System Definition

Human Resource Information System is a system that is meant to manage the employees’ information as well as facilitate management of operations of the human resource department.

The system was developed and deployed in 2016 with the aim of diversifying the activities of the human resource department. The system performs four significant roles. First, it enables the organization in its administrative role owing to the rising number of employees as well as the number of human resource roles. The system also helps the management with the recruitment as well as the retention process. It enables the organization to carry out job analysis to determine the departmental requirements in terms of the qualifications and expertise of the employees. Finally, the system is meant to improve the relationship among the employees creating a positive working environment in the organization.

System Analysis

The human resource information system is made up of six modules or components which perform specialized roles. First, it has a database meant to store all the information contained in the system. A database refers to a collection of data with a high level of consistency and minimal redundancy[Ram16]. The database of the human resource information system stores employee information and is accessible from different places anytime the users need it. Types of personal data contained in this database entail performance reports of the employees, emergency information as well as the history of compensation. However, this database is highly secured to prevent manipulation and alteration of the data which could alter its integrity. As a result, there is a database administrator responsible for running various queries in the database.

Secondly, the system has time and labor management capability. The purpose of this component is to simplify the management of employees’ time as well as labor. The component functions in such a way that employees can provide the number of hours that they have worked but with the approval of their supervisor. This allows for immediate verification of vacations by the managers as well as solves overtime issues. The system is developed in such a way that time reflects on the human resource manager’s end after the approval by the supervisor of an employee. Additionally, this module is meant to facilitate the human resource management in its role of tracking attendance as well as punctuality among the employees.

The third component of the human resource information system is the payroll module.

The primary importance of this module is to facilitate the remuneration of employees. The system operates in such a way that the human resource management department can download and upload the employee hours and also deposit payrolls and cheques to the employees when the time comes. It is also meant to facilitate payment of the salaried employees with minimal or no errors. Considering that payment of tax is crucial to any organization, the system performs tax calculations and makes the necessary deductions.

The benefits module is the fourth component. Employees enjoy other benefits other than their salary, and this entails medical benefits and retirement benefits. The human resource information system has made it possible for the human resource department to have a one-stop shopping experience. All the information is readily available to both the employees and the management allowing the employees to request for the health benefits and at the same time enabling the management to authorize these benefits.

The fifth module of the human resource information system is recruitment and retention module. The recruitment process of any organization is one of the most crucial processes. It is out of this process that all policies and systems originate. This module in the system enables the organization to identify, acquire, and also maintain talent. Applicants can apply through the system uploading their documents and recruitment done through the system. It is through this system that training in the organization is approved and carried out in the development of the human resource workforce.

One gap that is missing is the implementation of the referral mode of operation. This implies that although internal employees can refer their preferred candidate for recruitment, there is no way of recognizing that. In a referral system, it allows employees to refer their preferred candidates for the recruitment process[Sma15]. For a referral who makes it all the way to clinching the position, the employee who referred him or she is awarded points or given a gift.

The assumption here is that with an internal referral, chances of obtaining the desired skills are high relative to sourcing an unknown employee.

Tools and Technique Analysis

Tools that have been used to develop this human resource information system include; programming languages, text editors, and the database. Among the programming languages that have been used in the development of this system include; PHP, Python Django, HTML, and Bootstrap. PHP is an acronym that stands for hypertext preprocessor language. This is a server side language that is meant to improve interaction between the user and the database on the server[Dig17]. HTML stands for the hypertext markup language, and this is a language that is used to enhance the interface between the user and the system[Kri14]. Python, on the other hand, is an interpreted object-oriented language whose syntax is similar to that of PERL and has relatively simple syntax[Pau16].

Since this system is web-based, it is hosted on the WAMP server, and the database was developed using the MySQL. The reason for the adoption of these tools was their familiarity, clarity of syntax, and compatibility with other systems[Mar12]. To facilitate the computations and reusability of the software codes, the Python Django was adopted[Mar12]. For better interaction with the users on the client-side, JavaScript was used to develop user interactions with the system. The real interface on which the user interacts with the system was designed using HTML. Codes were written using the Sublime Text editor. Sublime text editor is one the text editors that have high performance although it has a sophisticated appearance[Rud14].

Scrum approach was used to develop the system — members of the development teams assigned each other roles and would meet on a regular basis after one week. To ensure that their collaboration was guaranteed and fast progress was achieved, they opted to use Trello. Trello is a collaboration tool that facilitates an easier way of organizing the progress of a project with a better visual capability effectively allowing better tracking of project progress[Rud14].

Conclusions and Recommendations

Owing to the fact that the system was developed using HTML, accessing it across multiple platforms such as tablets and phones has remained a daunting task. Therefore, there is the need to redesign the system using html5 so that it is presentable across multiple platforms. At the moment, the system is sometimes rendered unavailable when more people are accessing it.

This implies that scalability and stress were not considered during the development of the system. Although the Scrum approach was used in the development of the system, there is a need to ensure that an agile approach is adopted during the scaling of the system. There are rising concerns over systems’ security with many systems being compromised. Due to the fact that this system has been developed using open source tools, there is the need to migrate the database to the Oracle platform for better security and better performance. In summation, since the deployment of this system, operations in the organization have changed for the better. Human resource operations have been speeded up, employees’ relationship improved for the better, and more open and transparent recruitment and training process have been realized.

References