Issues, Challenges and Strategies in Successful Implementation of an Essay

Issues, Challenges and Strategies in Successful Implementation of an HRIS Project - Essay Example This article presents a critical analysis of the need for HRIS, features required in HRIS, design & acquisition issues, cost benefits, implementation issues and acceptance issues. Gardner and Lepak et al. (2003) presented that the new role of HR professionals is more of "strategic partners to the business" whereby they are expected to understand the business objectives of the organization and align the HR practices with the business goals defined to fulfil the objectives. Hence the business objectives expand into the HR objectives & related goals that are essentially defined to enhance employee contribution by providing them essential guidance, resources & support and to manage essential transformations & changes required in maintaining the fundamental culture of the organization. The authors argue that IT systems act as the catalyst for human resources professionals in achieving HR goals. Enterprise Resource Planning systems integrate various functional (departmental) information systems across the company such that the information from all departments can be integrated and organized for unified MIS reporting to the senior management enabling them to take quick & effective decisions (Gupta & Kohli. 2006). Human Resources is one of the key departments of an organization and hence HRIS need to be an integral part of ERP. The key result areas for all employees are defined by their respective functional managers but closely monitored by the HR function by virtue of key performance indicators. Kaplan and Norton (1996) developed the balanced scorecard system that helps organizations to design & implement a performance measurement system in such a way that individual performance measures can be tangibly mapped with organizational performance. The author hereby argues that such an integrated framework requires the performance management system to be an integral part of the E RP such that performance appraisal cycles can be carried out by respective supervisors of the employees but human resources function can closely monitor the KPI metrics and map with other soft aspects of the individual in terms of punctuality, knowledge & skill enhancement, trainings, additional certifications achieved, etc. The integrated information of functional KPIs and soft aspects can help the HR function to assess the overall performance of the employees and identify employee development needs as well as take decisions on promotions, increments, rewards & recognitions. 3.0 Requirement Analysis for an