HRIS are used by Human Capital Professionals in Support of Strategic Tasks.

HRIS are used by Human Capital Professionals in Support of Strategic Tasks.

HRIS, or Human resource information system, is a software solution for organizations to help automate and manage their HR, payroll, management and accounting activities. A HRIS generally should provide the capability to more effectively plan, control and manage HR costs; achieve improved efficiency and quality in HR decision making; and improve employee and managerial productivity and effectiveness. HRIS is typically a database system that lets you keep track of all types of information related to any company and their human capital. However, be wary of companies that call their system an HRIS - not all employee management systems are comprehensive enough to warrant the title HRIS. For example, if a system only handles one or two functions, such as benefits administration or payroll, this is not a comprehensive HRIS.

Many companies provide a complete online application that is accessible to the currents employees, prospective job seeker and others from any location with internet access - the office, at home or from an airport terminal. Alternatively, some systems are software applications that definitely have to install at the users location and they utilize it by running a program from their desktop computer or laptop.

Apparently, HRIS should include all or most of the following can be announce standard at present day’s situation:

- Applicant tracking with current and future position application system,
- Employee Personnel File Management,
- Company Related Documents such as employee manuals and safety programs,
- Benefits Administration including enrollment,
- Manager and Employee Self Service modules,
- Complete reporting for each feature,
- Payroll integration, and
- Financial Software integration

A complete and integrated HRIS can assist Human Capital Manager to take more strategic position within the organization. Strategic tasks included strategic decision making and providing crucial information in support of this, in the areas of: HR Planning, Salary Advice, Employee Benefits and Industrial Relations. Operational level activities were considered to be background tasks, typically performed by junior personnel. HRIS can support different level of people starting from HR consultancy to strategic decision making.

We can see that a new development is the use of HRIS for strategically related Industrial Relations issues. It is currently being used to support strategic Union Relations (Industrial Relations) in large US organizations. Furthermore, HRIS is supporting Industrial Relations per se in UK companies, albeit marginally. This is true for both non-strategic and strategic purposes, regardless of company size. There is no evidence of this being so prior to 1999.

The non-strategic use of HRIS, regardless of company size, increased substantially over that by smaller companies since the survey of Ball in 1998. Moreover, this trend is expected to continue. Interestingly, there is no evidence that the level of use has increased significantly since 1999. However, from internet, management journal, HR magazine and industry news, we observe a significant increase of using HRIS by the business organizations. There is strong evidence found from various research and studies that HRIS were used in support of strategic tasks. The findings are consistent with organizations being increasingly more reliant on the use of HRIS in support of advanced strategic business tasks, irrespective of company size.

© Shaki, Human Capital Management, 2009

What is Human Resources Management

May be some of you surprised to see my such post. But to tell you the truth, I feel so sad when I tried to search the above mentioned subject with two renowned search engine by Internet, surprisingly I found very poor and inappropriate reply. So, from onwards I will try to put some basic information about Human Resources Management in my blog. Certainly this kind of post not for the professionals but for the beginners who by any means shows their interest about HRM recently.
Thanks for all of cooperation. :-)

What is Human Resources Management?

Human Resources Management is an approach to the management of people, based on four fundamental principles. First, human resources are the most important assets an organization has and their effective management is the key to its success. Second, this success is most likely to be achieved if the personnel policies and procedures of the enterprise are closely linked with, and make a major contribution to, the achievement of corporate objectives and strategic plans. Third, the corporate culture and the values, organizational climate and managerial behavior that emanate from that culture will exert a major influence on the achievement of excellence. And finally, HRM is concerned with integration - getting all the members of the organization involved and working together with a sense of common purpose.

According to Mondy & Noe (2008) five functional areas are associated with effective HRM: staffing, human resource development, compensation, safety and health, and employee & labor relations.

Human Resource Planning:
HRP is a process of anticipating and making provision for the movement (flow) of people into, within, and out of an organization. In this function, the number and type of employees needed to accomplish organizational goals are determined. Research is an important part of this function because planning requires the collection and analysis of information in order to forecast HR supplies and to predict future human resources needs. The basic human resource planning strategy is staffing and employee development.

Performance Appraisal:
Performance appraisal function of HRM monitors employee performance to ensure that it is at acceptable levels. HR professionals are usually responsible for developing and administering performance appraisal systems, although the actual appraisal of employee performance is the responsibility of supervisors and managers. Besides providing a basis for pay, promotion, and disciplinary action, performance appraisal information is essential for employee development since knowledge of results is necessary to motivate and guide performance improvements. In short, performance appraisal judges effectiveness of recruitment efforts, validates selection function, determines training needs, a factor in determining pay and it justifies personnel actions. Few popular performance appraisal methods now a day are Balance Score Card, KPI etc.

