this context, rewards can motivate employees to do their best and make
the most out of these competitions. Facebook and Twitter are useful
platforms to run competitions as they provide the tools to create quizzes,
polls, sweepstakes and games. Companies also can use features such as
“Like” on Facebook to have other employees “Like” the answers they prefer
in order to determine a winner, thus, making it more of a peer-to-peer
experience.

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Topics trained through the service include business, technology and

creative topics, with courses running the gamut from programming skills to
writing and accounting. Once an organization has developed the
descriptions of the competencies desired for each position in, they are
better able to identify who the right people are for each position, provide
training, and enable employees to achieve their development and
occupational goals.

Competency management tools enable both the employer and the

employee to track progress. Recently, the larger LMS providers have
expanded into talent management, including career development and
succession planning, performance appraisals, recruitment, compensation
management and workforce planning. These are used as planning tools
related to training and learning and do not typically provide the day-to-day
transaction processing of Human Resource (HR) systems.

In this section dedicated to understanding the use of Social Media in

designing engaging L&D modules, we shall now discuss the application of
LinkedIn in order to facilitate social learning. LinkedIn recognizes that
learning is fundamentally a social activity. In order to facilitate employees
to access dynamic, rich knowledge from experts and colleagues, this forum
provides an avenue to exchange ideas and best practices. Courses can be
both selected by employees as well as recommended by employers and
their HR managers who can use LinkedIn’s analytics products to both
monitor employee’s progress but also look at the wider range of what is
being studied as a point of reference, and curators at LinkedIn itself.
LinkedIn education is available for LinkedIn Premium subscribers who look
like they will get 25 new courses every week based on information on the
site.

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LinkedIn says it will soon be releasing an enterprise tier so that large

companies can take subscriptions for their entire employee base. The
LinkedIn communities for employee knowledge exchange can form in
various ways. This platform leverages the concept of synchronous online
learning by using synchronous technologies. This functionality enables the
employees to gain knowledge from their peers through a social basis.

LinkedIn’s emphasis on learning goes hand-in-hand with the company’s

primary role today as a place where many people go to create and
maintain their professional profiles publicly, and to look for jobs. Building
on that as a place to also enhance your professional skills makes a lot of
sense. It also provides a coda to LinkedIn’s efforts in trying to court higher
education facilities. The idea was to use this as a way of on-boarding users
early in their professional lives, but also to potentially hook into alumni
job-finding networks for the recruitment business. LinkedIn also sees
education as a business opportunity, with “just-in-time” experience training

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from LinkedIn as a key way of meeting that demand. Through Social Media
learning, the Instructional designers can use KRAs to determine
appropriate content and resources to help learners achieve their goals,
verify whether existing courses facilitate the learning of key tasks, and
create new content where there are gaps. The end result is a checklist of
self-directed activities for a learner to complete, starting from day one up
to a year on the job. A learning plan checklist includes aspects like
Timeline, Resources, Activity, Completion Status and Follow-up. Social
Media can also help in facilitating meetings to discuss elements related to
learning within a small peer group in the organization. Designers can
create modules to help in creating discussions, reflections or questions with
the trainers.

7.5 Applying cutting-edge technologies in L&D propagation

Learning and Development is fundamentally an integrated activity, and for

HRIS developers to achieve this functionality, they have to combine it with
modern technology. This infusion will enable the employees to access
dynamic, rich knowledge from experts and colleagues by providing a forum
to change ideas and best practices. Learning management tools enable
both the employer and the employee to track progress. Once an
organization has developed the descriptions of the learning competencies
desired for each position, they are better able to identify who the right
people are for each position, provide training, and enable employees to
achieve their development and occupational goals. With the progression of
technology and its foray into HRM, many practices have expanded into
learning management, including career development and succession
planning, along with creation of personal development plans. These are
used as planning tools related to training and learning, and do not typically
provide the day-to-day transaction processing of human resource (HR)
systems. Using advanced technologies, learners can meet with and learn
from employees with highly developed skills.

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The technology and suppliers change rapidly in today’s contemporary

world. Therefore, e-learning managers must build scalability and flexibility
into their e-learning model and strategy. By building strategic relationships
with proven suppliers and technologies, as well as with internal sponsors
and technology support, e-learning managers can count on a successful e-
learning solution. Learning and Development is not a one-time activity
anymore. Employees expect organizations to provide continuous
development and foster a culture of learning. Organizations are now
transitioning towards integrated Learning Development System. There is a
rising need to infuse technology by incorporating traditional learning with
online learning. This combination is referred to as “blended learning”, and
is the most powerful and flexible learning platform for most organizations.
Once learning has been completed, the organization needs to be able to
report on completion, attendance, quality (pass marks or scores) and other
information. The starting point of effective infusion of technology in L&D
should be the organization’s overall purpose or mission. Strategic plans to
transform L&D should be as unique as the organizations that develop them,
but underlying most organizational strategies that is the determination of
some unfulfilled need for the value addition that the organization can
satisfy. Providing these technological learning solutions then becomes part
of the organization’s goals.

To a great extent, the organizational goals influence the nature of all

learning processes and of human resource management in particular. This
means that the structure of the organization, the specific jobs to be
performed, the financial and technological resources needed, and the
qualifications and numbers of people employed will consistently reflect the
learning and development goals as well.

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Another technological solution to encourage collaboration and social

learning in the organization is the infusion of Artificial Intelligence also
known as AI. With AI, the HRIS Managers and L&D Professionals can
gather insights from the vast amounts of employee data coming in,
augmented by deep analysis and thereby facilitating the creation of
customized learning initiatives. Learning insights also help develop a wider
understanding of learner behavior, leading to predictive capacities. Using
the insights, organizations can create intelligent and smarter positioned
content, that is adaptive, intuitive and responsive to a learner’s personal
journey. As a result, AI will transform how learning content is delivered and
foster retention, leading to greater alignment with business values. With
the rapid growth in AI, designers could help drive personalized learning
experiences. Today’s organizations need to be on the cutting edge and
dedicate budgets to match a compelling application of current AI. AI
development includes the idea of loading chatbots with employee and
geolocation data. The bot automatically delivers bursts of learning related
information supporting an impending activity, possibly before the employee
even thinks to access learning materials. We can consider an imaginary
scenario in this context, consider a new salesperson is about to visit a
client. When he moves to the client’s site, the AI learning bot sends a
message on the phone offering to show a micro-learning class about
positive first impressions along with a link to the prospect’s ‘About Us’ page
and the Manager’s last coaching notes. Now, this results in a powerful
piece of personalized learning experience.

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Many organizations currently use a Learning Management System (LMS) to

deliver training and make resources more accessible. The management and
system elements often work well, but the learning that is there is not
delivered when learners really need it, or in the form they need it.
Leveraging AI Chatbots can make learning more relevant and accessible by
moving the LMS out of the way. Learners gain direct access and control to
the information and learning stored in the LMS via the bot without having
to deal with complex interfaces or sign up for a course. Employees have
information when they need it—on the job. This makes for more
personalized and effective learning. Learning bots are smart, adaptive and
responsive, but they are only as good as the information they can access.
L&D professionals need to understand that if they want to use chatbots
efficiently as part of their L&D, they need to make sure that the learning
content and resources are designed for chatbots to use. This means
creating resources that allow quick access and intelligent searching and
retrieval of information.

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Learning support needs to be packaged so that it can be digested quickly.

An employee looking for a piece of learning while on the job has limited
time and bandwidth. A sales rep or maintenance engineer wants to have
the information he or she needs on their phone or tablet at the client’s
location, not sit through an entire refresher course. It is a popular
misconception that Artificial Intelligence is necessarily going to remove
jobs. Chatbots won’t replace the need for L&D, but they will require it to
adapt. New skills such as scripting, data analysis and content creation will
be required to train and maintain the bots. Instructional Designers will
need to ensure that they are designing training to be delivered by a bot.

As bots in learning move learning into the workflow, trainers, instructional

designers and learning consultants will need to follow them and work
alongside process owners and systems experts as part of cross-functional
teams configured to deliver learning in the workplace. Access to
information and learning content via a chatbot leaves employees in control
of their learning. Training becomes more effective because learners invest
in it and identify and take ownership of their own training needs. The focus
is L&D on learner-centered design, rather than the traditional top-down
flow of information in the instructor-led model. L&D needs not so much to
control as to facilitate learning. Learners are L&D’s prime customers and it
needs to support them by helping them learn how to learn. Allowing
employees to have access to a chatbot that itself has access to your
organization’s learning assets and content means that training can move
into the workflow. The employees can use the chatbot as a personal tutor
and learning ‘buddy’. This approach offers the prospect of continuous
learning and personalized support.

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Chatbots can deliver the right information as and when it is needed. For
employees who are away from their desks—in off-site meetings, on the
factory floor, fixing appliances in customers’ homes—this means they will
have the information they need to perform the task or answer the query
accessible on smart, mobile devices.

L&D chatbots deliver instant access to expert knowledge and advice all the
time. The learning is more likely to stick as it has been applied in a real-
world context. So, the cycle of learning and forgetting is broken. The
chatbot is not just delivering learning, but also providing information about
how people learn and what they need to learn. It records data from its
interactions. This data can be then analyzed by the L&D professionals to
see what is being learned and when. It will also tell them what information
is missing by recording the queries that it could not respond to. It is a
known fact that training evaluation is often the neglected element in
learning design, but with a chatbot feeding back data on what works and
what does not, it becomes a critical stage of the design process. This
means training can become more relevant and effective as it is based on
the demonstrable needs of employees rather than the notional needs
determined by L&D. As employees learn, learning designers learn from the
learner and learning becomes a continuous process rather than an episodic
event. It is not so much about the chatbot performing the L&Ds function, it
is about L&D working alongside the bot. By employing a chatbot, you
transform learning from being a remote, singular event to being an integral
part of the working experience. Traditionally, training has occupied
employees’ time and taken them away from their work—at a cost to
productivity. With chatbots, training is more effective, relevant and
accessible to learners when they need to apply that learning. The bot
identifies gaps in learning and records the effect on performance. It
highlights the real need for training and quantifies the impact it can make.
So, instead of seeing L&D as a necessary burden, employees understand
what a real difference and impact it makes. Training is often regarded as
costly and inefficient: its real value is hard to measure and
underappreciated. By introducing a chatbot into your organization, you can
take L&D out of the shadows and place it at the center stage. The chatbot
delivers a quantifiable return and real impact from your investment in L&D.

