Have you defined your HR Technology Strategy?

Are you aware about the Technology Predictions for HR?

Prediction #1: More investment in Software as a Service (SaaS)

Prediction #2: The rise of HR master data management

Prediction #3: HR will assume a strategic stance

Prediction #4: Social performance management to edge out the annual review

Prediction #5: More focus on engagement

SCMA - Social, Cloud, Mobile, Analytics and other technologies are fundamentally changing the human resource practices as companies strive to become more efficient. The business wants more from HR systems, but “more” has to be delivered at an acceptable cost within an overall business model.

Technology allows HR to automate processes and eliminate many of the more labour-intensive transactional and administrative processes that have burdened HR professionals for years. The transformation of HR service delivery requires a fundamental change in the way HR professionals view their roles.

HR has to evolve into a more technology-based profession because organizations need to:

v  Streamline and automate HR processes, workflows and reduce administrative burdens.

v  Ensure standardization and uniformity

v  Reduce HR administration and compliance costs.

v  Compete more effectively for talent.

v  Improve service and access to data for employees and managers.

v  Provide real-time metrics to allow decision-makers to spot trends and manage the workforce more effectively.

v  Enable HR to transform so it can play a more strategic role in the business.

 

Today, Human resource management is evolving into a more technology-based profession. But is that enough?

Its time HR defines an explicit HR Technology strategy. This will help organizations to determine how to use technology to transform their HR practices and market their HR brand.

Setting an HR technology strategy is futile if the strategy cannot be effectively executed. However, that’s not the case anymore. The software to tie it all together and draw meaningful conclusions is now available. The remaining question - Are we ready to use it?

Look forward to hear your views.

Rhapsody of HR Transformation! …

    If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

           -  Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

 

We are living in what Peter Drucker calls "The Age of Discontinuity"- a time that subjects all of us to wave after wave of fundamental change and forces us to engage in what Charles Handy calls "upside-down thinking." Virtually everything we know and all our assumptions about managerial practice are being called into question, and for good reason.

 

In a hyper connected world today transformations become sine-qua- non to provide competitive differentiator. The evolution and subsequent transformation of the human resource function is closely linked to people's attitudes about work, the evolution of employment-related laws, economical, political and social trends.

 

To understand the Human Resource transformation journey that is taking place across organisations, it is necessary to understand the metamorphosis of this function through history. This also subtly provides a glimpse about the changing nature of workforce.

 

HR Evolution

 

The advent of the Industrial Age moved the notion of work from guilds to steam-driven factories. The introduction of the assembly line brought a need for low-skilled employees capable of performing repetitive tasks. Management philosophy at the turn of the century was epitomized by Henry Ford, who often wondered why workers brought their heads to work when all he really needed was their hands and feet. With the advent of Industrial revolution, Industrial welfare was the first form of human resource management.

 

As time progressed, concerns grew about poor working conditions, low wages, child labour and long work hours and work days. Workers began to band together and form unions to protect their interests and improve living standards. Government stepped in to provide basic rights, protections for workers and created Labour department. Gradually, forward-thinking employers recognized that productivity was connected to worker satisfaction and involvement. Soon the personnel profession grew out of concerns about employee absenteeism and attempted to solve worker problems.

 

In the early 1930’s, the emerging field of human relations derived new insights from famous ‘Hawthorne Studies’ that linked improved productivity to management philosophies emphasizing employee feelings, communications, cooperation and involvement. This new thinking about employee cooperation grew from the works of Elton Mayo -- known as the Father of Human Relations.

 

As the decade of 60’s and 70s unfolded, business leaders began to appreciate the production that resulted when managers acted less like taskmasters and more like good leaders, counsellors and facilitators. By 1980’s highly educated group of employees arrived who desired jobs that were challenging and interesting.

 

The Changing Nature of Work

 

The emergence of services industry gave further impetus to knowledge workers. Work became more cognitively complex, dependent on interpersonal skills, technology, employee mobility and conducted with speed. With the dawn of new millennium, the concept of life time employment became elusive and managing employees became very different from what it used to be. Whereas in the past, the measure of a good manager was the bottom line, today’s managers are measured not only by their results, but chiefly by their ability to manage and retain people. 

 

Human Capital Strategy

 

As industries around the world turn their attention to a new era of growth, the importance of an enterprise’s human capital has risen dramatically. Acquiring and retaining new customers; generating new ideas; improving productivity: these challenges place new demands on the workforce and those who lead it.

