HRIS your HR tech solution for growth

HR: MAD HR

Turn the clock back just 20 years, and the average HR office might have been crammed with filing cabinets and paper folders, each containing details of an employee’s personal and working life credentials.

Thankfully, that’s a thing of the dim and distant past.

Just as you will have become used to the term CRM, in respect of tech that tracks customer relationships and interactions, the HR field has its own tech solution – HRIS (Human Resource Information System).

No matter your size or scale, there’s certainly an argument for investing in HRIS well before you accelerate and expand. And, if you’re already surrounded by a mix of paper-based and online solutions to tracking HR issues and updates, then this is one overdue investment.

What is HRIS?

An HRIS, at its simplest, is like a database of everything to do with your staff members. It’s a central point for capturing holiday data, next of kin details, sickness absences, and even qualification attainment.

However, today’s HRIS products are more sophisticated. They can be amended by employees, accessed 24/7 and provide a good ‘picture’ of staff wellbeing and productivity.

What are the benefits?

For one, it saves much time on administration and updates. It’s no longer the job of someone to manually input every holiday request multiple times a month. Its accessibility and functionality also allow your HR lead to use it as an insight tool, seeing how staff react to new procedures or cultural changes.

From a safeguarding and regulatory perspective, it also ensures that the employer feels that everything is tracked and recorded, so there is no room for doubt or error.

Are there clear benefits to the employee too?

Absolutely. Efficiencies in how HR is run and managed are of mutual benefit. From a recruitment and retention perspective, staff will likely prefer a solution where they can easily see what outstanding holiday they have, or what qualification opportunities or pay changes they can expect.

It’s an intuitive and two-way piece of tech which relies on access for both the employer and the employee.

But is it challenging to find the right solution?

It needn’t be. It’s always good to get advice and suggestions from others in your sector who have already established their own, or from experts in HR who can tell you candidly what they think of the different offerings. But be sure to do your homework, budget for the tech, and always plan for a few hiccups or slowdowns in the turnaround of daily activities as you and your team get used to their new tech.

Please get in touch for advice from MAD-HR about investigating or implementing HRIS systems. We’re committed to tech for HR solutions and have created our own HR toolkit, an online platform for business owners to access resources and support when and how they need it. It contains 1000+ resources, including templates, handbooks, policies and more.