Expert’s Ready-to-Use HRIS Capability Checklist

Letke, who is the founder and CEO of the HR consulting and HR outsourcing company HR Integrity, Inc., offered her tips at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR® and HR Hero®.

Deciding What’s Appropriate for Your HRIS

Here are some questions Letke uses to help employers define their HRIS needs:

• What information are people in your organization requesting? Employee demographics? Training/ Certification? Performance evaluation? Wage data?
• How do you, line managers, the chief executive officer, and the chief financial officer obtain needed personnel information?
• How long does it take you to respond to a new request for information?
• What HR management needs are not being addressed and handled properly?
• How effective is your support to the budgeting and planning processes?
• What’s not being handled well today?
• Where do you stand in complying with COBRA, ERISA, FLSA, OSHA, and other statutes and regulations?
• What tasks are you being asked to do today? How well are you performing these tasks?
• What new programs, services, and management support must you provide to help your organization meet its goals?

Managing an HR Department of One was recently recognized as one of SHRMStore’s “Great 8” best-selling products. Examine it at no cost or risk for 30 days and find out what all the buzz is about.

Sample Systems Capability Checklist

Here are some things you might consider putting on your systems capability checklist. It could be part of your request for proposal (RFP) or your secret wish list, says Letke.

• Integration modules—what does it offer (Payroll, attendance, self service, benefits, recruiting, etc.).
• Level of integration with payroll.
• E-mail alerts. (Autogenerated e-mail tells you when someone has completed a form or 60 days before a certification is about to expire.) Can you set it up yourself?
• Expense and headcount tracking.
• Succession planning.
• I-9 compliance.
• New hire processing.
• Employee skill inventory.
• Requisitions for new hires.
• Interviews of applicants.
• Résumé importing.
• Keyword searching.
• Employee self-service, online enrollment.
• Manager approvals of changes.
• Life events.
• Personal records.
• Handbook maintenance.
• Labor relations, seniority.
• EEO-1 and affirmative action reporting.
• Pay equity analysis.
• Compensation.
• Salary change requests.
• Salary history.
• Reprint W2.
• Payroll.
• Bonus.
• Pay grades.
• Job descriptions.
• Benefits.
• Participation, how much paying.
• Employee benefits statement.
• 401k.
• Flexible benefits.
• Account balance reporting.
• Training and development.
• Enrollment.
• Costs.
• Library.
• Notices and certificates.
• OSHA and safety.
• Preparing the OSHA 200.
• Employee safety history.
• Exposure.
• Report-writing capabilities.
• Import and export data.
• Hardware required.
• Ability to modify fields or add new columns in numeric data.
• Security—unique security profile for each user.
• Data breach control.
• Utilities.
• Records management—how long to store; when to delete

Put together a detailed checklist like this (Your list should reflect your particular interests and needs.) to help you evaluate potential vendors and their systems, says Letke.

Otherwise, you’re going to be saying, “I wish I had thought of that before I picked a system.”

Working with HRISs is a challenge, but surely not your only one. From hiring to firing, HR’s never easy, and in a small department, it’s just that much tougher.

BLR’s Managing an HR Department of One is unique in addressing the special pressures small HR departments face. Here are some of its features:

• Explanation of how HR supports organizational goals. This section explains how to probe for what your top management really wants and how to build credibility in your ability to deliver it.
• Overview of compliance responsibilities, through a really useful,         2-page chart of 23 separate laws that HR needs to comply with. These range from the well-known Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and new healthcare reform legislation to lesser-known, but equally critical, rules such as Executive Order 11246. Also included are examples of federal and state posting requirements. (Proper postings are among the first things a visiting inspector looks for—especially now that the minimum wage has been repeatedly changing.)

Feel as if you’re all alone in HR? Take on a partner—Managing an HR Department of One. Examine it at no cost or risk for 30 days. Get more information.

• Training guidelines. No matter the size of your company, expect to conduct training. Some of it is required by law; some of it just makes good business sense. Managing an HR Department of One walks you through how to train efficiently and effectively with a minimum of time and money.
• Prewritten forms, policies, and checklists. These are enormous work savers! Managing an HR Department of One has 46 such forms, from job apps and background check sheets to performance appraisals and leave requests, in both paper and on CD. The CD lets you easily customize any form with your company’s name and specifics.

If you’d like a more complete look at what Managing an HR Department of One covers, click the Table of Contents link below. Or, better yet, take a look at the entire program. We’ll send it to you for 30 days’ evaluation in your own office with no obligation to buy. Click here, and we’ll be happy to make the arrangements.

Download Table of Contents
Order or Get More Information