INTRODUCTION

Advancements in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sphere has opened up
newer avenues for business organisations and provided a competitive advantage by using innovative
and customised solutions. ICT has become a central component of any 21st century organisation’s
functioning across all industries. Organisations across the business spectrum have come to depend
on integrated ICT systems for organising, storing, retrieving and reviewing data. Nowadays ICT
and automation has facilitated accessibility, reliability and accuracy of information thereby
improving organisational effectiveness and provided a leadership edge to organisations applying
ICT in various operations.

The field of Human Resource Management has not been spared by the ICT revolution. In itself the
field is continuously evolving and the Human Resources in today’s company is more than a support
system but has now become a strategic role. The Human Resource function primarily deals with an
organisation’s employees and all the people who are related with the organisation. It is designed to
improve employee productivity, performance and align the workforce with the business.

Human resources (HR) are the key success factor of any organization operating in the 21st century
(Bhuiyan, Chowdhury & Ferdous, 2014). Therefore it is important that this resource is managed
well for any organisation that wants to have a competitive advantage over others in the same
industry.

Human Resources Management in an organisation is concerned with people related issues. It is the
duty of the HR department to work on things like recruitment and selection, compensation, general
administration, employee welfare, organisational communication, performance management,
employee motivation, rewards and training and development.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER

This paper aims to provide justification for adopting an HRIS for the Zimfurn Group. This includes
providing awareness about human resource information systems, its uses in the Zimfurn company,
the advantages offered by the HRIS and how to improve the capacity of the human resource
management to support and absorb new and emerging opportunities as well as challenges in the
business world.
LAYOUT OF THIS PRESENTATION
In order to provide a coherent presentation for the Zimfurn Group, this paper will be divided into
sections. Each section will focus on a particular area or theme of the presentation. The first section
shall provide definitions of the major terms that will be part of this paper. The two terms to be
defined will be Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and the Software Development Life
Cycle (SDLC). The second section shall then provide advantages of and the need for adopting an
HRIS including how other organisations adopted the HRIS.

The third section will provide a cost benefit analysis of adopting an HRIS using estimate values.
The values for time are however based on Nyame and Boateng (2015) and Quaosar (2018) who
estimate that manual HR tasks can sometimes take up to 2 days a week.

The fourth section will then take a look at what the SDLC is and how it will be used in the adoption
of the HRIS by the Zimfurn Group. The final section will present a short summary and then
conclusions of the presentation.

DEFINITIONS
Firstly in order to get a broad understanding of what an HRIS is, the papers will start by providing
definitions of the two most important terms that is HRIS and SDLC.

A human resource information system (HRIS) is defined as a system which is used to acquire, store,
manipulate, retrieve and distribute information about an organisation’s human resources
(Chakraborty and Mansor, 2013). One can also define a HRIS as a human resource management
system (HRMS) which is essentially the marriage of human resources and information technology.
The HRIS therefore allows HR activities and processes to occur electronically (Gupta, 2013).
Figure 1 shows the major parts or functions of a HRIS.

Gupta (2013) states that a HRIS generally should provide the capability to more effectively plan,
control and manage HR costs; achieve improved efficiency and quality in HR decision making; and
improve employee and managerial productivity and effectiveness. A HRIS is designed to supply
information required for effective management of the organization i.e. for decision making relating
to human resource (Quaosar, 2018; Gupta, 2013).

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Figure 1. Major functions of a HRIS

Source: https://www.hrpayrollsystems.net/hris/

The Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a methodology for designing, building, and
maintaining information and industrial systems (Alshamrani and Bahattab, 2015). Software
Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by the software and engineering fields to design,
develop and test high quality software. The objective of the SDLC is to produce a high-quality
software that not only meets customer expectations but also reaches completion within times and
cost estimates. The SDLC can also be thought of as a framework that defines tasks performed at
each step in the software development process. The framework consists of a detailed plan
describing how to develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance specific software.