 

Every company engages in some sort of workforce planning, of course, and has processes in place to source, develop and deploy its people. Yet the economic downturn and the speed of marketplace change have outstripped the ability of traditional talent management programs to meet business needs. Executives must now pursue a more comprehensive and integrated human capital strategy that includes the management of talent as well as the associated leadership, culture and organization components that multiply the value of talent and create an enterprise that is better able to execute business strategy and adapt to a changing marketplace.

 

The Key aspect of Human Capital Strategy is mainly focused on Alignment with business strategy, Resource optimization, Cost Leadership, Corporate governance and Risk Management & Mitigation.

 

 

Redefined Vision & Structure

 

The changing nature of work compelled HR to create new vision and structure. The New HR Vision is to become a strategic business partner and thereby create an environment of excellence and congenial work-culture.

 

To support new business imperatives organisations  incorporated a flexible, responsive, innovative and yet simple organisation design, developed by Professor Dave Ulrich of Michigan University. This new organisation design envisages multiple roles for HR - Strategic Advisors, Change Agents, Employee advocates and Administrator.

 

 

Redefined HR Roles

 

Competitive advantage doesn’t come merely from people, but more importantly from the way organisations manage them.

In many organisations all the four roles exists however several organisations have also combined these roles and segregated them into three areas. Corporate HR team now acts and plays the dual role of strategic advisors and Change Agents.

 

It is also observed that in many organisations Corporate HR team also acts as Centre of excellence or specialists (COE). The COE’s act as specialists and responsible for various activities such as talent management, acquisition, organisational development, performance management, internal communication, employer branding, competency development, employee engagement, compensation strategy & HR Analytics.

Strategic Industrial Relations activities combined with tactical activities such as payroll, employee correspondence, data management, attendance and time office, legal compliances, Insurance, HRMS, and implementation of compensation and benefits processes are handled by HR Operations team or HR Shared Services Team.

 

To support and effectively implement initiatives within various business units, organisations appointed HR Generalist as HR Business partners. Their role is to understand business, work closely with line managers, decipher employee needs and execute specific action plans to facilitate respective business objectives. The HR business partners act as employee champions and strive to increase employee commitment and competence through various engagement including performance management, counselling, training and motivation.

 

HR Best Practices - The Shift from Transactional to Strategic

 

Today’s CEOs and executives maintain that there are three key components to a successful business:

1) You have to have the right strategy,

2) You have to have the operations in place to execute that strategy, and

3) You have to have the best people in the world to execute those operations.

Being responsible for one-third of a business’ success already puts HR in a critical role. But it’s not just about finding the best people—it’s about finding the best people, at the lowest cost, with the lowest possible attrition and the best possible performance.

 

 

Talent Management

 

Talent Management and War for Talent is no longer a buzz word. Its is now part of every HR activity. End-to-end talent management encompasses three main pillars: recruitment, learning and performance management.

 

Talent Acquisition

 

Almost every business discussions today revolve around People. Executing strategy in absence of right people in the right positions is unimaginable. Companies today have realised the importance of workforce planning and budgeting exercise. Although it’s still evolving, it paves way to tackle future demand - supply gap for talent and foster the right workforce optimisation strategies.

 

Organisations have gradually started erasing entry barriers for talent by sourcing talent from different industries. In the long run, this would create domain expertise, talent pipeline, implement best practices, help diversify organisations into newer territories and accelerate growth.

 

Employee referral, tie up with strategic consultants, campus placements and internship opportunities are some of our ongoing initiatives to source talent. Managers are continuously encouraged to spot talent internally and externally and they are also trained through the Smart Hire training programme. Stringent regulations and customer demands have transformed  HR process, introduced background verification and reference checks. Psychometric tests and panel interviews are now mandatory while selecting key candidates.

 

Talent Development

 

Talent development is getting embedded across all organisations regardless of size and will eventually become an ongoing rhythm. HR practioners have designed and developed programmes to motivate and engage key talent with challenging roles, varied assignments, job rotation and job enrichment.

 

Learning and Development function has been established in organisations to design and organise various functional, behavioural, managerial and leadership trainings. Training on health and safety, leadership bonding, workshops on strategy are conducted with greater frequency. The training professionals are now creating bespoke induction, on- boarding, communication and engagement programmes. There is greater emphasis on promoting organisational core values, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit so as to create a congenial environment that binds the entire workforce together.

