HRD3702 – Management of Training and Development
WORKBOOK 4: Managing and Administering training and development operations.
3. Information systems and training and development records
It is important to know what you will require from the information systems that you will implement in an HRD
department. These systems are essential for administering the department and should provide information that can be
used for other functions such as budgeting and reporting.
Traditionally, training and development management information systems have been employed to record
information primarily for training and development administration purposes. This has changed in recent years to
the extent that organisations place much greater demands on training and development applications in terms of
compatibility with existing systems, analytical functionality and accessibility to meet business needs. Many
organisations are currently in the process of systematically computerising training and development records that
have up to now been entered manually.
System Needs
HRIS are used to capture training and development information in an organisation. A HRIS is usually part of an
organisation’s larger management information system (MIS).
Such a system is usually computerised and includes the following benefits:
• It reduces the administrative burden and costly errors.
• It is cost effective.
• The system improves the speed and accessibility of information.
• It produces accurate, real-time HR-related reports.
• The system links with other information systems.
• The systems are used as a tool in strategic planning.
A comprehensive list of modules could include a human resource planning module, recruitment and selection
module, succession planning module, health and safety module, performance management module, succession
planning module, labour relations module, HR analytics module, remuneration module, skills and competency
inventory module, and a training and development module.
An HR information system for training and development should possess three key characteristics:
• It must be presented in a user-friendly manner.
• It must be meaningful an appropriate.
• It must be used effectively in the decision-making process to support the organisations overall business
strategy.
HRIS modules which focus on training and development6 could include the following important information:
course enrolments
scheduling and location selection
develop training and development courses by job level.
interface with succession planning and career development
evaluation of training and development results
skills inventory of staff to establish the organisations core competencies within the organisation.
evaluation of training and development results and training and development facilitators.
HRIS software programmes in the market include, for example, VIP Payroll, SAP and Oracle. An example of
SAGE 300 People is provided in the textbox: Single MS SQL (Microsoft Structured Query Language) database:
SINGLE MS SQL (MICROSOFT STRUCTURED QUERY LANGUAGE) DATABASE
A HRIS includes various functions, for example:
• Employee self-service (ESS) & manager self-service (MSS) • Job costing
• Job and position management • Payroll
• Employee management • Security
• Skills and learning development. • Data extraction
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, HRD3702 – Management of Training and Development
• Employment equity • Reporting
• Performance management • Leave.
Source: SAGE 300 People
Guidelines for implementation of an information system
Training and Development Volumes - determining number of courses to be offered or number of employees
to be trained by other institutions, the number of students involved & training facilities required.
Training and Development record needs – required for number of reasons (budgeting, cost per course, cost
per student); training period require to establish a new product should be taken into consideration; work
performance is a result of T&D & training records can possibly be of use in projecting future performance; also
required for career planning.
Cost reduction needs – if records exist, proper planning can be carried out with regards to cost reduction;
without records, decisions to cut budget can be made which could adversely affect organisation; training costs
can be justified by increased training productivity & by training employees to reduce costs.
Legal requirements – organisations are compelled to keep records of workplace skills plans, learner ships,
employment equity, levies paid etc.
Selecting a System
The selection of a system depends on a number of factors. If.
• student attendance only has to be recorded,
• an attendance register can be used, or
• attendance can be recorded by using computer records.
The determining factors are.
• the number of students involved,
• the number of rooms used,
• the duration of the course and
• the cost of the course.
The number of employees in an organisation usually determines the complexity of the system.
Systems can be operated either manually or by means of a computerised system. The selection of a system is
determined mainly by the number of entries over a given period.
System design
Certain elements are always present in system design, regardless of the size and type of system. The number
of elements (for example, the number of attendance registers) determines the number of transactions and the
selection of hardware and software (computer programs).
System diagram
A system diagram is the starting point from which to define a system configuration. Below figure shows an
example of a system diagram with different elements.
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