Figure 2 provides a simplified workflow of the SDLC with the major stages. Different SDLC
models have additional steps but all SDLC models adhere to the steps in Figure 2 as the barest
minimum.

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Figure 2. Workflow for the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Source https://www.dignitasdigital.com/blog/easy-way-to-understand-sdlc/

THE NEED FOR A HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

Having defined what a HRIS is, the next important aspect is that before Zimfurn Group start to
automate their human resource functionality, the management should understand the need for the
HRIS. Therefore the following passages discuss the advantages that accrue to an organisation
which uses a HRIS.

Reduction in paperwork
The first major benefit of having a HRIS for Zimfurn Group is the reduction in the paperwork that
is being used in the current system. This view is supported by Chakraborty and Mansor (2013) who
opine that the reduction in paperwork also aides management and reduces costs significantly.
Paperwork is not only time consuming but it is also costly in terms of procurement. As an example,
the process for hiring a new employee starts with advertising, receiving of applications, printing
papers for the new employee to fill and a lot more. This is also an environmental challenge since
most of the paperwork will have to be disposed of eventually.

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By managing forms and other paperwork in the cloud and storing documents digitally, an HRIS can
ensure governmental compliance, improve management oversight, encourage superior customer
service, and ultimately boost the company’s earnings.

Automation
In any line of work there are bound to be tasks within any that are repetitive in nature, but important
or vital to the success of an organisation. Such tasks can be employee returns that have to be
calculated monthly, tax management or reports that need to be generated weekly. Whether the tasks
are recurring weekly, monthly, annually an HRIS can automate these processes so they seamlessly
work in the background of other, more people intensive work that can’t be automated and need to
be dealt with by humans. Researchers agree that automation is a big advantage that organisations
using HRIS have over those that still use manual or paper based systems like Zimfurn (Quaosar,
2018; Papa, 2016).

These automated processes can really improve workflows, and save time and other valuable
resources. The automated processes can ensure speedy recruitment for new employees, a reduction
in paper and related materials, storage space and streamline for open enrollment.

Greater compliance with authorities

Every legal business has to be in compliance with the legal instruments that relate to them. Zimfurn
is no different from a host of organisations operating in Zimbabwe. The challenge in being
compliant is greatly exposed when using manual or paper based systems. This challenge is dealt
with by adopting an HRIS (Anitha and Aruna, 2013). All kinds of paperwork involved in the
organisational process, are considerably reduced once. At the beginning of a new employee’s tenure
with Zimfurn, one has to fill up certain forms in order to comply with legal requirements like
ZIMRA, NSSA and all the statutory bodies that relate to employment. And throughout their tenure,
certain paperwork must be kept current. A HRIS technology is an ideal tool in order to track this
kind of a requirement and also ensuring that the paperwork related to compliance with authorities is
all complete (Gupta, 2013).

It’s not enough to sign and store the right paperwork. Those documents must also be completed on
time, filed with the right organizations or departments, and be readily available for government
audits or other legal matters. Because an HRIS helps with the filing and retrieval process of
documents more efficiently, Zimfurn can streamline the compliance process as well. Many
platforms can also connect with insurance carriers and file legal documents within the system,

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keeping all the company’s data in a single place.

Improved report generation

One the biggest benefit that the use of an HRIS system adds to a business is its ability to create
customised and adhoc reports and presentations. An HRIS system will have all the organisation’s
information pertaining to the HR initiatives. This includes, but is not limited to, details regarding
the company’s recruitment practices and policies, e.g. a comprehensive listing of all job applicants,
an up-to-date index of vacancies in the company and electronic copies of each employee’s
paperwork. An HRIS mostly holds data regarding the salary and incentive structure of all
employees. In the case of Zimfurn all the data is in files and these are put in steel cabinets.
Included in the files are results of annual performance appraisals and all disciplinary actions that
may have been taken toward certain employees. All this data will now be housed in an HRIS and
reports can be run in a matter of seconds.

