Feature

How to select your HRMS wisely

Sudipta Dev on the factors that an organisation must consider while selecting its HR management system.

An effective human resource management system (HRMS) has great benefits for any organisation. It’s advantages are much more than streamlining the HR processes and being a single source of human capital data, it eventually contributes to the bottomline. HRMS has moved beyond the realms of complex enterprise human resource management systems to talent management solutions for the organisation. It is important to select it wisely and avoid the mistakes that HR professionals often make. It is not just enough to choose the best vendor, there are many technical and functional issues which have to be kept in mind in the process.

Right selection being of critical importance, the question is, how can an organisation know which HR management software suits it the best? “HRMS solutions are chosen based on a number of factors that help optimise the current systems, like ease of operation, features of the solution (how comprehensive is the system), scalability, reporting capabilities, cost of the solution and also the cost of maintenance,” answers Abhay Valsangkar, Senior Director HR, Symantec. According to Valsangkar the effectiveness of any HR management system is determined by the following:

• Does it help the users to make effective decisions based on the reports generated?
• Will it help the users to get some spare time for investing the same on other strategic aspects?
• What is the usage frequency and related statistics that the system provides?
• Are the reports generated consistent with the user specifications?
• Has it achieved cross-functional alignment?

At Synygy India, when it came to deploying an HRM system, the company looked at several options and finally decided to build an in-house solution. The main determinants, according to Chetan Shah, Managing Director, Synygy India, were: the workflow aspect and integrating the HRMS to the recruiting system.

The HRMS helps an organisation to effectively track and evaluate its greatest asset—human capital, and improve efficiency and productivity. Paradyne Infotech has been working exclusively with various organisations across verticals for many years and its software HrWorQ has evolved into one which is capable of automating the most complex pay, benefit and accrual issues. Sharad Rege, Senior Vice-president, Business Development and Operations, Paradyne Infotech, believes that the following key features are essential for an efficient HR management solution:

• Employee information management
• Recruitment management
• Policy management
• Performance appraisal management
• Training and development
• Payroll and taxation
• Supported with intelligent reporting and analysis system
• Workforce management

Benefits to the organisation

When an organisation deploys the HRMS, its focus is not just limited to streamlining the HR processes or managing the data, there is a long-term perspective derived from its many advantages. “HRMS is most critical to employee basic data management, compensation and benefits administration, talent attraction (facilitation of the talent acquisition process), talent segmentation, reviews and assessment,” says Valsangkar, listing the long-term and short-term benefits to the organisation, in terms of:

• Optimal deployment of human resources
• Speed of operations, accuracy and decision-making
• Process consistency

At Synygy the SATS (Synygy Applicant Tracking System) and SIMS (Synygy Information Management System) are on the intranet. “The beauty of it is that when we go through the recruiting process, all the information is automated, from submitting of resumes to interview feedback, employee information, etc,” says Shah. It avoids double data entry, is Web-based and so can be used from any browser. This has enabled elimination of all paper forms and saves time.

Meeting workforce challenges

Automating HRMS affects all the functions of the organisation. “It reduces TAT (turn-around-time) by large amounts and thus reduces the number of workforce issues,” points out Sathyan C, Associate Manager, Human Resource, Marlabs Software.

“HRMS can help quickly scale up the efficiency of processing employee data. It can take the manual (boring and repetitive) transactions away from the employees. Employees are empowered to make appropriate changes to their own or their subordinates’ data with proper authorisations,” points out Valsangkar. Most importantly it builds employees’ confidence about data accuracy and speed of response through a transparent and people-independent process.

Many experts consider a good HRMS to be an important tool in enabling workforce motivation. Rege explains why, “Numerous factors drive business success, but many companies are coming up short in one of the more critical elements—workforce motivation. HRMS helps organisations in planning the entire employee life cycle, recruitment, induction, training and development, appraisals, etc.” The human resource management system can help employees understand the culture, processes and policies of the organisation. It is also an aid in empowering employees with their career objectives, knowledge enhancement, and interactivity within the organisation. All these factors eventually lead to a positive work environment in which ideas are acknowledged and team spirit is created, consequently HRMS could be a strategic tool to create an inspired workforce.

But eventually, as Shah concludes, any HR management system must meet business need and processes and this should be the number one driver. This focus also ensures that the implementation is done in the most efficient manner.