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Today’s L&D departments and designers also leverage Augmented Reality

(AR) to train professionals from a diverse range of industries. Augmented
reality technology modules are becoming a part of the L&D sub-modules of
the HRIS. This technology is used to create an environment required for
training professionals, helping them train more often. It also helps save
travel costs and reduces the need for special equipment, as augmented
reality can add virtual objects. Augmented Reality (AR) is quickly becoming
an alternative technology for training programs. Thus, it is critical for HRIS
administrators and designers need to step inside the world of Augmented
Reality training, and discover how it can elevate information and let
learners practice skills in realistic settings.

AR Technology enhances traditional learning by superimposing digital

information and the real world, enhancing what we see, and offering
additional information for better comprehension. It gives us an opportunity
to take something that might be obsolete, and bring it to life. As
technology-assisted learning progresses toward point-of-need visual
learning in real time, AR is quickly becoming an intriguing option for
learning experiences. With AR, employees can simply learn through a
diverse range of media and supporting devices. AR training can bring new

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life to already well-established learning methodologies, making them much

more engaging. For example, the facilitator of an Instructor-led Training
course may ask learners to move around the classroom and gather
information by scanning AR symbols with their phones.

Learning professionals are faced with a rapid emergence of new multimedia

technologies that can enhance both engagement and effectiveness, and AR
Technology is at the forefront. It is a new breed of immersive technologies
that has come to the top when it comes to learning strategies. The term
“immersive” refers to the ability to place the learner at the center of their
learning experience. Augmented Reality is becoming a key technology in
the future of any learning professional. A key reason is that no other
technology allows learners to simulate real work environments and
scenarios right where learners work.

The process of articulating and designing a module of L&D with AR needs

the understanding of the following elements:

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From the HRIS perspective and L&D module development, the key to
injecting effectiveness is the ability to equip personnel with the knowledge
and skills to perform well at their jobs through adding plug-ins in the
existing LMS. E-learning and other media (e.g., video, interactive modules,
etc.) are great at this, but e-learning is often secluded and buried in an
organization’s learning management system (LMS). In cases where
workers need to refresh their memories with some specific content, they
would need to access e-learning through a desktop or hope that their
organization has seamlessly enabled their LMS and e-learning courses for
mobile device use. This capability is seldom seen throughout L&D. AR
allows the learners to see the real world, with virtual objects superimposed
upon or composited with the real world. With AR, the learners are
interacting with on-screen digital objects, which are positioned over a live
camera display of the physical world. The beauty of AR is that it can be
experienced on any mobile device without an HMD. As a learning
professional, the possibilities of enhancing the learners’ experiences are
endless with AR. Now that we have become aware of the basics of AR, here
are a few cases in which L&D professionals can design and use it for L&D:

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New Hire Orientation: The case for AR in new hire orientation programs
is strong. It is now possible to automate the whole orientation experience
for new talent with a personalized touch. This can be achieved with AR
infused images that are distributed throughout the organization as the new
talent would explore and learn about departments by simply viewing
related content on their smart devices.

Equipment/Machinery Training: AR can serve as a training tool for

equipment or machine operators. Its ability to overlay digital information
over physical spaces makes it ideal for this purpose. Beginner users can
stand physically experiencing an equipment simulation while virtually
interacting with the equipment.

Performance support: With the adoption of AR in many industries and

organizations, the employees no longer need job cards of physical nature.
AR functions can be placed on equipment for this function to enable
workers with immediate guidance on the task through their mobile devices.
This results in extensive improvement in performance.

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The Process of Selecting the AR Software Application: AR is vital as

organizations want their learners to have access to relevant content
anywhere they are, not just in the classroom or at their desk. The AR
applications will allow the L&D professionals to use an image of a physical
object and overlay information about that object for users to interact with
on their smartphones. The AR software must be friendly and web-based.
This means it is not necessary to install anything on the computer to create
AR experiences. This will also help to overcome some organizational
barriers like IT security. AR authoring tools also include web analytics to
measure user engagement with the AR content. The best AR apps can be
found with a simple Google search. Let us now discuss about the
components of AR authoring. A well-crafted AR solution will have images,
videos, animations, text and sound. When offering AR for equipment
tutorials, designers may want to avoid audio instructions as they may get
masked by environmental noise. Interactivity can also be wisely used in AR
solutions as in the case of providing a series of questions a user must click
to troubleshoot a problem. Another setting in which to avoid audio
materials would be in class settings such as ILT unless only a few devices
are allowed and used in group settings. Once the learning content is
uploaded, a good AR app should give you options on how to present the
content and the level of interaction required.

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Most AR apps will be able to link to or host multimedia elements. Since

these apps are web-based, all your image, document and video files would
be stored in the vendor’s cloud. This is the best approach as all links to
media are automatically configured by the software. For example, two
leading AR apps in the market now allow designers to upload multiple
images and arrange them like a slideshow.

7.6 Activities

1. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on most recent

developments on the topics trained through the diverse channels of the
Social Media.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information on how the L&D chatbots

deliver instant access to expert knowledge.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
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——————————————————————————————————————

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7.7 Summary

In this chapter, we have seen that in today’s competitive environment, it is

essential to foster a culture of learning and development by infusing
various elements of knowledge gain. These may include classroom-based
training, e-learning and on-the-job training to create an engaged
workforce.

Employee’s training and development is the crucial tool which enhances

productivity of an organization. The traditional methods of training and
development are time-consuming and hence ineffective, since jobs have
become more sophisticated and influenced by technological changes.

For any organization to grow in an organic manner, there is a vital need for
developing its human capital. It is one thing to possess knowledge but yet
another thing to put it to effective use. It is essential to help develop skills
and also update the knowledge.

E-learning industry can be said to be broadly comprising of four

components: content, management system, delivery/distribution system
and the consumers/customers. An efficient collaboration of all the three –
content, management system, delivery/distribution system – leads to a
satisfying and successful e-learning experience for a consumer. The power
of online training and knowledge management is magnified when they are
used in combination. E-learning programs have also influenced the field of
management development. This is the critical element L&D which is a long-
term educational process utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by
which managerial personnel learn conceptual and theoretical knowledge.

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application or web-

based technology used to plan, implement and assess a specific learning
process. It is used for e-learning practices and, in its most common form,
consists of two elements: a server that performs the base functionality and
a user interface that is operated by instructors, students and
administrators. LMSs can be used for extended enterprise training
purposes which include customer, partner and training of vendors as well.
Customer training is becoming common in Manufacturing and Information
Technology Organizations where users need to be taught how a system
works before they can use the new product. Providing ongoing customer
training will also help improve customer experience and increase brand

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loyalty. Some common features found in a successful LMS include user-

friendly interface, reports and analytics, support services, certification and
compliance support.

With the swift changes in technology and overall thinking, the L&D modules
must stay ahead of the latest changes, techniques and models of Training.
Among the many opportunities social media offers to businesses, it
presents effective tools to train employees both at the beginning of their
employment, and at a later stage, to further and update their skills. A
growing trend in this field of HRIS is the inclusion of Social Media
Technology to enhance and spread the awareness and benefits of training.

Social Media is now being preferred as a medium of effective learning as it

provides tools that allow training to take place across geographical limits.
Hence, this expands the possibilities of learning like never before. Social
media platforms like Skype have the power to bring together people
located at different places in a common, single and virtual space.

In the L&D domain, web seminars have become quite popular, and in this
context, many webinar tools are proving very useful. These social learning
tools can be used to develop powerful online seminars to provide either
pre-recorded or live lectures to large online audiences. Organizations can
choose between having either videoconferencing or audioconferencing.

The possibilities offered by social media for training, thus, are abundant.
Whether the training program needs visual illustrations, videos, articles,
presentations, or Q&As, social media offers the opportunity to have either
one, some, or all at no or very little cost. Hence, the combination of social
media tools that will need to be used for training will depend on the
organizational needs.

Competency management tools enable both the employer and the

employee to track progress. Recently, the larger LMS providers have
expanded into talent management, including career development and
succession planning, performance appraisals, recruitment, compensation
management and workforce planning. These are used as planning tools
related to training and learning, and do not typically provide the day-to-
day transaction processing of Human Resource (HR) systems.

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Learning and Development is fundamentally an integrated activity, and for

HRIS developers to achieve this functionality, they have to combine it with
modern technology. This infusion will enable the employees to access
dynamic, rich knowledge from experts and colleagues by providing a forum
to change ideas and best practices. Learning management tools enable
both the employer and the employee to track progress.

Another technological solution to encourage collaboration and social

learning in the organization is the infusion of Artificial Intelligence also
known as AI. With AI, the HRIS Managers and L&D Professionals can
gather insights from the vast amounts of employee data coming in,
augmented by deep analysis and thereby facilitating the creation of
customized learning initiatives. Learning insights also help develop a wider
understanding of learner behavior, leading to predictive capacities.

Access to information and learning content via a chatbot leaves employees

in control of their learning. Training becomes more effective because
learners invest in it, and identify and take ownership of their own training
needs. The focus is L&D on learner-centered design, rather than the
traditional top-down flow of information in the instructor-led model. L&D
needs not so much to control as to facilitate learning.

AR Technology enhances traditional learning by superimposing digital

information and the real world, enhancing what we see, and offering
additional information for better comprehension. It gives us an opportunity
to take something that might be obsolete, and bring it to life. As
technology-assisted learning progresses toward point-of-need visual
learning in real time, AR is quickly becoming an intriguing option for
learning experiences. With AR, employees can simply learn through a
diverse range of media and supporting devices.

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7.8 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief how the Learning Management System should

seamlessly connect with the training of employees?
2. E-learning industry can be said to be broadly comprising of four
components, write a short note enlisting them.
3. Explain in brief some of the key benefits of Learning Management
Systems.
4. Explain the statement “A Learning Management System can be thought
of as a large repository”.
5. Describe why Social Media is now being preferred as a medium of
effective learning?
6. Describe in short how AI helps the HRIS Managers and L&D
Professionals to gather insights from the vast amounts of employee
data?

