Top 6 HRIS Benefits for SMEs and Large Organisations

As a Human Resources (HR) professional, you are more aware of your contribution to the company’s overall success because your team manages the businesses scarcest resource– it’s human capital. Beyond employee administrative support and employee engagement, your HR team also manages the processes, strategies and expenses of the organisation's talent pool.

No matter if you’re part of a HR team at a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a large organisation, you are critical to the business because you support and manage the company's human capital and its associated costs especially employee salary, which is the company’s largest expense.

In fact, one of the agendas of the Eleventh Malaysia Plan, which covers 2016 to 2020, is to focus on improving the efficiency of the labour market to accelerate economic growth.

In line with this, companies need to up their game in terms of managing their human capital and truly maximising the potential of talent. They need to first eliminate productivity losses and streamline their management of their talent.

The root cause of time-based productivity losses are due partly to structural elements, so one way you and your HR team can play a pivotal role to stop this productivity leakage is to address the unproductive routines from your processes and systems.

To address this, what you and your HR team can do is first, eradicate factors that erode time from employees and second, redefine ways of working to enhance accountability and autonomy.

To quickly summarise, for you and your HR team to be effective at maximising your human capital potential and reap positive productivity and performance results for your company. Take the following immediate actions:

• Eliminate your HR team's time-consuming and recurring administrative tasks and paperwork

• Look at existing systems, processes and operating procedures and establish  new ways to work that will drive your business goals with more accountability and autonomy

• Empower your employees with the right tools so they can do their jobs better without wasting their time and energy for the benefit of the company.

Do not wait to take necessary action. One way to be proactive and to increase productivity is to leverage automation technology, like a Human Resources information System (HRIS) that will allow you and your HR team to step up and help boost your organisation's success.

HRIS (and at times people refer to it as HRMS: Human Resources Management System) is a software that provides a centralised archive of your employees’ unique data and personal information that the human resource management (HRM) group needs for completing core HR processes. With its integrated systems, the HRIS has revolutionised the organisation, storage, retrieval and accessibility of employee data.

The HRIS system is a software that:

• Automates laborious HRM (human resource management) tasks and processes

• Stores all files and employee data online

• Saves your company's money

• Promotes a paperless working environment (environmentally-friendly)

However, you should know that there are various HRIS systems available that you can customise to suit your specific business needs regardless if you’re part of an SME or large organisation. Usually, the market offers different packages that have a variety of features which are dependent on the functionality you require. Aside from the usual core employee database offering, we recommend the following important features as you will need them in this new digital economy, so you can maximise your ROI:

• User-friendly (easy-to-use)

• Powerful reporting tools and capabilities

• Web or cloud-based platform

• Time and labour management tracking abilities

• Recruiting and applicant tracking

• Reporting and basic analytics

• Self-service option – employees should be able to log-in and maintain their personal data like leave requests, self-appraisal forms, or even sick leave requests.

Still not convinced? Here are 6 benefits of how HRIS can help your large organisation.

1. Have Easy Access: Anytime, Anywhere

A modern HRIS is a web-based or cloud-based service which means you can access it all day, wherever you are, as long as you have good internet connection.

This remotely accessible function is beneficial because:

• You can execute your HR responsibilities anytime and anywhere. On top of saving time and energy, you and your team can enjoy more freedom and flexibility. In other words, if you're out of the country but need to access an employees salary report or performance review immediately, you can! You will have access to all the necessary information right from where you are and you won’t have to hurry back to the office to complete the task.

• With HRIS, you can offer flexi- and mobile employment opportunities to both your current and future employees. Mobile accessibility is key if you want to widen your talent pool and entice top talent in the industry to join your organisation. As an additional benefit, with the easy access HRIS offers, you can even venture across borders and win more business opportunities for your organisation.

2. Increase Talent Productivity

HRIS automates tedious and routine HRM processes like benefits enrollment, payroll calculation, data entry, performance management systems and other vital HRM everyday tasks. This automation is especially important if you're an SME, as time, efficiency planning and management is key in attaining your business goals.

Here are examples of how HRIS can increase talent productivity for your small business or large organisation:

• With HRIS, you can facilitate and speed up the recruitment process as it  collects and sorts resumes according to your company’s criteria to help you narrow down the talent pool. Leaving your HR team to be more productive in finding the best candidates for your business.

