How Do Human Resource Information Systems Help Organizational Learning & Development Processes?
Employees and organizations, even without expressly stating so, enter into numerous types of contracts with each other, contracts which, ideally, should result in multiple tangible and intangible benefits for one another. While the tangible aspect of this equation is the salary for the employee and the amount of work that the employee produces for the organization, the intangible aspect of this equation is that the organization looks after the health and safety of employees as well as providing them with a role that challenges them, and enhancing their skills in such a way that they grow both professionally as well as personally. Professional training involves training them for the job role while personal training involves improving their soft skills.
This Learning & Development (L&D) process does not end at any time since employees need constant learning and development to be able to stay ahead of the times, especially today when technology and other external factors are fast impacting the ways organizations manage their businesses. By using technology for themselves to manage employee L&D processes, organizations can help everyone produce more and grow. Let’s take a look at how technology in the form of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) helps organizations become better at employee L&D management.
Performance Management
L&D is not an end process in itself but one of the processes in the organizational performance management process. Apart from the initial training that employees receive upon recruitment, they will also need to be periodically trained on different aspects as mentioned above over the course of their tenure with the organization. Performance management is the umbrella process under which L&D comes, since it is through an appraisal of the employee’s current skills and standing that their future L&D programs need to be decided. By using an HRIS to manage performance, the HR team and line managers will become aware without any obscurity of the diverse training needs of different employees. Then, both of them together can decide on the right training program to improve the L&D needs of the employees.
Employee Self-Service
Oftentimes, it is not the manager or the HR employee that can best decide the training needs of the employee. The employees themselves will know where they are lacking, and the kind of skills they need to get ahead. While there might be some concerns that employees might misuse such a chance and take on training programs to escape their day-to-day activities, the reality is that managers sometimes have to push employees to complete their training requirements since employees are so cooped up in their work roles and do not welcome the interruption of such training programs, even though they might be helpful for them.
By posting the different training programs available, and by allowing the employees to apply for their requisite training needs themselves, organizations give employees a free hand in their own career development while also showing that they trust them and they care. Also, one has to keep in mind that training programs are not a one-size-fits-all thing; different employees have different training needs, and therefore, it is a good idea to allow employees to pick their training programs themselves.
Training Performance Measurement
Training programs by themselves, being run over a long period, are of little use if the employee performance on these training programs is not measured. Furthermore, these training programs miss their original purpose if employees think that there are no appraisals of the time spent in training, and that is when training programs can be misused. Online HRIS solutions allow organizations to automate employee performance appraisal on training programs. These solutions come with in-built questionnaires that survey employees at the end of every training program to understand if the employee has gleaned anything useful from the program. Furthermore, the solution also allows employees to post their feedback so that the HR professionals can understand the effectiveness of the program and recommend it further to other employees.
Engaging and Time-Saving
Automated training programs that the employees can launch and undergo at any time are very helpful in engaging employees and saving time for them. Also, even when not automated, technology can play a major role in saving time for employees and undergoing training for programs that are not normally offered to them on account of their geographical constraints.
As stated above, Learning & Development is one of the most important tasks that the organization can undertake for its employees, and HRIS solutions can help organizations tailor these training programs and offer them to their employees in a way that is both useful and time-saving.