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Objective Type

1. A Learning Management System can be thought of what sort of concept

that allows learners to store and track information in one place?
(a) A Learning Management System can be thought of as a large
innovation
(b) A Learning Management System can be thought of as a large
investment
(c) A Learning Management System can be thought of as a large
repository
(d) None of them

2. From the context of LMS features, which feature is essential to systems

used for online compliance training and certifications?
(a) Content interoperability and integration
(b) Certification and compliance support
(c) Reports and analytics
(d) Support services

3. Which Social Media platform place an emphasis on learning goes hand-

in-hand with the company’s primary role today as a place where many
people go to create and maintain their professional profiles publicly?
(a) LinkedIn
(b) Facebook
(c) Instagram
(d) Twitter

4. From the perspective of enhancing learning through AI, the employees

can use the chatbot as a personal tutor and __________.
(a) None of them
(b) Competitive peer
(c) Learning buddy
(d) Strict teacher

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5. The concept of Virtual Reality Technology enhances traditional learning

by superimposing digital information and the real world.
(a) True
(b) False

6. Which of the below provided term refers to the ability to place the
learner at the center of their learning experience?
(a) The term engaging
(b) The term integrative
(c) The term immersive
(d) The term innovative

Ans.: 1. (c), 2. (b), 3. (a), 4. (c), 5. (b), 6. (c).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

Video Lecture - Part 3

Video Lecture - Part 4

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Chapter 8
Contemporary and Emerging Trends in
HRIS
Objectives

After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Develop clarity about the critical evolution happening in the HRIS

• Describe the advent of new technologies and their effects
• Create awareness of how HRIS professional cope with latest
developments
• Understand the upcoming challenges to the HRIS

Structure:
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Developments in Workforce Management Technologies
8.3 Increasing Application of Open Source Software
8.4 Influence of Social Networking on HRIS
8.5 Application of Cloud Computing Technology
8.6 Upcoming Challenges to HRIS
8.7 Activities
8.8 Summary
8.9 Self Assessment Questions

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8.1 Introduction

Technology is not only a key enabler in creating a superior employee

experience, but also is proving to be a paradigm changer. With the right
amount of readiness, HRIS professionals can leverage these concepts to
provide a culture of innovation. Going digital and embracing automation in
the most efficient manner will certainly enhance the human performance of
an organization. The future thus lies in the hands of thoughtful HRIS
designers, who should envision, plan and implement the necessary
strategy to ensure a secure and better future. This creation of strategy
should be achieved by accepting the fact that our future is about
collaboration between human beings and systems.

As the global industry experiences rapid and volatile changes, there is an

emerging need to develop the right HRIS solutions to support the growing
demands of specialized skills of the employees of the future. Thus,
Workforce Management, Digital HR, AI, Social Media and other
technologies are now enabling greater collaboration and new developments
across diverse organizations. The challenges facing each business vary, but
to a great extent, the ability to meet those challenges comes down to their
preparedness for the future. The HRIS professionals have a tremendous
opportunity to have a significant impact on the future. The HRIS
professionals need to steer the HRM processes of the organization and
currently face a lot of challenges due to the dynamic, complex and
constantly changing environment. As the technology changes with new
global developments emerging all the time, it becomes increasingly critical
and more difficult to create and maintain robust HRIS systems.

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As we are aware of the expectations of the customer are constantly rising

and shifting in all segments of the industry, markets have become
extremely volatile with competition from around the globe moving quickly
to exploit opportunities. Innovations appear at an accelerating pace. The
HRM professionals will have to enable the changing workforce to succeed in
a dynamic business environment, and meet the employees’ evolving
expectations. The current HR practices range from the creation of yearly
performance reviews to selection of new hires to linear career paths. We
need to realize that many practices are reaching a point of obsolescence.
They were articulated when the global industrial scenario was more stable,
predictable, and oriented largely toward manual practices.

That will mean adopting a more individualized approach to employees. This

will also result in delivering the right experience to different employee
segments as well as leveraging social technology for increased
collaboration. Many of these transformations would need to happen outside
the traditional practices and methods. HRIS will need to evolve from a
stand-alone function to one that spans disciplines and boundaries to deliver
cross-functional, holistic employee experiences. They will need to adopt
risk management strategies covering everything from confidential data to
the turnover of talent. HRIS should envision organic expansion to enhance
its reach to deliver seamless employee experiences. A well-articulated
HRIS will play a critical role in enabling organizations to adapt to changing
business conditions and thus will create the required agility.

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8.2 Developments in Workforce Management Technologies

Workforce management (WFM) is the process of strategically optimizing

the productivity of employees to ensure that all resources are in the right
place at the right time. The HRIS Designers need to design the appropriate
workforce management strategies to make the organizational processes
more streamlined. This typically includes scheduling, forecasting, skills
management, time keeping and attendance, intra-day management and
employee empowerment. Complexity increases with the need to ensure
that customer service supports omnichannel customer engagement.
Workforce management makes certain that employees with necessary skills
are available to meet job requirements, whenever needed. The concept of
workforce management is similar to workforce optimization and workforce
planning.

Thus, in simple words, ‘Workforce Management’ is a set of tools that

organizations use to increase overall efficiency and productivity among
employees. Efficient workforce management software matches the right
employee to the right job, and allows management to effectively oversee
employee operations. Since workforce management covers a wide range of
HR sectors, it makes sense to consider comprehensive technology that
offers a spectrum of solutions. Today, many organizations have turned to
advanced technology to aid in these processes. Within the scope of
workforce management are several aspects of human resources, such as
payroll; benefits administration; time, attendance, and scheduling; talent
and performance management; and career development. As you must
have noticed, these are critical modules of HRIS which we have covered in
our previous chapters in this book. Managing the workforce effectively is
vital to an organization’s success. HRIS designers need to incorporate such
systems that keep the employees engaged with the propagation of robust
technology. These systems ensure that work becomes easier for the
employees. A happy workforce is contagious in a good way. The best part
of a transition to a happy workforce is that the customers will notice the
difference as well. Thus, this technology facilitates the management of the
workforce with technology infusion like the use of AI and cloud-based
platforms. This ensures that HRIS modules are easy to use and engaging
for the designers and employees, even when employees are based in
various locations.

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Thus, Workforce Management Technology solutions help simplify everyday

HR tasks and responsibilities. This ensures that the employees can focus on
the most important aspects of their roles within the organization. The
software is flexible and designed to accommodate the organization’s needs,
whether that is handling complex payroll and tax codes or generating
detailed reports for powerful insight into the workforce, and whatever else
you might have in mind. In this below provided image, we can observe the
planning cycle for the workforce:

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Thus, as seen from the above cycle, Workforce Management Technology is

used to plan, create, manage, analyze and maintain employee schedules in
a robust manner. The process starts by defining the organization business
variables. To ensure to be effective, the managers using the systems add
the employees’ tasks to be scheduled for each team. They then identify the
drivers which determine the levels of work necessary to complete each
task. The system takes this information and generates a forecast providing
the best possible schedule while balancing such weighted variables as
staffing needs, employee skill levels, payroll requirements, employee
availabilities and workplace rules.

Thus, today’s workforce management solutions often are ‘mobile ready’

enabling managers and employees to access the solution from a
smartphone or tablet. The solutions generate a tremendous amount of
employee satisfaction and morale. Thus, there are several reasons why
these solutions might improve satisfaction. One of the most critical is the
improved ease of use as well as improved accuracy of the diverse sub-
modules of HRIS. Below provided are the seven steps of Workforce
Planning from the context of Workforce Management Solutions.

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Managers can use work rule templates to maintain employee requirements.

They can assign a work rule template to employees when making them
available for scheduling. They can set work rules and contract rules that
can be adapted to meet the required policies and procedures.

Below provided are some of the screenshots of Workforce Management

Solutions:

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Some of the organizational tasks that are streamlined through Workforce

Management Solutions are provided below to add value to our discussion.
Some of the tasks are as follows:

1. Response Rate tasks are also driven by a business activity attached to a

volume indicator, which must be performed no later than a specified
time after the volume is measured. Cleanup or Re-shelving are sample
response rate tasks.

2. Flowed tasks are driven by a business activity attached to a volume

indicator, which must be performed at a specific time in response to the
volume. In most cases, that time is the same time at which the volume
is measured.

3. Queued tasks are very similar to response rate tasks, except they must
also guarantee that a certain percentage, called the service level, of the
volume is handled at a specific time.

4. Filler tasks generally define work that does not depend on when the
business activity occurs. There are different typically performed at a
defined time of day during off-peak times. Administrative Work is a
sample fixed filler task.

5. Mandatory tasks require a fixed amount of time applied to schedule

coverage requirements and do not depend on any business activity.
Security is a sample mandatory task.

Before we end this discussion about Workforce Management Solutions, let

us understand the major developers of these applications.

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8.3 Increasing application of Open Source Software

Open Source HR software is software that is usually free to attain, but

requires the HRIS designers to have coding knowledge. There are a
number of different open source HR software options available today. Open
source software is different to use than closed source software and has
some advantages and disadvantages, but may benefit the organization if it
fits their needs and capabilities. Open source software is free to attain and
use, which may help to improve processes without putting strain on the
organizational budget. If it is needed, support may be available at a cost,
though it will be much less expensive than what an organization would pay
for a full HRIS solution. Certain functionalities such as reports may not
come standard with an open source HR software option, but these too may
be available at an additional cost.

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With the rise of Open Source Software, it has become very simple and
effective to automate the time-consuming HRM activities with the HRIS
Software application and spend more time working with the organizational
goals. Employee recruitment, Time management, Employee on-boarding,
Payroll, Timesheets and other administrative tasks have become easier
than earlier with Open Source Human Resource Management Software.
HRIS professionals have the functionality to customize applications
according to their specific HR workflow needs. Thus, with these
applications, it is possible to automate and get rid of paperworks, capture,
store, secure and access information in a more efficient manner. Using this
HRIS Software, it is possible to complete the processes in simple steps and
channelize efforts to more strategic routes. Open HRMS automates the HR
management tasks and improve the productivity of the workforce. With
open source HR software, the major advantage is possessing control over
the coding. This can prove to be a benefit or a drawback, depending on the
expertise of the HRIS department and designers within the organization.
Changes can be made to the coding that will enhance the functionality of
the system and make it work better for the organization. This is never an
option with closed source HR software. The HRIS practitioners also do not
have to worry about a vendor going out of business or discontinuing the
particular product due to decreases in demand.

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With closed source software, practitioners may be forced to suddenly

switch to a new HR software option and quickly scramble to put everything
in place. With open source software, there is no vendor to get in the way
and there is always a patch or upgrade that can be applied to keep the
system running constantly. When open source HRIS software is used, the
practitioners have to comply with the licensing terms for the specific
features that they are using, which requires some degree of understanding
of the legal terminology. Some vendors make it easier to understand and
comply with the licensing terms. With closed source HR software options,
these needs are taken care of by the vendor, which may benefit the
organization if there is no time or know-how to deal with the licensing
issues. Some organizations leverage the power of the diverse communities
that are available to talk about HR software. Open source HR software
communities are usually pretty active, with other users offering tips and
tricks, sharing information about the product, answering questions, and
writing blogs about different situations that have been encountered. It is
advisable for HRIS practitioners to acquire an open source HR software
solution. It will also be expected to become a part of this community and
share equally, which may be encouraging or deterring depending on the
nature of the organization.

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An open source HRMS may be right for an organization if:

• Standard systems do not meet the specific process and/or technology
needs and the practitioners require more than ‘cosmetic’ customization to
do so.
• The organization have an in-house team with software development skills
and experience.
• The organization has a limited budget.
• The freedom to change and control the software fits with the business or
personal principles.

