Electronic Human Resources Solutions

DBMS and System Implementation

In recent years, software as a service or SaaS solutions have become increasing popular among small business owners, but it is vitally important for these enterprises to select the SaaS approach that best suits their needs. This paper reviews the literature to identify an optimal selection for use in the human resources (HR) department of a small business employed fewer than 500 employees. In addition, the transition from a legacy system to an electronic human resources or eHR solution inevitably introduces some unanticipated consequences that must be resolved to achieve the desired outcomes. This paper also reviews the literature to identify ways to mitigate these unanticipated consequences, followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning SaaS and eHR solutions in the conclusion.

Evaluation of SaaS Solutions

.Although there remains a dearth of relevant evaluation models for SaaS solutions (Truong & Dusidar, 2011), it is possible to identify optimal solutions by comparing available features with a small business's HR department needs. One company that offers an SaaS solution that might satisfy the needs of the company in question is Workday's Human Capital Management SaaS product that contains the following desirable HR-related features:

Model multiple types of organizations independently & simultaneously (company, department, supervisory, cost center, matrix)

Manage staffing of both employees and contingent labor in one place

Configure organization workflows using Workday's business process framework

Reorganize at any time -- past, present, or future -- without relying on IT (Human Capital Management, 2015, para. 2).

Likewise, the Saas product offered by Ashton Benefits contains a number of valuable features for an HR department in a small business, including the following:

Link to and import payroll data in seconds;

Manage and select health insurance benefits packages;

Navigate ACA other compliance issues;

Rules-based system ensures that employees only enroll in the benefits for which they are eligible and only at the time they are eligible;

Onboard new employees automatically in minutes;

Enter employee changes one time, and they update everywhere;

Manage payroll deductions, stock options, and year-end paperwork;

Wellness Program offers real rewards; and,

Employees have complete access to their benefits through a mobile app (Ashton Benefits, 2015, para. 3).

Taken together, it is reasonable to suggest that Ashton Benefit's SaaS solution is the most appropriate for the small business in question.

Mitigating the Impact of eHR-Based Solutions

The transition from a legacy system to a new eHR-based solution invariably introduces some unexpected consequences (Tran, 2013), but these can be mitigated by ensuring that the following steps are taken preparatory to its implementation:

Ensure that all stakeholders are involved;

Collaborate with key departments to build on existing processes;

Draw up communications plans; and,

Create a well-thought-out training plan (Brown, 2013).

It is important to note, though, that the foregoing steps represent a minimum and that it is reasonable to expect constraints to implementation that require novel solutions (Brown, 2013).