Expectations from HR Information System:

Kishore C.S.

Thursday, June 10, 1999

Do you watch/follow Cricket matches? Then you must have observed the detailed statistics given for each player: his career record, his performance, best performances, weaknesses. All this data enables the commentators to perform analysis and give suggestions on how the player may perform his strengths and weaknesses. Information Systems usage in Sports is in advanced stage. When I read match by match statistics, I am surprised at the minor details that are kept track of.

• The number of balls bowled by each bowler,
• number of strokes played in each direction in the pitch,
• number of balls that elapsed without a boundary,
• number of extras bowled, time taken for each match,
• the highest partnership,
• highest score in the series
• Number of times a batsman is out caught, run out etc.
• Number of times a batsman is out for duck, out for score less than etc.

The list is endless.

Not only Cricket but all other sports continue to maintain huge amount of data that facilitates excellent analysis.

I wish organizations also performed a detailed performance analysis for its employees. Inability of organizations to predict employee performance, chart career path, give feedback on strengths and weaknesses is due to the lack of data on employees. Evolution of HR information systems should aim at supplying this data. Majority of HR Information Systems focus on Payroll, Leave.

HR Information Systems are nowhere near the perfection attained in Sports Information Systems. When we attempt Human Performance in Organizations we end up with very little data and do more of subjective analysis. In the information age usage of IS Systems is very important to analyze performance of workers. Competitive advantage of organizations is ‘People’ and their contribution. Recognizing the employee contribution and ensuring the employee potential is put to best use is responsibility of the organization. To be able to sustain the ‘People Advantage’ HR Management has to improve HR Information Systems existing in the organizations.

Most common complaints related to Human Resources in Organizations are:

Not able to get people with the right skills to perform the task.
Employees are unhappy as their contributions are not recognized properly.

Skill Set of individuals not available in HR Databases. Individuals have a set of skills, attain new skills as their experience grows and HRIS should be able to capture the data and provide the information to the Personnel department to make the ‘right’ choice. In absence of this whenever there is a requirement for a new position, organizations cannot even trace the resources existing within the organization, but end up in recruiting a new person based on the credentials the new recruit provides. There is no way of verifying the same also.

HRIS has to be updated on daily basis. Each employee and supervisor should be able to log information on the system. In some cases, any one in the organization should be able to add information to the database with approval of HR manager or Employee himself. E.g. A Person who has interacted with employee wants to say that employee is a very co-operative and highly skilled in handling people. This observation made may be useful for the organization in assessing the individual employee.

Each information logged should be logged as private, public, Confidential. This information category can be decided by Employee himself. Confidential information is for use only by organization.

E.g. One employee may prefer his family details to be visible to everyone whereas another may prefer to keep it private.

Detailed HR Information Systems can enable organizations to do analysis as detailed as Sports Analysts. I hope such systems will come into existence in future.