1 Introduction *
1.1 The role of Human Resources Management in the Organization *
1.2 The consequences of implementing a HRMIS *
2 General requirements *
2.1 Data model *
2.2 Primary functions *
2.2.1 Authorization and security *
2.2.2 User attributes *
2.2.3 History management *
2.2.4 Hardware requirements *
2.3 Technology *
2.3.1 Open systems *
2.3.2 Architecture *
2.3.3 Workflow *
2.3.3.1 Desired functionality *
2.4 Self-service *
2.5 End-user computing *
2.5.1 GUI *
2.5.2 Fast entry *
2.5.3 Screens *
2.5.4 Filters *
2.5.5 Help function *
2.5.6 Design *
2.5.7 Routing *
2.6 Import and export *
3 Organizational and job design, budgeting and planning *
3.1 Organizational structure *
3.1.1 Different administrations *
3.2 Human resource analysis and planning *
3.2.1 External forecasting *
3.2.2 Internal forecasting *
3.3 Staffing *
3.4 The legal context of employment decisions *
3.5 Human resource accounting *
3.5.1 Expected values *
3.6 Task descriptions *
3.7 Job descriptions *
3.8 Job design *
3.9 Grading structure *
3.10 Pay structure *
4 Human resources administration *
4.1 General human resource registration *
4.1.1 Individual personal data *
4.1.2 Temporary workers *
4.1.3 Individual salary *
4.1.4 Disabilities *
4.1.5 Registration of company-owned materials in use by the employees *
4.1.6 Registration of court orders *
4.1.7 Registration of pension *
4.1.8 Registration of insurance *
4.2 Time and attendance management *
4.2.1 Desired functionality *
4.2.1.1 Sick leave *
4.2.1.2 Vacation *
4.2.1.3 Special work attendance *
4.2.2 Project functionality *
4.2.3 Costing employee absenteeism *
4.2.3.1 Desired functionality *
4.2.4 Health care *
5 Human resources management *
5.1 Recruitment *
Orientation and orientation follow-up *
5.1.2 Costing employee turnover *
5.1.3 Evaluation and control of recruitment operations *
5.1.4 Evaluation of quality of recruitment agencies *
5.1.5 Desired functionality *
5.2 Appraising employee performance *
5.2.1 Evaluation of the strategic initiative against performance *
5.2.2 Skill based performance assessment *
5.2.3 Desired functionality *
5.2.4 Team performance appraisal *
5.3 Orientation and training *
5.3.1 Course catalog *
5.3.2 Class logistics *
5.3.3 Employee training management *
5.3.4 Employee training plans *
5.3.5 Evaluating training *
5.3.6 Desired functionality *
5.4 Skills model *
5.5 Career management *
5.5.1 Unretirees *
5.6 Employee benefits *
6 Pay systems *
6.1 Payroll in service *
6.2 Payroll in company *
6.3 Expatriates *
7 Extended functionality *
7.1 Expense accounts *
7.1.1 Desired functionality *
7.2 The Query tool *
7.2.1 Desired functionality *
7.3 The EIS tool *
7.3.1 Desired functionality *
7.4 Scheduler *
7.5 Matching gifts *
7.5.1 Desired functionality *
7.6 Activity value analysis *
7.7 Suggestion box administration *
8 System utilities *
8.1 Report generator functions *
In my former job I supported companies with the selection and implementation of Human Resource Information Systems (HRMIS).
Therefore I had the opportunity to investigate and compare global and national HRMIS in several parts of the world, generic, country-specific as well as propriety and to notice the impact that the different cultures have on them. This in combination with changing technology and ideas about the changing responsibility of the workforce has triggered me in writing this white paper that tries to describe what will be the demands for an HRMIS that can compete with the top systems at this moment concerning functionality and is ahead of them concerning technology.
It is my intention that after a thorough interaction with interested parties this white paper will result in a functional design. It will be useful as a basis for reengineering a new HRMIS but also as support for matching the demands of the organization with existing systems and a base for a technical design for the mismatch.
The conclusion of this article is that in the future in large global companies there will be no longer a specific HR application, but integrated modules focusing on HR in an integrated business information system.
The application, because of scalability, should exist of interconnectable components that can operate independently of each other. Its architecture is workflow driven, with the possibilities for ad-hoc workflow. In this way it can be used as a tool for business process re-engineering.
The application focuses on self-service, because of the impact on the responsibility of the employee and because of the cost aspect concerning administration of the data. Because of this, various self-service modules or parts of them will be applets in Internet, like time and attendance and recruitment.
Implementing this application will have farfetched consequences for positions and quality of work of departments who are concerned with the secondary process, such as:
HRMIS obtain an ongoing stronger position besides information systems that manage the primary process. This is related to the shift towards organizations that specialize in services. They don’t make physical products, don’t own expensive large machinery but make their profits through the activities and knowledge of their employees.
The role of Human Resources management in the organization can be captured in two relevant aspects:
Besides these two strategic points of view, third parties, like the government, create legislation and rules concerning the workforce that must be captured by the organization.
The execution of the activities that are the result of these aspects are only possible if the organization has a HRMIS at their disposal.
Traditionally the data design of a HRMIS was focused on the registration of all relevant information of an employee. A modern HRMIS focuses on the work process in the organization. To execute the work process, skills are needed and therefore people are needed who have these skills.
A HRMIS has in fact three components:
The HRMIS presented in this paper consists of various modules. The purpose of that structure is the flexibility and the scalability of the system. Small companies (<300 employees) know all their employees and will be less interested in all possible modules of a HRMIS. Their primary concern is registration. In some branches exceptions will occur, for instance architects. Because the high level of work to be done and the way work is done higher demands will follow.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the various modules and their relations.
Figure 1: Overview of the data structure
When implementing a HRMIS the company has a choice of two possibilities:
Elements of this model are:
The results after implementation are:
but also:
Figure 2 shows a data model for a HRMIS based on self-service.
Two different databases are being used: a database for national purposes and a global database for generic purposes. If a user in Germany logs in he has to be confronted with data that is national sensitive, for instance his German telephone number format, but he also is able to use generic data, for instance for benchmarking pay systems.
The back up between the databases can be an incremental process.
Figure 2: Data model of a three-tier system
Because of decentralization through self-service and integration in business information systems, authorization has to be possible on various kinds of levels.
In the application authorization must be possible for modules, screens, tables and fields. The same authorization must take place on database level. If not, a clever user with limited authorization is able to approach the data in the database with the help of an SQL tool. Further more it is possible to give the application administrator (of the Human Resources department) a higher authorization level than the system administrator (of the automation department).
In order to support a quick implementation it must be possible to administer specific roles. It is possible to copy a defined role to another.
Authorization has to apply to the same extend to the query tool and the report generator.
When a person is not authorized to use a specific item, he is not able to see that item.
If there is for some time lack of activities the user will be logged off the system.
The application contains an audit trail that leaves a trace of the identity of the user who has modified data. The kind of data is configurable by the customer.
The elements for the state register are definable by the customer, but a default state register is provided with the following items:
It is possible to obtain reports of mutations or actions taken over a specified period. It is also possible to have any selections the user wants within this report.