Because all that information will now be held in one database, the Zimfurn management can now
run a variety of detailed reports that encompass some or all of this information. For example, when
management wants to hire additional staff, a report can be run of past candidates who possess a
specific skill set.

Easier recruitment procedures

The biggest function that is performed by the HR department is that of recruitment. In support of
the company’s recruitment efforts, an HRIS system provides a sophisticated interface allowing its
use by both internal employees, as well as external job applicants.

An HRIS system will allow job seekers to submit their resumes and contact information to a
potential employer from a remote computer. The HRIS will then collect the information the
information thereby making it easily accessible by the HR manager. For recruitment purposes, the
manager is able to perform detailed searches of collected resumes, using a variety of queries,
including location, level of education, years of professional experience and technical skill set
(Nyame and Boateng, 2015). These queries are not available in the current setup at Zimfurn. In
addition, the software will also allow current employees to electronically apply for new positions.
Improved Oversight
Zimfurn has been recruiting, training, and reviewing employees using what can be termed the “old-
fashioned way”. However, using an HRIS the company will save countless hours by relying on the
HRIS for managing the application and interview process, setting and tracking training goals for

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new employees, and scheduling reviews. The HRIS can stall the recruitment, training or termination
process if the paperwork is not properly completed and submitted. Alerts can be send to remind
employees about actions they need to take and to notify the HR administrator if certain conditions
are not met.

A good HRIS will help the company by proactively monitoring compliance or adherence to the
company policies. At the same time an HRIS will help upper management to deal only with cases
requiring their personal attention by handling the minor issues. The system will also generate
reports to demonstrate compliance, identify irregularities, and pinpoint problems that need manager
intervention.

Boost Productivity
According to Nyame and Boateng (2015), an HRIS helps the organisation boost productivity. A
carefully selected HRIS will increase productivity for Zimfurn by drastically reducing the manual
administrative burden of the HR department, thus allowing them to maximize time spent within
their roles. Sample calculations will be done in the third section.

Common administrative processes that take a lot of time for the HR department include record
keeping, employee maintenance, and tasks to keep compliance. Most organisations have current
processes that can take up to two days in any given week, all spent on compliance and paperwork
alone (Chakraborty and Mansor, 2013). This prevents management from focusing on other priorities
and causing them to look for new ways to create efficiencies.

Minimise Errors
Whilst this is not unique to the HRIS domain, reduction of errors is also a major advantage of the
HRIS against the paper based system at Zimfurn currently being used. With the adoption of an
HRIS comes a reduction in payroll errors, or scheduling errors (Chakraborty and Mansor, 2013).
With HR being the central department that keeps a company moving in the right direction, an HRIS
can provide a culture of accountability that has implications far outside the human resources
department.

Security
This is another advantage which is not unique to the HRIS. However, this is improved or in some
cases even brought by the adoption of an HRIS. Basically, automated systems are more secure than
the paper based counterparts and also provides an audit trail of who did what where and when.

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CALCULATING THE VALUE OF NEW HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

It does not automatically follow that HR departments will reduce their staff complement after
implementing a HR system. In most instances the department size will remain the same where in
some instance the members of staff are reassigned to other duties. In the event that the HR
department does not change, the members of staff who were previously responsible for recording
and tracking paper-based employee data will instead record the same data in the HRIS and produce
reports automatically. The question which must be answered now is, “So, where are the savings?”.

This section will try to provide a mini cost benefit analysis of the proposed HRIS in order to try and
come up with the answer to the question in the preceding paragraph.

Before continuing it should be noted that some of the major benefits of the HRIS cannot be
translated into monetary terms. These include things like increased employee morale. Most HR
system savings come form the limited growth in the HR department since each member of the staff
becomes more productive. Areas of performance that were either neglected, or simply accepted
because of a lack of time and analytical capabilities, are now looked at more closely for savings and
improvements.