 

Competency and Performance Management

 

Using technology, organisations have established robust performance measurement systems based on balance scorecards and other strategic measurement tools. From a talent management standpoint, employee evaluations concern two major areas of measurement: performance and potential. Functional and Technical Competencies are getting defined and refined and competency framework are getting incorporated to monitor employee performance and potential in several organisations.

 

Rewards and Recognition

 

Compensation benchmarking studies have helped several organisations to define their compensation philosophy to reward high performers, define increments so as to counter inflation, erase disparity and thereby effectively manage employee costs and benefits. Rewards and Recognition schemes are getting revamped to motivate and retain employees and more importantly to boost productivity.

 

Employee Engagement

 

Often companies apply focus and drive towards capital, information technology, equipment and world class processes, but it is the people who matter the most. Therefore a stronger emphasis is placed on employee engagement and organisation development activities.

 

Several Organisational development initiatives viz; External and Internal employee satisfaction survey are being conducted on regular basis. In addition Open house, Skip level meetings, Leadership meetings, HR Connect are being conducted to capture employee opinions and focus on team building, improvement in employee morale, motivation and wellbeing. Several companies have also embarked on wellness programme through which organisation conducted meditation, doctor on board and health checks programmes for employees.

 

Employee fun activities and other Sports are avidly organised to promote work life balance. Loan schemes, CSR activities, initiatives for ensuring, safe, healthy and secure environment are well appreciated by employees. Such benevolent approach also helps organisations to cultivate strong employee relations and promote good industrial harmony.

 

HR Technology

 

HR policies and processes are generally where the function connects with its internal customer. Many organisations have implemented HRMS and automated their HR process. With the advent of Big Data & Analytics, HR in future has to evolve into a more technology-based profession which will enable HR to globally transform, so as to acutely play strategic role in the business.

 

Conclusion

 

The human resource profession has come a long way since the early days of Henry Ford and other industrial giants who believed they needed little more than able bodies to keep production lines running. The transformation journey has just commenced and it’s a never ending journey.

 

The success of this journey is dependent on each stakeholder within HR and business. In our new age of technology and rapid product innovation, unleashing the minds and creative souls of tomorrow's workforce is the factor most likely to propel businesses and the HR profession into the future.

 

Finally, “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.”-  Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass

HRMS Essential Check List

 

 

Organizations are looking for more ways to increase productivity and profitability and human resources departments are being asked to step up and provide more strategic input than ever before. Additionally, HR must work to increase employee engagement and retain talent. In order to support executives and managers, HR needs to have the right tools in place to improve access to timely, accurate information that helps produce informed business decisions.

Many organizations are turning to an HRMS solution to help face the many challenges, economic pressures, and tactical issues that arise every day. However with multiple HRMS vendors all having advance features and tools, it becomes difficult to evaluate the right software.

Even before you explore meeting any HRMS vendor, check out the following information:

v  How long have they been in business?

v  How many installs do they have?

Typically any good HRMS solution must be integrated and should have these essential elements:

Enterprise Structure:

This module forms the foundation of HRMS application. The hierarchy and positions that make up the organization and the related attributes, as well as the reporting relationships should define the framework of the org structure, business units; cost centers, enable Manpower planning, analysis and requisitions.

It should also feature comprehensive information about various positions as mentioned below:

 

• Company structure


• Org structure


• Cost centers


• Grade structure


• Job Family


• Job codes


• Job Titles/ Designations,


• Job descriptions


• Employee codes


• Position code


• Vacancy Planning


• Contingency planning

 Workforce Planning:

Workforce planning module must take into consideration the movement of workforce within organization resulting from manpower forecasting, head count budgeting, recruitment, transfers, redeployment, deputation/ secondment, promotions, job rotation, retirement etc.

It should include capabilities such as:

• Define HR plans based on project expansion and companies growth strategy based on company wise, location wise, division wise head count addition or deletion etc.


• Budgeting & Re-budgeting – Annual with variance analysis


• Monthly and Annual head count requirements


• Assist downsizing and expansion of head count


• View current supply of employees including their profiles


• Category wise recruitment analysis ( FTE, Temp, function, cost centers, entities, designations, salary grades) requirement analysis


• Automatic link to recruitment module

Position Management:

Position Control system addresses many HR needs of your organization.

• A position should exist in the organization for the incumbent


• The profile of the position should be well defined


• The position should be represented by an unique ID


• Information about the position can be tracked over time


• It provides the means to transfer benefits and salary projections into the organization's financial system during budgeting and also facilitates the user to control the hiring process to board sanctioned positions.


