HRIS: How it Helped Revolutionizing the HR Practices at United Commercial Bank Ltd. AbstractHuman 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 OverviewUnited 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.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 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 HRISSome 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 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.Implementation process of HRISUCB 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 informationi. Join dateii. Last promotion dataiii. Performance appraisal ranking or Scoreiv. 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 essentialHuman 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 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 divisione) 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 DivisionPracticing 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 theapplication 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 & Conclusioni)There are many important module which need to be implemented like training module,Welfare module, provident fund module, leave management, compliance management, Succession planningetc.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

93