Please note that the calculations done here are based on assumptions, that is, the size of Zimfurn
Group in terms of employees, the size of the HR department and the salaries of the employees. The
assumptions are indicated in the following tables. Please note that the monetary units have not
been denominated due to the multi currency nature of our country.

Table 1. Zimfurn base assumptions

Assumption Frequency/Cost
No of employees for Zimfurn Group 300

Average salary of employees 538

Size of HR department 3

Average salary of HR employees 725

Average working hours per day 8

Calculations are going to done for the following areas:

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  Recruitment process,
 Employee information collection
 Employee benefits calculations and salaries management

Calculation of the cost of 1 HR member of staff to Zimfurn.

Average annual salary: 8700
Cost per hour to company: 0.99
The formula that is used to calculate the costs is as follows:
(estimated time per week) x (number of weeks per year) x (Avg. hourly wage) = Cost of task

Table 2. Calculating employee costs without HRIS

HR Tasks Hours per Hours per year Cost per year
week
Recruitment (advertising, selecting applicants, 4 208 205.92
interviews)
Benefits Management (tax, salaries etc) 8 416 411.84

Managing Employee Personal Data 8 416 411.84

Creating complex reports 16 832 823.68

Searching for employee information 3 156 154.44

Total estimate cost to company 39 2,028 2,007.72

Table 2 shows the estimated cost of selected activities in the HR department per week and per year
in the current setup without using an HRIS. For example it is estimated that in a 42 hour working
week the greater part of it is 39 hours is taken up by the few activities in Table 1.

This shows that besides other costs, the major cost to the company is the time that is being taken up
by using manual methods in the HR department. Table 3 shows the same computations but with the
assumption that the HRIS is now being utilised.
Table 3. Calculating employee costs with HRIS
HR Tasks Hours per Hours per year Cost per year
week
Recruitment (advertising, selecting applicants, 1 52 51.48
interviews)
Benefits Management (tax, salaries etc) 0.5 26 25.74

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Managing Employee Personal Data 0.5 26 25.74

Creating complex reports 3 156 154.44

Searching for employee information 1 52 51.48

Total estimate cost to company 6 312 308.88

Table 3 show a great difference from the values computed in Table 2. This is mainly to the ease
and speed at which calculations are carried out in the HRIS. For example statutory benefits are only
entered into the system once and it will always compute on its own. Searching for employee
information takes micro seconds for 1 employee.

With such savings it means that the HR department will now have more time and effort to give
other tasks like employee motivation.

The following paragraph shows another calculation. This time the calculation relates to the
production of a report that is needed by management. To come up with the report one has to
estimate the time to produce one report and multiply this estimate by the number of times each
report is run annually to yield the total hours required to produce reports in a year.

The calculation continues with the estimate in Table 1 of the hourly cost for the HR employee who
creates these reports which is the multiplied by the total hours required to obtain a figure for the
cost of that function.

(number of times produced annually) x (time to produce) x (Avg. hourly wage) = Report Cost

EEO-1 Report - 12 (monthly) x (16 hours per week x 4 weeks) x(hourly wage) 0.99

12 x 64 x 0.99 = 760.32
The cost for producing the above report will monthly for the whole year will be 760.32.

When the cost of the reports generated by HR Software is calculated, and compared to the cost of
manual reporting, the potential cost savings can be a compelling argument for automation. The
next section will now concentrate on using the SDLC to develop or adopt the HRIS.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEM USING

THE SDLC

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The preceding sections provided a discussion of advantages that accrue to organisations that have
adopted the use of HRIS. The following sections will now go on to provide the actual steps that
will be taken by the Zimfurn Group to adopt the HRIS for their operations.