• The navigation screens of the position control system should display the status of each and every position from initial setup, to adding incumbents, to tracking history in a streamlined fashion.


• The unique position ID must facilitate the system to effortless track the planning, budgeting, and incumbent's data associated with each position.


• Safeguards against position over-assignment


• Eliminates the time-consuming task of getting information about vacant positions


• Saves approval time for different HR-related activities615.329.4448

Position Impact
A position's impact is determined by actual expenditure from the beginning of a fiscal year plus amount set aside to cover appointments for the same, for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Why Position Control?

• Easy to budget or to analyze employment levels, regardless of vacancies, part time or shared positions, etc.


• Position Control system is better than traditional Employee-based system.


• Employee-based system is very difficult to budget or to analyze employment levels regardless of vacancies, part time or shared positions, etc.

Position data

• To identify vacancies in the organization,


• To identify whether the position is over or under the budget, and also recognize the category the position falls into.


• Position information also acts as a determinant for vacancy tracking, budgeting, and history tracking.

Position Control System should feature:

 

Multiple position tracking

The system should track incumbents who hold multiple positions in an organization. It manages to hold a separate employee record for each incumbent.

Multiple positions per incumbent

The system should track positions that are available for each incumbent at any point of time

Multitudinous account distributions per position

 The system should allow you to create multiple account distributions per position

Full position requirements

The system should display complete job description with full position requirements at the click of a button

Reports

The system should allow you to generate custom reports by providing various filter drop-down options relevant to position control
Date/Calendar driven

The system should be calendar driven to track incumbent's hire date, joining date, termination date, and vacancy statistics like total amount of time a particular position is vacant, number of times it is vacant, etc

Position Control System Integrates

• The system should display automatic and seamless integration with applicant tracking to show current and historic information of applicant status at any point of time


• Human Resource Department for HR information


• Accounts Department for Budget Development


• Payroll Department for payroll related data


• Finance Department for salary and benefit projections

Recruitment & Selection

The Recruitment module must be closely integrated with the Organization Structure module.

It should include capabilities such as:

• Post vacancies on the internal job-board and with external consultants / media to invite applications.


• Track and record resume, resume data bank


• Track referral programs, job application online, pre-screening tests by user-defined search criteria,


• Communicating with candidates, issuing offer letters to selected candidates,


• Generation of Employee Ids, automating repetitive tasks, reporting on results and much more.


• Create templates for applicant correspondence for acceptance, rejection and status at various stages

 Test Administration

This must be a comprehensive module that enables quick and efficient administration of:

• Psychometric Profiling tests for employees.


• Functional and Aptitude tests for candidates and employees


• Tests at various levels depending on the needs of the organisation.


• Test can be conducted during selection and hiring and also during training programmes


• The Test Results must reflect in related modules

On-boarding & Induction

The best companies know that the first day of work for a new employee should be memorable. Yet, in most cases, new employees still spend much of their first day filling out forms.

On-boarding module must links new joinees to forms, company policies, goals, performance management, talent management guidelines, other dept policies, communities and other employee onboarding resources.

Employee Information System (EIS)

The Employee Information System (EIS) should be a central repository of comprehensive information about an employee from his / her joining to his / her leaving the organization, covering adequate number of data fields with provisions to easily create or modify information.

The EIS must support and take inputs from all the HR modules and dynamically track:

• Employment dates,


• Record basic employee details e.g. personal, contract, contact, membership, pay and bank details , employee benefits


• Job position history


• Previous employment history


• Full employee history e.g. of salary, promotion, contract, location


• Education and academic qualifications


• Employee life cycle movement,


• Career progression,


• Performance records and


• Development programs of the employee.


• EIS must maintain, archive and retrieve employee information of all past Employees.

Time and attendance / Workforce management

Time Management module must provide a central point for collecting, editing, balancing, and managing time and attendance data prior to submitting to HRMS for processing. This module must automatically generate time transactions based on specified criteria. Manage attendance of employees who are out of office for office work by manual entry and manage employee tour details. Integrate with bio-metric system for capturing attendance. It should maintain detailed employee history and reports must reflect current time and attendance information for any point in time.

