Contact
Free trial
HRIS |

11 MIN

Everything on HRIS: the Benefits and Areas Where it Falls Short

Benefits of HRIS
Alexandre Diard
Benefits of HRIS

There are three main types of solutions to upgrade your legacy systems. 

1. All-in-One HRIS
2. Multiple Best-of-Breed System
3. Unified Solution

Here will we talk not just about HRIS, but how it compares to the other solutions to have a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. We will also talk not just only of HRIS, but what other options might actually work with your company more.

Related articles:

- Why the Future of HRIS is Composable Applications
- Legacy System: What Are The Risks of Using Outdated Technology

 

Book Demo

 

What is HRIS?

You might be wondering: what is an HRIS? HRIS stands for Human Resource Information System. It is a system that helps with the management of all your human resource activities as a cloud-base solution to simplify all the paperwork by providing you a system where all your policies, procedures, online payroll, time and attendance systems, and employment records are kept. This will provide management solutions as it provides a unified system that will avoid grievance with data sharing and will simplify report making as it is a self service program.

Human capital management will also be affected as performance management will be better observed and analyzed as it tends to occur once actions are cloud-based. A study by Software Path stated that from all the reasons to implement HRIS, the main three reasons professionals implemented them was because greater functionality with 25.77, increase efficiency with 20.04, and support growth with 16.74 percentage of projects

 

Benefits of HRIS

Through HRIS, there will be an increase in organization which will improve productivity in resource planning, outsourcing, time and attendance integration, and HR payroll solutions. Human capital will also flourish as their employee records will be kept through HR technology which will be integrated in the management software.

An HRIS system will facilitate procedures and employee performance. A study from intelliHR in 2022 observed the connection between employee performance and employee enagagement quoting "36% of HR professionals say employee engagement and performance are a top priority. HR professionals know that there’s an intrinsic connection between engagement and performance. With only one third of respondents saying that 70-100% of their workforce is “highly engaged”, many leaders (24%) believe that both their engagement and performance challenges stem mostly from having distributed workforces, hybrid teams, and remote working."

Everyone is now going through the trend of automating everything and seeing the benefits on their HR platform by decreasing their workforce, increasing employee relations, optimizing time-tracking and bring administrative tasks an intuitive workday twist. 

Not only this but it protects from company breech. This can be further seen in a study from Sapient in 2021, It was seen that HRIS/HRIT were the main players companies trusted to take care of HR data security with 42% and configuration decisions with 56%

 

Drawbacks of HRIS

Some of the drawbacks that may be seen throughout the HR platform using HRIS is the lack of personalization of the system. There are only prepackaged solutions that are not adapted to the success factors that make your company unique. Another factor to take into consideration is the cost of this solution which may hinder the budget that could be better spent such as optimizing talent management solutions. This will also come with time consumption of the integration and how the business processes must conform to system parameters. Finally, It won't adapt to complex business requirements like best-of-breed system or a unified solution like PeopleSpheres.

 

peoplespheres-hris-1

 

What is Best-of-Breed?

Best-of-Breed HR software is unique to a specific niche of customers. When it comes to HR, they are very specific in certain tasks that your company may have a problem with. This can be benefits management, talent acquisition, human resource planning, or other specific problems but not all in one. Usually, companies who want this solution are small companies or companies that already have software that deal with all the other problems except for a specific one. A small company may just want to start up with the basics such as timesheets or be able to recruit talent to keep track of the workload to start a company. Larger companies with multiple software may even look at this option as well. This isn't recommended as you won't have the most valuable organization or HR strategies. This will only increase disorganization and increase the time spent as an HR administrator. 

 

Benefits of Best-of-Breed

What are the benefits of best-of-breed? The answer is simple.  As mentioned previously contrary to HRIS, best-of-breed focuses on specific problems. This is tackling the small niche problems that HR faces based on the product, expansion, or changes the company needs to take. HR tools, HR strategy, HR outsourcing, HR administration, and other human resources issues can be very specific compared to HRIS where solutions are general. 

 

Drawbacks of Best-of-Breed

Just like in HRIS, there are many drawbacks that come from Best-of-Breed. Because the system is very specialized to a certain pain point, there has to be different systems for each problem which causes disparate data which hinders efficiency and wasted time as there will be an increase in time spent as there is no single source of truth. This can be a reminder that going fully general like HRIS or fully specific with Best-of-Breed can be detrimental to your business. Through this, HR roles and organizational development is put on red. Not only is it bad for the company but may impact the retaining of employees as this will affect them in the long term.  HR processes will be in danger with security as through the usage of multiple solutions, your information will be shared with many companies and increasing the chances of a security breach. 