In multi hardware sites user attributes are required for the mainframe, the unixbox, the NetWare software, the databases and various information systems, each independent of each other.
A software solution that governs this process would be useful for managing the IT-structure. For this functionality the HRMIS should be leading, because it is the primary spot where the data of the (future) employee is registered.
All transactions must be kept in history. If a mutation, with financial implications in the past, is administered the previous situation must remain intact next to the new situation in order to understand reports concerning the previous situation. Data therefore is delimited with respect to its period of validity.
The customer must be able to indicate what elements over which time period should be kept in history. Different patterns can be defined for the national and the international database.
It will not be possible that the various local business sites define different definitions for the international base concerning history management because of history inconsistencies.
Because of the self-service concept specific hardware options have to be available to guarantee the utmost user-friendliness. It must be possible for instance that blue-collar workers who have no affection with a PC still can administer their own data.
Three types of hardware configurations should be available for the employee and supported by the HRMIS:
In the future there will no longer be a specific HR application or a specific Finance application. Al these applications will be modules of a business information system. In order to anticipate on this future model a HRMIS has to be:
Several databases, like Oracle, Informix and SQL-server, must be supported.
To satisfy the modern demands the HRMIS must have a standard (CORBA or DCOM) object-oriented design and has to offer a client-server environment. This last statement means that the application is located on a server and the communication between client and server is governed by remote procedure calls.
The business software is the starting point concerning the discussion if parts of the application should be on the (fat) client (like Peoplesoft) or on the application server with thin clients. This means that it must be possible to have (large parts) of the application on the client or on a server.
The user is able to determine on which server (or client) he wants to perform the processing.
Because of the global character of the application it has to support international (multiple currencies and multiple languages) as well as national aspects. This could be achieved by means of distributed databases or by replication of incremental data.
This architecture has to be transparent for the user. This means for instance that an employee in Germany is confronted with a screen that is adjusted to the German situation with its specific lay-out for zip-code, telephone number, etc.
The infrastructure has to be dynamic, capable of being enlarged, re-configured and customized without significant limitations.
In order to avoid extensive maintenance because of the client-server architecture the system has an automatic update component that facilitates deployment of new versions and new tools. This procedure is batch-driven. The user can run the procedure at his command.
The modern organization focuses on the market and the customer. This company tries to redesign its business processes to make them flexible enough to extend the value chain and customer-driven.
It is a competitive edge for organizations to capture, route and track its business processes and work processes.
To be able to re-engineer the work processes the architecture of a support system, like a HRMIS should be based on these work processes.
There are three different types of workflow:
It is advisable that the workflow architecture is in conformity with a known standard, like IDEF. This one is mandated by the US government and used by a.o. aerospace firms.
It contains five elements: inputs, controls, mechanisms, activity process and output. These workflows exist at an aggregated level and can be drilled down in decomposed processes.
The main HR products of this moment with integrated workflow are more or less routine-oriented (SAP, Smartstream and HR Access). Of these three only Smartstream is able to analyze the activity. For the future a HRMIS must be able to administer ad-hoc workflows aside routine-oriented workflows given the temporary matrixstructures in companies.
It is very important that the application contains designed workflow models. One of the major threats for business process re-engineering is that the existing way of working is replicated in an automated system. The focus is than limited to efficiency and control and not extended to the quality of the work process.
Generic templates have the advantage of quick implementation and offer a mirror for the existing procedures. These templates can be parameterized to the companies needs.
Stored procedures will result in an expert system, leading the employee through different stages of the process. Such procedures can be:
Self-service means that the employee can administer his personal information to a certain extend and that a manager can access on-line relevant information about his workforce.
The basic philosophy behind self-service is the business rule of worker and managerial authority and responsibility that 85% of transactions and/or the employee can make decisions in question. Only 15% of the transactions should be transported to a higher or other level. Also self-service means the elimination of lots of (low-grade) work for the front office and double work (the employee writes down a request and the P&O assistant puts it in the system).
Because of the possible global character of the company in question this functionality is typically an item that has to be available as an applet on the Internet.
The extend of self-service has to be established by the customer, but standard functionality is given concerning:
Management information extends HR. The manager wants to look inside any area of business. It is therefore necessary that data can be accumulated from various sources. This functionality is therefore not a part of the HRMIS but is defined in a separate EIS-tool (chapter 7.3)
As a result of self-service the employee is triggered to "do-it-yourself" instead of asking the HR department to "do-it-for-him". Side-effects are: faster updating of data, no more "double-work" and less re-doing because of mistakes.
By end-user computing is not meant that the user will be able to do programming by himself, but that the application must allow the user to work with advanced functionality, like the report tool in an easy way.
Because of the still increasing penetration of Microsoft in the workplace it is important that the quality of the GUI has the same look and feel as the GUI of Microsoft. Apart from faster acceptance the user will require less training.
For the user the interface is in fact the application. Therefore all the modules and the extended functionality must have the same look-and-feel and the highest degree of graphic screen. Especially the report tool must get a lot of attention. Lots of applications offer report tools where the user must use difficult SQL statements and/or define his question in terms of relations and joins.
The presentation of information is in tree format. The user has dynamic access to underlying information by means of drill-down.
As much as possible icon dragging and dropping is used instead.
For various procedures it is possible that a customer wants to execute all mutations at once, for instance with the processing of declarations or a general raise in pay for all employees. The customer therefore has to have the option to use fast entry on each field.
It is possible to process single record screens as well as person-related screens. It is also possible to switch between these screens.
By preselection it is possible to get a suggestion for the employees in question; the user can add or delete. Data is presented with default values.
It must be possible to customize screens and fields for the specific user. In this way the user is confronted only with those aspects of the HRMIS that are useful for him. These screens can be copied to groups of users.
Customization of buttons, toolbars and fields is possible by support of wizards and by means of drag-and-drop of icons.
For quick selections the user can use filters on all screens that are available to him. With these filters he can select. Tables with defined data format support the entry in these fields. If the user chooses he can export the results of his filtering to other software environments like a spreadsheet.
The user is able to control the setup of his filtering, for instance through generated coding.
It is possible to search on each field by typing some of the letters contingently with wildcards. A selection is presented. Highlighting can pick items or groups of items.
The help function can be divided in the following functionality:
The customer can alter, adjust and create the helptext.
By means of hypertext it is possible to drill down in helptexts. The topics that obtain further information are highlighted.
Apart from hardware requirements response should be under 1.5 seconds for 95% of the transactions. For complicated transactions and queries batch processing must be available.
When a user wants to do on-line processing that is so complicated that it will take more than x time the user is warned beforehand.
Stored procedures are available to guide the user through predefined steps of the various functionality parts. These stored procedures are customer-definable and probably administered by the workflow management.
By means of the Microsoft standards (OLE 2.0, DDE and ODBC) data can be imported and exported to databases, spreadsheets and wordprocessors.
It is possible to attach scanned documents to entities, like employees (for instance job descriptions).
Organization, job design, budgeting and planning form the components for the organizational structure, the present and projected staffing with factual and required types of skills and the nature of the work in these structures.