It must essentially cover the following:

• resource (workforce) planning, forecasting, scheduling


• work breakdown structures


• schedule variations


• flexible time sheet design


• integration with data capture equipment


• capturing time data


• configurable data processing rules


• monitoring and analysis


• working time directive (WTD)

Absence management

• track employee absences


• absence rules, types, categories, details, reasons


• holiday / leave entitlement and amendment


• leave requests, authorisation and tracking


• maternity / adoption / paternity leave and tracking


• sickness recording and monitoring


• other authorized and unauthorized absences


• absence cost calculation

Time Collection

Acquiring time and attendance information must be the first stage in the Time Management process. Wherever possible, time Management module must be develop to accept time and attendance data from access card / and or swipe card system.

Table and Policy Setup

To edit, balance, validate and approve time data requires that the tables in HRMS Time Management module be properly set up to reflect company’s holiday calendars, earning codes and policies, overtime, compensatory days, shift duty,  differential shift policies, work and rotation plans, eligibility and interaction.

Exception Management & Variances

If exceptions to regular work schedules exist, they should be handled through exception data entry. HRMS must generate exception report.

Time Management module must allow the setup of ranges in earnings, locations, and organizations, so that this information can be used to notify users that the maximum numbers of earning hours have been reached.

Project Accounting

• HRMS module must help Projects to track hours and prepare reports.


• These reports can be used for projections and forecasting.

Scheduling (Roster Management)

HRMS Time & Attendance must provide unlimited user-defined schedules that can be assigned to groups or to individual employees. This process would enable companies to effectively manage their workforce.

Scheduling features must allow companies to:

•  Mass assign schedules


•  Define alternating schedules


•  Ensure adequate schedule coverage at all times

Leave Management

§  Facilitates the work flow from Leave applications to final sanctioning or cancellation of leaves.

§  Different leave set up for different grades within the organization.

§  Automatic Leave Balance calculation with carry forward to next year with prior set up of maximum leaves applicable.

§  Generates Leave History report for all employees.

§  Maintains the Leave records under different leave categories.

Leave Requests & Regularization

Employee absenteeism can be very costly to a company if not managed properly. HRMS Time & Attendance must offer unlimited attendance history and online viewing of real-time transactions such as clocking events and leave requests. In today’s legal environment, compliance and reporting are critical to an organization’s success.

HRMS Time & Attendance leave request must feature:

•  Access employees’ leave hours and attendance history


•  Enable employees to view leave balances and request time off


•  View employee leave display by month


•  Regularize leave management

Difference in Leave Policy

There may be differences in policies among various departments and among individual employees within an organization.

• HRMS Time & Attendance must allow user-defined business policies at the company, organization, and/or employee level.


•  Configure policies for date/time, overtime, rounding, and much more based on company, organization, and/or employee.


•  Establish grace periods for each transaction type to trigger notification of schedule violations


•  Determine valid transaction types such as clocking for meals, breaks, and transfers

Policies

HRMS Time & Attendance should ideally eliminate paper timesheets and other error-prone manual processes which increases payroll efficiency and accuracy.

HRMS Time & Attendance time record feature will allow companies to:

• Approve time records daily / weekly/fortnightly or at the end of each payroll cycle

• Display actual and rounded time as well as employees’ scheduled time

• Create user-defined authorization codes with assigned point values for perfect attendance and disciplinary tracking

• Accumulate employee hours by position code/ job number or job class

Roster & Shift Management

• Create multiple shifts per branch per day, configure late arrival and overtime calculations, manage Lunch and Tea breaks timings, system should manage both day and night shifts in 24 hours rotation and provision of Straight / Split Shifts.


• Holidays and Leave Management


• Manage the information of all allowed HOLIDAYS per year, manage Leave Applications, their approval or rejection status and assign allowed leaves and unpaid leaves will be deducted from salary.

Employee Management

Manage all details of each employee per department along with Photo upload feature, assign Shifts so created to employees and Departments, manage Employee Transfer / Resignation and search Engine for all data of Employees.

Master Reports

Company / Branch / Department/ Business Unit/ Shift Master Report, Holiday and Leave Report.

Daily Analytical Reports

• Daily Attendance Report,


• Early Arrival Report,


• Late Arrival Report,


• Early Departure Report,


• Overtime Report and


• Daily Absence Report.

Monthly Analytical Reports

• Monthly Attendance Summary,


• Employee Summary Report,


• Individual Employee Monthly Attendance Report,


• Individual Department Monthly Attendance Report and


• Detail Present Report with total overtime calculations.

