Limuru Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Human Resource Information System is a software or online solution for the data entry, data tracking, and data information needs of the Human Resources, and also can be integrated with others like the payroll, management, and accounting functions within a business and share information in the database (Susan M. Heathfield, 2013). Its also defined as an "integrated system used to gather, store and analyze information regarding an organization’s human resources’ comprising of databases, computer applications, hardware and software necessary to collect, record, store, manage, deliver, present and manipulate data for human resources function" (Hendrickson, 2003), essentially its optimize the database and enhance sharing of information both online and also offline and enable easier management of the employees in an organization.

The Human Resource Management ( HRM ) field once known as personnel department has been transformed and influenced by a number of factors, the most outstanding being technology, to be precise use of information systems. Web based technology has being the paramount determining factor for the immense use of technology in business world, since it has allowed sharing of data in distributed computer systems and also on PDA and web enable phones. HRM being very data intensive has, embraced technology and what it can achieve. Bussler et-al pointed out that, there is not a function in HR today that is not applying software (Bussler, l. Davis, E, 2002.), thus the need for each organization to give precedence to information system that will enhance data maintenance and database optimization. Many companies have seen a need to transform the way Human Resource operations are performed in order to keep up with new technology and escalating numbers of employees according to Brown, so that the organization can be able to optimize the potential employee have and have competitive advantage over other organizations (Steven Brown, 2008). Thus K Kumar had these sentiments HRIS provides a method by which an organization collects, maintains, analyses and reports information on people and jobs(K Kumar, 2011). According to Yasemin et-al HRIS help senior management to identify the manpower requirements in order to meet the organization’s long term business plans and strategic goals. Operational management uses it also to track the placement of the employees and recruitment while, middle management uses the system to monitor and analyze compensation of employees, allocation and recruitment, which make the organization to enhance database optimization and when it comes to recruitment enable short listing and job clustering (Yasemin, B. Esin, E.& Serdar. B, 2012).

It is crucial to note that the HRIS will be of much importance because the management, reporting and analyzing of employee information and also personal information update will be made easier by the system because both the employee will be able to interact with the system as well as management at different levels as per their privileges. Information System and the availability of high speed internet connection have highly revolutionized Human Resource Management (HRM), work flow processes such as payroll are highly automated, performance appraisals are simplified with software that track core competencies, training and development done more cost effectively for example through online with distance learning and salary surveys are online and timely ( Bussler, l Davis, E, 2002.). E- Recruiting popularity has exploded, online pre-employment testing offers cost saving and potential employees deal with questions online through self service center saving time and resources. If HRIS is effective it provide all sufficient information required by the company to analyze the work force, for example the track record of it’s employees both the current and past employee who have served the company and even also the applicants who have interest to work for the company by tracking, interviewing and also selection through query to the database. The HRIS will enable the legitimate employees to update their profiles, handling employee benefits, change their physical address when need arise and even access their payroll when they have being uploaded by responsible department when legitimate employee log on to his profile after authentication. HRIS products have customizable user interfaces so employees can access their own HR information, called Employee Self Service ( ESS) which greatly reduces calls to the HR department and this saves time to both the department and the employees (Kai Yee, 2009).

This will ease the work load for the HR department and they will be engaging with other strategic functions, with use of technology solutions, HR is no longer tactical and reactionary, but strategic and proactive this is because the system will provide management with data necessary for employee management, knowledge development like when to engage workers to workshops, seminars and team building exercises, and it will foster equal treatment among employees and help manager to have first hand information they seek to legally and ethically manage their employees (Bussler, l. Davis, E, 2002.).

Some of the employee tracking the HRIS does includes tracking attendance and absentee history, number of annual leave taken, pay rise and increment history. Position held or the rank of the employee, performance development and training received, and also disciplinary action received if any. Track all personal data like changes such as dependents, changes in marital statues.

Importance of Human Resource Information provision System:

The main aim of business is to realize and achieve its bottom line, through maximization of scarce resources and effectiveness and efficiency of it work force. Yasemin et-al stated that firms invest in HRIS for the business objectives such as achieving operational excellence by increasing productivity, efficiency in the work force and agility, attaining customer familiarity and service, achieving competitive advantage, improving decision making, and ensuring survival, developing new products and services, and thus enjoying returns from the investment they have engaged both in human resource and capital contribution (Yasemin, B. Esin, E.& Serdar. B, 2012).

