HRIS: How it Helped Revolutionizing the HR

Practices at United Commercial Bank Ltd.

Abstract
Human resources are considered to be organizations most valuable asset, therefore
its adequate management is required, this study borders on Human Resource
Information Systems (HRIS) in United Commercial Bank. Information techno- logy
is believed to be crucial in human resource management in contemporary
organizations. Banks are owing to their characteristics especially sensitive to human
resource management: careful selection of employees is required, their training and
performance need to be measured and tracked, legislative requirements regarding
human resource management need to be met, but most importantly, employees need
to be motivated in order to give better results. In this article it has been given a
general overview of human resource information systems (HRIS) and their
application in United Commercial Bank. A survey was conducted in order to explore
current practice of HRIS usage in Banking industry . Some of the researched areas
include modality of HRIS development, functionalities it supports, general level of
satisfaction with implemented HRIS and target aims when developing it. The results
of the research support the findings of other similar researches in the world.
Company Overview
United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) is a Bangladesh based financial institution
that provides banking services. The services include personal and business banking,
loans, credit cards, online banking and money transfer services. The bank primarily
operates in Bangladesh, where it is headquartered in Dhaka. They have added 147
branches with 3680 employees working in different divisions. The bank has in its
management a combination of highly skilled and eminent bankers of the country of
varied experience and expertise. The goal of the bank is to become a most disciplined
bank with distinctive corporate culture. In UCBL we believe in shared meaning,
shared understanding shared sense making. Our people see and understand events,
activities, objects and situation. In a distinctive way we are able to suit the purpose of
the bank and the needs of the employee.
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Human resource development and management has been proved as one of the most
critical aspects of attaining organizational effectiveness. Human Resource
Management (HRM) is concerned with the people dimension in management.
United Commercial Bank Limited, since its inception, has placed equal emphasis on
all the four key functions of the process of HRM-acquisition, development,
motivation and retention. The various programs undertaken by the UCBL to enrich
the quality of human resource are mainly aimed at increasing professional
knowledge and skill levels of employees through training and development, in order
to form a well-equipped work force for providing excellent services to the customers.
Moreover, top executive of the Bank are frequently send abroad for enabling them to
know the functions and mechanisms of financial, money and security market of the
developed countries and also to exploring business opportunities. Quit a large
numbers of executives and officers of the Bank have so far been trained at
Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM),Bangladesh Bank Training
Academy (BBTA) etc. covering divers areas of the financial system including
commercial banking as carefully selected are largely concentrated around core
banking issues like credit management, international trade, treasury management,
audit and inspection, loan review & monitoring and project management.
Today, professionals in the Human Resources area are important elements in the
success of any organization. Their jobs require a new level of sophistication that is
unprecedented in Human Resource management. Not surprisingly, their status in
the organization has also been elevated. Even the name has changed. UCBL has a
well decorated computer based HRM Division. UCBL implement the HRIS in their
bank.

The Human Resources Information System provides details on

administration, payroll, recruitment, and training. This system is expected to deliver

valuable results to Human Resources division and organization as a whole. It is an
essential tool that aids management in making strategic decisions. HRIS as a whole
mainly improves information sharing and communication between the company and
the employees. HRIS made it easy for the human resources department to smoothly
operate all components. With the accurate and objective tracking of compensation
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and benefits, employees morale and motivation increases. The Human Resource
Information System reduces cost and time spent on manual data consolidation. It
allows the HR management managers to focus more on making decisions and
projects rather than paperwork.
HRIS : What it is?
A Human Resource Information System is a systematic procedure for collecting,
storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data needed by an organization about
its human resources, personnel activities, and organization unit characteristics.
An HRIS need not be complex or even computerized. HRIS can be as informal as the
payroll records and time cards of a small business, or as extensive and formal as the
computerized human resource databases of major manufacturers, banks, and
governments. HRIS can support long range planning, with information for labor
force planning, and supply and demand forecasts; staffing with information on equal
employment, separations, and applicant qualifications; and development with
information on training program costs and trainee work performance. HRIS can also
support compensation programs with information on pay increases, salary forecasts,
and pay budgets; and labor/employee relations with information on contract
negotiations and employee assistance needs. In every case the purpose is to provide
information that is either required by human resource stakeholders or supports
human resource decisions.
Need of HRIS
Some information is gathered for the purpose of satisfying an external stakeholders
requirement. Other information is gathered because it is required to fulfill the
employment relationship. Most HRIS begin with this required information. Many of
the computerized enhancements to information systems are designed to produce this
required information faster or at a lower cost. The benefits of the information are
obvious- the organization would not be allowed to continue in business if it didnt use
the information to produce the required reports or payments. So, attention focuses
on producing the information and completing the reports at the lowest cost. These
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kinds of applications emphasize doing administrative tasks faster, with less paper, or
with fewer people. They are by far the most common HRIS applications, because
their value is relatively easy to calculate. One can readily see, based on activities of a
number of public and private sector organizations, that the use of HRIS has been a
mainstay in their efforts to downsize and reengineer their human resource functions.
Two very prominent examples of this type of application are the Department of
Defenses conversion to an off the shelf software package (Oracle HR) and Hewlett
Packards use of People Soft to assist in their reengineering of how human resource
functional services are provided in a global environment. In each organization,
substantial reductions in staff were possible through the use of value added process
reviews and the use of human resource information systems. There are many
examples available that describe the use of a HRIS in the management process, but
all utilize the basic premise discussed herein.
While automation can cut administrative costs, such applications are based on the
basic assumption that the administrative activity should be continued. Many
organizations are finding that the most fundamental value of technology is its ability
to encourage new thinking that removes the need for layers of administration. This
kind of fundamental change is called reengineering.
Many organizations are utilizing automated systems that have reengineered
processes by using interactive employee information kiosks or Internet-based Web
applications. Levi Strauss uses a system called OLIVER, and systems like it have been
utilized by the Office of Personnel Management (FED EXRESS) to collect data on
employees who use computers to answer their own questions, test the implications of
certain decisions, and even change their enrollment in benefits. By reengineering
benefits information this way organizations not only reduce the staff needed to
answer questions, but also create a new and more direct relationship with employees.
Many similar systems are being utilized to provide employees and managers the
opportunity to interact with the organizations databases to apply for jobs, review
organizational regulations, and to facilitate communications between employees,
managers, and labor unions.
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Implementation process of HRIS

