What is a HRIS system?

Uncover what HRIS stands for, examples for HRIS and how it can help your business.

First published on Thursday, June 4, 2020

Last updated on Tuesday, June 18, 2024

A human resource information system (HRIS) is a piece of software popular in HR as it offers businesses a source of employee data.

Some businesses refer to it as a human resources management system (HRMS).

Either way, it allows your HR team to use information stored to complete various essential day-to-day processes.

In this article, we’ll take you through what those are so you can work out whether you think it can provide you with a return on investment.

What is HRIS?

It’s a human resources information system that lets your business establish a central resource for employee data. Within it, you can keep information such as:

  • Names
  • Addresses
  • Employee numbers
  • Payroll numbers
  • Work permit information
  • Attendance rates
  • Lateness

It can prove useful for your organisation as you can also use it to double-up across your recruitment strategy through applicant tracking.

As well as attendance management and performance appraisals.

So, what is HRIS software? It’s a database of your workforce’s essential information.

Examples of HRIS systems

So, what are some HRIS systems? There are three HRIS software examples you can choose from:

  • HRIS: A human resource information system manages people, policies, and procedures.
  • HCM: Human capital management includes everything from an HRIS, but also throws in talent management and global features (such as multi-currency, multi-lingual, and localization options).
  • HRMS: The human resource management system merges important elements from HRIS and HCM. This includes management of your policies and procedures alongside the likes of different language features and talent options.

The type you should pick depends on your business.

But don’t underestimate the importance of HRIS within an organization—they provide excellent real-time automation features.

Our HR software, for example, includes various HRIS features such as:

There’s also a time tracking app, Blip, which provides clocking in and clocking out software for you and your employees.

HRIS applications simplify the process to save you a bunch of time, as well as providing real-time data and employee messaging features.

Benefits of HRIS in an organization

So, what exactly are some of the advantages of using this software? The main ones are:

  • Automate common HR tasks
  • Reach larger candidate pools during a recruitment phase
  • Make onboarding faster
  • Reduce paperwork (a common feature with HR software)
  • Engage employees with self-servicing HR options
  • Improve attendance tracking accuracy
  • Improve HR productivity
  • Become more efficient with time management

So, HCM/HRIS/HRMS software proves to be cost-effective, and it’ll help you achieve more goals at once by streamlining your administrative processes. It’ll help you to:

  • Easily oversee your employees, no matter how many numbers make up your workforce
  • Keep track of leave and absence rates
  • See a mass of essential data at a glance, in real-time, all of which is safely stored
  • Improve business productive with automated features
  • Increase the effectiveness of your hiring strategy

What can HRIS do for your business?

Wondering which piece of software will work for your business, or how it’ll make a difference to your daily routine? Book a FREE HR software demo today!


Jenny Marsden

Associate Director of Service

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