When selecting an open source HRMS, certain best practices apply. Some
of the critical pointers for open source are that:
• Extra features or user support packages often cost extra.
• Open source HRMS often has fewer features and functionality than
proprietary systems.
• Ongoing maintenance and upgrades for open source HRMS often come
from a community of developers rather than a vendor’s in-house team.

The strength and dedication of that community can determine the value of
the HRMS open source solution as a business tool. Under an open source
license, any changes or developments that are carried out are usually
covered by that same license. This implies that they are available to other
system developers. It is worth being aware that the trade-off for open
source flexibility is that the HRIS designers can never really ‘own’ the
system.

With today’s open source HRIS software applications, it is possible to avail

from a range of core HRMS features. These include interview scheduling,
talent acquisition, leave management, expense tracking, payroll
management, feedback processing and performance appraisal tools.

Before we end this discussion about open source HRIS software

applications, let us understand the major developers of these applications.

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8.4 Influence of Social Networking on HRIS

Many HRIS solutions now include social media in their diverse modules
allowing practitioners to track social media referrals automatically and
supplying data for their recruitment, L&D and engagement initiatives. A
study conducted in early 2020 states that 38% of HRIS professionals
across the industry use social media for a wide variety of selection and
recruitment purposes. The designers have started using customized
solutions to enhance interviewing and recruitment practices. HRIS modules
can phenomenally enhance the aspect of employee engagement. The
designers have begun using social media for recognition by giving praise
for an achievement. The Intranet can be used successfully for spreading
the culture of appreciation and people can be invited for ‘spot awards’
through this mechanism. A whopping 65% of HR professionals say their
social media usage is increasing in a steady manner. To provide more
insight on the smooth infusion of Social Media in the recruitment
landscape, let’s understand it through the current statistics. Out of the
most popular social media channels, Twitter is most often used by 42% of
the recruiters, 58% use Facebook and 95% use LinkedIn.

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Social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other easily

recognized names, have changed professionals from content consumers to
content producers. The social media we know:

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Social networking channels help employees remain focused on and aligned

with the organizational objectives. The HRIS designers can share resources
and information easily and effectively. These tools are instrumental in
reducing the corporate hierarchy, empower individual employees at all
levels and provide a direct path to decision makers and executors. Internal
social networking encourages people to connect and communicate with
each other, cross pollinate ideas and develop valuable insights. The ability
to communicate issues, insights and solutions leads to generating new
ideas. The organization can more easily and effectively search for and
consolidate employee skill-sets to match specific project requirements.

Research by the McKinsey Global Institute revealed that while 72% of

organizations are using social media, they are not using it to the fullest
potential, which includes the implementation of an internal social media
network or employee engagement platform. If organizations were to fully
implement the use of social media and an SNS, they could improve
employee productivity by 20% to 25%. Research has shown that
employees who are social are more comfortable communicating with others
and researching customer solutions, and are more likely to collaborate with
those they are unfamiliar with in real life.

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Social Media linked HRIS modules motivate employees to reach out to

peers across the organization and facilitate the posing of questions. It can
be used to start a conversation around a particular topic and also
encourages employees to work together. A critical advantage is that many
employees from diverse locations may never meet in person, but they can
definitely build a relationship that fosters creativity and collaboration.
Another reason for infusing these tools in HRIS applications is to promote
recognition and good performance through announcements on applications.
Employees can congratulate each other, building an environment of team
work and encouraging peer-to-peer feedback. The more engaged your
employees, the more likely they are to stay.

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The use of social media can reduce turnover as well. A recent survey
tracked employee performance alongside social media use and found that
digital connectivity increased employee retention. It has been found that
employees that are researching, communicating and building online
networks are some of the most involved, innovative and progressive-
minded people in the industry. They are engaged in thoughtful
conversations and trending as experts in their industries. The learning
opportunities that can be offered with social media are endless. In fact, we
have had a detailed discussion about the applications of Social Media in the
L&D domain in the previous chapter. New perspectives and a good amount
of information exists on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Smart
organizations are quickly recognizing that social media use has become an
important aspect of doing business. It has become a requirement for
everyone to be social—not just the Millennials that are hired. It is
everyone’s responsibility to find the competitive edge and drive the
business forward.

To add more insights about the use of Social Media in HRIS modules of
employee engagement, we have provided some screenshots.

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The above provided schematic elaborates the critical role of the Social
Media components in the context of the approaches taken for the process
of recruitment. There had been a major shift in the paradigm since the last
decade in this domain of HRM. The use of Social Media channels has been a
big benefit for other domains as well. Few application images are as below:

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8.5 Application of Cloud computing Technology

Cloud computing is the use of computing resources, which includes the

hardware and software elements that are delivered as a service over a
network (typically, the Internet). The name comes from the common use of
a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it
contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services
with a user's data, software and computation.

Cloud Computing can be understood simply as computing that is done in a

remote manner. The users of this technology do not have the computing
environment located physically in their offices. Although this looks
relatively simple, in reality, things are far more complex than this. Thus,
the cloud also means a layer of abstraction to the actual complexity that
exists behind the cloud. Essentially, there are three relevant “flavours” of
cloud computing, each operating at a different level in the technology
ecosystem. First, Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), then Platform as a
service (PaaS) and finally, Software as a service (SaaS) (there are two
additional layers around the network and communications infrastructure,
but they do not really influence the application landscape).

End-users access cloud-based applications through a web browser or a

light-weight desktop or mobile app while the business software and user’s
data are stored on servers at a remote location. The users of this
technology claim that cloud computing allows organizations to avoid
upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their
businesses instead of infrastructure. The users also claim that cloud

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computing allows organizations to get their applications up and running

faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT
to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable
business demand. In the business model using software as a service, users
are provided access to application software and databases. Cloud providers
manage the infrastructure and platforms that run the applications. SaaS is
sometimes referred to as "on-demand software" and is usually priced on a
pay-per-use basis. SaaS providers generally price applications using a
subscription fee.

Today, majority of the information technology framework in organizations

have been virtualized onto a private IaaS model. This change has impacted
organizations from an HRIS technology perspective as it has significantly
reduced the lead time in getting new servers for projects. Now, most HRIS
modules have a portion of IaaS in them, even if it is private. The inclusion
of IaaS helps the HRIS designers to reduce their challenge on the constant
requirements of hardware and computing resources to tackle business
needs and meet workload requirements. Thus, faced with pressures to
move faster and stay within budget, many organizations are turning to
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). The IaaS offers scalable, flexible
solutions to the HRIS designers and practitioners. They can create quick
response to organizational needs by accessing cloud-backed IaaS. On-
demand scalability gives organizations a competitive edge, cuts costs and
streamlines the workflow.

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It has been observed that IaaS slashes hardware costs, maintenance

requirements and operation hours. The best part about this flavor of cloud
computing is that organizations only pay for what they use. IaaS providers
offer secure environments with top-of-the-line controls to protect
confidential data. Regular audits and maintenance keep cloud data centers
within strict regulatory compliance certifications. IaaS implementation
helps in schedule the full, incremental and differential backups, and have
them execute automatically. It allows customizable options that let
practitioners adjust resources as needed and create additional replication
targets.

Some of the prominent IaaS providers today include:

PaaS is the other flavor of cloud computing. It is said to be implemented

when a cloud provider delivers a computing platform where applications
and services can be built on top of, resulting in developers being able to
focus on building robust and simple software solutions instead of worrying
about managing the hardware, operating system and databases. It has
been observed that a number of HRIS related offerings are being delivered
on top of the cloud platforms, where practitioners and designers can access
full-functioning HR systems. This also includes recruitment solutions and
learning management systems along with smaller apps.

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Some of the prominent PaaS providers today include:

Finally, SaaS is the layer in which most people interact with Cloud
Computing. Here, the provider offers their application to employees the
user across a network, usually the Internet, The key advantage of SaaS is
that the HRIS professional do not need to worry about installing and
running the application on own computers or those of IaaS providers. Most
of the time, access is gained to the software via a subscription model. The
impact on HR Technology Strategy is observed most at the SaaS level.
Today, HRIS Practitioners can run the entire HRIS environment “in the
cloud” through the diverse solutions available. Limitless, on-demand access
gives organizations a serious competitive edge. This type of cloud
computing allows designers to ramp up quickly, roll out initiatives and test
new programs in a matter of minutes, instead of weeks.

Some of the prominent SaaS providers today include:

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In summary, we can further simply the three flavous of Cloud Computing

through the following images:

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8.6 Upcoming challenges to HRIS

With the rapid changes happening at a global level, the designers and
practitioners need to address a diverse number of challenges and devise
effective HRIS strategies. As the role of HRIS evolves, the demands of an
organization enabling HRIS systems are increasing. The shift from
procedural HR administration to strategic level organizational engagement
is essential to increasing productivity, and providing business insight and
intelligence. To develop secure and robust systems, these strategies must
be progressive and involve the articulation of future needs. It is, therefore,
critical to develop a roadmap to achieve the desired state of HRIS with
clearly defined KPIs and metrics in order to address the challenges. HRIS
can provide visibility into these metrics and inform decisions for
improvement.

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A strong foundation and plan will provide a platform for strategic

enablement and future-facing activities like planning and predictive
analytics. Being prepared to work through potential roadblocks and
challenges throughout the HRIS implementation is critical in achieving your
desired outcome. One of the most prominent challenges for proper
implementation of HRIS is the human factor. The HRIS designers and
practitioners need to realize that incorrect handling of the software
modules can result in losses and future problems. Another major challenge
can be the transition from an obsolete system to an updated system. This
upgradation needs an open mindset towards change. The reason for this is
because change elicits the element of resistance. Thus, the HRIS designers
and practitioners need to be effective champions of change. The transition
should be perceived as a cultural process that demands partnership with
the HRIS Software provider to make the process participative and effective.
The infusion of the appropriate HRIS application to the HRM may be the
decision with the highest and broadest impact on the organization. The
HRIS installation and further implementation should be completed with
thorough articulation and planning. This will help in reducing mistakes and
prevent future losses. Done effectively, it will reconfigure the work done,
enhance the culture of the employees, and align and improve the corporate
goals. Such an operational and cultural change will go more smoothly only
if the HRIS team becomes the beacons of change. The HRIS designers and
practitioners have to be relentless in communicating the change as an
essential part of the workflow.

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While completing the transition, the focus should be on technological and

cultural changes. It is the responsibility of the HRIS team to create
people and systems that facilitate collaboration between the information
technology personnel and the system specialists provided by the vendor. In
addition, focus must be on training the HR personnel tasked with the input
and monitoring as well as the entire workforce, treating these end-users as
the real customers in this decision.