The steps will follow what is known as the classical SDLC model or the waterfall model. This
methodology is best used when the project requirements are stable or well known before the
beginning of the project (Bassil, 2012; Leau, Loo, Tham & Tan, 2012). Since the requirements for
the Zimfurn Group are well detailed, then this is the best SDLC model to use.

Figure 3. The waterfall model.

Source: http://tutorialspoint.com

Planning Phase
This is the first phase in the systems development process. It identifies whether or not there is the
need for a new system to achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives. This is a preliminary plan

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also known as a feasibility study. The objective of the planning phase/feasibility study is for an
organisation to make the initiative to acquire the resources to build on an infrastructure to modify or
improve a service. The company might be trying to meet or exceed expectations for their
employees, customers and stakeholders too. The objective of this phase is to find out the problem
and determine possible solutions. This phase involves creating of a set of plans to help guide the
team through the execution and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase
will help to manage time, cost, quality, change, risk and issues. The plans will also help
management in monitoring the project to ensure that it is delivered on time and within budget.

Essentially this stage is all about what is wanted by the client, in this case Zimfurn Group, and how
to get it. Since Zimfurn have already determined the need for an HRIS then a big part of this phase
has already been covered. Therefore what will be needed will be to determine the costs of acquiring
the software and the requisite hardware, the time frames for the whole project and the team that will
spearhead the project.

Analysis Phase
After finishing the planning phase the second phase will be the analysis phase. This is also known
as the Requirements Elicitation phase. During this phase Zimfurn Group will work on the source of
their problem or the need for a change and possible solutions will be submitted and analyzed to
identify the best fit for the ultimate goal(s) of the Zimfurn Group. The current workflows will be
documented and new needs will be identified.

The analysis phase is also where system analysis takes place, or analysing the needs of the end users
to ensure the new system can meet their expectations. This phase will see each all the papers used
by the Zimfurn Group being translated to modules that will be available on the new HRIS. The
analysis phase is important in determining what the organisation’s needs are. This phase will not
only determine how the needs can be met but also who will be responsible for individual pieces of
the project, and what sort of timeline should be expected.

For the Zimfurn Group the key modules have already been identified or requested. These are inter
alia; benefits administration, payroll, time and attendance, core employee data and employee self-
service.

Design Phase

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In the design phase, the desired features and operations of the system are discussed. This phase
includes business rules, pseudo-code, screen layouts, and other necessary documentation. The two
primary activities involved in the design phase are designing of IT infrastructure and designing of
system model.

The design phase is where the necessary specifications, features and operations that will satisfy the
functional requirements of the proposed system are described in detail. During this phase the end
users, in this case the Zimfurn HR department, are called to discuss and determine their specific
business information needs for the proposed HRIS. It is during this phase that they will also will
consider the important parts that are needed for the HRIS to accomplish its objectives.

In short during the design stage the blueprint for the system are laid out and all detailed
specifications are explained.

Development
This is also known as the coding stage/phase. The development phase is when the actual work
begins. This is when a programmer, engineer and/or database developer are brought on to do the
major work on the project. The development phase is where all the documents and information that
was gathered by Zimfurn in the earlier stages are converted into the actual system. This also
involves the development of the IT infrastructure, the database, the code and sometimes training
manuals can be created during this phase.

The difference with the design phase is that during the design stage only the blueprints are
provided, whereas in this phase the organisation actually purchases and installs the respective
software and hardware. Thereafter, work on the database and actual code can begin to complete the
HRIS on the basis of given specifications.

It is important to note that some SDLC models separate testing of the code from the development
thereby making 2 distinctive stages. However, for the Zimfurn HRIS the testing will be a
component of the development stage. In the testing component, all the pieces of code are integrated
and deployed in the testing environment. Testers then check the integrated HRIS for errors and
defects to validate that the system’s functionalities work as expected or not.

The development phase provides a milestone in that it designates the end of the initial section of the
SDLC and signifies the start of production of the actual HRIS.

