What is a Human Resource Information System (HRIS)?
An HRIS is a software solution that helps companies manage and automate core Human Resource (HR) processes. As an interactive system of information management, the HRIS standardizes HR tasks while facilitating accurate record-keeping and reporting.
These HR software systems support a suite of HR tools to automate processes such as:
- Hiring & Onboarding
- Benefits Administration
- Compliance Filings
- Time off Tracking
- Asset Tracking
- Carrier and Third-Party Integrations
- storage of employee data (i.e., personal, demographic, employment, compensation, and benefit election information).
When implemented, these systems serve as the infrastructure of an HR department; enhancing and automating most HR processes, as well as increasing employee satisfaction as deductions and benefit elections become more transparent.
Choosing an HRIS that integrates with carriers & third-party services is the most crucial component when it comes to evaluating HRIS solutions.
- Integrations allow information to flow seamlessly between the HRIS & the platforms that carriers and third-party services operate on.
- Most employers are lacking such a system, and the ones who do have an HRIS in place commonly utilize an HRIS service provided by their payroll provider.
The Payroll Dilemma
The problem that companies run into when using an HRIS provided by their payroll company is that all their company’s past & present employee information is stored on their payroll system. Payroll providers make this data extremely hard to extract in an orderly & efficient manner, limiting companies from exploring other service providers.
Purchasing a full HRIS suite of HR tools from a payroll company is also very expensive. Every additional service added will tack on another Per Employee Per Month (PEPM) charge.
Purchasing a full suite normally increases your payroll bill by $20-30 PEPM…
Payroll HRIS systems also lack or have a very limited number of integrated partners or carriers, limiting your options on the carriers you can use to build a fully automated benefits program through carrier integrations. If a company’s benefit carriers are not integrated, information on additions and terminations to benefit programs will not be automatically relayed to the carriers, and the benefit management workload increases for HR staff.
Our Solution
Our solution is to have an HRIS independent from a company’s payroll provider but has the capability to integrate with a company’s payroll provider to transfer employee data & benefit deduction information, allowing both systems to operate as one fully integrated system.
This allows employers to use a payroll provider for only their payroll services without sacrificing the functionality of a fully integrated system.
This is not only a much cheaper alternative to purchasing HRIS through a payroll provider (roughly 10% of the cost), but also a system where your organization is in complete control of your information.
This solution also greatly increases the options a company has when selecting carriers and third-party services by bringing an industry-leading marketplace of integrations.
Our HRIS solution integrates with service providers like payroll and insurance carriers to track information and actions completed on these third-party platforms. These integrations allow information to flow seamlessly between the service provider’s platform and the company’s HRIS system.
This means that changes or actions completed on the third-party platform will be tracked within the HRIS system, eliminating data loss when service providers are switched.
The integrations allow the following to happen:
- eliminate the need for dual entry of information
- reduce potential human errors and automate federally regulated processes (i.e., cobra filings) allowing a company and its employees to always have up to date & accurate information at their fingertips.
Having an HRIS solution that is independent of payroll but integrates with the payroll system for data sharing purposes allows the employer to have a consistent system of record throughout the life of a company.
This independent HRIS system plays a crucial role as a company grows and service providers are changed to accommodate specific needs of the company throughout the years.
Think of this independent HRIS system as a company’s employment and benefit-related database – independent from a payroll company’s system of record – that stores a company’s information while using the providers’ service. This independent database will always be consistent when changing service providers over the life of the company.
Our HRIS solution allows management & HR staff members to complete an array of operational activities by providing a suite of HR technology. The system consists of two portals, one for HR users and another for employees.
The portals will be discussed in more depth in our upcoming blogs.