HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) are a powerful tool for HR professionals to help maximize efficiency and streamline complex processes, allowing HR to focus on the most important part of their job – the people.
Different HRIS systems can be targeted for different organizational needs – including different company sizes, from SMBs to enterprises – and different industry specifics.
Understanding the core functions of an HRIS and how to choose the right one can help ensure that you choose the right one for your specific needs. We’ve gathered everything you need to know to harness the power of HRIS and make the best decision for your organization.
What is an HRIS?
HRIS is a software solution that helps HR keep track of important organizational and employee information, including data collection, entry, tracking, and management.
The primary functions of an HRIS are:
Information Management: HRIS helps collect and keep track of employee data and information, like personal information, job roles and responsibilities, employment history, performance reviews, and compensation history.
Payroll Processing: HRIS solutions can automate and manage payroll processes, including bonuses, deductions, and paycheck generation and distribution. An HRIS can track time and other attendance management tasks, like leave requests and absenteeism, which can streamline payroll.
Recruitment and Onboarding: HRIS can manage many functions within recruitment and onboarding, including automating job postings, tracking applicants, scheduling interviews, and onboarding of new employees.
Benefits Administration: HRIS solutions can assist in managing employee benefits like health insurance, retirement accounts, and other perks. An HRIS centralizes and automates benefit administration, without the need for tedious administrative processes and paperwork.
Employee Self-Service: HRIS systems also offer employee self-service portals, which give employees access to necessary information and resources like personal information and company policies or documents.
Benefits and Importance of an HRIS
Although it’s not an absolute necessity for an HR department to use an HRIS, these systems can boost the imperative to improve efficiency, reduce errors, and streamline processes.
For HR professionals, an HRIS can be your secret weapon for better employee management and overall organizational performance, which can provide a whole host of benefits and give your organization a competitive advantage as you head into the future.
Here are some benefits of implementing an HRIS:
Efficiency: HRIS automates tedious administrative tasks, freeing up HR professionals to focus on strategy and create a more efficient organization overall by improving the time it takes to complete tasks and optimizing the resources used.
Data Accuracy and Management: HRIS helps ensure accuracy in data and provides a centralized place for all data, improving the management and organization of existing data, which can help HR and leaders make more informed decisions.
Compliance: HRIS helps organizations stay compliant with regulations and labor laws through accurate record-keeping and data analysis, and can help organizations update policies as needed.
Decision-Making: HRIS software can provide access to data analytics, which can help improve decision-making and ensure any decisions made are data-driven. HRIS systems can also generate reports and dashboards that can help visualize data better.
Recruiting: HRIS simplifies recruitment processes like job postings, applications, and candidate tracking. After an employee is hired, the HRIS can also help improve the onboarding process by automating document management and training.
Cost-Savings: HRIS software can help organizations save money and optimize resources, specifically reducing administrative costs and reducing the necessary HR personnel needed.
HRIS vs. HCM vs. HRM: What's the Difference?
Understanding the varying scopes and purposes of HRIS, Human Capital Management (HCM), and Human Resource Management (HRM), can help inform your decision on choosing and implementing the right system to align with your organizational needs.
Here’s a comprehensive comparison of HRIS, HCM, and HRM.
HRM vs. HRIS
HRIS focuses on basic HR management workflows and functions, like record-keeping and centralizing employee information, to help boost efficiency and accuracy and streamline administrative processes. Although HRM includes the capabilities of an HRIS, it also covers a broader range of managing HR tasks, people operations, and similar functions.
HRM covers a broader range of functions, such as:
Recruitment
Employee training
Performance management
Employee relations
Compensation and benefits
The goal of HRM is to help manage human resources to ensure organizational performance, employee satisfaction, and compliance with regulations.
HCM vs. HRIS
HCM covers a broad scope of both administrative and strategic processes. It encompasses the functions of both HRM and HRIS, as well as some additional capabilities.
HCM is focused on using HR tasks and strategies to optimize value within the workforce, including functions of HRIS and others. It involves strategic planning and employee development initiatives that can help maximize workforce value.
HCM covers HR functions like:
Talent management
Workforce planning
Succession planning
Performance management
Learning and development
Key Differences
Here are the key differences between HCM, HRM, and HRIS
Scope: Both HRM and HRIS solutions exist within the scope of HCM, and HCM covers a broader range of functions.
Focus: While HRIS focuses on more administrative functions like record-keeping and data collection, HRM focuses on the broader management of people within the organization. HCM includes an even broader range of strategic focuses, like talent management and workforce planning.
