Reference no: EM133207520

CASE STUDY

Human Resource Information System at Alfred Nzo District Municipality

Organisations In South Africa have started using Human Resource Information system (HRIS) to deliver the best HR services into the organisation. As the world is becoming more digital and continues to change there is an urgent need for the organisation to respond to the changing demands of their customers to remain competitive. As a result, HRIS has been one of the processes that has been implemented by organisation to management knowledge. Organisations collect, store, maintain and validate data by using HRIS. HRIS can be used for personnel development, communication and integration and keeping records. A study was conducted in the Alfred Nzo district municipality located in the north-east of the Eastern Cape Province. The objective of Alfred Nzo district municipality is to create a conducive environment by improving human capabilities, enhance critical skills and maximize the utilisation of natural resources to improve the quality of life for their community.

The Alfred Nzo district municipality in (2013-2014) consist of 396 of permanent staff. This municipality is made up of four major departments. First is the department of Human Resource that is responsible for recruitment, selection, dealing with labour relations, leave applications, administration and ensuring that the occupation health and safety of employees is secured. The HR department is also responsible for ensuring well-being programs and performance management. The IT division in HR is responsible for network security, development of websites, implementation of IT strategies and the integration of IT- based systems, policies and procedures. The municipality introduced a technology system that is called South African Municipal Resource Administration System (SAMRAS) that is used to manage the finances and other HR activities such as payroll for salary administration.

The problem that has been identified is the fact that HR services that can be performed by the SAMRAS are still been performed manually. This has resulted into inaccuracies of report information, time is wasted doing administration work instead of focusing on HR strategic issues, and poor decision making due to poor management of records. This issue has resulted into penalties caused by late submissions and incorrect report submitted to relevant national bodies such as Auditor General. Even the payroll that is done electronically it is done in the financial department with very little input from the HR department. The main issue is the fact that the staff working in the HR department knowns nothing about the system. Hence why the HR department still performs it task such as filing manually.

Files are kept in the cupboards in the municipality office with no backup at all. The management of these files is poor as they sometimes get lost, misplaced, left lying on the table while containing confidential information. Because the municipality HR records is managed electronically it not easy to update employees' information such as marital status, address or new qualification or adhering to the employment equity act when recruiting and developing employees.

Question 1:
1.1 Examine the fundamental challenges faced by the Alfred Nzo District Municipality in their HR department according to the above case study.
1.2 Provide a detailed account to Alfred Nzo District Municipality on the significance of implementing HRIS in all their HR functions. (10)
1.3 Give a conducive advise to the IT department at Alfred Nzo District Municipality on how they can work together with the HR department to ensure that that the HRIS is implemented successfully in the organisation. (10)

Question 2:
Critically discuss some of the underlying factors that could be a hindrance for the HRIS at Alfred Nzo District Municipality to be implemented successfully.

Question 3:
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic early this year forced organisations to greatly accelerate their adaption to technology for the survival of their organisation. Critically identify the impact of technology in HR operations to replace the previously transactional or administrative central solution towards a people-centric solution. Further elaborate on how this was demonstrated during the pandemic.

Question 4:
There are numerous factors that needs to be considered in the implementation and maintaining a digital transformation in HR. Examine some of the key elements that needs critical attention during this process and further analyse some of the causal factors of failure in digital transformation in HR.