Because of the growing demand of organizations to become more and more flexible the power of this module has become more important over the years. The module should be able to:
Because of the change towards less hierarchy the module must be capable to describe hierarchical, functional as well as matrix structures. Presentation could be by means of showing solid and dotted lines in the graphical overview.
This structure is the aggregated situation of the information concerning workplace and employee:
By means of drill down it will be possible to match position and employee with each other.
Further drill down will show the current and past appraisals, skills, job histories, career aspirations and training development plans.
It is also possible to have a view of open positions and select a match of relevant candidates (further specification of this functionality takes place in Recruitment).
It will be possible to compare organizational structures created this way with each other and with historic versions. Differences will be accounted for in skills, hours, total payroll and payroll per component.
The organization module keeps track of all movements for all positions and all employees.
It must be possible to set up unlimited different administrations. These administrations are used for instance for employees who retire. The relevant data is inherited in the retirement administration. Which data is relevant depends on the extend that the company has outsourced this administration to a retirement agency. In some cases companies administer the retired employees themselves, therefore retirement pay must be calculated by payroll.
Supply and demand for short, mid and long term has to be matched quantitative as well as qualitative. Control of under- and overcapacity results in optimization.
Planning is expressed in several entities, like salary costs in combination with skills, payroll and Fte. Planning must be possible at the level of position control and for aggregated levels.
An element of planning is forecasting the human resource supply. It is of importance to estimate labor requirements at some future period.
Input on behalf of these forecasts should be modeled business processes, which give an estimate of the amount of skills needed for the short and long run.
The HRMIS must be able to discriminate between internal and external human resource supply forecasting. Internal relates to conditions in the organization (age distribution, retirements and index and control figures concerning terminations, absence, etc.). External forecasting is in fact the planning of recruiting and hiring based on index and control historical figures.
External forecasting should be a rather simple functionality for a HRMIS. Based on a parameter set defined by the organization recruitment and hiring is calculated over for instance the last two years.
The parameter set can be manipulated with percentages and/or nominal figures dependent on the expectations of increase or decrease of growth of the organization.
Since this way of forecasting is a combination of various variables the functionality is much more complicated than the external forecasting.
At the basis of this forecasting lies the succession plan. This plan is a combination of management development, career planning, appraisal, performance and orientation and training. This functionality will be discussed in chapter 5.
The report that gives an overview of these forecasts has a tabular and a graphic form (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Graphic report of human resource supply forecasting
|
Departments |
1996 |
1997 |
|
1 |
Promotion out Retirement and projected resignations Promotionally blocked External recruitment Promotion in |
Promotion out Retirement and projected resignations Promotionally blocked External recruitment Promotion in |
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2 |
2
2 1 5
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1
1 2 5 |
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3 |
3
2 3 4
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4
4 3 11 |
Losses of the strength capacity are made up of resignations, dismissals, transfers and retirements. The first three are estimated by index and control figures based on the experiences of the past. Retirement figures are based on reviews of standard labor agreements and specific data from the functionality of appraisal and performance.
Promotion in is fed by the annual appraisal process that identifies promotable employees for the next planning cycle (one or two years) and from the career planning. Matching of employees with career planning will be discussed in chapter 5.
This model can be aggregated to higher organizational levels and to combinations of tasks, or if so defined to jobs constructed from task building blocks.
The following types of staffing must be supported:
This functionality is very country-specific. For instance the USA has very extensive regulations concerning this legal context, like the consequences for employers and employees of the Civil Rights Act, The Equal Pay Act, Disabilities Act, the Immigration Reform and Control Act, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, The Rehabilitation Act, etc.
Figure 3 is a generic model to administer these procedures and grievances. Only the text in the boxes can be different in case of the various laws and the dates can differ.
For the Dutch situation this model can be applied to disciplinary measures for employees, who behave contrary the rules of the company.
Figure 5: Model on behalf of the legal context of employment decisions
A primary function of a HRMIS is the decision support concerning cost and value analysis. A module for value analysis will be reviewed in chapter 7.
In Finance the costs of the business come together. These are: direct cash outlay, labor, overhead and capital. The HRMIS contributes to some of these costs (costs related to training, declarations if this module is integrated in the HRMIS) or is the calculation engine (salary).
In the last case only the final results are transported to Finance. It is therefore important to describe the functionality of labor costs for the HRMIS.
The application must be able to calculate to what extent the staff complement diverges from the norm in terms of money and/or hours. Selections can be made inclusive and exclusive of temporary workers, work experience trainees and activities of third parties. This overview must be able to be aggregated for fixed project and matrix structures and at department and division level.
Labor costs can be divided in salary (income tax included) and fringe benefits. Fringe benefits can be divided in time paid, but not worked (vacation, sick leave, etc.) and fringe costs outlay (social security, health insurance, pension, etc.). In the US is the first one 13,5% and in Holland 15,5%. Fringe costs outlay is running in the US about 23%; in Holland at the most 10%.
To be able to estimate the total labor costs a company has to define a fringe benefits multiplier.
To be able to quantify the activity value analysis the total labor costs must be divided by the time units (for instance minutes) of the employee, for a full-timer this is 124.800 minutes a year.
The functionality of this costing is best located in the module pay system. The system checks for the kind of worked hours, because third parties, like temporary workers have no or other fringe costs.
Payroll is less suited because a company can decide to outsource payroll.
A separate functionality is the expected value analysis. This method is use to calculate the costs of events that happen only a certain probability of the time, like making errors.
The equation is E(v) = p (probability) x A(used time).
The expected value analysis can also be used for a quick analysis of the revenues if a work process is flattened.
To be able to match skills and tasks and to develop jobs specific tasks must be defined. It depends on the organization how much detail is given to the descriptions of these tasks. A generic model is given in the form of a matrix as an example.
Figure 6: Matrix model on behalf of task descriptions
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Preparing |
Operational |
Supportive |
Interactive |
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Production |
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Technical |
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Quality |
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Logistics |
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To be able to show an overview of the companies activities job charts can be displayed. In these charts the job data is grouped.
Jobs are the aggregated form of detailed and/or roughly (in case of for instance a new task) defined tasks. These tasks are weighted on their value for the organization. It can be specified that combinations of these tasks produce a surplus value.
In this way it is possible for the organization to define the value of its jobs. Aside of this functionality it is also possible to register known job description systems like FUWA, ORBA and HAY.
There are a number of ways to administer job design:
The modern way: in the work processes specific tasks have been defined. The next step is to combine these tasks in a fitting program. A match takes place of this program and the skills of (future) employees. At this moment tasks as building blocks can be added to the program or withdrawn from it. If a sufficient match has been accomplished a job has been designed.
The old-fashioned way: activities of the employees are being analyzed and written down in the following groups: responsibilities, skills, social interaction, specific knowledge and aggravating labor conditions. These groups are subdivided in points of view, aspects and balance factors.