8.7 Activities

1. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on the best practices of
selecting an open source HRMS.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the three flavors of

Cloud Computing.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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8.8 Summary

In this chapter, we have discussed about the contemporary and emerging

trends in HRIS. Here, we have seen that, as the global industry
experiences rapid and volatile changes, there is an emerging need to
develop the right HRIS solutions to support the growing demands of
specialized skills of the employees of the future. Thus, Workforce
Management, Digital HR, AI, Social Media and other technologies are now
enabling greater collaboration and new developments across diverse
organizations. The HRM professionals will have to enable the changing
workforce to succeed in a dynamic business environment and meet the
employees’ evolving expectations. The current HR practices range from the
creation of yearly performance reviews to selection of new hires to linear
career paths.

We have also seen that Workforce Management (WFM) is the process of

strategically optimizing the productivity of employees to ensure that all
resources are in the right place at the right time. The HRIS Designers need
to design the appropriate workforce management strategies to make the
organizational processes more streamlined. Workforce Management
Technology solutions help simplify everyday HR tasks and responsibilities.
This ensures that the employees can focus on the most important aspects
of their roles within the organization. The software is flexible and designed
to accommodate the organization’s needs, whether that is handling
complex payroll and tax codes or generating detailed reports for powerful
insight into the workforce and whatever else you might have in mind.
Some of the organizational tasks that are streamlined through Workforce
Management Solutions discussed are response rate tasks, flowed tasks,
queued tasks, filler tasks and mandatory tasks.

Open source HR software is software that is usually free to attain, but

requires the HRIS designers to have coding knowledge. Open source
software is free to attain and use, which may help to improve processes
without putting strain on the organizational budget. If it is needed, support
may be available at a cost, though it will be much less expensive than what
an organization would pay for a full HRIS solution. The strength and
dedication of that community can determine the value of the HRMS open
source solution as a business tool. Under an open source license, any
changes or developments that are carried out are usually covered by that

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same license. This implies that they are available to other system
developers.

The Intranet can be used successfully for spreading the culture of

appreciation and people can be invited for ‘spot awards’ through this
mechanism. A whopping 65% of HR professionals say their social media
usage is increasing in a steady manner. To provide more insight on the
smooth infusion of Social Media in the recruitment landscape, let’s
understand it through the current statistics. Out of the most popular social
media channels, Twitter is most often used by 42% of the recruiters, 58%
use Facebook and 95% use LinkedIn. Social networking channels help
employees remain focused on and aligned with the organizational
objectives. The HRIS designers can share resources and information easily
and effectively. These tools are instrumental in reducing the corporate
hierarchy, empower individual employees at all levels and provide a direct
path to decision makers and executors. Social Media linked HRIS modules
motivate employees to reach out to peers across the organization and
facilitate the posing of questions. It can be used to start a conversation
around a particular topic and also encourages employees to work together.

Cloud computing is the use of computing resources, which includes the

hardware and software elements that are delivered as a service over a
network (typically the Internet). This entrusts remote services with a user’s
data, software and computation. The users of this technology do not have
the computing environment located physically in their offices. Although this
looks relatively simple, in reality, things are far more complex than this.
Thus, the cloud also means a layer of abstraction to the actual complexity
that exists behind the cloud. Today, majority of the information technology
framework in organizations have been virtualized onto a private IaaS
model. This change has impacted organizations from an HRIS technology
perspective as it has significantly reduced the lead time in getting new
servers for projects. Today, majority of the information technology
framework in organizations have been virtualized onto a private IaaS
model (Infrastructure as a Service). It has been observed that IaaS slashes
hardware costs, maintenance requirements and operation hours. The best
part about this flavor of cloud computing is that organizations only pay for
what they use. IaaS providers offer secure environments with top-of-the-
line controls to protect confidential data.

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While discussing about the upcoming challenges to HRIS, we have seen

that, with the rapid changes happening at a global level, the designers and
practitioners need to address a diverse number of challenges and devise
effective HRIS strategies. As the role of HRIS evolves, the demands of an
organization enabling HRIS systems are increasing. To develop secure and
robust systems, these strategies must be progressive and involve the
articulation of future needs. It is, therefore, critical to develop a roadmap
to achieve the desired state of HRIS with clearly defined KPIs and metrics
in order to address the challenges. One of the most prominent challenges
for proper implementation of HRIS is the human factor. The HRIS designers
and practitioners need to realize that incorrect handling of the software
modules can result in losses and future problems. Another major challenge
can be the transition from an obsolete system to an updated system. The
HRIS designers and practitioners have to be relentless in communicating
the change as an essential part of the workflow. In addition, focus must be
on training the HR personnel tasked with the input and monitoring as well
as the entire workforce, treating these end-users as the real customers in
this decision.

8.9 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Discuss in brief how a well-articulated HRIS will play a critical role in

enabling organizations to adapt to changing business conditions?

2. Explain how the Workforce Management Technology solutions help

simplify everyday HR tasks?

3. Enlist some of the organizational tasks that are streamlined through

Workforce Management Solutions.

4. Explain the statement “Open source software is different to use than

closed source software”.

5. Describe briefly how the use of social media can reduce turnover as
well?

6. Describe in short the three relevant “flavors” of cloud computing.

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Objective Type

1. The HRIS Systems should envision which kind of expansion to enhance

its reach to deliver seamless employee experiences?
(a) Segmented expansion
(b) Creative expansion
(c) Radical expansion
(d) Organic expansion

2. The best part of a transition to a happy workforce is that the

__________ will notice the difference as well.
(a) Stakeholders
(b) Auditors
(c) Customers
(d) Vendors

3. Which of the below provided tasks are driven by a business activity

attached to a volume indicator?
(a) Response rate tasks
(b) Flowed task
(c) Queued tasks
(d) Mandatory tasks

4. With which kind of software, the practitioners may be forced to suddenly

switch to a new HR software option?
(a) Free applications
(b) Open source software
(c) Closed source software
(d) Platform source software

5. Research by the McKinsey Global Institute revealed that while 72% of

organizations are using social media, they are not using it to the fullest
potential.
(a) True
(b) False

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6. Which of the below provided term is sometimes referred to as “on-

demand software” and is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis?
(a) IaaS
(b) PaaS
(c) SaaS
(d) Either (a) or (b)

Ans.: 1. (d), 2. (c), 3. (b), 4. (c), 5. (a), 6. (c).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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 ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DEVELOPING ROBUSTNESS IN HR

Chapter 9
Role of Artificial Intelligence in Developing
Robustness in HR

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the essentials of Artificial Intelligence
• Describe the application of AI to HRIS
• Elaborate how the AI concept will affect future systems of HRIS
• Understand the implications of the AI concept to the HRIS

Structure:
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Developments in AI Technologies
9.3 Automation Enhancements: Resultants of AI Leaps
9.4 Steps in Overcoming Challenges to Achieve Automation Success
9.5 Activities
9.6 Summary
9.7 Self Assessment Questions

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9.1 Introduction

As we know, the HRIS systems support the HRM in making the

organizational activities quicker, simpler, and more robust. Automation is
making most processes more effective than before. The concept of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) is playing a vital role in this context. New developments in
this field are bringing unforeseen benefits for the organization. All these
benefits of AI can be achieved perfectly if the developers are able to
recognize the real-world needs to the organization. Thus, AI procedures
that are customized for an organization can work accurately and more
effectively. There are, however, several challenges that are faced by most
industries while implementing and adopting the AI-supported HRIS.

Artificial Intelligence has wide-reaching implications in many modules and

functionalities of the HRIS. We have already discussed in a detailed
manner, the applications of AI in the L&D modules. The growing use of AI
Chatbots is an interesting area of discussion. These bots will become pretty
common as this technology becomes more widespread in the near future.
Thus, the application will surge, and many traditional HRIS functions have
and will be replaced by AI bots.

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The growth of AI is also due to the rising global connect since many
organizations are working in a global network. Hence, to become
successful, AI has to also create a congruence between culture of both the
country and the diverse locations of the organization across the globe.
These aspects thus play an important role as influencing factor in adopting
AI-supported HRIS. One thing we need to be aware of is that Artificial
intelligence (AI) has present since many decades. The development has
been more rapid in the last few years. Thus, its presence is bigger today
than ever before. The current developments in AI are so quick that we do
not even realize when a new AI-powered system, tool, or product appears
and becomes operational. It would be safe to say that AI is affecting
human life on all kinds of levels varying from:

The advantages of AI and automation for HRM practices are becoming

visible in today’s changing times. The AI infusion in order to be sustainable
should be necessarily viewed by HRIS practitioners in a phased manner.
The HRIS practitioners can see the most apparent results in the form of the
automation that is happening due to the AI functionality. The other
element of advantage lies in the aspect of augmentation, and finally, the
long-term advantage is in the amplification of HRIS implementation. In this
chapter, we will understand diverse areas that are or will be affected by the
infusion of Artificial Intelligence.

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9.2 Developments in AI Technologies

As mentioned earlier, organizations are already increasingly using AI

chatbots and other applications in HRIS practices such as in recruitment.
The use of artificial intelligence in organizations could help us to create a
more seamless, more flexible, and more user-driven employee experience.
Artificial intelligence is present in virtually every major industry from
healthcare to advertising, transportation, finance, legal, education, and
now also inside our workplaces. Thus, AI plays a big role today in
transforming HRM and the supporting HRIS. Many lacunae in human
cognitive abilities are filtered through the application of AI. These include
increasing efficiency in candidate assessment, improving workplace
learning, improving relationships with employees, improving compliance,
reducing human bias and increasing adoption of metrics. Artificial
Intelligence through Chatbots can also be used in effective recruitment.
This technology is used to increase candidate engagement, automated
sourcing and algorithms that show jobs to targeted audiences. The bots
and other tools are indeed a significant sign of progress towards a world of
AI in recruitment. In the recruitment and selection domain, artificial
intelligence can learn many of the tasks recruiters already do on a regular
basis.A lot of the automated and repetitive tasks that recruiters perform
might be reduced.

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While that may still be too far ahead into the future of AI for the recruiting
world, it is possible technology will replace people in certain tasks in the
next few years. In the future, the application of AI technologies will allow
the HR professionals to focus on more strategic elements like networking
with people and analyzing their perspective. AI technologies look so
promising because they allow recruiters to complete unified profiles from
massive unstructured data sets, matching skill sets required for a certain
position with the candidates’ job profiles. In reducing the manual
functionalities, the AI bots would be able to process information faster and
more accurately than their human counterparts. The HRIS professionals
and recruiters would thus enhance the ability to connect with others and
plan in a strategic manner. Simple tasks like scheduling interviews or
screening resumes can be transitioned to the AI bot technology. This will
open the way for organizations to focus more on the core capabilities. AI
will also influence critical organizational domains which may include
proactive sourcing, employer branding, recruitment marketing and
leadership development. The AI technology would permit organizations to
make complicated and time-consuming processes much simpler and faster.
This will enable the streamlining of critical information and will result in the
enhancement of information and reduction of organizational expenses.
Modern recruitment software has many benefits besides automating
administrative workload. In the near future, the market will be flooded with
AI technology that will help how the recruitment professionals analyzes
prospects. Artificial Intelligence allows diverse organizations to target
certain segments with higher recruiting needs.

