HR Information Systems Buyer's Guide

What modules do you need?

Most HRISes are sold in modules: you can use just a payroll module, or a core HR module, or a recruiting and tracking module. The main benefit is that you can start with the areas that are most important to your business, then add more later as you become familiar with the system. Here's a quick look at some of the most popular areas and key features to look for.

Core HR management
Tracking employee data is one of the central features of an HRIS. By centralizing information that may currently exist in multiple locations, an HRIS can give you a more complete overview of your HR picture and reduce administrative overhead.

Features to look for:

• Comprehensive demographics: tracks all employee data: previous employment, education, emergency contacts, employment eligibility (I-9) forms, job history, and more
• Time and attendance reporting: either integrates with your existing time tracking system, or provides all the attendance tracking features you need
• Performance reviews: formalizes and automates your review process, including self, peer, and manager reviews and all approvals

Payroll
Payroll is often the first aspect of HR to be automated, usually when a company outsources the job to a payroll service provider. Computerized payroll systems can drastically reduce the time your staff spends on payroll work and cut down on errors.

If you're happy with your current payroll service, you may want to just stick with them — but find out if the HRIS software transmits data directly to that provider, or if it requires data exports and imports.

As an alternative, you may want to use your HRIS vendor instead of a third party provider for your payroll processing. This can save some steps: if all your data is in one system, you can cut down on data exports and re-keying. Be sure that the HRIS provider offers all the payroll processing features you expect before leaving an existing payroll service, though.

Features to look for:

• Special paycheck handling: covers wage garnishment, commission-driven paychecks, changing taxes, and other less common payroll activities
• Effective security: encryption and multiple layers of protection against unauthorized access

Benefits management
Employees place enormous value on benefits like health insurance, vacation time, and retirement plans. The right HRIS will help reduce the amount of staff time spent on enrollment forms, changes, and even simple requests like "how much vacation time do I have left?"

Features to look for:

• Covers all your benefits: parenting leaves, flexible schedules, community service time, 401k or other retirement plans, health, dental, and vision insurance, and flexible spending or dependent care accounts
• Connects to external systems: can establish direct connections with your health insurance, 401k plans, and other benefit providers

Recruiting
Hiring the best talent is one of the most essential roles of HR, and a good HRIS can help. Presenting the right appearance to prospective applicants helps portray your business as technology-savvy and well-organized.

Features to look for:

• Online applications: allows job seekers to view your open positions, submit their resumes, and check their status through your web site
• Job application workflow: routes resumes to the appropriate people, schedules interviews, tracks follow-up activities

Talent management
It may be a buzzword, but talent management encompasses some legitimate and valuable tools. This is an area where HRIS can bring new strategic processes to your business.

Features to look for:

• Career development: tracks skills and training
• Performance management: handles employee reviews, including peer input and upward feedback
• Succession planning: lets you plan for key staff departures and earmark likely candidates for promotion – required in some industries
• Retention planning: identifies your best employees and gives them reasons to stay

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