• With the self-serving option in HRIS, employees will be able to submit their leave applications and other benefit enrolments online. Providing your HR more time since they no longer will need to manually key in this information. You can even track absenteeism and employee performance with accuracy and efficiency.

3. Reduce Errors in Your HR Processes

You and your HR team must carefully regulate the highly sensitive data you all  handle on a daily basis whether its employee details, payroll information, compensation and benefits calculations or intra-office complaints. A single error in how you handle this data can slow your operations and more importantly, can cost your company its reputation.

Here are the risks you may face, without a HRMS in place:

• You will encounter avoidable human errors arising from HR processes that are not streamlined and transparent

• Your company stands to lose its reputation due to embarrassing HR errors

• You could  be labelled unrealible and untrustworthy – and you know how impactful this is, especially in an era where online company reviews are used as measures of a company's reputation, brand and attractiveness.

In the past, there have been organisations whose errors cost them their reputations.

In Malaysia, ensuring that income tax, EPF and other deductions are made accurately is so important, not just legally but for the morale of the company. Handling these calculations manually puts the company at risk of human errors, which is why considering a comprehensive payroll HRMS puts a company at an advantage.

4. Implement Strategic Resolutions 

Using HRIS, you can access, review and analyse employee data at any time to  monitor employee performance management or even employee-associated costs and benefits.

Here's how HRIS improves the way you and your team can strategically approach problems:

• You can churn out analytical reports quicker, which saves time in developing solutions and making key business decisions. We all know that any delays in data collation and interpretation can stall decisions and hurt your business.

• You can use the HRIS analytics tool to produce accurate calculations and  evaluations to make critical business decisions as the data is reliable.

• You can have broad-based data visualisation via detailed reports. The reports can be broken down into required parameters that your team will find useful when weighing out crucial business decisions.

5. Strengthen HR Collaboration

If your HR team works in multiple locations, then placing them all on one platform will allow them to align and collaborate more efficiently.

Here’s how HRIS supports company-wide HR team collaborations and contributes to your organisation’s success:

• You can collaborate on the company's automated policies and share information with other global offices or branches through HRIS. This allows you and the HR team to ensure that all company's procedures and standards are aligned and uniform. Your HR team can even work closely with the businesses global HR teams to create a strong, unified global brand.

• Your management teams can also compare and benchmark the performance management of each team in real-time making it easier for them to strategise improvement solutions. In addition, HR managers across the world can collaborate on similar HR-related issues and special projects.

6. Anticipate Business Change and Growth

Companies, regardless if they're a big organisation or a small business, thrive when their employee’s ROI is maximised. So, if your company experiences frequent employee turnover, both your productivity and revenue are bound to suffer.

For instance, one of HR's key responsibilities is to address headcount issues that have an impact on financial fluctuations. With a HRMS in place, your team can use the analytical tools to forecast and budget accordingly as the system is capable of producing up-to-date budget quotations and dynamic reports.

Anticipating such changes in human capital and its associated costs is essential to sustain your small, medium or large organisation. Even if the ripple effect of unfilled vacancies cannot be avoided completely, knowing what to expect and when to expect it is valuable information for your management team. This will help them strategise on how best to stabilise employee turnover and its negative effects in the long run.

End Note

We believe HRIS is a powerful tool that will benefit your business. However, you should evaluate it yourself, weighing out your key business problems and human capital efficiency, to decide if HRIS is the best solution for you. Think about some of the benefits we have outlined. To quickly summarise, HRIS can increase the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of your HR team. Being cloud-based, your HR team will be able to access the system from wherever they are, as long as there is a secure web connection available. More importantly, your HR team will have more time for strategic and problem-solving sessions, which are more vital in helping your organisation realise its human capital potential and achieve its business goals.

You should also know that utilising HRIS is a proactive shift towards making all things digital as that is becoming non-negotiable especially now for HR professionals. Organisations once found HRIS to be a big expense and a tedious technical shift when it was first introduced, but now recognise that it is an affordable, user-friendly and an empowering tool for their organisations.

We recommend that you invest your time and effort in shopping around to pick the best HRIS software option for your organisation. There are numerous HRIS providers in the market and you will be able to customise the cost, deliverables, features and sophistication according to your company’s requirements and budget.

For more tips on best recruittment practices and human resource management systems (HRMS), visit JobStreet’s Insights page or partner with us today to ease your recruitment process.