A computerized HRIS contains computer hardware and software applications that work together to help managers make HR decisions.113 The software may be a custom-designed program or an off-the-shelf (prepackaged) applications program.

Figure 2.9 shows some HRIS software applications currently available to business. These include:

• ▪ An employee information program sets up a database that provides basic employee information: name, sex, address, phone number, date of birth, race, marital status, job title, and salary. Other applications programs can access the data in the employee information database for more specialized HR uses.

• ▪ An applicant tracking program can automate some of the labor-intensive activities associated with recruiting job applicants. These include storing job applicant information so that multiple users can access it and evaluate the applicant, scheduling interviews with different managers, updating the personal status of the job applicant, generating correspondence (for example, a job offer or a rejection letter), and producing the necessary equal employment opportunity (EEO) records required by the government.

• ▪ A skills inventory keeps track of the supply of job skills in the employer’s workforce and searches for matches between skill supply and the organization’s demand for job skills.

• ▪ A payroll applications program computes gross pay, federal taxes, state taxes, Social Security, other taxes, and net pay. It can also be programmed to make other deductions from the paycheck for such items as employee contributions to health insurance, employee contributions to a tax-deferred retirement plan, and union dues.

• ▪ A benefits application program can automate benefits record-keeping, administer various benefit programs, or provide advice about benefit choices. Benefits software can also provide an annual benefits statement for each employee.

• ▪ An employee time management program tracks the way each employee uses time on the job. The program monitors employee attendance, absenteeism, and tardiness.114

The HR department must develop policies and guidelines to protect the integrity and security of the HRIS. Unauthorized users of HRIS can create havoc. In one case, an executive who worked for a brokerage house tapped into her company’s HRIS to get employee names and addresses for her husband, a life insurance agent who used the information to mail solicitations to his wife’s colleagues. The solicited employees brought a million-dollar class-action suit against the company for invasion of privacy.115 In another case, a computer programmer tapped into a computer company’s HRIS, detected the salaries of a number of employees (including top managers and executives), and disclosed this information to other employees. The situation became very disruptive when angry employees demanded to know why large pay discrepancies existed.116

To maintain the security and privacy of HRIS records, companies should:

• ▪ Limit access to the HRIS by controlling access to the computer and its data files and locking the areas where they are stored and encrypting the data.

• ▪ Permit limited access to different portions of the database with the use of passwords and special codes.

• ▪ Grant permission to access employee information only on a need-to-know basis.

• ▪ Develop policies and guidelines that govern the utilization of employee information and notify employees how this policy works.

• ▪ Allow employees to verify and correct their personal records.