Why use an HR information system (HRIS)?
- hrbytara
- Mar 14
- 4 min read
Whenever you employ people, you will have to collect data about them. Some of the information you need just to be able to communicate and correspond with them. Some is necessary for you to effectively manage your workforce. Other information you need for legal compliance and in order to pay them via PAYE.
Some employers store all this information on bits of paper. Others may use spreadsheets. Some may rely on their payroll provider to hold all the information within the payroll system. I’d like to suggest that a more efficient way of collecting and storing that information is through a HR information system
(HRIS). It can make your life a LOT easier. But, according to a CIPD survey a few years ago, 70% of small and medium sized businesses didn’t have a HRIS in place.
There are quite a few different systems available that could be suitable for small businesses - ranging from a few pounds per month to several hundred pounds per month, depending upon the number of employees you have and the functionality that you want.
Some big benefits of having a HRIS in place is that it makes it easier for you to manage all personal data in one place, with access controls set up so that only the appropriate people can see it. This can really help you with your data protection compliance - including the requirement to delete data when it
is no longer relevant.
Basic employee data
You’ll want to store all the key personal and employment details you need for each employee. This will include their name, DOB, address, contact details, NI number, rate of pay, job title, hours of work, etc. You can use paper forms, or have a spreadsheet. Or you can use a HRIS.
Ideally, if you have a HRIS, you want something called “employee self-service” which means that they can input their own information directly into the system, rather than filling in forms that someone else then needs to transcribe.
Some systems allow you to store the history of things like job roles, working hours and pay, making it easier for you to deal with queries or review someone’s progress within the organisation.
Employment documentation
You’ll want somewhere to store all the documentation you need to keep for each employee. This will often include CV, contract, job description, letters confirming changes to terms and conditions, performance reviews, and anything else that forms part of their employment record. You can keep all this in a paper file, locked away securely, or you can keep it within an online folder on your computer or on a secure cloud storage system. Or you can use a HRIS.
Ideally, if you have a HRIS, you will want your staff to be able to see their own employee file, so they don’t have to come to you to ask for copies of documents.
Tracking absence
Some businesses still use paper forms for people to request holiday or to self-certify if they’ve been off sick. Then they often use a wall planner and coloured stickers to review when everyone’s off.
Alternatively, a HRIS can give you the ability for people to request holiday online (often from their phone) and for you to review who else is off before you approve or decline it. The HRIS can also enable people to fill out a self-certification online when they’ve been off sick, and upload a medical certificate if applicable.
With a HRIS you can then easily see how much holiday everyone has left and you can easily monitor sickness levels, in case you need to have a discussion with someone. You can even replicate your wall planner with a team or company calendar view that shows who's off when.
Company documents
It’s a good idea to have a written record of what your expectations are of your staff and what they can expect of you. This can be done through a Team Handbook or a “Working for Us” document, plus specific policies and procedures. You can hand out printed documents or publish them online within a shared folder or on an Intranet. Or you can use a HRIS.
A HRIS will let you publish HR related documents to your staff and record who has read and accepted them. Then, when there are updates, you can publish them in the same way, notifying everyone of the changes.
Recording notes after meetings
If you have a one-to-one meeting with someone, then it’s a good idea to record the key points somewhere. This is particularly important if you need to provide negative feedback and want to record what you said, so you can refer to it in the future.
A HRIS will often enable you to create notes after a meeting and attach them to the person’s file, so they and you can both see what has been recorded after each meeting. You can then reference the notes when you meet with them again. If you have to take formal action for poor performance or misconduct, then these notes can really help with demonstrating that the action is fair and reasonable.
Managing rotas and timesheets
Some systems have optional functionality relating to rota management and staff timesheets. This can make life a lot easier when communicating with your team about when they are scheduled to work, enabling shift swaps and recording exactly how many hours people have worked, ready for payroll.
These are just a few basic types of functionality that a HRIS can have. Other areas of the system can support you with storing training records, performance objectives and reviews, expense claims, etc.
Some systems enable staff to make improvement suggestions or show appreciation to colleagues within the software.
At HR by Tara, we often recommend BreatheHR to our clients. The main reasons for this are that it is cost-efficient and easy to use. It has all the core functionality you’ll want, but you’re not paying for extras that you may not need.
We also work with other HR systems, depending upon the needs of each organisation, and we’re about to complete a market review of what systems are available for small employers, which we’ll say more about in a couple of months. We’re reviewing systems like Staffology, SafeHR (formerly CitrusHR), BrightHR, CharlieHR, ConnectTeam and a few more.
If you think your employment records could do with being optimised within a HRIS then please do contact us and we’ll talk you through how simple it could be, and how much easier managing employment could be once you have your HRIS in place.
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