Chapter 5

Designing and Developing a New HRMS

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Human Resources Management

Systems: A Practical Approach

By Glenn M. Rampton, Ian J. Turnbull, J.

Allen Doran

ISBN 0-459-56370-X
Carswell

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Introduction
The design of any HRMS software system
requires both functional and technical
decisions
These decisions should be predicated on the
uses to which the system will be put

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Security
System security addresses concerns re:
system control and privacy
System control addressed through audit
trails
In provincial and federal jurisdictions
privacy is a legislated right of persons
whose personal data resides on an HRMS

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Analysis of Business Process

To often systems are developed based on
existing requirements
Automation of inefficient or unnecessary
work flows may simply produce the wrong
result more quickly

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Business Process Reengineering

Hammer and Champy (1993) in their book
Reengineering the Corporation, have argued
that American corporations had to radically
change the way they did business, or go out
of business.

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Phases in Process Reengineering

Analysis Phase
identify

what tasks are being done

determine why those tasks are being done
analyze how they are being done
identify who is doing them

Problem-Solving Phase
determine

what should be done and why it should

determine how tasks should be done
determine who should do the tasks, along with where
and when they should be done
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Conducting Reengineering
develop

a strategy, scope, and for the

re-engineering plan;
ensure that management at all levels are
convinced of the value of project, and
are committed to supporting it;
chart process flows, and analyse current
high or low level tasks;
consider what supporting application
software you will require;
conduct Value for Money Audits to ensure
that you can justify your project in
dollars and cents terms (see Chapter 3);
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Conducting Reengineering (contd)

develop

benchmarks for the projects to

be used as standards to be met (or
exceeded) by the project;
develop new effective and efficient
tasks and processes;
prepare an implementation plan (see
Chapter 6);
implement the plan; and,
develop a plan for maintaining the
system.
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Once one has decided that

the human resources processes
in the organization are the
right ones to automate one
can then turn ones attention
to designing the HRMS to
automate the processes in the
right way.
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Steps in Designing a New HRMS

design

a database with the capacity to

handle the relevant populations.
label each field and each data element to
create a complete data dictionary.
create tables of values which can be drawn
on by data fields as appropriate.
establish data relationships, including
all algorithms and routines, to optimize
editing and validation of fields.
create menus and screens to assist users
in navigating through the HRMS.
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Steps in Designing a New HRMS (Cont)

create operator messages that
specify action options.
build in error-checking
routines.
build in data security,
including audit trails.
define standard reports.
include a tutorial module to
assist new users.

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Benchmarking
Bench marking is a systematic and
continuous measurement process; a
process of continuously measuring and
comparing an organization's business
processes against business process
leaders anywhere in the world to gain
information which will help the
organization take action to improve
its performance (American Productivity
& Quality Centre, 1993)

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Measurement
Fitz-enz (1995) wrote:
A mythology has developed around
personnel work. It has to do with the
nature and purpose of the work. More
important, it deals with the outcomes
or results of the labour. The
fundamental belief was that the true
and full value of personnel's work
could only be judged by those who
perform it. There was a belief that
business-type measures could not be
applied to this function (p. 7).
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Performance Measurement Principles

The productivity and effectiveness of any function
can be measured by some combination of cost, time,
quantity, or quality indices:
A measurement system promotes productivity by
focusing attention on the important issues, tasks,
and objectives.
Professional and knowledge workers are best
measured as a group.
Managers can be measured by the efficiency and
effectiveness of the units they manage.
The ultimate measurement is not efficiency, but
effectiveness.

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Build or Buy?
Not a simple question, but:
Organizations must understand that the
strategic advantage of good
information systems comes, not from
building some unique tool, but by
ensuring that the tool has all the
capabilities that the organization
requires, and by using these
capabilities well.
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Screening and Selecting Software

The traditional approach to software includes:
definition of user requirements.
development of a request for information (RFI) or
request for proposal (RFP), which is then sent to
appropriate software suppliers.
assessment of supplier responses, screening out
systems or suppliers which do not match sufficient
criteria.
demonstrations of short-listed products to see the
"look and feel" and to confirm that stated
capability does exist.
assessment of vendor and software reliability.

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Definition of Requirements
Requirements are generally
defined in three ways:
functional, system
operations, and technical.

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Attributes of User-Friendly Systems

easy

to establish contact with software (sign-on

process; security)
uses icons, menus, or both to guide user choices
(no need to use code or learn mnemonics)
software easy to learn and use (windows,
scrolling, and other features)
users are guided through various processes; help
to correct mistakes is easily available;
all error messages are fully explanatory
the data dictionary is available online
software has edit checks to verify syntax,
semantics, and overall data integrity (e.g.,
down loads/uploads to/from PC products such as
word processors, spreadsheets
effective use of graphics.

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Screening and Selecting Software (contd)

Development of an RFI/RFP
Assessment of Vendor Responses
Demonstrations
Supplier and Product
Reliability

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Development of an RFI/RFP
A request for information (RFI) or
request for proposal (RFP) can
contain very similar information.
The primary distinction is
considered to be that a software
supplier's response to a RFI is
not binding, but a response to a
RFP forms part of the information
which the parties may use as the
basis of a subsequent contractual
arrangement
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RFI/RFP (contd)
Developing an RFI/RFP is a complex task.
The RFI/RFP should be designed in a way
which will facilitate comparative analysis
of several software supplier's responses.
Open ended questions invite open-ended
answers which are very hard to compare. As
much as possible, questions should be
specific. One method of achieving this is
to offer multiple choice responses followed
by a "comments" section for the software
supplier to elaborate as required, thus
providing both comparative data and
allowing for the explanation of variances
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Assessment of Vendor Responses

With a well designed RFI/RFP, the
analysis of results should be easy,
although often detailed and timeconsuming. The purpose of the
analysis is to weed out systems or
suppliers which are unsuitable,
leaving only the best options for
further review.

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Demonstrations
Potential suppliers should be asked
to provide demonstrations of their
products. Demonstrations of a
software product can be as short as
one hour, or as long as a week or
more. Many software selection
processes include at least two
phases; a short (one to three hours),
general initial demonstration,
followed by a more detailed and
focused demonstration.
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Supplier and Product Reliability

Buying a software package,
particularly an HRMS, should mean
that you are buying not just the
current software version, but future
versions as well. This investment in
a product and its supplier can be a
marriage of five, ten, or even more
years. It should only be made if the
buyer is sure that the supplier and
the product are reliable, i.e., that
both are a good investment.
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Question 1
Suppose you were given the
responsibility for designing and
developing a new HRMS in a financial
institution with 15,000. employees
headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
but with branches across Canada.
What are some of the global (high
level) design issues which you feel
should be considered? Are there
some issues which you believe should
take precedence over others?
Discuss.
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Question 2
List three methods by which an
organization can verify vendor
claims about an HRMS product.
Which are most important, and
why?

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Question 3
Why is it important to examine what human
resources business processes one in
automating when one sets out to design and
develop a new HRMS? Given that the powers
that be agree to conduct a business
process re-engineering (or engineering, if
prefers) study of the organizations Human
Resources Function, who do you think
should be involved in such a study. Who
should lead it? Should it contain
representatives from outside of Human
Resources. What should be the role of
Management Information Specialists?
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