Integrated Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) are sophisticated software programs that replace individual applications that each handle a different aspect of HR responsibilities such as payroll, benefits, and employee databases. An integrated system blends and interfaces these systems. The decision to invest in an integrated HRIS can and will benefit Human Resource operations by consolidating them to one system.
Implications of Integration
The depth and breadth of the installation and utilization affects the entire operating system and culture. The results are more complex than the improved data and reports that it generates. In short, centralized employee data storage is only the beginning - the implications of integrated work processes will significantly exacerbate the impact on your business.
When shopping for an integrated HRIS program, HR management focuses on its desire for improved employee data retention and reporting. However, a prudent HR management team will solicit the input of related departments like payroll, benefits, and employee relations. In doing this, each of these partners will learn something about the others’ needs and goals as well as discover redundancies in methods and share concerns for accuracy and application.
Team make-up
Somewhere in this analysis and assessment process, the team will realize a voice or two is missing from the team discussion. If the HRIS program is to record and report on employee performance metrics, the team must have a full grasp of the business’s operating processes. The team needs members from operations, shipping and handling, purchasing, and more to bring the business procedures to the fore. Before a decision on the purchase of the HRIS program can be reached, employees with analytical abilities and a broader knowledge of company performance should weigh in.
Likewise, the team cannot make a decision without the full awareness and assessment of the company’s IT system and equipment. HR managers are not usually IT-savvy, as much as they need to be. While the HR manager may have initiated the shopping, there has to be a companywide needs analysis. Clearly, the needs of the evaluation and assessment team requires integration as well.
The HR decision maker should not meet with HRIS vendors without some team representation - this is not just another software upgrade or packaged program and it is certainly not a decision to be made solely by HR. The team would be well-advised to meet regularly for some time before the evaluation begins to discern their common and unique criteria as well as a shared script and questionnaire with which they will receive and use to interview the vendors.
The complexity of a specific company’s needs directs its selection process. The HRIS vendor needs to address the company’s past, present, and future. The system under scrutiny must pull the past data into its new operation. It has to confirm the integration’s accessibility and reliability, and it needs the have the scalability to grow with the business.
Ask your vendor to address these issues!
For more detailed information see our article, HR Software Solutions Interfaces versus Integration.