UCB at present has 147 branches all over Bangladesh where around 3000 employees
are working. Serving this 5000 thousand customer centrally from HR department is
impossible as well as complexity in employee data management goes high. To cope
up with modern HR service where every moment HR needs to data to take make new
decisions for example- Employee Promotion. To find out who are eligible for
promotion on 1st July of 2014 HR need following information
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

Join date
Last promotion data
Performance appraisal ranking or Score
Academic background.

HRIS is such type of system which can give us above mentioned information within a
minute whereas without a digital system it will take minimum a month to find
employee for promotion and two to three Officers need to work continuously to make
this database. This why interdependence with MIS department was becoming
essential
Human Resources Management Division, Information technology division, finance
division and Software Vendor jointly set up 07 (seven member team) supervised by
Project Manager in HR. This team undertook a need study and consulted with HR
members Team undertook a need study & consulted with HR members, finance
payroll executives, IT executives and top management to find out proper HRIS
output.
Then HR team members and IT team and Vendor started to analyze how to input
data into HRIS software. The following points came out here:
a)

Already an oracle based old version software PIMS exists. Vendor

agreed to migrate the database from PIMS (old version software) to new HRIS
software.
b)
Since data in PIMS is not sufficient to check and give input of data HR
will recruit 5 (five) data entry operator on contractual basis for six month.
c)
HR team find out total employee size is more around 6000 (six
thousand) including 3 (three) thousand old employee and 3 (three) thousand
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Ex employee who has retired, resigned, terminated, dismissed or expire in the

past.
d)
HR team also find out a lot of conjoined work/ tasks with Finance and
accounts division
e)
From 2013 UCBL has implemented central Banking system through
oracle based Core Banking Software (CBS) through Flex CUBE .
Before start of implementation of HRIS, HR organized a three days training session
to have an orientation with new software. In fact main objective was to know how to
input data, how to generate report from HRIS as well how to set master setting of the
software.
The Impact of HRIS on Performance of Human Resources Division
Practicing of HRIS at UCB brings an abrupt change for benefits both of employee
and employer at the organization, It is found that HRIS is being used in three
different areas as of a)Recruitment and

selection

b)

Training

and

Development c)Payroll. Among different areas of applications of HRIS in

HRM process respondents have given the highest importance on recruitment
and selection which is 98.28% (33 out of 35) and the second area of HRIS
which is benefiting the firm is payroll with 82.86%.The result of the roles of
HRIS in saving time showed a mixed response. HRIS has very important role
to play in saving cost for record keeping as about 86.7%.3 the main the barriers
against the application of HRIS are ability of HRIS to check of Nepotism,
Threat of unemployment and privacy problem.
And also practicing HRIS for all employee UCB developed i-ucb a web for all
employee to get the maximum technological support in HRM such as online
material for banking laws and practices, and others of credit, General banking etc.
and the work pressure also reduce of HRM.
Recommendation & Conclusion
i)

There are many important module which need to be

implemented like training module, Welfare module, provident fund

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module, leave management, compliance management, Succession

planning etc.
ii)

At present HRIS is using centrally by the HRMD

department. It is high time to use this in the branch level so that branch
manager can give important data input into the HRIS or employees can
input their quires in the HRIS.
United Commercial Bank Limited the pioneer private bank of the country has
created sense of mass participation through its diversified activities over the last
28 years. UCB wants to give best service by the best employees of the bank
industry. To serve these best employees HRIS implementation was mandatory to
operate HR functions for instance give promotion at the right time, transfer at the
place etc. While automation can cut administrative costs, such applications are
based on the basic assumption that the administrative activity should be
continued. Many organizations are finding that the most fundamental value of
technology is its ability to encourage new thinking that removes the need for layers
of administration. This kind of fundamental change is called re-engineering.

References :

Fundamentals of Human Resources Management-(Author: David A.

DeCenzo & Stephen P. Robbins)

http://www.ucbl.com/index.php?page=know-ucb/ucb-profile
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001315707
Physical Discussing with employee of HRM of UCB.
http://iucb.ucbl.com/iUCB/Document/E-LearningDefault.aspx

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