 

What is a Unified Solution?

As we can see, there are many options to go towards. But, is there something in the middle with all the benefits without the weaknesses it may bring to your business needs and ultimately affect your company through your HR management system? Is there such a thing as ultimate software? Let's explore a unified solution, which can somewhat be considered as a global HRIS system.

 

Benefits of a Unified Solution

As mentioned, there are many weaknesses that you may encounter with other solutions that may not seem problematic at first but will end up causing more harm than good. One of the solutions for this is to learn about a unified solution that might work with your HR and no longer be disappointed in the software's performance evaluation of other software. A unified solution can be for example software like PeopleSpheres, where information is more centralized for all HR functions. Through a unified solution, there will be an ability to connect cross-functional systems. It allows you to create a customizable HR self-service portal for your employees, which improves the employee experience. Through this solution, there will also be a lower chance of a security breach as everything will connect through a single source full of all your integrated systems. Wouldn't you also want everything to be in one place? 

 

Drawbacks of a Unified Solution

Through a unified solution, you have to know the company's weaknesses and strengths. Since it is customizable it can be hard to decide which solutions your company needs. The great thing about this is the many options you have and how you can decide along the way what is it that your company is in need of. This will also be more suited to organizations that are more complex as it is more customizable and it's not a simple solution with the same management tools to every company. HR personnel will also have more time for tasks towards HR solutions. 

 

HRIS vs. Others

Through this information, you might be thinking that maybe an upgrade to your legacy systems isn't necessary for the decision-making or future complications it may carry. Don't be overwhelmed by this information. Know your needs and pick a solution that is right for you. Look through these questions and try to find out which solution is more suitable for what you want in your HR department. 

1. Is my problem niche?
2. Is security one of my priorities?
3. Do I need complex business requirements?
4. Do I spend too much time on data entry?
5. Does it matter if everything is centralized?
6. Do I want it to be an implementation from a single source of truth?

 

Risk of Using a Legacy System

As an HR manager, it is your choice to pick the HR system that optimizes your HR processes and it is crucial that you pick the right one and continue to stay on top of technology trends. A legacy system is software or hardware that is recognized to be outdated. Using an outdated legacy system can negatively impact a workplace and its processes. The risks of using a legacy system include:

1. Legal and security risks

2. More expensive to maintain

3. Increased crashes and system downtime

4. Lower productivity 

 

Why Switching From a Legacy System

Expect the risks it is posing, why should you modernize your legacy system? To start with, modernizing your HR technology is crucial to get the job done. Technology is constantly changing, and if you are not updating your HR technology every decade, you have a legacy system and your business processes will not run efficiently. You should also modernize your HR system to cut costs. On average, HR technology costs rise by 24 percent every year. In order to cut your expenses, make sure that you are using valuable technology. 

 

Conclusion

The benefits of HRIS should not be glorified without seeing all the other solutions that are out there. When searching for an HR solution, do research if HRIS is a good option for you or if there is a more niche or customizable solution for your business. Don't let the process of finding a solution overwhelm you as we need to automate your systems and have the best workforce management to seamlessly upgrade the way you work and think.

Through all these software of human resources management solutions within the HR database, analyzing, timekeeping, improving employee benefits, employee engagement, workflows, HR support, learning management, and all other human resources functions will become automatic. This will increase employee satisfaction as it will also give some benefits such as being a self-service software making it more efficient. You have to be able to choose which resource will help all your HR problems and how you will want them to be integrated into the company. This HR system should help you with all your needs. Don't settle for human resource information systems that are not the complete answer you were looking for. Be an HR professional and approve of everything you are giving to your employees. Don't conform to your people management as you wouldn't want your employees to conform to everyday problems without trying to find a proactive solution. Make sure that it satisfies all your needs. Start with this list and see what you need and see who can provide it:

1. Payroll software 
2. Helps with employee development
3. Facilitates HR analytics
4. Workforce planning
5. Time & attendance
6. Helps with performance review of employees
7. Self-service software
8. Compensation management
9. Implementation of HR policies
10. learning and development
11. Facilitates the leave management system
12. Talent management systems
13. Employee tracking software
14. Easy to use
15. Recruiting
16. All-in-one software