Figure 7: Model for the ORBA method
|
Groupings |
Points of view |
Aspects |
Balance factors |
|
Responsibility |
Treatment of questions, problems and challenges Freedom of acting |
Complexity Functional space
Results and influence |
6
4 |
|
Skills |
Skills and knowledge |
extent and depth |
5 |
|
Social interaction |
Management
Communication
Contacting |
Number of employees; way of managing; circumstances Complexity and way of communicating Quality Functional relation Influence |
2
2
2 |
|
Specific knowledge |
Attentiveness Control of movements Exceptional knowledge |
Intensity and duration Control and aggravating circumstances Nature Importance |
2 1
1 |
|
Aggravating circumstances |
Physical efforts/weight Physical efforts/ bearing Working conditions Personal risk |
Intensity and duration
Intensity and duration
Intensity and duration Possibility and degree of injury |
1
1
3 1 |
Independent of the job design method the system must have functionality to perform grading of jobs.
Decision support systems exist for support of the grading of jobs, for instance Hay/McBer. The functionality of the grading of jobs in the HRMIS is limited to the performing of calculations, the registering of the results and comparisons with reference material.
Calculated results of job grading are related to the defined salary scales. If a value is calculated or entered the system provides the related salary on basis of points and business rules (seniority, promotion and demotion, etc.). This advice can be accepted or altered.
In general the system can obtain unlimited calculations for grading methods. From a table a specific method with its calculation rules can be chosen.
Most grading systems work with reference material to get reliable grading and to quicken the process. Three kinds of reference material can be defined:
The screen that provides information of grading shows fields, like:
Most organizations on this moment use the job-based pay systems. For this method the following functionality must be present:
The mentioned function groups are normally those who are submitted to the collective labor agreement. Managers and employees who participate in the career development program (CD) are normally not submitted to the cao. The needed functionality for this group is somewhat more complicated. Figure 8 gives an example.
|
Levels |
Performancebands |
|||
|
conditional performance |
satisfactory performance |
above satisfactory performance |
outstanding performance |
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|
Executives |
17(100k-250k) |
17(100k-285k) |
17(100k-325k) |
17(100k-400k) |
|
Top level |
16(90k-170k) |
16(90k-190k) |
16(90k-210k) 17(100k-250k) |
16(90k-230k) 17(100k-285k) |
|
Higher level |
15(80k-125k) |
15(80k-140k) |
15(80k-155k) 16(90k-170k) |
15(80k-170k) 16(90k-190k) |
|
Middle level |
14(70k-100k) |
14(70k-107K) |
14(70k-115k) 15(80k-125k) |
14(70k-123k) 15(80k- 140k) |
The first column is the long-term performance. It is estimated at the advance of an employee’s life cycle in the company. In these levels career models are defined.
At the basis of this expectation are several criteria defined with a specific score. The performancebands for the short are each year compared with these expectations. This comparison leads to an individual increase.
An extended functionality is that the company demands that there will be a continuing increase in performance. In that case after the short term is compared with the long term it is also viewed in combination with the scores of previous years.
In case of a decline this can lead to smaller or no increase in pay.
The system can be made flexible if the company wants to pay specific (young) employees with high market value more (figure 9).
After the evaluation of the first year this group of employees are getting an extra nominal amount above his initial salary (1). Till moment 2 this situation continues. At that evaluation moment must be determined if the extra pay must be reduced because the employee remains a satisfactory performer or that he has the abilities to grow to a higher band, for instance satisfactory performer.
For this purpose it is of importance that the system can calculate with the use of algorithms when there should be moments that it is still possible to bent the line back to normal. The maximum of the scale must remain the maximum.
For extra flexibility the company must be able to use the initial pay increase as a component of this system. The initial can for instance only be calculated from the nominal component in stead of the total salary. The initial can also be used to get faster back to the original payline.
Figure 9: Example of a flexible pay system
Aside of the method of job-based pay systems there are the market-based pay system and the skills-based pay system. Of course hybrid forms can also exist.
Because of these hybrid forms registration of the type of system must be possible
In the case of market pay registration must make it clear on what basis the pay is calculated (for instance by means of surveys). There are two ways to register this kind of pay system:
In the case of skill-based pay the basis of the pay calculation is the tasks an employee undertakes. These tasks are valued in terms of pay. In combination with time and attendance the ultimate pay for the employee is calculated. A simpler form is to calculate pay from a number of jobs.
The pay system must also contain functionality to be able to calculate the costing of employees as mentioned in chapter 3.5.
Human resources administration consists of two elements: the personal data of the employee and time and attendance. Elements of organizational structure and Human Resources Management are available with limited functionality.
It should be possible that because of scalability HR administration can function independent of the other modules. If the other modules are available for HR administration the limited functionality is inherited from the other modules.
About three screens offer the primary personal data of the employee and his family. The following fields are standard:
Apart from employees there is work done by temporary workers who do not have a labor contract. There are three distinct groups of temporary workers:
The system checks costs against budgets and signals at specified moments, for instance when 90% of the budget is reached.
As a new service of the agencies payrolling must be registered separately because of the lower cost for the company. In the case of payrolling it must be possible to register which employee the temporary worker replaces and because of what.
Payment of these categories is handled in Finance.
The results of the calculated salary are inherited in an overview of the individual salary. If the engine of the pay structure is used, this will be the source of the data. If the HR application is stripped, payroll will be the source.
Data is available about yearly salary and monthly salary. The system performs the calculations.
In the USA and Canada it is demanded by law that a certain percentage of jobs is being done with employees who are in one way or the other disabled. That means that constructed jobs must be decomposed in temporary specific jobs for the specific disabilities of the employee.
The specific disability is registered in a field as are specific actions taken that allows the employee to fulfill his tasks.
Automatic reports are generated that are requested by the government.
The following items can be registered:
In a table all items are listed that the employer furnishes. A separate field registers if the item is lended tot the employee or that it has become his property.
Specific items can trigger a payroll calculation because of tax laws. In Holland for instance a tax count in (the fiscal consumer price) must take place if the employee has the disposal of a lease car.
If an employee changes his job business rules are checked if he still is allowed to use the item.
Specific fields are:
The system can register all kinds of court orders, like earnings arrestments, child support etc.
The date is registered that deduction must take place. Balances outstanding are updated automatically as each deduction is taken. It is possible to pay various sums to third parties.
In the system is registered if the employee is taking part in the pension plan and if not the reason. Recorded is the date of participation, premium, type, contribution of the employer, date of retirement, calculates widows(er) part.
The system must be able to register company rules concerning insurance. These company rules are very influenced by law and therefore country-specific.
An example is the registration of health insurance:
The basic functionality of time and attendance is the comparison between time recording as is scheduled and the actual attendance. This comparison leads to deviations that have consequences for overtime, vacation, sick leave and according to labor agreements or companies policy mutations in payroll.
Terminals, self-service of the employee or central registration of the HR department can perform the registration of factual attendance. Because this is dependent on the customer’s infrastructure all these ways of data entry have to be supported.
In the case of electronic registration this means an import function of employee number and starting and ending time. In the case of self-service the employee must have a tabular screen at his disposal to be able to perform quick data entry. In the case of central registration fast entry options are necessary. In this way large numbers can be processed.
It must be possible to define shifts in hours, days, weeks, months and a year. It is possible to copy these shifts to the various employees and it is possible to attach a shift to a single employee.