Compensation:
Managing Compensation is another vital function of HRM. HR personnel provide a rational method for determining how much employees should be paid for performing certain jobs. Pay is obviously related to the maintenance of human resources. Compensation affects staffing in that people are generally attracted to organizations offering a higher level of pay in exchange for the work performed. It is aid or impairs recruitment, pay rates affect selectivity and pay can motivate training.

Training and Development:
In present competitive business world training and development function is a major challenging function of HR which gives employees the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively. In addition to providing training for new or inexperienced employees, organizations often provide training programmes for experienced employees whose jobs are undergoing change.

End Note:

Despite these points and areas management professionals and practitioners would probably agree that Human Resources Management focuses on analyzing an organization’s HR and other needs as the organization’s conditions change, and then supplying strategies to help respond proactively to those changes over time. HRM helps ensure that the right numbers of the right kinds of people are available at the right times and in the right places to translate organizational plans into reality.

Effect of Digital Technology in Human Capital Management

Effect of Digital Technology in Human Capital Management



Present global challenging corporate environment, human capital professionals more knowingly human resources professionals excitedly depends on technology related with their field. RFID, Biometrics, Smart-Card, Web-clients server, Internet-Intranet etcetera all are using for better human capital management. Present days, core HR responsibilities as diverse as recruitment, oversight of legal and regulatory compliance, benefits administration, and the safeguarding of confidential employee information cannot be carried out effectively without high-tech tools. Technology both hardware and software are using to carry out the successful day to day HR management in corporate business houses.

In a world where what matters gets measured, many HR professionals are turning to sophisticated analytics to gauge their department's strategic contributions. From planning to recruitment, retention to performance, training to development everywhere technology has been adopted in HR for better operation with efficiency. Workplace diversity initiatives are getting a boost from technology. Remarkable developments in assistive technology, for example, have increased job opportunities for people with physical disabilities. Some employers say that investing in such technologies is simply the right thing to do; others argue that such initiatives are good for the bottom line since they allow companies to recruit from a broader pool.

Employers are also turning to technology to assist in evaluating their workers and vice versa. Electronic systems can automate performance management processes, ensure an accurate "grading curve" and guarantee feedback to employees. Meanwhile, many companies are relying on technology to streamline traditionally cumbersome employee surveys. Technology has significant impact on organization and employee development in such areas as e-learning, computer-based testing and workplace collaboration. Organizations are increasingly using technology in training.

Human resources professionals are upping their reliance on technology to manage safety and security information and functions. Workplace safety and security can benefit from technology by facilitating acquisition and analysis of injury and illness data, injury costs per employee, training documentation and management, performance management, electronic communications, digital access key log-in information, security camera data management and identity theft protection. Biometrics devices that use fingerprints or other physical traits for identification can help solve some employee discipline problems and protect sensitive data. Time clocks are one of a growing number of workplace applications of biometrics.

During the last decade, the Internet has played a growing role in external recruiting. Large, all-purpose online job boards quickly found a place in recruitment. Meanwhile, niche sites catering to specific industries and demographic niches such as women and Asians won favor. Online corporate job sites and intranets have become key recruiting tools, allowing employers to get the word out about job openings quickly and inexpensively.

Employers also are using technology to market job openings more strategically. Many capitalize on emerging technology like RSS-real simple syndication-allowing online postings to reach job seekers via e-mail or text message as soon as a new job is posted. Others are enhancing traditional online listings with videos and podcasts. Meanwhile, employers have had to adapt to tech-savvy candidates and multimedia resumes that include text, photos, video and sound.

Now a day many HR professionals are relying on electronic on boarding systems to handle tasks including assigning parking passes, computers, uniforms, e-mail addresses and security badges. Some employers-particularly those with a scattered workforce-are capitalizing on computerized learning systems for orientation and to deliver coaching on topics from sexual harassment avoidance to conflict resolution.

Indeed HR professionals, working in tandem with information technologists, now rely on policy and software to monitor data flow, block inappropriate data such as pornography, and prevent the leaking of trade secrets. HR professionals also rely on automated systems to direct employee benefit contributions. Such systems automatically direct a portion of workers' pay toward their retirement savings plans unless employees opt out, for instance.

