What Is HRIS and What Is HRMS?

The importance of people in any organization requires the industry to ensure it’s utilizing the most updated and efficient technological solutions available. There are two HR solutions that are attracting the attention of enterprises today:  HRIS and HRMS. Because some of their functions are similar and they do complement each other, customers tend to think of them as identical — but they are not. To begin with, HRIS means Human Resource Information Systems while HRMS means Human Resource Management Systems. 

HRIS means keeping track of and organizing all the data that is involved with all the functions of human resources—and that’s a lot, including payroll, training, and communications. They are mostly used to coordinate policies and programs. HRMS, meanwhile, is more focused on managing the talent in your company and monitoring their performance. HRIS is concerned with streamlining, categorizing, and making accessible all the information HR needs to become more efficient. HRMS takes a closer look at empowering the employee, optimizing their functions, and aligning their capabilities to serving the goals of the organization.

A quick look at the each solution’s functions can show their differences. As Aps charts it, HRIS is more involved with benefits administration, payroll, tax compliance, time and attendance, personnel tracking, recruiting, and reporting. HRMS is specifically concerned with performance management and succession planning.

Components of HRIS

Here are some common components of HRIS that support such functions: 

• Attendance Tools enable real-time monitoring of time logs and attendance through a digital dashboard. The automation and digitalization of daily time records and other documents allow HR departments to improve their tracking of attendance and ensuring proper compensation for services rendered.
• Centralized Database aids in storing, accessing, and filtering through voluminous employee data. It also acts as a space to store, display, and disseminate policies, procedures and the seamless integration of personnel data into a single, unified system that can be easily accessed, edited, collected, and backed up easily. 
• Recruitment and Onboarding Processing is critical for job matching, talent acquisition, and pooling of potential applications. Not only can this analyze patterns in recruitment, but job postings can also be integrated into employment portals which can make recruitment more intelligent. 
• Employee Interaction provides a medium for employees to access the database – in a limited capacity. It facilitates accessibility and virtualization wherein employees can manage personal information and instantly see details regarding retirement projections, pay scales, services rendered, and payment information; all this data can be retrieved without having to go through HR staff members. 
• Productivity Management features are available to monitor the actions and productivity of employees during screen time. Through randomized or sequenced monitor recording, employees can spot-check and see if time spent on screen is work-related and progressive.  
• Payroll and Financial Function is one of the major components of HRIS. It automates the payout process as well as other financial functions through a dashboard for uploading and downloading employee hours, processing of deposits, and tax computation – all with a substantially minimized risk of human error. 
• Capacity Development and Training tools track training records, professional certifications, and history of skills development into a portal that training specialists can view to measure skills development, career planning, and promotions.
• Disciplinary Action is an area often neglected or improperly tracked. It’s vital to note which employees have been subject to disciplinary action to better assess their fit to your organization and the proper HR actions to be undertaken to improve behavior. This is also important should separated employees require the former employer’s feedback/ reference.
• Benefits Administration helps in the handling of benefits such as management of sick days, vacation leaves, and the like which allow staff members to focus more on evaluation and management of special cases.

Components of HRMS

The HRMS will have most of the components of an HRIS (which is why many tend to think of the two solutions as one). However, the bulk of the work of the HRMS will be concentrated on the following components:

• Time and Labor Management:  this feature tracks down the amount of time that an employee spends on his work. It can quantify the number of hours or days he spends on a task or a project. It monitors the percentage of the project done given within specific periods of time. It compares his speed or slowness in fulfilling their current work compared to previous ones.
• Performance Management:  this component takes a long term view of  the employee’s career path. It assesses the way they execute their current tasks in light of future responsibilities they might hold. It pinpoints their core competencies, potentials that can be developed, and determine how they can be aligned with the company’s own growing goals.

HR has evolved over the years; there has been a rapid uptick in interest and adoption of innovative HRIS and HRMS technologies because of their wide spectrum of benefits. According to LinkedIn, some of the top trends in recruitment and hiring include diversity, new interviewing tools, data, and artificial intelligence. Further to this, it was found that incorporating technology like artificial intelligence can have profound impact on time savings, removal of human bias, delivery of best candidate matches, and cost savings. 

Effective HRIS and HRMS solutions provide a better handle on employees – from attendance, capabilities, to financial processing. Noting that human talent is the bloodline for any organization, as a fairly inexpensive yet long term solution for implementing the talent requirements of your organization, HRIS enables management to access information for better decision making. 