Another vital importance of the HRIS is the incorporation of sophisticated features such as the analytical tools to support decision making of the top management in managing human capital. In recruitment function for example, prescreening and processing of applicants information where those who have applied and don’t meet the credentials will not be considered simplifying HR department task. When advertisement for vacant posts are done there is overwhelming submission of CV’s which have met and others have not met the minimum requirements making it hard to sort, and eventually select the best applicant. This due to the fact that Kenya have a large number of unemployed population as acknowledged by ministry of labour, the Youth unemployment in Kenya stands at 70 per cent of total number of the jobless. This translates to nearly three million young people between the age of 15 and 35 being out of work, according to the International Labor Organization 2010 estimates (ministry of labour, 2010). As stated by Keim et-al Online job advertisements on corporate web sites and online CV databases, form different ways of electronic applications, which corporate can utilize to ease the process of recruitment and at the end of the process the best employee suited for the task is selected or shortlisted through e-recruitment ( Keim, T., & Weitzel, T. 2009).

The security of the information of the work force personal data should be paramount and the HRIS will make the personal data to be secure and also have back up incase of any eventuality. Security should be a top priority for HR professionals, because HR by its very nature deals with very confidential data and companies need to be meticulous in managing that data( Bussler, l. Davis, E, 2002.). HRIS will make company also be well equipped with information for future reference which can be easily retrieved or updated. For example a scenario where one of dependants of the employee comes to claim benefits of the employee who have passed the system will be haste to retrieve the relevant information with ease by only inputting key data like the name and employee number than to start looking for file in a room where might be thousands of files. According to (Dorel, D and Bradic-Martinovic, A, 2011) Many authors (Hendirks, 2003; Beadles, et all, 2005, Kovach, 2002) emphasize the importance of HRIS and can be systematized as follows;

Increase competitiveness by improving the operational transactions in the HR department through the use of query database and provision of instant feed back and use of software as a service;

The ability to implement a number of different operations related to HR that optimize the use of information in the database;

Shift the focus from the operational (transaction) HR information to strategic HR information; Include employees as an active part of the HRIS and also re-engineering the entire HR department.

Definition of the Terms Used in Research:

Management information system (MIS) is a system designed to assist managerial and professional workers by processing and disseminating vast amounts of information to managers and organization-wide (Alavi & Leidner, 1999).

Human Resource Information System ( HRIS) is defined as an "integrated system used to gather, store and analyze information regarding an organization’s human resources’ comprising of databases, computer applications, hardware and software necessary to collect, record, store, manage, deliver, present and manipulate data for human resources function" (Hendrickson, 2003).

Human Resource Department ( HR department) is defined as The department or support systems responsible for personnel sourcing and hiring, applicant tracking, skills development and tracking, benefits administration and compliance with associated government regulations(‘Human Resources Definition | Small Business Encyclopedia | Entrepreneur.com’, 2013.)

Background of the Study:

Human Resource information provision system is a one stop online solution for all HR functions which will result, to well management of work force and in return there will be immense manifestation increase in turnover. Many firms do not realize how much time and money they are wasting on manual human resource management (HRM) tasks until they sit down and inventory their time, after automation the organization cuts down on many overheads and those costs can be deemed un necessary (Marilyn M. Helms, 2006 ).

HRIS is thought to contribute largely to organization performance by fulfilling or at least supporting the tasks of data retrieval and data storage, and serving as primary administrative support tools, of reporting statistics as well as of program monitoring. It also allows organization to cut cost and offer more information to employees in a faster and more efficient way as stated by (Marilyn M. Helms, 2006; Yasemin, B. Esin, E.& Serdar. B, 2012).

These information systems enable employees to manage much of their own HR administrative work for example updating their statues of their profile online. They can take care of many routine transactions whenever they wish not necessarily at the HR department,

The HR planning which Marilyn M. defined as "process of identifying and responding to [organizational needs] and charting new policies, systems, and programs that will assure effective human resource management under changing conditions." Which can assist in identifying, future HRM needs and also identification of practices, that will help them to meet those needs. For example avoid recruitment personnel at the last minute and which may also fail to find the best candidates, thus the system will enable organization to take advantage of the opportunities and help organization to achieve it organizational goals (Marilyn M. Helms, 2006).

1.2.0 LIMURU DAIRY FARMERS COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD:

LDFCS is located at Limuru 28km from capital city Nairobi, main activities are collection, and marketing of milk through Limuru milk processors ltd with a daily average of 35000 kgs of milk produced in the Ngecha, Ndeiya, Tigoni, Ngarariga and Kikuyu regions among others. The total number of farmers registered is 9600, with this kind of vast number of clients it have a large number of employees both skilled and casual workers thus the need of implementation of HRIS to manage the potential of the work force and also for the smooth running by the management (ILO,2009). If the HR department is overwhelmed by manual paper work system, there is high possibility of incidences of having ghost workers and imposters, many claims of benefits and even employees taking more than one annual leave in a year. The system through optimization of database those incidences will be a thing of the past and the organization work force will be well managed.