Payroll Reports

• Salary Package Report,


• Permanent Employee Monthly Salary Report,


• Monthly Salary Report of employees on Contract, Bonus Details Report, Bonus Summary Report,


• Generation of Late comers and Absenteeism,


• Generation of Salary Slip in prescribed format,


• Overtime Report,


• Payable Summary,


• Annual Leave Dues Per Employee,

Define Elements

 

• Define Time and Attendance Related Elements


• Attendance format as per labour laws


• Format as per payroll report

Define Time Management Tables

• Plan Table Information


• Define Holiday Calendars


• Define an Shift


• Define Shifts for process/BU


• Define Work Plans - rosters


• Define Rotation Plans


• Define Project Accounts


• Define Exceptions and Variances


• Define Earning Groups

Define Time Management Policies

 

• Plan leave and attendance Policy Information


• Define leave deduction policies


• Define Hour Deduction Policies


• Define Shift Differential Policies


• Define Eligibility Policies


• Define Earning Policies


• Define Overtime policies

People and Policy Assignment

Complete entry of the Assignment / Project Time Information. It is necessary to design a form/template to capture this data.

 

Payroll Configuration

Manage Allowances and Deductions, Bank Setup for Each Employee/Company/ Department, Employee Salary Generation and maintain required details of Transaction Year.

Vendor (Contract staff) Management

• HRMS should manage data of Contract staff separately


• The screen should also feature the details of contract signed


• Attendance system should also manage count of workers coming daily on work.

Performance Management

PMS must be on-line and available at a click of button via intranet. PMS must be efficient and archive old records. It should include the following information:

• Goal setting, KRA & Competency Review, Balance Score Card templates


• Performance and Behavioral Rating, Score Calculation, Deviations,


• Training Needs Identification and Potential Evaluation.


• The PMS must generate post-event reports related to Increments, Promotions and Company averages,


• Empowering HR personnel with a spectrum of valuable MIS to make prudent business decisions.


• Organisational & individual goals, plans and scores must be archived to tie compensation and rewards to performance


• Employees can identify and set goals aligned to corporate strategies


• Goal status and modifications required by business requirements so as to review periodically


• Employees must get a chance for self appraisal and to update accomplishments


• Managers must get a chance to track milestones and progress


• Necessary update of self appraisal and review templates/fields

Training & Employee Development

The training and employee development module must be linked with PMS and Talent management module. Skills and Competency development must be an integral part of the Training module, which gets a feed from the PMS. The Training Calendar, Training Budget, Online Resource Builder, and Training Feedback are important aspects of this module.

• Capture Training needs and budgets


• Create training courses across locations, functions and seniority; to build an annual training calendar


• Internal and External programme training calendar


• Induction training calendar


• Track attendance


• Faculty and participant Training feedback


• Calculate cost for training


• Communicate schedule and full course details to employees; and invite nominations from employees, managers or HR


• Assign trainers and venues and generate related correspondence


• Conduct training courses


• Track courses and view response  


• Generate reports to track effectiveness of training programme and budget spends

Employee Self Service (ESS)

 HRMS must provide an Employee interface where each employee has access to all the information that would otherwise have to be sought from HR. It should empower individual and help him align with the overall objectives of the organisation.

There following modules should be considered in the HRMS: 

• Leave Management


• Loan Management


• Payroll


• Benefits Administration


• Talent Management


• Succession Planning


• Travel Management – optional


• Employee surveys


• HR professional portal / knowledgebase


• Grievance and discipline


• Employee identity cards


• Employee correspondence


• Exit interview

Manager Self Service (MSS)

Manager self-service helps in HR devolution to line managers. It essentially empowers business managers to oversee their employees, manage HR work flows and authorization process more efficiently. Any MSS should enable business teams to pull data and perform transactions to make better, smarter decisions for building and developing your workforce for future success.

Manager Self-Service puts the information managers need at their fingertips giving them the ability to more closely monitor and direct their team towards the strategic goals of the organization. Ideally all workflows of HR function must be part of MSS

HR MIS & Analytics

HR analytics plays a vital role in establishing effectiveness and efficiency of HR Practices and helps HR to act as a strategic business partner. HRMS must be able to deliver various MIS required by business.

Some common reports that should feature are as follows:

• Comprehensive set of reports for line managers and HR from each module


• Skill mapping tools


• Attrition


• Joining


• Employee cost


• Training reports


• Creation of customized reports to suit business requirements


• Availability of interactive graphic reports that can be exported to PPT/ Microsoft Excel / Adobe PDF / MSWord/MS Access.