And while total rewards statements that alert employees to the total value of their compensation benefits packages have been around for years, many companies now are making that information available to workers electronically through HR information systems or self-service sites.

Re-Design the E-Resume for Re-Search Your Right Career!

Re-Design the E-Resume for Re-Search Your Right Career!


Resume serves to introduce you to the people who will eventually hire you. Giant corporate houses or MNC’s now a day prefer to screen potential candidates’ preliminarily through online application, no matter where from you are. To take advantage of these opportunities, you must be an educated job seeker. That means you must know what you want in your career, where the hiring action is, what qualifications and credentials you need to attain your desired career goals, and how best to market your qualifications. It is no longer enough to have a specific talent or set of skills. To write a thoughtful resume, you must thoroughly assess your personality, your accomplishments, and the skills you have acquired. The act of composing and submitting a resume also requires you to carefully consider the company or individual that might hire you. What are they looking for, and how can you meet their needs?


You have to organize your personal information and experience into a concise and functional way, so that your qualifications and potential as an employee will be understood easily and quickly by a complete stranger. Although writing the resume is just one step in what can be a daunting job search process, but it is an important element in the chain of events that will lead you to your new position. While you are probably a talented, bright, and charming person, your resume may not reflect these qualities.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FUNCTIONAL RESUME
Lubaba Shaki Khan
77056 Austin Drive
Houston, Texas
1-713-496-2765
luaba@shakimail.com

Applications and Systems Programmer

Credentials
• B.S. in Computer Science—March 2009— University of  Science and Technology, Australia
• Knowledge of COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, C, C Plus, BASIC, CAD/CAM, RPG II, Assembly language and dBASE
• High level of self-motivation and attention to detail

Job Duties
• Code, test, debug, and maintain programs
• Create program documentation
• Integrate new hardware into existing systems
• Diagnose and correct systems failures
• Maintain monitors, database packages, compilers, assemblers, and utility programs
• Select and modify new hardware and software to company specifications

Achievements
• Designed programs in C Plus for Heritage Bank to coordinate functions of ATM machines
• Purchased new hardware and software for Advantage Publishers, modified equipment to suit company’s needs and resolve interoperability issues

Employers
Heritage Bank June 1999 to Present
Advantage Publishers March 1996 to June 1999

References
Neel Ahmed
Director of Human Resources
Human Capital Pvt Ltd.
411 Jalan Sintok, 06000 Kedah
Alor Star, Malaysia
neel@cimb.com.my ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A poorly written resume can get you nowhere; a well-written resume can land you an interview and potentially a job. A good resume can even lead the interviewer to ask you questions that will allow you to talk about your strengths and highlight the skills you can bring to a prospective employer. Even a person with very little experience can find a good job if he or she is assisted by a thoughtful and polished resume.

An effective resume is composed of information that employers are most interested in knowing about a prospective job applicant. This information is conveyed by a few essential elements. A list of elements that are found in most resumes- some essential, some optional providing bellow for your better understanding:

• Heading • Objective and/or Career Summery Section
• Work Experience • Education • Honors • Activities
• Certificates • Publications • Memberships
• Special Skills • Personal Information • References


Special Tips for Electronic Resumes

Following brief, general guidelines to follow when you apply electronically either by email or job page attachment. Please note that these tips may assists you also applying through on-line prescribed job-application form both sited by the company or the professional job portal.

· Use standard fonts in which none of the letters touch.
· Keep in mind that underlining, italics, and fancy scripts may not scan well.
· Use boldface and capitalization to set off elements. Again, make sure letters don’t touch. Leave at least a quarter inch between lines of type.
· Avoid centering or other formatting. Align everything at the left margin.
· Do not use any lines, boxes, or graphics.
· Place the most important information at the top of the first page. If you use two pages, put “Page 1 of 2” at the bottom of the first page and put your name and “Page 2 of 2” at the top of the second page.
· List each telephone number on its own line in the header.
· Use multiple keywords or synonyms for what you do to make sure your qualifications will be picked up if a prospective employer is searching for them. Use nouns that are keywords for your profession.
· Be descriptive in your titles. For example, don’t just use “assistant”; use “legal office assistant.”
· Use your space bar as sometime ‘Tabs’ will not work.
· Try to avoid any special characters, such as mathematical symbols or special bullet point.