Time and attendance is a stored procedure. This enables the customer of interrupting the process and performing necessary adjustments by changing table entries.
The process time evaluation has to have extended functionality. This part of the process captures the specific (or generic) agreements that have been made between employer and employee about questions like:
It is possible that these agreements are limited to time substitution or extended to extra pay or a hybrid form. The calculated result presents a report with generation of wage type (overtime, shift bonus, night-shift bonus, Sunday and holiday bonus, etc.) and time type (normal hours, flextime, unapproved overtime, etc.)
Overtime approval is possible before or after the fact. These approvals can be assigned to:
The following example is possible:
Every month a shift allowance percentage should be calculated for that month; for workers working shifts there is a minimum percentage of 0.15.
The general calculation rule for shift allowance for the hours between
7 p.m. and 7 a.m.:
Monday 7 p.m. - Friday 7 a.m.: 0.15
Friday 7 p.m. - Saturday 12 p.m.: 0.30
Saturday 12 p.m. - Monday 7 a.m.: 0.45
After 3.5 hours of shift, a half-hour break is compulsory. No supplement will be paid out over this half-hour.
In the event of transfer to day shift or to a service roster where the supplement is more than 3% lower, there will be a schedule for gradually decreasing the amount:
The following possibilities for overtime are possible:
If overtime has financial consequences the calculations for payroll have to take place in Time Evaluation. The specific payroll components are addressed on this spot. If not the payroll engine has to calculate and only the calculated data is sent back. This will lead to loss of data that could be meaningful for management.
In the time and attendance module it is possible to link worked time to cost objects (cost centers, work orders or projects). This can be done before or after time registration.
Time and attendance also registers worked hours of third parties who are not employed, like hired consultants and temporary employees without a contract.
Because of this facility the company is able to calculate the costs of the third parties and is no longer dependent on billing of these third parties.
Payment is taken care off in payroll. This is a pro-active way to cope with these costs instead of reacting on bills of the third parties and do the handling in Finance.
Figure 10: Generic model of time and attendance
All various forms of absence should be accounted for in hours, days and calendar days.
It is possible to have consistency checks built in, for instance it is not possible to take vacation when one is sick.
Time schedules:
In the case that time schedules are used as rosters a tool that calculates mathematical optimization models must be available. This tool calculates the crew of a shift on basis of quantity (availability and accounted hours for the specific tasks) and quality (skills, specific jobs).
For time and attendance fast entry is available with one screen for all types of absence. This is visualized by means of a calendar with markings for specific dates.
From all elements of time and attendance selections can be made. This is of importance to be able to select groups who satisfy specific index numbers. For instance in locating an employee with drug abuse:
It must be possible to register the following data:
It must be possible to register the following data:
It must be possible to register the following data:
Time and attendance offers not enough functionality for companies that have a matrix or project structure. Therefore a specific module is needed to support these kind of companies. It is of importance not to duplicate functionality that is provided by popular Project Management applications, but to augment the assigning process in a way that related data can be exported to such an application.
In this module groups are defined and can be linked to job profiles and dimensions (see chapter 5.4 Skills Model). The following requirements are addressed:
The complete suite of data can be exported to a project management application for the graphical results.
This module is, because of independency of time and place, typically a good example for self-service by means of an internet applet.
The experience of an employee from joining and completing a project is subject of appraisal. After this procedure calculated results are added to his skills.
In a table can the company adjust what it defines by absenteeism. The standard rule is: absenteeism is any failure of an employee to report for or to remain at work as scheduled, regardless of reason. This automatically excludes vacations, etc. and the discussion if absence is excusable or not.
The following functionality can also be obtained on an aggregated level, like division, business site or for the whole company: They can also be obtained for various groups of employees, for instance men and woman and combined with definable ratios as: age, function, salary, etc..
To be able to match absenteeism policy and results it must be possible to register health care programs. This means that there must be distinction in the time and attendance module between absenteeism resulting from external factors (for instance the flu) originated by the behavior of the employee (for instance alcohol abuse or unsafe behavior) or causes in working conditions (for instance unsafe conditions).
On behalf of the health care registration a table has to be available for identifying the specific measure. Dates must be registered for start and end of the measure.
Measures are quantified in terms of costs. This can be a lump sum, but is also possible that a measure is calculated from a defined starting point. For instance the company believes that the result from better caring for sick employees the absenteeism will decrease by 5%. This can be capitalized and set against costs this better attendance will cause (training, invested hours etc.).
Costs can be divided in components, for instance direct and indirect costs. It is possible to built standard calculations for these components, for instance concerning absenteeism indirect costs are about four times as high as direct costs.
Apart from policy the system provides basic functions concerning health care visits, such as:
Self-service is extended to the company doctor.
A part of health care is the registration of accidents, the date they happened and costs of accidents.
In Europe health care and health care programs are outsourced to third parties, but in the USA and Canada the companies themselves often administer programs.
For these countries the system must obtain the functionality to register the following health plans:
Planning in case of expansion and vacancies combined with career planning and management development starts the recruitment action.
As mentioned earlier this module is especially useful as an Internet applet. It is of importance that the applicant is confronted with a detailed form, that offers information concerning the vacancy, like title, location, primary responsibilities and requirements. Applicants are asked to fill in:
It is of importance that by means of tables the applicant has limited choice in the naming of his abilities, so that in a later stadium an easy match by the system can take place.
After the applicant has finished the system matches the data with the required demands of the vacancy and presents a quantified match and a proposal to the HR staff. This proposal contains the best fit (probability of success) scores and lists candidates in descending order of fitness for the job.
Gaps are quantified, these results can be used for development options.
In this way it is also possible if the proposal is followed to let the system handle the layoffs. In situations of doubt it must be possible to keep records of individuals who do not receive an offer in the first stage.
Selected applicants are included in a workflow with scheduler functions (this can also be a different functionality. In that case both functionality should be combined for this process). Dates are set for interviews and later assessment (if needed) and medical examinations. Date is inherited if an applicant becomes an employee. The workflow manages necessary building blocks for word processing like invitations for interviews, contracts, etc.
Figure 11: Recruitment Process
It is possible for the company to register the orientation policy it favors. By means of the scheduler appointments on specific dates can be made. The system reminds the HR department of specific actions to be taken, like the procuration of an employee orientation kit, with the procedures, company policy handbook, etc.
The next step is the follow-up. This consists of a checklist of actions to be taken to speed up the integration process.The workflow is ended with an evaluation form the new employee has to fill in after for instance one year.
The results of this form can be generated in one comprehensive report for the company to be able to determine if the program is meeting its objectives.
As with absenteeism the costing of employee turnover is management support for decisionmaking concerning business redesign or re-engineering.
In case of layoffs the decrease of costs must be compared with the increase of other costs. This increase of certain costs can be divided in direct and indirect costs:
It is possible to specify these costs or to administer as a lump sum.
Apart from costs it also possible to register the reason of the specific turnover.
