Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) can be a great tool for your business to use to track and manage employees and potential employees. Many systems include benefits administration and payroll administration systems.
Benefits administration systems
One of HR’s biggest challenges is overseeing the administrative complexities of a business’s benefits plan. From health insurance coverage to 401(k) plan registration, benefits as an overall HR field is growing larger and more complicated every day. (If you’ve ever had to juggle a six-month eligibility window for one program and several other time frames for others, you know this all too well.)
Benefits administration systems (sometimes shortened to ben admin systems) do the heavy lifting of determining which terms and conditions apply for certain benefits. Small wonder many small businesses choose to outsource this function instead of handling it in-house. Not only can internally handled benefits administration prove expensive, but it also can serve to distance you from the strategic planning and decision making in which HR is becoming increasingly involved.
This application can store information as to which employees applied for which benefits — and, by the same token, those employees who opted not to enroll. That makes for comprehensive record keeping, as well as valuable information for analysis as to the use and popularity of particular benefits programs and options.
Payroll administration systems
Back in the day, handling payroll was something that few people looked forward to, what with the headaches of handling pay scales and seeing to it that appropriate taxes and withholdings were addressed, let alone the simple responsibility of making sure that paychecks were accurate and out on time. Happily, technology has addressed this long-standing challenge with payroll administration systems.
As the name implies, these systems automate a host of payroll functions and record keeping. In addition to compiling and maintaining up-to-date employee pay records, they also can see to a number of other payroll-related issues, among them paid time off, raises and bonuses, time sheets, and easy-to-access payroll information and pay stubs.