Analytics: Because HCM solutions are focused on strategic decision-making HCM solutions may have more advanced analytics and reporting features than the basic analysis capabilities of HRIS software.
5 Best HRIS Systems
Organizations can choose from an overwhelming number of HRIS providers. The type of system you choose can depend on multiple factors, like company size, industry, and budget. Here are five of the top HRIS software providers that might be the right fit for you.
BambooHR
BambooHR is an HRIS that features all the essential features needed for an HR department, including:
Payroll
Time tracking
Applicant tracking
Employee engagement
Onboarding
Offboarding
Benefits
It’s an optimal solution for small to mid-sized companies that need to manage all the steps of an employee life cycle. It provides simplified, streamlined workflows and automated processes that can help HR departments big or small focus less on administrative tasks and more on strategy and employee relations.
Rippling
Rippling is a more customizable, scalable HRIS solution that boasts all the features of a comprehensive HRIS. While it is primarily a payroll management and onboarding platform, organizations can choose from a variety of add-on features, including:
Benefit administration
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Learning and development management
Rippling is ideal for large companies or growing organizations because of its customizable plans and scalability. However, Rippling also offers Rippling Unity, a cheaper, more basic HRIS for small-sized companies with few employees.
Workday
Workday is a comprehensive HRIS that offers plenty of additional services, including an HCM, HRM, adaptive planning, and financial management.
Workday can help HR professionals manage several essential functions, including:
Onboarding and offboarding
Payroll management
Compensation and benefits
Data collection and storing
Analytics and reporting
Employee self-service
Workday can be integrated with third-party software to help streamline processes and can customize quotes based on specific needs. This HRIS is especially helpful for global companies because Workday has global HR management capabilities.
Paycor
Paycor offers payroll management and HRIS capabilities that are best for small to mid-sized companies. Although not as comprehensive as other HRIS providers, it provides the robust capabilities that many organizations need with easy integration and automated processes.
Paycor offers features such as:
On-demand pay
Automated payroll processing
Tax compliance
Onboarding and offboarding
Benefits administration
Time tracking
Paycor is great for smaller organizations that want simplified HR processes and streamlined administrative tasks to save time for HR departments. It also offers robust reporting and analytics capabilities.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a comprehensive HRIS ideal for mid to large-size businesses due to its scalability. It offers robust, customizable, and integrative capabilities that can help organizations that are growing or are looking to scale. Its payroll and benefits capabilities are not as advanced as other HRIS providers. Instead, Monday.com is focused more on talent management and collaboration capabilities.
Monday.com’s HRIS boasts features like:
Customizable workflows and templates
Automation and integration into third-party applications
Time management and attendance tracking
Reporting and analytics
Monday.com is a comprehensive drag-and-drop solution to help HR professionals who are looking to stay organized and streamline processes.
HRIS with AI
Like many other HR functions, AI has revolutionized the functions and capabilities of HRIS platforms. HRIS platforms are already used to help HR streamline tasks and processes and improve workflows – and all of these capabilities have been boosted with the power of AI.
The recent AI boom has helped HRIS evolve into a faster, more accurate solution to help HR departments take the tedious tasks off their plate and put their energy into strategic planning, people management, and more strategy-focused functions. AI-powered HRIS can help HR departments streamline and simplify a variety of tasks, including analytics and reporting, employee self-service, and data-driven decision-making.
Here are some of the AI-powered features that many HRIS platforms provide:
Automated resume screenings: AI can automatically screen and sort resumes from candidates, and sort them based on how well a resume aligns with the job role.
Data-driven decision-making: AI-powered analytics and reporting can provide predictive analysis and insights into important organizational metrics, such as productivity, output, engagement, retention, and more.
Virtual assistance: Instead of going to HR teams for basic inquiries, AI-powered HRIS systems can provide virtual assistance and chatbots to help direct employees to the answers they need.
Personalized learning: Many HRIS platforms offer learning and development management, and AI can help tailor these programs to better suit individual employees and larger organizational needs.
Workforce planning: With all the data an HRIS stores, AI can help identify high-potential employees who may be able to be the successors for key roles, such as executive-level positions, which can aid in better workforce planning.
Final Notes
The right HRIS software can help free up time for HR professionals to focus on the “human” aspect of the HR role. When implemented, it can maximize efficiency and help push the organization into the future by helping improve decision-making.
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