To be able to improve the efficiency of future recruitment efforts it is of importance to analyze the performance of various recruitment sources:
To be able to compare economical benefits of several selection programs the following equation can be used:
D U
= ntrxySDy
x
D U = increase in productivity in currency
n = number of employees hired
t = average job tenure in years of those hired
rxy = validity coefficient representing the correlation between the predictor and job performance in the applicant population
SDy = the standard deviation of job performance in currency, roughly 40% of the annual wage
x
= the average predictor score of those selected in the applicant population,
expressed in terms of standard scores
The manager or team coordinator is presented a short evaluation screen for each temporary worker. The elements in this screen are company chosen, but some issues are very common:
Performance management helps managers to direct employees to achieve organizational goals and to develop their competencies. Appraisal is normally a yearly routine but the company is able to adjust for other periods.
To be able to appraise an employee what has to be done and how well it has been done must be defined and recorded in tables for later use.
For the what the task definitions can be used. Also a distinction must be made between qualitative and quantitative performance.
The graphic rating scale (figure 12) is the most widely used method and the most fitted for a HRMIS, because of its matrix structure.
The calculations that follow the rating have to be set by the customer. It is possible to have rating calculations for a single employee and/or job or groups of employees and/or jobs.
It is possible to have an employee appraised by more than one appraiser. The results of the appraisals can be compared and joined. It is possible to value these appraisals differently with the respective calculations.
On the basis of the result the system can generate a salary proposal with the help of the pay system.
A second screen registers the arrangements that are the result of the appraisal. Data that is used in other modules, for instance arrangements about education to be undertaken are inherited; the use of tables with defined items is therefore necessary. Dates are set when the arrangements starts and when it is finished with the use of the scheduler. Dates can also be set for monitoring.
Before the definitions for appraisal are entered in the system the company must define what the specific demands are for employee, team and division.
Evaluation is later possible by means of adding the results of the individual employees. It is possible to deselect specific individuals and weigh specific individuals differently.
At the highest level performance can be clustered in:
The levels below are customer definable, but standard templates are available. A template for the use in de USA focuses mostly on results, but a template for Japan focuses on effort put in the job, integrity, loyalty, cooperative spirit and customer service.
The system provides a screen like the one in figure 12. Algorithms can be adjusted to the requirements of the company. When the appraiser has filled in the form he is directly confronted with graphs. Figure 13 is a graph at the highest level of a single employee.
Figure 12: Form for performance assessment
|
Rating factors |
Level of performance |
||||
|
Quantitative |
Unsatisfactory |
Conditional |
Satisfactory |
Above Satisfactory |
Outstan-ding |
|
Job knowledge |
|||||
|
Amount of time used to do the job |
|||||
|
Error rating |
|||||
|
Attendance |
|||||
|
Qualitative |
|||||
|
Appearance |
|||||
|
Dependability |
|||||
|
Quality of work, accuracy |
|||||
|
Ability to coordinate |
|||||
|
Ability to analyze |
|||||
|
Ability to evaluate |
|||||
|
Relationship with people |
|||||
|
Job knowledge |
|||||
Figure 13: Graphic display of performance rating
The individual ratings can be aggregated into groupings, for instance teams. It is possible to define the amount of detail in the results. The less detailed view consists of a screen that is divided in three colors or symbols (for instance +,0 and-), representing the quality of the workforce.
Performance forms will be generated based on the goals, standards and competencies required by a job in combination with the appraisal ratings for employees on goal accomplishment on short mid and long term and competency assessment.
The goals can be aggregated to higher levels like an organizational unit or a business site.
It is possible that ratings of the employee are fed by the manager or by multiple raters, like: manager, peers, external observers etc.
The first appraisal of a recent recruited employee can be matched with averages in the company. Comparisons can be made if this employee is recruited by means of external or internal recruitment.
A rather new tendency, especially in high-tech surroundings is the use of teams to manage the work processes.
To be able to create a team a deep insight must exist in the skills of the various employees. Aside from the KVA skills of the individual employee other key skills emerge when the building of teams is at stake. Because the individual skills remain basic for building teams the extended functionality for a HRMIS as a DSS for team building can be a very important issue for a HRMIS.
As an example the method of Margerison and McCann is worked out in this chapter.
Two elements are key functions in team building:
Assessing the skills of the individual employee in combination with specific skills needed for balancing does balancing the team.
These skills can be divided in four topics that have each a scale with two extremes. These topics with their extremes are:
On the basis of this scaling a team can be structured that fits the balanced items as shown in figure 15. The results of this scaling are presented in graphical modus.
|
Extrovert
Practical
Analytical
Structured
|
|
Introvert
Creative
Beliefs-based Flexible |
Modern companies are extending their ways of appraising. Not only supervisors are appraising, but also colleagues and stakeholders like customers.
The system offers a screen for these third parties and calculates their ratings with each other in an equal way or if the company wants with different weighting.
|
Subject |
Customer view |
Colleagues view |
Supervisor view |
|
Advising |
high |
low |
medium |
|
Innovating |
|||
|
Promoting |
|||
|
Developing |
|||
|
Organizing |
|||
|
Producing |
|||
|
Inspecting |
|||
|
Maintaining |
|||
|
Linking |
It is also possible to administer an importance rating to the different items. A further drill-down offers a report with the team overview per item and the score of the various employees in the team.
The calculation of the importance rating offers an overview of the combined items per employee and gives a ranking of the team members.
This is also possible for a comparison between teams.
Teams are issued a name. Membership of teams (and the ratings and appraisals) is kept in history. In this way historic overviews can be obtained of the individual employee of his growth (or decline) while being a member of the specific teams.
These overviews can also be obtained for the team as a whole.
Figure 16: Training needs assessment model
In this model four levels for determining the needs that training can fulfill are given:
Elements of this module have to be a part of self-service and therefore Internet applets. If not elements of this module are too much support sensitive.
The administration of training an employee has received in previous jobs is inherited from recruitment.
Because tasks are registered with necessary skills to fulfill these tasks a proposal with recommended training is available. In the appraisal module fields appointments are made concerning skills gaps with dates.
The module contains an analyzer tool to be able to create "what-if" scenarios. A company can find it useful to provide specific training because of market opportunities. The analyzer tool must be able to select employees and groups of employees who do or do not match these new demands. Also overviews of time and money that has to be invested are generated.
In case of limited training capacity the analyzer tool can identify those employees with the greatest development needs. Lack of skills or weight of tasks involved can trigger this.
Through self-service it is possible for an employee that wants a different job to obtain a match of his skills and the skills needed for the job in question.
The analyzer tool provides suggestions for steps to be taken in order to lessen the gaps and provides specific training, costs and availability.
In the training and development module this data is inherited and scheduled.
It is possible to have an overview of availability of training sites, enrollments, attendance and completion, evaluation results of training and trainee.
The course catalog is a workflow that checks and administers the following functionality:
From a cost-perspective view the largest cost component of training is the cost of paying the employee during the training. To support the choices management has to make to allocate budgets for training, the HRMIS offers a trainability score.
This is an algorithm composed of the skills, knowledge and attitude of the employee
The employee is able to register his training plan for the short and the long term. Based on the specific career planning in combination with the gaps and the training already attended by the employee he is able to pick defined training plans. He is confronted with a screen that contains:
The employee is able to schedule according to the training plan with the scheduler. A completed registration form on behalf of the institute is output
If the company wants it is possible that permission must be obtained first.