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A few critical areas of Recruitment where AI can be used extensively are as

follows:

1. Initial screening of candidates: The AI bots can be used by the

recruitment professionals to do the initial screening of the candidates.
These tools can be used to pose questions to the candidates and the
answers are analyzed by the HR professionals to understand the various
attributes of the candidates.

2. Engagement of candidates: Most of the candidates who apply for the

job rarely get the intermediate communication from the employer. The
AI tool helps in sending the customized information and message to the
individual candidate.

3. Orientation of new employees: For the new employees, the process

of orientation is critical. This program is helpful in making them familiar
with the processes and the culture of the organization. It also helps in
making the employees familiar with the policies of the organization. This
process is pretty time-consuming and redundant for the existing
employees who provide this information. With the help of AI, this

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process can be automated and can enhance the process of conducting

the orientation of employees.

4. Robust facilitation of learning and development: As we know

training is imparted to new employees to enhance their performance,
each employee need distinct training to improve specific skills which
needs to be updated. AI bots help in providing specific training and
development to individual employee to improve their performance and
help in career growth and development.

5. Enhancing employee relations: AI bots help in providing specific

answers to most frequently asked questions. AI helps in providing the
answers of the simple and routine questions as a lot of new employees
have many doubts ranging from simple questions to the complex ones.

The application of Artificial Intelligence Technology in Recruitment has

several benefits for the organization. As AI helps in the qualitative hiring,
the role of the third party in recruitment is reduced, thus helping in saving
the costs. This process also reduces the load on the internal recruiters. AI
technology also proves instrumental in the process of enhancing the quality
of hiring. The AI technology can be used to run algorithms that create a
huge pool of candidate information. This is provided to the recruiters along
with unbiased screening and selection, thus improving the quality of hires.
It saves time by using AI tools in doing repetitive task. Recruiters have to
spend enough time to screen the resumes of the candidates. The process
of screening is a repetitive job. AI helps in saving the time of the
recruiters. The intent of the AI technology is to learn more about
candidates by developing their learning and critical thinking skills. It can be
said that AI is definitely going to be the next big thing in recruitment and it
is all set to redefine the overall process of recruitment in the coming
future.

The AI technology helps the employees get the updated information and
they get the answers for their queries. This satisfies the employees and
result in employee engagement. It helps in reducing turnover as engaged
employees continue to work in the organization.

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Another application of AI technology is in the process of Talent Mapping. In

this context, the AI technology helps in understanding the requirement and
the competency of the candidates. This helps the recruiters to plan their
career and place them on a right job. The AI technology also ensures that
there is no bias in recruitment. This is realized as the AI bots are involved
in the process and not the humans are involved in the hiring. Thus, there is
no chance of any bias in the screening or selection process. Industry
experts also convey that, by implementing Artificial Intelligence, recruiters

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and hiring managers can gauge problem-solving skills and teamwork

capabilities in real time.

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Below provided are some screenshots of AI applications being used for

recruitment.

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Another prominent area of HRM that is enhanced by Artificial intelligence is

that of Procurement Management. AI technology allows organizations to
solve complex procurement problems more efficiently or effectively using
smart computer algorithms. AI can be embedded into a number of
software applications from spend analysis to contract management and
strategic sourcing. Artificial intelligence has only recently found concrete
applications within Procurement functions.

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The AI technology is observed to enhance and automate many redundant

and time-consuming tasks or giving Procurement experts additional
insights based on extremely complex and large sets of data. Thus, AI has
the potential to rapidly change work practices across even large
organizations.

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 ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DEVELOPING ROBUSTNESS IN HR

From the context of the procurement domain, any software solution that
includes smart algorithms and self-learning is to be considered as AI.

Below provided are some screenshots of AI applications being used for

procurement.

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9.3 Automation enhancements: resultants of AI leaps

Leaps in the Artificial intelligence (AI) technology have created possibilities

of gathering insights from unstructured employee feedback in a robust
fashion. In the near future, many organizations would transition towards
such new approaches to make the best use of their critical information.
From the context of infusing clarity about the concept of Artificial
Intelligence, there are certain terms we need to be aware about. They are
as follows:

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• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Any algorithms exhibiting any behavior

considered ‘smart.’
• Machine Learning (ML): Algorithms that detect patterns and use them
for prediction or decision making.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Algorithms which can interpret,
transform and generate human language.

All forms of artificial intelligence involve algorithms – sets of rules

specifying how to solve a specific problem. Algorithms are procedures and
rules which become the foundation of most computer software.

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The work of algorithms in software is not visible to the human eye, but
they can be programmed and re-programmed by experts to solve problems
deemed important within software environments. For the HRIS
practitioners to develop robust and long-term solutions using AI, they need
to identify the connection between feedback and employee satisfaction.
They need to be aware of the fact that the key to understanding what
should be maintained or changed in the HR modules to enhance the levels
of employee engagement. The AI technology can prove helpful in this
domain as currently there are a limited number of tools available to
analyze employee feedback. The HRIS developers and practitioners need to
be aware of and acknowledge that the AI practices are radically faster than
humans. The element of creating a better culture is to induct more
qualified candidates from the recruitment process. This helps managers to
dedicate more time to analyzing HR data and improving strategic planning.

AI-based HRIS modules can process valuable information and provide

contact information to the new employees. New employees could also be
advised by AI engines to check organizational pages containing useful
information, including training modules and business-conduct guidelines.
AI transactions can help to update personal information on behalf of the
employee in a secure manner. A manager could access his or her direct
report’s information via a chatbot and perform HR business transactions
without accessing the core HR application. Chatbots authenticate an
employee and provide only authorized information with which the
employee can access and transact. Conversational AI for HR transactions

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has a strong potential to perform certain transactions routed via an

approval chain process. For example, it can allow a manager to approve
vacation requests via chatbot, or it can provide a list of items in need of
approval by the manager or HR. Managers or HR professionals would not
have to access the core HR system to get KPIs and analytical data. The
conversational AI solution uses a machine learning capability — natural
language processing (NLP) — to know exactly what information the
employee, manager or HR professional is seeking. Note that conversational
AI requires customization; it is not easy to standardize. You can designate
certain words as positive or negative, but the application works best when
it can determine the correct context and the intentions of the user.

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HR performance and succession data provide information on which

employees are engaged and challenged. That gives a new dimension to
strategic workforce planning to reduce employee attrition. It is a helpful
tool to find the right mix of man and machine in the workplace, which skills
and talents are key to maintain balance, and the best-fit candidates for the
internal or external hiring process.

The following are the key building blocks for the AI technology landscape:
• Bots: Automates back-office and enterprise operations via a common
plug-in.
• Automated machine learning: Provides exploratory data analysis,
algorithm selection and diagnostics; most useful for problem solving with
the help of quality data and advanced algorithms.
• Language and natural language processing: Uses a standardized
programming language and tools to solve contextual and narrative
issues.
• Cloud solution: Enables a pre-trained model with storage for
deployment, testing, improvement and quality assurance.
• APIs for AI and business functionality: Supports machine learning,
natural language processing and core business functions; designed to be
consumed by chatbot-agnostic technology and offers a text-based
conversational interface to connect with multiple messengers, e.g.,
Google, Skype, ServiceNow, IBM chatbot, social media messengers, SAP
Jam and custom chatbots.

The below provided image shows a high-level technology landscape for an

HR solution. It shows how to access and maintain HR transactions, via
chatbots, using conversational AI for HRIS modules.

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9.4 Steps in overcoming challenges to achieve automation

success

The rapidly changing new technologies is giving rise to a number of

challenges. This will lead most organizations to make mistakes in the
process of adopting AI. Thus, experts of this technology recommend
exercising proper caution when deploying AI services. Proper insight is
needed to manage AI systems effectively and efficiently. A few challenges
need to be understood and overcome in order to make the application of
the AI technology. A critical challenge is the need to explore reliable
information related to automation of HRIS practices. Real-life data, along
with the quality and volume of information, is extremely important. This
should be free from bias and representative of all possible scenarios. Thus,
it is critical to acquire the right set of information, then get the AI
application to provide the best output.

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The adopters of AI technology need to carefully use the appropriate

approach. The HRIS designers and practitioners need to understand the
variables of identifying data sources. They need to practice discretion in
terms of collating diverse information and filtering it for subsequent AI
processing. Such an approach requires different skills and mindsets, as well
as different methodologies. A big challenge in this context is the lack of
clarity about the creation of insights, which can lead to mistakes. The
adopters of AI technology need to make sure that the AI applications
perform as planned, securely and efficiently. The AI environment is quite
different than other HRIS. Another critical challenge is to eliminate human
cognitive biases. AI applications are capable of processing speed, but they
can go wrong due to biased learning input fed by human operators. An AI
solution can be a catalyst for positive change if it has been used in the
correct way. They should be aware that it is critical to have a proper
training phase to learn, detect and correct patterns, and act accordingly.
Consider unintended consequences. A good AI designer should be able to
suggest a strategy to avoid unintended consequences by inputting as many

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possible scenarios, pre-learning and machine self-learning mechanisms to

avoid unintended issues.

In the below provided schematic, we can observe a few of the topmost

challenges which are and would be encountered in the future from the
context of AI implementation.

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9.5 Activities

1. In this chapter, we have discussed that the application of Artificial

Intelligence Technology in Recruitment has several benefits. Research
on the internet and write a note to discuss the drawbacks of Artificial
Intelligence Technology.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the application of AI

Technology from the context of Procurement Management.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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9.6 Summary

In this chapter, we have seen that new developments in Artificial

Intelligence (AI) are bringing unforeseen benefits for the organization. All
these benefits of AI can be achieved perfectly if the developers are able to
recognize the real-world needs to the organization. Thus, AI procedures
that are customized for an organization can work accurately and more
effectively.

The growth of AI is also due to the rising global connect since many
organizations are working in a global network. Hence, to become
successful, AI has to also create a congruence between culture of both the
country and the diverse locations of the organization across the globe.

The HRIS practitioners can see the most apparent results in the form of the
automation that is happening due to the AI functionality. The other
element of advantage lies in the aspect of augmentation, and finally, the
long-term advantage is in the amplification of HRIS implementation.

