A personnel management information system is used by HR departments to track and organize employee data, including payroll, tax records, and benefits. It requires a good understanding of technology and the ability to retrieve necessary data. The system also plays a role in hiring and firing practices and can be used to track employee certifications and disciplinary actions.
A personnel management information system is a set of applied procedures and technologies that human resource workers use to track and organize employee data within a company or organization. This information may include payroll records, tax records, and records of assigned benefits such as health insurance. Other employee information is often retained in such a system for periodic performance reviews. These records are usually resumes and copies of relevant industry certifications. This area of human resource management involves both the use of a computer software program and routine practices for entering and updating relevant data.
Companies with large numbers of employees often need a separate human resources (HR) department to keep accurate records of all this information. Working with a personnel management information system requires both a good understanding of technology and the ability to quickly retrieve the necessary data. A software package designed for these HR tasks typically consists of linked databases containing different sets of information. One database may contain records of issued payroll linked to another database with information about withheld taxes, for example. Human Resources personnel are responsible for keeping this workforce information current and accurate.
In addition to maintaining data in a personnel management information system on a regular basis, HR personnel also need to perform specific queries to retrieve certain information. Depending on the type of system installed, they may request this information with commands such as those in Structured Query Language (SQL) or a similar database programming language. Other types of human resource management software have graphical user interfaces with functionality for creating and archiving forms, tables, charts, and reports. When a personnel manager wishes to maintain scanned copies of employee resumes and similar documents, the information system often includes optical character recognition (OCR) capability for creating searchable electronic copies.
A personnel management information system also plays an important role in a company’s hiring and firing practices. Many businesses use the OCR capabilities of this type of program to scan resumes for designated keywords. Applicants whose resumes have keyword matches are often more likely to receive an interview invitation. Some companies use this technology to track and record any new certifications completed by employees, especially those that are considered paid training. Workers who may seek disciplinary action or counseling also often keep records of this information in their electronic personnel files in the Human Resources department.
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