• Full online enquiry and drill down / around capability


• Multiple search and select facilities


• Standard reports that can be tailored to the user requirements, saved and then reused when required


• Reporting across modules


• E-reporting ie reports that can be prepared, reviewed and sent over the internet


• Easy to use, flexible report writer either from within the HR software or provided by third party software

Business intelligence tools e.g.

• advanced analytics


• OLAP


• data warehouse


• data mining

Health and safety records administration

• employee health tests, assessments, records, programmes


• accident and incident recording, reporting and follow up


• risk management

Fleet administration

• vehicle details plus financing, details for taxation purposes


• vehicle usage and costs


• driver details

Talent Management System

In recent years, Talent Management has become critical in organisation. Although the various HR practices and initiatives conducted under the aegis of Talent Management are difficult to capture in the system. However HRMS system must be able to capture employee records and define talent matrix as per business requirement.

HRMS must include the following reports:

·         Competency profiling tool and training systems

·         Job evaluation, competency and skills management

·         Talent Matrix

·         Resource Management, allocation and optimization

·         Career Management

·         360° feedback mechanisms to assess behaviour.  If organisations are ready they must include this feedback mechanism in performance management module.

·         Employee development - Individual development plan ( IDP)

·         Succession planning

·         Link to appraisal / training

Employee Connect

(Helpdesk, Discussion Forum, HR Policies)

 

This module should enable effective employee relationship management and help HR to connect: 

• With the employee individually, or as a team,


• To keep employees in touch with the organization by building a virtual close-knit community.


• To resolve employee queries and grievances

Workplace Communication

(News, Announcements, Events, Documents, Birthday, Anniversary, Chat, Video Message, Blogs, Polls, FAQ, Calendars, Knowledge portals, Surveys, Greetings)

This module should establish encourages employees to visit the HRMS site and use it to create an open, transparent and vibrant organisation. More importantly communication module helps leadership to reach across all employees. 

• By providing a range of activities such as News, Poll, Employee surveys, feedback forms, fun time, café, greetings and announcements.


• This should establish a link with company intranet

 HRMS Workflows: 

• Recruitment workflow- Hiring/ Selection – should be part of recruitment workflow


• Induction - Employee Joining formalities/ On boarding/ announcement


• Employee code generation


• Time, Leave and Attendance


• Probation/ Confirmation Process and appraisal including letters


• Transfer – Intra dept /Inter dept/ Location/ BU wise/ Company wise


• Redeployment/ Secondment/ Resource allocation


• Career Progression


• Lateral Movement (Horizontal)


• Vertical Movement (Promotion)


• Performance Management, capture appraisal forms, ratings, normalisation, increment letters, Performance Improvement Plan templates, letters


• Talent Management


• Training


• Compensation and benefits,


• Payroll


• Salary – Stop/ Release, salary certificates


• Exit – Resignation/ Absconding/ Termination/ F&F


• Re-joining/Re-initiation


• HR Analytics / MIS

  Integration and Interface:

These terms are constantly discussed during any IT software project. Both refer to the interaction of two systems, but there are differences and it’s important that you understand them.

 An interface usually requires work on your part and data changes do not happen in real time. Integration, however, is automatic and requires no work on your end. Either provides the capability to eliminate time consuming, error-prone double entries but because an integration generally means less work, you should select systems that integrate whenever possible.

HR Software Solutions Interface

Almost all business software applications on the market today should be able to create and accept some type of import or export file. This allows you to transfer data to and from numerous independent solutions. Interfaces require extra work and will not be real time, but they are an important means of tying two systems together, eliminating repetitive double entry, and reducing manual entry errors. While an interface may not be the perfect solution, it does sometimes offer the easiest method of eliminating time consuming double entry.

HR Software Solutions Integration

Integration is always the best-case scenario, but it’s rarely offered. An integrated HRMS requires no work and changes happen in real time; the two systems share the same database, so you only have to add or update data once. If you are going to want an integrated HRIS you will probably have to get all of your HR software products from the same company.

 

Global HRMS 

The requirement for global HRMS generally constitutes the following: 

·         Global system should be able to share data seamlessly. This is possible with cloud computing and Saas based HR applications.

·         Multi-lingual - Ensuring that the system enable managers and employees to work in their respective languages.