The use of artificial intelligence in organizations could help us to create a

more seamless, more flexible, and more user-driven employee experience.
Artificial intelligence is present in virtually every major industry from
healthcare to advertising, transportation, finance, legal, education, and
now also inside our workplaces. Thus, AI plays a big role today in
transforming HRM and the supporting HRIS.

AI technologies look so promising because they allow recruiters to

complete unified profiles from massive unstructured data sets, matching
skill sets required for a certain position with the candidates’ job profiles. In
reducing the manual functionalities, the AI bots would be able to process
information faster and more accurately than their human counterparts.

AI will also influence critical organizational domains which may include

proactive sourcing, employer branding, recruitment marketing and
leadership development. The AI technology would permit organizations to
make complicated and time-consuming processes much simpler and faster.
This will enable the streamlining of critical information, and will result in
the enhancement of information and reduction of organizational expenses.
A few critical areas of Recruitment where AI can be used extensively are
initial screening of candidates, engagement of candidates, orientation of

275
 ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DEVELOPING ROBUSTNESS IN HR

new employees, robust facilitation of learning and development, and

enhancing employee relations.

The application of Artificial Intelligence Technology in Recruitment has

several benefits for the organization. As AI helps in the qualitative hiring,
the role of the third party in recruitment is reduced, thus helping in saving
the costs. This process also reduces the load on the internal recruiters. AI
technology also proves instrumental in the process of enhancing the quality
of hiring.

Another application of AI technology is in the process of Talent Mapping. In

this context, the AI technology helps in understanding the requirement and
the competency of the candidates. This helps the recruiters to plan their
career and place them on a right job. The AI technology also ensures that
there is no bias in recruitment.

Another prominent area of HRM that is enhanced by Artificial intelligence is

that of Procurement Management. AI technology allows organizations to
solve complex procurement problems more efficiently or effectively using
smart computer algorithms.

Leaps in the Artificial intelligence (AI) technology have created possibilities

of gathering insights from unstructured employee feedback in a robust
fashion. In the near future, many organizations would transition towards
such new approaches to make the best use of their critical information.
From the context of infusing clarity about the concept of Artificial
Intelligence, there are certain terms we need to be aware about. They are
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language
Processing (NLP).

AI-based HRIS modules can process valuable information and provide

contact information to the new employees. New employees could also be
advised by AI engines to check organizational pages containing useful
information, including training modules and business-conduct guidelines.

276
 ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DEVELOPING ROBUSTNESS IN HR

The following are the building blocks for the AI technology landscape:
• Bots
• Automated machine learning
• Language and natural language processing
• Cloud solution
• APIs for AI and business functionality

The rapidly changing new technologies are giving rise to a number of

challenges. This will lead most organizations to make mistakes in the
process of adopting AI. Thus, experts of this technology recommend
exercising proper caution when deploying AI services. Proper insight is
needed to manage AI systems effectively and efficiently.

The adopters of AI technology need to carefully use the appropriate

approach. The HRIS designers and practitioners need to understand the
variables of identifying data sources. They need to practice discretion in
terms of collating diverse information and filtering it for subsequent AI
processing. Such an approach requires different skills and mindsets, as well
as different methodologies. A big challenge in this context is the lack of
clarity about the creation of insights, which can lead to mistakes.

Another critical challenge is to eliminate human cognitive biases. AI

applications are capable of processing speed, but they can go wrong due to
biased learning input fed by human operators.

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 ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DEVELOPING ROBUSTNESS IN HR

9.7 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Write a brief note describing the current developments in AI technology.

2. Explain how the AI technology plays a big role today in transforming

HRM and the supporting HRIS.

3. Enlist some of the critical areas of Recruitment where AI can be used

extensively.

4. Explain how the AI technology allows organizations to solve complex

procurement problems more efficiently?

5. Describe briefly why the HRIS developers and practitioners need to be

aware of and acknowledge that the AI practices are radically faster than
humans?

Objective Type

1. The AI infusion in order to be sustainable should be necessarily viewed

by HRIS practitioners in what manner?
(a) Phased manner
(b) Repeated manner
(c) Creative manner
(d) Expansive manner

2. T h e a p p l i c a t i o n o f t h e A r t i f i c i a l I n t e l l i g e n c e t e c h n o l o g y
through__________ can also be used in effective recruitment.
(a) Robots
(b) Vendors
(c) Chatbots
(d) Android

3. As AI helps in the qualitative hiring, the role of which entity in

recruitment is reduced?
(a) Internal recruiters
(b) Both (a) and (c)
(c) HRIS Managers
(d) Third party

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4. The application of the AI technology also ensures that there is a clear

rise in the bias in recruitment.
(a) True
(b) False

5. Which flavor of AI technology involves the algorithms that detect

patterns and use them for prediction and decision making?
(a) AI
(b) NLP
(c) ML
(d) RPA

6. Which of the below provided AI solution term uses a machine-learning

capability?
(a) The intelligent AI solution
(b) The presentation AI solution
(c) The conversational AI solution
(d) None of them

Ans.: 1. (a), 2. (c), 3. (d), 4. (b), 5. (c), 6. (c).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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 CUTTING EDGE TOOLS FOR DIGITALIZATION IN HR

Chapter 10
Cutting Edge Tools for Digitalization in HR

Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the essentials of the Blockchain Technologies in HRIS
• Describe the application of Digital HR Software to HRIS
• Enlist and discuss about the contemporary tools in HRIS
• Understand the methods of creating more robustness in HRIS

Structure:
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Application of Blockchain Technologies in HRIS
10.3 Application of Digital HR Software
10.4 Activities
10.5 Summary
10.6 Self Assessment Questions

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10.1 Introduction

A growing number of industries are becoming aware that, with the rise of
global practices, there is a need to infuse new technologies to get a wide
number of advantages. In the past, the HRIS designers and practitioners
have relied on legacy HR software to complete tasks and/or store
information. With today’s VUCA World, many HR representatives have
transcended to new age solutions that created a shift in the paradigm.
They are now transitioning to systems of engagement from the traditional
systems of record. The shift may make software easier to learn and
navigate while also enabling employees to make use of the systems. When
this happens, many HRIS professionals will likely gain extra time to
complete administrative tasks. It is critical to understand that HRIS has
transformed from being administrative in nature to gaining a more
strategic function in the organization. Technology has completely redefined
the role of human resources worldwide. A recent US survey showed that
77% of HR leaders use data analysis to better understand how to
communicate with employees, while 79% use automated HR solutions to
help them take a more strategic role in their organization.

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Since HR is tasked to ensure that employees succeed and contribute, it can

support the overall strategic plan and objectives of an organization. The
best HR technology tools help manage multiple operations, including
recruiting, payroll and benefits, applicant tracking, learning and
development, talent management, and more. Being able to manage these
areas efficiently translates to many benefits for the organization, such as
bolstering business operations and enhancing the experiences of
employees to make them more committed and engaged. Some
technologies like the development of Blockchain and Digital HR are
specially interesting, and thus will be discussed in detail in this chapter.
While blockchain is widely associated with Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology is set to revolutionize how the HR
and recruitment functions operate within business.

As the workforces across various operations seek access to applications via

mobile devices, companies are considering adopting HR systems.
Delivering this kind of functionality implies that organizations will consider
HR applications with the mobilization process and the interface that
employees are looking for. More on, the trend of creating applications that
streamlines the basic HR functionality continues to evolve. Today, mobile
apps have become essential to every application that a company develops.
Thus, there is a growing need to become aware of the contemporary
mobile-based HRIS applications.

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10.2 Application of Blockchain Technologies in HRIS

Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger technology, meaning multiple

copies of information are stored on multiple independent computers. All
changes to the data are recorded and appended, or chained, to the
previous record. If there is an attempt to add or change information
without consensus, that change will be rejected by the other computers.
The major advantage of using Blockchain is that the supporting algorithm
prevents tampering with information, mitigating interference and data loss.
Any updates to the ledger must be approved by the majority of these
computers via the blockchain consensus protocol. This technology is
relatively new and is associated with cryptocurrency and bitcoin. As it has
evolved, Blockchain now covers almost every industry including insurance,
government, retail, automotive, healthcare, travel, entertainment and
more. Today, Blockchain is being used very effectively in the HRIS domain
from the context of recruitment, supply chain management, financial and
legal transactions, and digital identification. Blockchain technology is
transparent in every transaction. All participants can view the information
and monitor transactions in the group. This feature, plus the algorithm,
makes it extremely difficult and expensive to hack into a Blockchain. If it
did get hacked, the information in the entire block is automatically
corrupted, making it useless. Security is a high priority to every business.
Blockchain is helping organizations to protect their stored information
through a secure network.

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The need for no third parties in the case of Blockchain makes it cheaper
than the conventional methods of transactions where a third party is
always required for a transaction between two parties which is a bit
costlier. Low transaction costs make Blockchain even more acceptable by
governments to include this technology for future transactions. While there
is a long way to go ahead, awareness and fundamental knowledge about
this new technology will serve the best in the present time. As an emerging
technology, Blockchain trends are already moving toward widespread
implementation. All industries, and most organizations, will undergo a
digital transformation if they expect to survive and thrive in the future.
This has prompted industry leaders to ideate a diverse number of ways to
leverage technology to significantly improve their competitive positions.

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Since Blockchain has been relevant for a decade, it has been used as a
solution to many industry issues. The purpose of Blockchain is to track
every step in any transaction through the network. This greatly reduces the
need for physical paperwork, resulting in stronger communication between
parties involved in the transaction. Transactions are instant and verified
automatically, which reduces costs and increases efficiency.

Currently, this technology is critical for the sustained success of the diverse
organizations. The technology is continuously evolving and has influenced
many domains of the HRIS functionality. As discussed earlier in this
chapter, all transactions are recorded in a digital ledger which is being
shared among the participants.

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Global transactions are recorded on these ledgers and the shared database
is shared among thousand devices. Blockchain does not only store
monetary value, but it can be used to store anything be it music, title,
intellectual properties and even votes. All these properties can be secured
through Blockchain. People are opting Blockchain technology because of
robust security that it provides to the users. It is immensely hard to get
information or data loss. The trust in Blockchain technology is not

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established through powerful forces such as government or agencies, but

through the intelligent code and mass collaboration.

Use of Blockchain Technology in HRIS Practices

Procurement: Blockchain provides reliability and integrity in the

procurement functionality. Since all involves parties have the same version
of the ledger, Blockchain application ensures that there can be no
disagreement in the transactional processing. Everyone can see the chain
of ownership for each asset, and records cannot be erased. With blockchain
technology, information at each step of the shipping process is logged in a
secure and public database, which cannot be modified by any of the parties
involved without it becoming immediately apparent to others. This means,
if something goes wrong during the shipping process, the supply chain can
be traced back to the point at which the mistake occurred.