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Implementation
In the implementation stage the HRIS is built and readied for production. This phase involves the
actual installation of the newly-developed system. During the implementation phase the project is
put into production by moving the data and components from the current Zimfurn paper based
system and placing them in the new HRIS. All data and components are then placed in the
production environment. This phase is also called referred to as the Delivery Phase. For Zimfurn
this entails choosing a time when the HR department will start utilising the system. However, it is
very important for Zimfurn not to abandon the current (paper) workflow until the new HRIS is
deemed stable. In order to avoid the challenges that come with suddenly adopting a new system,
Zimfurn should run the two systems in parallel for a given time period e.g for 6 months.

Maintenance
After the HRIS has been deployed, the maintenance phase kicks in. This involves maintenance and
regular required update. In the maintenance phase, Zimfurn will indicate if it is necessary to provide
enhancements, point out corrections, and request for any changes will be made in order for the
HRIS to continue working and stay updated to meet the company’s goals. It is necessary to
maintain and upgrade the system from time to time so it can adapt to future needs. The major
activities involved in the maintenance phase are; training and supporting the system users,
maintenance of the HRIS, system changes and adjustments.

Put plainly the maintenance phase is when end users (Zimfurn Group) can fine-tune the system.
They can improve performance, they can add new capabilities or request for changes so that the
system meets additional user requirements.

SUMMARY

The paper provided the importance of the Human Resource Information System for Zimfurn Group.
This section will just provide a summary of the importance of an HRIS and the Software
Development Life Cycle.

An HRIS is a system which focuses on improved information management of employee data and
improves information sharing and communication between the company and the employees. An
HRIS provides improved productivity, with the accurate and objective tracking of compensation
and benefits thereby also increasing employees' morale and motivation. The Human Resource

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Information System reduces cost and time spent on manual data consolidation as is currently the
situation with Zimfurn. This in turn frees the HR managers and allows them to focus more on
making decisions and projects rather than paperwork. An HRIS will give the HR department a more
strategic role in the management of Zimfurn, as the information taken from HRIS can be the basis
for employee training schemes and work efficiency projects.
In any project it is necessary give structure to the several phases involved in software development
efforts and SDLC serves that purpose. It is important to note that the cycle does not conclude until
all the requirements have been fulfilled, and will continue until all the potential needs are adjusted
within the system. The biggest advantage of the software development life cycle is that it provides
control of the development process to some extent, and ensures the system complies with all the
requirements that have been specified.

CONCLUSION
The paper provided the Zimfurn Group with a plan to follow in adopting a Human Resource
Information System. The paper first discussed the need for the system and provided a number of
advantages that accrue to organisations that use an HRIS as part of their workflow. A host of
advantages were discussed and the major ones were the excpected improved revenue flows due to
the better handling of employee data and the reduction in resources that are used in the current
paper based system. The Software Development Life Cycle was proposed as the methodology that
will be used in the adoption of the HRIS. The phases of the SDLC were married to the proposed
HRIS adoption. Therefore should the Zimfurn Group follow the SDLC in adopting the new system
then the company will have a system which will provide value for money.

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REFERENCES
Anitha, J., & Aruna, M. (2013). Adoption of Human Resource Information System in
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Bassil, Y. (2012). A simulation model for the waterfall software development life cycle. arXiv
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Bhuiyan, Faruk & Manir Chowdhury, Mustafa & Ferdous, Farzana. (2014). Historical Evolution of
Human Resource Information System (HRIS): An Interface between HR and Computer
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Chakraborty, A. R., & Mansor, N. N. A. (2013). Adoption of human resource information system:
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Gupta, B. (2013). Human resource information system (HRIS): Important element of current
scenario. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 13(6), 41-46.

Leau, Y. B., Loo, W. K., Tham, W. Y., & Tan, S. F. (2012). Software development life cycle
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Papa, J. F. (2016). Development of a Centralized Human Resource Information System of Cavite

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