On behalf of future choices concerning training evaluation must be registered.
The employee who has received the training is confronted with a screen that shows the defined goals of the training in questions. He is enabled to add a score to these goals. With means of a text field the scores are explained.
The appraiser of the employee does the same for goals concerning the employee such as:
The training planning workflow is a difficult one. It is fed by organization & planning, job description, appraising employee performance, sometimes recruitment and career planning.
To be able to match jobs and functions with an employee the skills of the employee must be modeled in the system.
At the basis of skills lie the skill definitions, that can be arranged in a hierarchical manner and can be combined to match the large variety of tasks definitions within the company.
Tasks are defined units of work that can be performed by one or more individual. A function includes a number of tasks that can be translated into jobs. Functions describe the primary operations that occur in the company, it is a combination of logically related activities.
A position consists of one or more functions performed by a particular employee in the company at a given time. A job is a generic term for describing a number of positions, that share functions.
The jobs can contain key performance areas , that indicate expected major or important output.
Disciplines are bundles of functions and jobs. In a functional organization this can be Human Resources or Finance.
Within skills it is possible to register skill types.
Dimensions are the descriptive aggregation of similar and/or related behaviours, skills, training and experiences. The proficiencies form another element of these dimensions. Proficiencies represent how well each skill must be able to be performed.
In these dimensions also the specific skill profiles are composed. These profiles support strategic decisions of the company, guide career development, manage training budgets/deliverables and are used for gap analysis, search engine for succession planning and resourcing. The profiles in dimensions can be compared with the job profiles and with the skill profile of a specific employee. In this case four different attributes must be specified:
Should there be a gap between current and planned or required possible scenarios for recommended training are offered. In this way career paths can be set in combination with the company’s strategic route.
Skills management is, because of the large handling of data, typically a good example for self-service. In case of multi-site companies or virtual offices this functionality can be offered as an internet applet. Figure 18 shows an example of a personal skill profile designed in Netscape
Figure 17: Relationmodel between employee, skills and jobs
Figure 18: Example of an Internet applet for a skill profile
In the past several years companies have started thinking of career management as a strategic activity of the company and therefore have begun with a more active and systematic approach of administering. Key issue is that company and employee are partners in career development.
It must be possible to register the organization of a career management structure (committees etc.). In the system several career management programs can be registered.
Also a workflow for the career management process is available with data such as:
There is a tendency visible that a growing number of companies are finding their retirees a valuable source of experienced, dependable and motivated help.
To be able to assist management in developing strategies on this aspect a HRMIS must register:
Because of change in philosophy towards the role of the employee (more responsibility and self-service), increasing flexibility in shift between primary and secondary terms of employment and increasing costs direct and indirect compensation must be interchangeable. The functionality of the employment benefits plan must be able to administer the most far-fetching forms of cafeteria models.
Benefits can be divided in four categories:
Within these categories there are nearly unlimited options, because of the differences in legal systems throughout the world.
Employee benefits must be able to show:
This approach allows the employee to pick and choose between alternative benefit options.
It must be possible in the HRMIS to define an unlimited number of models of benefits plan with capitalization of the various components. The company can translate its rules in these plans and can offer basic and optional items.
A design tool must be available for the employee showing him how all elements of a benefit plan can be combined in different models. At the end personalized confirmation letters are generated. The result of the individual benefit plan is also registered on the salary slip.
At this moment especially for the US and Canada it is of importance that the HRMIS is capable to perform equity analysis of the companies pay practices.
The equity analysis engine in employment benefits produces scatterplots that compare evaluation point totals for jobs to the individual actual pay, capitalized benefits included. These scatterplots can also be conducted for individuals, groups of individuals and selections of them (for instance by gender).
It is also possible to benchmark the own employees against the market situation.
The scatterplots can be viewed for the total amount of pay but also be drilled down to compensation elements.
In the case of Canada appropriate reports are generated on behalf of the federal government and the various provincial entities.
Because of the strain between generic software and country-specific rules and legislation and the strain between extended functionality and scalability a top HRMIS must be able to support payroll in service as well payroll in company.
This chapter gives an overview of generic functionality of payroll. It is described in less detail because payroll is not the focus of this paper.
The cooperation between HR and Payroll is of the utmost importance. Therefore there have to be proven connections with payroll. Although this is practically nowhere possible there should be an on-line connection with the payroll application. In this case it is possible to obtain the calculated results from the payroll engine.
The payroll engine has to be equipped for the implementation in any company and in any country. That means that a way must be found to have a basic system with specific templates for the specific client. Probably the object-oriented approach offers a solution: employer entities are independent for tax and legal entities. In this way the enterprise’s policies (overtime, shifts, personal benefits, etc.) can be combined with specific but separate tax and legal entities.
This offers extended functionality for, for instance, multinationals that can, for strategic reasons, compare the results of their payroll worldwide and therefore also facilitate the mobility of the employees.
In figure 18 an example is given how a relation generic - local payroll can be realized.
Figure 19: Model for the relation between generic and local payroll
A lot of attention must be paid to the graphic interface. Most payroll systems offer a character-based interface and are programmed in COBOL. A GUI and an object-oriented environment offer a competitive edge. This means also that the rules and calculations have to contain labels with user language that is not limited to eight characters. Such labels can also be applied to the fields.
The user is offered a floating toolbar with interactive description of buttons, rules and fields. For the last two also "sticky help" can be applied.
Payroll is also based on workflows. The payroll processing cycle can be halted at specific moments to control the process.
Standard audit trail reports are available, like mutation overview, payroll exceptions, and employee data requests. Audit trail reports can be built consisting of all pay elements and dates.
Because of increasing globalization and mobility the question arises how to reward employees who work abroad. The strain is on the one hand that salary levels for the same job should not differ within a company and on the other that a company should not cost itself out because of lower local salary.
The pay system must be able to adapt to a modular approach. The compensation package is broken down into separate elements. Three major components are:
The following items are not directly related to a HRMIS, but will be included in package deals of the most important suppliers of HR (expense accounts by SAP and HR Access; Querytool by HR Access, Smartstream and Peoplesoft; Scheduler by Smartstream and Meta4) or are the result of my experience in customer contacts (Matching gifts and Suggestion box administration).
Topics that I rate with higher importance, like Query- and EIStool has gotten more attention. Also expense accounts are completely worked out. It is a powerful tool in the applications of SAP and HR Access but I also noticed lots of propriety applications with more or less this functionality at a number of customers with expensive tailor-made connections with their HRMIS.
This extended functionality is a specific example of self-service, routine-oriented workflow and Internet approach.
The employee fills in his expense form applet on any place in the world. This is redirected to a central database and along with the specific wishes for the customer is validated before or after the trip. Of course this validation can be turned off if the customer just wants random checks.
The Query tool has a different character than the report tool. The last one is capable of extracting data from the HR database with limited functionality for manipulation (filtering, counting, subtraction, seek strings etc.) The emphasis lies on fast reporting and end-user computing. The query tool is not contained to the HR database and obtains far more functionality in combining data from different data sources.