HRIS will fast track the management of LDFCS human resource in various ways, the system will come in as a vital tool in e-recruitment, monitoring and analyzing of the work force. Making it easy for the organization to be among, the very best proactive and strategically managed farmers organizations. Due to the proximity to capital city and also been in Kiambu county LDFCS attract a large number of job applicant because these areas have high number of population for example Kiambu county population is 1,623,282 (Male – 49%, Female – 51%) which is 4.20% of the National Percentage and the Age Distribution is 0-14 years (34.5 %), 15-64 years (61.9 %), 65+ years (3.6%) as stated in softkenya, the unemployed are the majority, because of these factors the e-recruitment module of the HRIS can ease the process of selection and short listing and also creating a mechanism to interact between the prospective applicant and also HR department and these will ensure the best suited candidate is selected(softkenya.com, 2012).

Clustering of vacant job positions will also be realized through the query of the HRIS system, and this will be essential also when it comes to monitoring where there is need of transferring of employee due to optimization of the database and sharing of the information. The benefits and welfare of the employees will be monitored on the system and incidences of biasness can be eliminated. The issue of paper based form filling will be eliminated and also the demand will be reduced for paper having a positive effect of environmental conservation leading to lesser overheads. This is also in line with the main priorities of the Government of Kenya towards the use of technology to public and private sector to realization of national development goals and objectives for Wealth and Employment Creation, as stipulated in the Kenya Vision 2030 blue print, and as it engaged in e-Government Programme in June 2004. It has since then committed itself towards achieving an effective and operational e-Government to facilitate better and efficient delivery of information and services to the citizens, promote productivity among public servants, private sector and encourage participation of citizens in Government and empower all Kenyans. Through the uses of various range of information technologies, such as the Wide Area Networks, Internet, and Mobile Computing, to transform it operations in order to improve effectiveness, efficiency, service delivery and to promote democracy, the fiber optic infrastructure have played an enormous role to this success creating high speed connections which is prudent for each and every organization to take advantage of (Directorate of e-Government Kenya, 2011).

Organization Hierarchy for Limuru Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society LTD

MANAGING DIRECTOR

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MARKETING MANAGER

HRM MANAGER

ACCOUNTANT

HEALTH OFFICER

PUBLIC REALATIONS OFFICER OFFICER

SALES PERSON

CASHIER CASHIER

VERTINARY

Figure. 1. Organization Chart.

Explanation of the above diagram (Figure 1.organization chart) shows the management structure for Limuru dairy farmers cooperative Society limited (LDFCS). This structure ensures clearly defined roles or responsibility for every department delegating responsibilities and authority for enabling the staff to work more efficiently in a harmonized environment and this is well captured by system requirement of the Human Resource Information Provision System ( HRIS ).

Statement of the Problem:

The main problem is efficiency and effectiveness of human work force and how they utilize the scarce resources in the organization which is paramount to the success of the institution, thus the need arises for the involvement of the information technology which will aid to the delivering of the organizations goals by assisting in management of the workforce at the most economical viable, efficient and effective way possible. Many companies have seen a need to transform the way Human Resource operations are performed in order to keep up with new technology and increasing numbers of employees and also have a competitive advantage over competitors and optimize their database increase their returns(Steven Brown, 2008).

1.4.0 Objective:

1.4.1 General Objectives:

The objective of this project is to develop a system that will comprehend the complexity of the manual HR department and take the advantage of the fiber optic infrastructure which is providing an avenue for faster network connection for sending and receiving data where both potential and legitimate workers, can use either computer or mobile phone to communicate to with the HR office and vice-versa and optimization of the database containing vital employee information for the benefit of the employees as well as the organization.

1.4.2 Specific Objective:

Model and design the HRIS for Limuru dairy farmer cooperative society.

Review the system critically.

Validate and test the system functionality to ensure it does its work efficiently.

The long term objective is for HR department to rely on a fully automated HRIS.

1.5 Scope

The research will use Limuru Dairy Farmers Cooperative society as case study it is easily accessible and have not fully automated it HR department, also they have a vast number of employees to management. Nearness to the organization also is time and money saving. I shall intend to use ASP.NET and MS SQL as they are powerful languages and provide security and consistency. ASP.NET takes advantage of performance enhancements found in the .NET Framework and common language runtime.

1.6 Justification:

The Human Resource Provision Information System will aim to achieve the following functions and also help managers make meaningful decision quickly:

To improve efficiency and effectiveness of the HR department through use of database optimization.

Provision of extensive information to both the management and the employee.

To improve and maximize return by analyzing and monitoring the human resource and making the organization to have a competitive edge over competitors.

Reduction of time wastage, demand for paper in the organization.

Introduction of new technology in management of the employees and also their involvement.

Contribution to Research:

This research will make a contribution to the literature in terms of evaluating HRIS projects in a human resource management, the system designed will help managers cut down on time and cost involved in decisions making and management of employees.