·         Evaluate if the system can accommodate the Unicode and double-byte character sets that are required for Russian, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. -  The Cyrillic alphabet used in Eastern European languages like Russian, the Chinese characters of Mandarin, the Arabic alphabet and more represent significant challenges for many global HR systems

·         Evaluate if the system meet Safe Harbor laws, data transfer laws and security protocols from region to region.

·         For cloud based solutions evaluate if the data on the system is stored in private or public cloud or on single tenant or multi-tenant systems.

·         Will the vendor provide 24/7 global support to accommodate your locations around the globe.

·         Since many global companies have established system which are country specific, while selecting the HRMS, verify if the system allows to run reports based on your global organization otherwise you will spend time running individual reports and then merging them together manually.

·         HRMS must enable validation tables that translate into different languages to accommodate users in different parts of the world.

·         HRMS must manage currencies and compensation plans from different countries or regions, e.g. expats.

·         Evaluate if the system allows for different benefit plans in different countries and can the attendance and electronic calendars be configured to reflect different work days and holidays.

·          Evaluate if the system can do one global payroll export or must it export payroll country by country with multiple data conduits.

HRMS & IT Security

When selecting an HRMS solution, ensure that the vendor has all the necessary security certifications and adheres to all compliances. Web based system must utilize a secure transmission method such as Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) for encrypting data as it flows over the public Internet.  Ensure you have buy in from your own IT leadership team by integrating them into the evaluation process with potential vendors in terms of security policies, data access, and backup and recovery procedures.

To balance security with accessibility and scalability, you should discuss your integration needs with potential solutions providers as well. Skew toward vendors with open database platforms (ODBC compliant), such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, as opposed to proprietary or mainframe systems. This will offer the most flexibility particularly when you require integration with other applications as an immediate need or in the future as your company grows.

Look for other features including XML (Extensible Markup Language) support and robust reporting capabilities to ensure that you can easily pass information from one application to another. This is critical with a payroll application as you’ll likely require feeds to accounting packages and third parties including retirement plans and benefit providers.

Best Practices in implementing – HRMS 

Before you start implementation, it is necessary to:

• Identify centralized functions


• Identify decentralized tasks


• Conduct a workflow analysis


• Determine when and what forms and processes can be automated for efficiency


• Review workflow and work systems for ways to improve efficiency (decision making, resource allocation, time assignment, priority alignment, and fiscal accountability)


• Check data that needs to be integrated.

Conclusion

Effective human resource management (HRM) is a great way to streamline the human resource functions of any sized business, making overall operations run more easily and efficiently. This is only possible by using HR technology solutions. However prior to selecting an HRMS solution, you must identify your business needs, processes and short and long-term goals. Including HR professionals, who manage your current HR operations, in the process are also critical.

To conclude, any HRMS must have the following general features:

General Features of HRMS:

• Application must be built on thin and /or thick client architecture.


• Supports Multi-lingual, multi –currency and Multiple Business Units within an organization


• Provide adequate Data and Multi-level Security and compliances


• Company-wise and Group-wise Reports and Analysis


• Integrates easily with legacy systems for hand-offs


• Workflow-based, comprehensive HR system.


• Integrated, multi-technology sign-in / attendance


• Role-base Visibility Control / Differential Access for strong security


• Reduce user-training time and costs due to intuitive workflow content and GUI design


• Scalable to suit growing IT and business needs


• Current mail system as single point of workflow approvals


• Automates critical HR workflow


• Extend IT investments cost effectively


• Integrate seamlessly with most current IT systems


• Reduce HR and implementation costs


• Ensure low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Tips for buying software:

The ease of use and functionality of the HR software you choose are both the most important considerations. These can be determined by simply effectively reviewing, comparing and testing the HRMS products you are considering.

While setting up workflow processes, it is often tempting to add in more approvals, but you need to think carefully about who needs to approve, and which transactions need approval.

No HRMS is complete and the functionality will vary from manual to complete automation. However it is critical to do proper references to get an idea on support and problems during setup or potential bugs in the HR product. Ask the reference how often they call support and how long they are typically on hold. How helpful are the tech support people? Are they usually able to solve the technical problems?

Before you decide on any buying any single or multiple modules, check with references if there are any important problems or software defects of which you should be aware.

Insist on getting the implementation done from certified and experience professional and ensure your organisation also has certified professionals working in your team.

 

The key to finding the right HRMS system is selecting an HR business solution that is secure, well-supported, and equipped to help you reach your goals. With a SaaS based HRMS platform you have the ability to successfully track, manage, and control your most valuable asset, your employees.