Human Resources
The Top HRIS Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Deployment of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is a major undertaking for any company since there are so many factors to consider. While these systems are ideal for maximizing productivity, saving money, reducing administrative burdens and boosting overall employee morale, professionals who are assigned to these initiatives must avoid certain pitfalls if they want the overall implementation to be successful.
Some of the major pitfalls are in poor planning administering data security, data integrity and managing the change. So, it is important for all involved to avoid these mistakes before they happen.
Poor Planning
The planning phase is the most crucial stage since it sets the foundation. Involving all stakeholders in beginning is essential to its success because there is a diversity of needs that must be met. Human resources, benefits, payroll, accounting, and other key areas should be at the table. Even though some areas may have their own software applications and systems, the companies who want to maximize its use will seek for ways to extract the information that they need from this common database. For instance, the employee name and number will be stored in the HRIS system. To reduce duplication of efforts, the accounting system, payroll system and benefits can pull the employee’s name and number from the HR database. By integrating multiple processes, the employee number and name will only be entered one time instead of multiple times in different databases (i.e. accounting database, benefits database and payroll database).
Administering Data Security
The HRIS database inherently stores sensitive information, especially because it is filled with employee names, social security numbers, birth dates, home addresses, telephone numbers, salary data, job data, and the like. As a result, administering data security correctly is a high priority on any new Human Resources Information Systems implementation list. While there are normally many different issues involved in data security, one recent challenge is deciding if a cloud based system will be involved. If a cloud based HR system is a viable option, all stakeholder should discuss the impact that this will have on the data that they maintain.
Cloud storage is a crucial concern for every area because it involves allowing access to sensitive data by a third party agency. Some IT professionals and company executives are also concerned about transmitting data back and forth over vulnerable networks.
Inaccurate Data
Garbage in, garbage out is a phrase they most professionals use when they are addressing inaccurate information being entered into quality systems. This is also a major pitfall that should be avoided at all cost because it impacts everything going forward. From running reports with inaccurate data to making critical decisions based off of bad data, inaccurate data has a domino affect on virtually everything. These types of situations normally occur when inaccurate data is being transmitted to the newly created HRIS database. In some cases, employees may also enter in inaccurate data manually when they are trying to meet the new implementation deadline.
To prevent this from happening, the lead over the project can assign others to validate the information before and after the entry has been made. By validating the data on the front end of the initial implementation, a group of people will not have to be assigned to correct the data after the fact.
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