The importance of people in any organization requires the industry to ensure it’s utilizing the most updated and efficient technological solutions available. There are two HR solutions that are attracting the attention of enterprises today: HRIS and HRMS. Because some of their functions are similar and they do complement each other, customers tend to think of them as identical — but they are not. To begin with, HRIS means Human Resource Information Systems while HRMS means Human Resource Management Systems.

HRIS means keeping track of and organizing all the data that is involved with all the functions of human resources—and that’s a lot, including payroll, training, and communications. They are mostly used to coordinate policies and programs. HRMS, meanwhile, is more focused on managing the talent in your company and monitoring their performance. HRIS is concerned with streamlining, categorizing, and making accessible all the information HR needs to become more efficient. HRMS takes a closer look at empowering the employee, optimizing their functions, and aligning their capabilities to serving the goals of the organization.

A quick look at the each solution’s functions can show their differences. As Aps charts it, HRIS is more involved with benefits administration, payroll, tax compliance, time and attendance, personnel tracking, recruiting, and reporting. HRMS is specifically concerned with performance management and succession planning.

Components of HRIS

Here are some common components of HRIS that support such functions:

• Attendance Tools enable real-time monitoring of time logs and attendance through a digital dashboard. The automation and digitalization of daily time records and other documents allow HR departments to improve their tracking of attendance and ensuring proper compensation for services rendered.
• Centralized Database aids in storing, accessing, and filtering through voluminous employee data. It also acts as a space to store, display, and disseminate policies, procedures and the seamless integration of personnel data into a single, unified system that can be easily accessed, edited, collected, and backed up easily.
• Recruitment and Onboarding Processing is critical for job matching, talent acquisition, and pooling of potential applications. Not only can this analyze patterns in recruitment, but job postings can also be integrated into employment portals which can make recruitment more intelligent.
• Employee Interaction provides a medium for employees to access the database – in a limited capacity. It facilitates accessibility and virtualization wherein employees can manage personal information and instantly see details regarding retirement projections, pay scales, services rendered, and payment information; all this data can be retrieved without having to go through HR staff members.
• Productivity Management features are available to monitor the actions and productivity of employees during screen time. Through randomized or sequenced monitor recording, employees can spot-check and see if time spent on screen is work-related and progressive.
• Payroll and Financial Function is one of the major components of HRIS. It automates the payout process as well as other financial functions through a dashboard for uploading and downloading employee hours, processing of deposits, and tax computation – all with a substantially minimized risk of human error.
• Capacity Development and Training tools track training records, professional certifications, and history of skills development into a portal that training specialists can view to measure skills development, career planning, and promotions.
• Disciplinary Action is an area often neglected or improperly tracked. It’s vital to note which employees have been subject to disciplinary action to better assess their fit to your organization and the proper HR actions to be undertaken to improve behavior. This is also important should separated employees require the former employer’s feedback/ reference.
• Benefits Administration helps in the handling of benefits such as management of sick days, vacation leaves, and the like which allow staff members to focus more on evaluation and management of special cases.

Components of HRMS

The HRMS will have most of the components of an HRIS (which is why many tend to think of the two solutions as one). However, the bulk of the work of the HRMS will be concentrated on the following components:

• Time and Labor Management: this feature tracks down the amount of time that an employee spends on his work. It can quantify the number of hours or days he spends on a task or a project. It monitors the percentage of the project done given within specific periods of time. It compares his speed or slowness in fulfilling their current work compared to previous ones.
• Performance Management:  this component takes a long term view of the employee’s career path. It assesses the way they execute their current tasks in light of future responsibilities they might hold. It pinpoints their core competencies, potentials that can be developed, and determine how they can be aligned with the company’s own growing goals.

HR has evolved over the years; there has been a rapid uptick in interest and adoption of innovative HRIS and HRMS technologies because of their wide spectrum of benefits. According to LinkedIn, some of the top trends in recruitment and hiring include diversity, new interviewing tools, data, and artificial intelligence. Further to this, it was found that incorporating technology like artificial intelligence can have profound impact on time savings, removal of human bias, delivery of best candidate matches, and cost savings.

Effective HRIS and HRMS solutions provide a better handle on employees – from attendance, capabilities, to financial processing. Noting that human talent is the bloodline for any organization, as a fairly inexpensive yet long term solution for implementing the talent requirements of your organization, HRIS enables management to access information for better decision making.