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This enhanced transparency not only adds an extra layer of accountability

to supply chains, but also mitigates the risks of criminal activity, such as
money laundering. As blockchain technology records every single
transaction in its ledger, all payments and financial information are
available in the public domain. This means any suspicious or malicious
transactions are incredibly difficult to hide, and can be flagged and dealt
with before they can damage the business – both in terms of revenue and
reputation. Blockchains allow procurement professionals to have a
distributed peer-to-peer network where non-trusting members can interact
with each other without a trusted intermediary, in a verifiable manner,
protected from deletion, tampering and revision. Thus, procurement
professional have the benefit that every agreement, every process, every
task and every payment would have a digital record and signature. This
record could be identified, validated, stored and shared. Intermediaries like
lawyers, brokers and bankers might no longer be necessary. Individuals,
organizations, machines and algorithms would freely transact and interact
with one another with little friction. This is the immense potential of
blockchain in the procurement domain.

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The benefits from blockchain extend beyond just streamlining payments. It

applies to a lot of other areas and processes that are currently still very
paper-based and that, as payments, are about trust between business
partners in the value/supply chain. Another aspect has to do with the fact
that blockchain is said to be unhackable. The blockchain technology heavily
relies on cryptography and peer-to-peer networks that make it very robust
and resilient.

Recruitment: Blockchain technology is facilitating automated referencing,

feedback and assessment tools in the recruitment domain. This helps
recruiter professionals to collect screening information with a single click.
Blockchain-verified credentials open up possibilities for a whole new level of
automation and trust in the hiring process. In the next few years, it is
believed that organizations will have a host of information stored on a
blockchain, inclusive of academic certificates and work history. It will be
within their control to choose with whom this information is shared with.

In time, digital and verified records will become the norm in every industry.
It is an infrastructure that makes complete sense and addresses one of the
ongoing issues on the internet as it is today, identity verification. There is a
huge opportunity to ‘make better’ what is already in existence today, using
technology that is ready and available. We are working with candidates,
recruiters and employers to put trust back where it belongs – right at the
heart of the hiring process. Recruiters have access to this information on
day one of the hiring journey, before interviewing begins. The use of this
technology results in eliminating the need to repeat certain tasks such as
psychometric tests, references and team fit analysis.

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This technology simplifies the interview process by collating and securely

storing a candidate’s full work history, aptitude and attitude, inclusive of
softer checks such as psychometric tests. Empowering workers is at the
core of the blockchain technology. Employees in the technology sector will
have absolute ownership and control of their work reputation and identity,
and how they choose to share that information. Using their validated digital
work passport, workers can be matched more accurately based on their
complete profile, before an interview has even taken place.

Attendance: The blockchain technology is used to store biometric data,

such as a fingerprint or iris scan, for legal ID and record-keeping.
Organizations could use this technique of storing unique employee data to
track attendance and expenses for wages and claim purposes.

Human resources would have visibility to the real-time data and there
would be no dispute that the records are accurate, strengthening the trust
element in payment authorization and looking into claims made. This would
decrease errors and frustration caused between the HR and Payroll
departments.

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10.3 Application of Digital HR Software

Digital HRIS is defined as a modular human resources software that is

available on Cloud, and is highly scalable and secure. We have already had
a detailed discussion about Cloud Computing Technology in the previous
chapter. The changing conditioning has prompted the use of agile and
customized applications for HRIS departments. Thus, these applications will
be extremely popular in the coming days.

The application of this contemporary type of HRIS has a multitude of

advantages for both – the employees and the employers. One of the most
critical advantages is that this application enables automation through the
creation of more efficiently using the auto-generated runtime reports. The
Digital HRIS makes it possible to procure a simpler and quicker access to
employee information using the centrally managed employee repository.

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THE SIX STAGES OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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Applications in Security Management: Digital HRIS offers several

advanced security features to ensure the robustness in managing the
employee’s information. The security features cover every aspect of
ensuring effectiveness for the HRIS practitioners. This includes encryption
of user data as well as physical security of user data. A critical benefit of
digital HRIS is the aspect of access of information to prevent unauthorized
access and internal security controls in a controlled manner. To make
security more robust, this technology has implemented customized
password policy for maintaining security of user accounts. The application
also implements IP based restrictions to restrict remote login access to the
servers only to specific IPs. This technology ensures that the HRIS modules
and the information contained within them is only accessible using secure
protocols. Implementation of port-based restrictions ensure that only the
required ports are enabled to access these modules. The application has an
antivirus software installed for protection of user information and is
responsible for identifying the threats and vulnerabilities.

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Some of the prominent software application vendors in the domain of

security management are provided below:

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Applications in Recruitment: The Digital HRIS Technology is

instrumental in transforming the recruitment landscape. This technology is
proving useful in enhancing candidate and employee expectations. It
facilitates new ways of working, and provides new tools and modules to
accommodate the constantly changing employment laws. The environment
in which HRIS professionals have to operate is constantly evolving. The
Digital HRIS Technology proves very effective for mid- and large-size
organizations. The reason is that it becomes really difficult to manually
keep track of each employee and their respective status and situation. A
talent management module enabled by digital HRIS helps in tracking and
managing the recruitment, development and performance of employees
and candidates.

The digital HRIS tools for recruitment enable hiring professionals to

specialize information flow through the right sourcing channel. The major
advantage is the reduction in manual sourcing. This technology has AI-
powered writing tools that analyze relevant language patterns to detect
why some job ads are a big hit while others fail. The more text the
technology analyzes, the more accurate its predictions will become. The
digital HRIS tools for recruitment are changing and automating the pre-
selecting procedures for candidates, especially when the number is in
thousands, this can be a time-consuming business. The use of a candidate
pre-selection tool can considerably improve recruitment metrics such as
quality of hire and time to hire. There is a wide variety of such pre-
employment digital HRIS assessment tools available. These diverse tools
focus on niche aspects like on culture fit and personality, technical
specialties and qualifications. The technology gathers candidate data and
uses it to predict the likelihood of an applicant succeeding in the role they
apply for. As such, recruiters and hiring managers can use this information
to support them in their hiring decisions. The digital HRIS has applications
that help the practitioners save time, and are instrumental in the creation
of a dynamic and well-structured on-boarding program. The technology can
take care of everything from the moment a candidate signs their
employment contract to their first day. All the vital documentation is
articulated in an effective manner.

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Some of the prominent software application vendors in the domain of

recruitment management are provided below:

Some images of Digital HRIS tools related to recruitment are provided

below:

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10.4 Activities

1. Research on the Internet and write a note to elaborate more on how the
Blockchain technology is facilitating automated referencing.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

2. Research online to find more information about the applications Digital

HR Software in Security Management.
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————————————

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10.5 Summary

In this chapter, we have seen that a growing number of industries are

becoming aware that with the rise of global practices, there is a need to
infuse new technologies to get a wide number of advantages. In the past,
the HRIS designers and practitioners have relied on legacy HR software to
complete tasks and/or store information.

As the workforces across various operations seek access to applications via

mobile devices, companies are considering adopting HR systems.
Delivering this kind of functionality implies that organizations will consider
HR applications with the mobilization process and the interface that
employees are looking for.

Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger technology, meaning multiple

copies of information are stored on multiple independent computers. All
changes to the data are recorded and appended, or chained, to the
previous record. The major advantage of using Blockchain is that the
supporting algorithm prevents tampering with information, mitigating
interference and data loss. Blockchain is helping organizations protect their
stored information through a secure network.

Since Blockchain has been relevant for a decade, it has been used as a
solution to many industry issues. The purpose of Blockchain is to track
every step in any transaction through the network. This greatly reduces the
need for physical paperwork, resulting in stronger communication between
parties involved in the transaction. The use of Blockchain Technology in
HRIS practices are procurement, recruitment and attendance.

Digital HRIS is defined as a modular human resources software that is

available on Cloud, and is highly scalable and secure. The application of
this contemporary type of HRIS has a multitude of advantages for both –
the employees and the employers. One of the most critical advantages is
that this application enables automation through the creation of more
efficiently using the auto-generated runtime reports. The Digital HRIS
makes it possible to procure a simpler and quicker access to employee
information using the centrally managed employee repository.

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Digital HRIS offers several advanced security features to ensure the

robustness in managing the employee’s information. The security features
cover every aspect of ensuring effectiveness for the HRIS practitioners.
This includes encryption of user data as well as physical security of user
data.

The Digital HRIS Technology is instrumental in transforming the

recruitment landscape. This technology is proving useful in enhancing
candidate and employee expectations. It facilitates new ways of working,
and provides new tools and modules to accommodate the constantly
changing employment laws.

10.6 Self Assessment Questions

Subjective Type

1. Explain how the HRIS professionals will likely gain extra time to
complete administrative tasks if software applications become more
robust?

2. Explain how mobile apps have become essential to every application

that a company develops?

3. Write a short note that explains the major advantage of using

Blockchain Technology.

4. Explain and enlist three key features of the Blockchain Technology.

5. Describe briefly and enlist the six stages of the Digital Transformation.

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Objective Type

1. A recent US survey showed what per cent of HR leaders use data

analysis to better understand how to communicate with employees?
(a) 50%
(b) 67%
(c) 77%
(d) 90%

2. With today’s ____________, many HR representatives have

transcended to new age solutions that created a shift in the paradigm.
(a) AI World
(b) VULCAN World
(c) VUCA World
(d) Android World

3. Blockchain is what kind of technology that is used to create multiple

copies of information that are stored on multiple independent
computers?
(a) Decentralized digital ledger
(b) Centralized digital ledger
(c) Managed digital ledger
(d) Controlled digital ledger

4. Blockchain application ensures that there can be no disagreement in the

transactional processing.
(a) True
(b) False

5. Digital HRIS offers several ___________ security features to ensure the

robustness in managing the employee’s information.
(a) None of them
(b) Artificial
(c) Advanced
(d) Basic

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6. Which type of module enabled by digital HRIS helps in tracking and

managing the recruitment, development and performance of employees
and candidates?
(a) A selection management module
(b) A crisis management module
(c) A talent management module
(d) A security management module

Ans.: 1. (c), 2. (c), 3. (a), 4. (a), 5. (c), 6. (c).

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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter

Summary

PPT

MCQ

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

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References

1. Michael Armstrong, A Handbook of Human Resource Management

Practice, Kogan Page.

2. Michael J. Kavanagh, Human Resource Information Systems: Basics,

Applications and Future Directions, Sage Publication.

3. Monk and Wagner, Concepts in Enterprise Resource Planning, Thomson.

4. Pande Nueman, The Six Sigma Way, McGraw-Hill.

5. Human Resource Information Systems by Sage Publication.

6. Handbook of Human Resource Information Systems by McGraw-Hill.

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