Independent suppliers offer generic Query tools, like Impromptu and Crystal Reports. Therefore it is not absolutely necessary that a Query tool is an integrated part of a HR solution. Impromptu is offered as Query-tool in the HR solutions of Raet (Holland) ADP, HR Access and Peoplesoft.
The advantage of an integrated Query tool is the limitation of suppliers and the same look and feel as the HRMIS.
The Query-tool must have access to the most common databases like Oracle, Informix and SQL server. It should be able to read the repositories of these databases and picture the various joints it has found.
It should contain predefined database independent templates, complete with formatting, logic, calculations and custom automation.
It should be able to have conditional filters, highlights and displays. This means that data is delivered only when it answers to certain conditions.
Like the Query tool the EIS tool is not a necessary part of a HRMIS because of the excellent applications (like Powerplay of Cognos) that can be obtained from third parties. However with regard to the self-service for managers it is more important than for the Query tool that the EIS tool has the same look-and-feel as the HR application. A Query tool is normally used by a skilled user, while a manager wants to have his (graphic) information by pushbutton.
Within the EIS tool relations must be defined between the HRMIS and the business applications, because the manager is not just interested in subjects that are limited to HR, bur more in the combination of HR and business. Therefore the functionality of the EIS tool extends the HRMIS.
The EIS-tool must have access to the most common databases like Oracle, Informix and SQL server or it must have access to the datawarehouse that is created by the Query-tool.
It is important that data can be obtained by means of extraction. In this way management information becomes portable. A daily download is sufficient to guarantee the quality of the data.
An extended functionality is that data is available on-line.
Specific functionality is:
The overall functionality of a scheduler extends the HR application. It is possible that the scheduler also operates in the business systems, for instance for activities in a project.
As with the Query tool it is not necessary to develop a scheduler for HR because of existing applications, such as Lotus Notes. This one is integrated in HR Access, the IBM HR solution.
In this chapter the functionality is limited to HR. The functionality is an addition to the workflow management. Workflow describes the process and actions to be taken. A scheduler is useful for planning dates in the future, for ad hoc actions that are normally no part of a procedure and by way of support for the user.
When an employee logs in to the system and there are open tasks or activities to be undertaken he gets a message. A screen displays all open tasks and highlights actions that must be administered that day with priorities. The tasks are grouped according to the mentioned modules. For instance recruiting:
Tasks can be executed unattended as part of a defined workflow. Steps as part of a task can be assembled into groups and run with a single selection.
A specific functionality of the scheduler is that it can calculate business rules or laws concerning "on-call-staff". In Holland for instance employers have to execute a "round-robin" system.
The scheduler can operate on the server as well on the client.
Because of its functionality like scheduling, electronic mail, groupware capacity and database management Lotus Notes is very appropriate for this function. HR Access uses Notes in this way.
This module is very country specific. In countries like the USA and Canada lots of companies have developed a policy towards gifts. In Canada also the government (federal or provincial) limits the amount a person or company can receive.
The system registers amount and number of gifts. It is possible that the system rejects the gift if for instance number or amount is exceeded.
The system provides the user, who is allowed to provide gifts, with possible candidates for gifts.
The following items must be registered:
This tool, based on workflow, enables the rating of services on criteria as: customer value-added, business value-added, no value-added. The output of this tool helps to estimate how much no-value and low-value activities are costing and which steps cost the most. Low value costs should be eliminated, high value/high costs should be outsourced.
The following steps are part of the process:
Footnote 1 is used as an example in the table in figure 18.
Figure 20: Example of an activity value analysis
|
Product |
Code |
To |
Value |
Task activity |
Code |
To |
Value |
Person |
Time |
|
Request |
101 |
B |
1 |
Employee talks to secretary |
101 |
B |
1 |
Emp.
|
15
|
|
Secretary listens and types form |
201 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
15 15 |
||||
|
Secretary walks to manager |
201 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
10 |
||||
|
Manager reads the form and signs it, puts it in out-box |
301 |
?B |
1 |
Man |
10 5 |
||||
|
Secretary retrieves the form |
201 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
10 |
||||
|
Secretary mails the form to manager’s manager |
201 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
5 |
||||
|
Secretary opens mail and reads form |
301 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
10 |
||||
|
Secretary walks to manager |
301 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
10 |
||||
|
Manager’s manager reads the form and signs it, puts it in out-box |
401 |
N |
3 |
Man. |
10 5 |
||||
|
Secretary retrieves the form and files it |
301 |
N |
3 |
Sec. |
10 5 |
||||
|
Employee is notified by secretary |
301 |
B |
1 |
Sec. |
5 |
On the basis of this data the following reports are generated:
This module takes care of the registering of ideas, the employees (alone or combinations) who have developed the idea, the date, the monetary value of the suggestion and the amount of cash (or other accommodations) the employee is rewarded with.
It is possible to administer the structure of the suggestion box committee. The procedure is workflow driven, elements are: date of delivery, level of use for the company, employees involved (it is possible to rank these employees concerning degree of involvement), date of decision, amount of profit for the company and reward. It is possible that a customer wants to prolong the workflow with procedures for disagreement. Probably at manager director level a verdict is required.
It is possible to locate the (combination of) employees who developed the idea; it is possible to locate the ideas from a single (or group) of employees and it is possible to get listings from ideas and employees by date. Ideas can be compared with each other in terms of profit for the company related to the amount of reward that was assigned.
The emphasis of the report function lies on fast reporting and end-user computing. It has to contain simple selection, sorting and manipulation possibilities, such as:
It must be able to export these calculated results by means of DDE to spreadsheets and wordprocessors. Because of this it is probably best that data is extracted for off-line use and put up in a repository.
In one operation unlimited (al least several) tables can be joined.
For power users who use directly SQL an error tool is available that highlights error coding.
Results can be viewed multi-dimensional as tables or graphics. Results can be saved and data is automatically refreshed if a result is being viewed.
The user must be able to pick from field-labels in stead of field-names (name of partner in stead of emp_part_act.i). The customer is able to change the names of these labels. The user-friendliness of a report tool is of utmost importance because it is being used by a large group of users. Therefore it must have:
Index of figures
Figure 1: Overview of the data structure *
Figure 2: Data model of a three-tier system *
Figure 3: Workflow model *
Figure 4: Graphic report of human resource supply forecasting *
Figure 5: Model on behalf of the legal context of employment decisions *
Figure 6: Matrix model on behalf of task descriptions *
Figure 7: Model for the ORBA method *
Figure 8: Example of a CD pay structure *
Figure 9: Example of a flexible pay system *
Figure 10: Generic model of time and attendance *
Figure 11: Recruitment Process *
Figure 12: Form for performance assessment *
Figure 13: Graphic display of performance rating *
Figure 14: Example of team scaling *
Figure 15: Example of a rating form *
Figure 16: Training needs assessment model *
Figure 17: Relationmodel between employee, skills and jobs *
Figure 18: Example of an Internet applet for a skill profile *
Figure 19: Model for the relation between generic and local payroll *
Figure 20: Example of an activity value analysis *