Spell-check and proofread it several times; then ask someone with a keen eye to go over it again for you. Remember, the key is to keep it simple. Any attempt to make this resume pretty or decorative may result in a resume that is confusing and hard to read. After you have saved the document, you can cut and paste it into an E-mail or onto a website. Lengthy, typewritten resumes are a thing of the past. Today, employers do not have the time or the patience for verbose documents; they look for tightly composed, straightforward, action-based resumes. Furthermore the more you know about the company and the job you are applying for, the better you will appear in the interview. An interviewer will be impressed by your interest and motivation, and you will be able to explain what you can do for the company. Find out as much key information as you can about the company, its products and its customers.
Good luck landing the job of your dreams!!!

HR: New Warrior For The CEO!!!!

HR: New Warrior For The CEO!!!!

In recent years, organizations have awakened to the critical need include human resources as part of their strategic planning process. CEO of the organization is recognizing that HR can be the proactive warrior for them. Employees and their continued work – related learning are key to organizational goal attainment. Continuous improvement at all levels ongoing work-based learning opportunities – that is, organizations need to become “learning organizations”. Who actually behind of all these activities, the Director or the Head of HR or better to say all the personnel involved with HR? "Everyone is cost-sensitive today. Companies go out of business all the time. That's what makes expensive programs difficult to sell," "CEOs are cautious about making a mistake". "It would be difficult to sell a program that had a large price tag, with the business economy having potholes in it. Learning is no longer just an employee benefit, but rather a competitive necessity. Corporate strategies must link training and development to key business goals, with an emphasis on measurement, such as return on investment (ROI) and the accompanying new tools for human resources management. The CEO is no more interested to only providing the training but very much interested to see the end result and HR successfully can do it for the organizations.

Spreading and sustaining organizational culture, especially in today’s global organizations, requires new ways to coordinate and deliver consistent information and values about one’s organization. Quality is a strategic goal requiring involvement of all levels of employees, customers and suppliers in organizational change efforts. Not only that developing measurement standard for quality requires organization – wide learning through training e.g. six sigma, balance score cards, ISO 9000+ etc., HR can easily get one step closer to all these and achieving the success for the organizations.

Organization culture is reflected in the role of HR in the organization. Some HR departments are still inhabited by mere paper pushers and number crunchers. They sit waiting, like a Venus's-flytrap, for a problem to land on their sensitive trigger hairs. When it does, they react, swallowing the problem and digesting it—without the aid of even a rudimentary nervous system—and then return to waiting. Other HR professionals sit in on strategic planning sessions with the CEO. These HR functions are always one step ahead of the rest of the organization, analyzing, predicting and designing programs for problems that haven't begun to germinate, like frogs sitting on lily pads, watchful eyes searching for problems on the horizon. Problems that are identified as being credible are snatched out of mid air before they have a chance to light. Where the culture allows it, the frog approach is preferable.

The culture isn't the only factor that determines the ability of HR to be proactive, however. In addition to understanding of the culture, there are two other factors that influence the chances of success as an hr warrior for the CEO:

· The relationship with the CEO
· The credibility as a business leader

Build a relationship with the CEO
Before the build a relationship with the CEO, must know who he or she is. What are the CEO's likes and dislikes? What's the CEO's hidden agenda, his or her background? Study the CEO the way would study an HR problem. Gather data. Do research. Observe. The CEO is a strategist and a visionary. People who have risen to the company's top position must have those characteristics. They may view the world a little differently simply because they're CEOs. The CEO lives in a position of high risk. "HR people don't get many opportunities to play Bet Your Job," The job of a CEO is on the line with almost every decision he or she makes. This has a tremendous impact on motivation. Keep that in mind when develop and present programs.

Living with risk means that the CEO is more likely to be a big-picture person. The HR professional must be able to separate issues and put them into perspective for management. This requires the ability to see the big picture and not just a piece of the problem. It also means being able to take people issues and presents them in quantifiable business terms. "HR is a squirrelly, soft, touchy-feely thing. It's as much intuitive as it is scientific. Human resources is the most complex resource that management has to deal with. It's difficult to quantify the softer issues of attitude, empowerment and fairness, but at least should try to quantify them in terms of what they may mean to the bottom line."

Find out which key topics this CEO will listen to, no matter what, and build the proposals around them, understand the work style of the CEO as well. Is the CEO an action or a bottom-line person? Is the boss excited about the ripple effects and not just the splashes? Does he or she want concise, one-page support? In what kind of environment does he or she listen best—in the office or in a restaurant? "It behooves the HR professional to moderate his or her style to blend with the work style of the boss."


Build credibility
Conforming the style to the CEO's doesn't mean that should become a yes-man or -woman. Credibility is crucial to the acceptance of HR programs. For HR—and you—to be credible, have to take responsibility, even if it means bringing bad news to top management.

