Is user friendliness important when considering an HR software product? Absolutely! But only to the level that the HRIS product meets your needs.
For example, in the past I worked with a couple of HR software products, both containing report writers but at completely different levels of ease of use and of complexity. The first HR system has the easiest report writer I have seen. It demoed well and users loved the fact that it required little, if any, training to generate basic reports. The other HR system's report writer required training and database knowledge to create reports. This system did not demo well and, frankly, it scared clients. If asked, nine out of ten times most would have selected the first report writer; but there was, of course, a potential problem with that choice.
While easy to use, the first report writer had serious limitations. You could not group information, you could not add counts or totals, you could not create custom function fields in the report and graphing was not an option. If you wanted a simple employee list report without grouping or totals, this product met the need. If you wanted, however, to create a detail turnover statistics report or detailed compensation report it would not meet the needs. This is just one example of where the most easy to use HR system was not the best. My advice when reviewing HRIS products is to make sure the system can create the most detailed reports you need created. Include in your needs assessment, the type and complexity of reports you will require and ask the perspective HR software vendor to show the process of creating those reports.
The ease of setting up the system is another important consideration. One product may be far easier to setup but require more work for you to maintain going forward. Often, but not always, the more detail the setup, the less work later to maintain the data.
About the Author
Clay Scroggin has worked in the human resource software industry for 15 years. Clay's newest venture is CompareHRIS.com . A web site dedicated to assisting HR professionals with their search, evaluation selection, implementation and use of HR software. We offer a helpful and free HRIS Selection Tool to help you arrive at your short list of products meeting your needs. For your research, we offer a free HRIS buyers guide, a HR software Article library and a HR Software Technology Forum.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