"It's a mistake to think that CEOs have all the answers. If they did, they could run companies without anyone else." "It's incumbent on us to find solutions to the problems we have today and to promote those programs diligently within the company, even if it means convincing the CEO that they need to be done. In HR there has been too much deference to our seniors, and this has hurt. It's important, I think, not to be sycophantic. We all have to have the courage to proceed with what we feel is the right thing."


The organization counts on HR to look out for the interests of employees. "Most CEOs have sensitivity to the value of employees, but they're going a mile a minute, making decisions on other things. They take comfort in the idea that HR is looking out for the work force and will come forward with the point of view of employees." It's important to be a proactive ombudsman for employees. Not to do so destroys the credibility of human resources. It’s quite impossible to work well with other groups in the organization, if don't have a good understanding of the business, and this understanding is vital to developing credibility.

Another way to gain credibility is to be proactive rather than reactive. This requires creativity, something too many HR people lack. "There's a joke inside most companies that if there's a debate, people in HR run to the rule book. It's a major frustration that executive management has with HR people. They should throw away the rule book and do things by common sense."

There are organizations in which HR won't be allowed to do what they want to do, no matter how good are. "HR can spend time trying to change the place, but culture is changed by the boss, not HR. HR can be a strong leader, a great resource and the person to carry the banner, but if the boss doesn't want to do it, things aren't going to change."

So, be ready! Year 2009 can be yours. Be proactive and run as a Gladiator. Prove that HR is the new warrior for the CEO but make sure that employees understand what the new steps of HR program means—because if they understand it, they'll see how it's going to impact them." Wish all human capital a very successful and challenging new year-2009!

© Ahmed R. Shaki, Candidate of PhD in HRM, University Utara Malaysia.

CEO, Are You Set to Prevail 2009 with Vibrant Human Resources Practice!!!

CEO, Are You Set to Prevail 2009 with Vibrant Human Resources Practice!!!

Take lessons from all the mistake and pitfall from last 2008. Begin your scuffle from the very beginning in the year 2009. Many firms today realize the importance of attracting and retaining highly skilled, quality employees as a necessary component of their competitive advantage. One of the reasons that a quality workforce along with innovative tools for attracting and retaining has become so important is because previous sources of competitive advantage have become less important overtime.

But recruiting right people in right place, retaining them and provide a good working environment is not enough. As you already finished the last year appraisal some of them already motivated some are not. Incessant global economic crisis throughout the last year also put negative impact on your business. So, its high time fixes your HR strategy for 2009. Engage your HR team to develop new and innovative tools to attract and retain quality workforce with other performance ground.

No human being is perfect and we all constantly fight our own inadequacies in our own ways. Working in any organization requires an individual to be geared up to face the challenges of work-life. This does not mean he or she can escape the duties and responsibilities of family life, whether married or unmarried. Not every individual is competent enough to take and manage the stress of a hectic life style. Thus, we cannot deny the fact that every individual has intra and inter-personal problems whether at work or at home. The HR function of any organization has the most important challenging job of "making the most" of their Human Resource. An employee can give his best to the organization only if he is in a positive "frame of mind". A mentally preoccupied or troubled individual will be in a position to give very little to his company. So keep in mind that you and your HR team have to work hard to boost up their morale and motivation by proper counseling.

Models for human development like mentoring, coaching and counseling are no longer confined to the non-corporate world. These systems are today a part of Human Resource Management of the corporate sector. In spite of counseling being an upcoming HR system like coaching and mentoring, few organizations recognize the significance of counseling and that their employees will benefit from such a service. Awareness need to be created not only at the individual employee level but also at the industry level about your organization target for this year. Make them aware what exactly you need and want from them this year by meaning of production, sales, corporate branding and profit. Do not fix anything vogue or really tough to achieve and provide them the guideline how they will accomplish this target.

Guide your HR manager to create an industry oriented recruitment and selection process. Allow them to do survey and find out about industry benchmark practices including compensation and benefits component. Tell them that they have to build strong employee relations throughout the organization, focusing of training and learning activities on performance improvement and not just on skill building and last but not list put a modern, industry relevant HRIS for keeping and tracking records.

Make sure that you HR team members know that this year they will be your strategic partner no more backend administrative department. One of the main concerns of them is developing human capital and organizational productivity. They will be evolving from strategic business partnership to strategic business leadership by end of this year.

All the best for a successful year 2009!!!

© Ahmed R Shaki, Candidate of PhD in HRM, University Utara Malaysia