Riordan Hr

Riordan Human Resource Request

Riordan Manufacturing is a Fortune 1000 company based out of San Jose California. They are an industry leader in plastic molding and specialize in manufacturing plastic bottles, producing custom plastic parts, heart valves, plastic medical tools, and fans. Riordan went global in the year 2000 moving its fan manufacturing plant to China, here they produce fans for appliances, aircraft and automobiles. They operate three stateside factories, and each factory is specialized in what they produce for Riordan's customers. The plant in Albany Georgia manufactures plastic bottles for beverage companies, Detroit Michigan has been tooled to produce custom plastic products such as heart valves and stints, and San Jose is the home of Riordan's research and development team as well as Cooperate Headquarters.

Due to recent expansion and an aging computer business system Hugh McCauley, the chief operating officer has put in a request for the IT department to analyze the HR system and integrate the existing variety of tools in use today into a single integrated application. With the widespread use of computers to mange manpower, "Management of HR is especially important in a knowledge-based economy, where ideas and expertise are greatly valued and a creative and innovative workforce is necessary to meet the challenges of this new economy It is thus necessary for firms to have highly skilled human capital to provide them with a competitive edge" (Teo, Soon, Fedrick, 2001, para.2). In order for Riordan's HR department to successful mange their people they will be required to make improvements to their HRIS business system. The contents of this proposal will define the business requirements for the development of an HR system to support the objective of this request. It will also create a detailed project plan that provides a list of all the tasks, resources, schedule and budget required to complete the project.

Riordan's current Human Resource Information System (HRIS) was installed in 1992 as a part of a financial package. The system has outdated itself because of the advances in technology as well as Riordan's recent growth across the United States and into the global market, with a factory in China. In order to start with the implementation of a new HRIS system the IT department will conduct extensive research with the primary managers and users of the HRIS system. This research will not only be conducted at cooperate headquarters but also at each individual factory.

IT department will first examine the cooperate chain of command to determine which factories and department will be affected by replacing the current system. The personnel that are affected by the change will have the opportunity to give their inputs as far what requirements they need in order to be successful in tracking employee information. IT representatives will conduct face to face interviews with the factory managers and the human resource supervisors that are directly involved with the present HRIS system, these interviews will help the research team discover what the current system lacks as far as the accessibility of information and the ability to store it. We will also find out which parts of the current system provide adequate information. The other task the IT research team will conduct will be to circulate surveys to the HRIS system workers to formulate an idea on what would increase their production and streamline the department.

The idea of implementing a new Human Resource information system is to not only centralize its employee information, but to also standardize the way employee information is collected and retrieved. Currently employee information is handled by individual managers in each plant. Information that includes their employees resumes, Family Medical Leave of Absence (FMLA), job analyses, salary surveys and individual compensation decisions. Centralizing these important databases will reduce the amount of time HR representatives spend searching for employee files in individual factories. Using the surveys the IT department will brief management on the essential tools required by the HR department.

It has been determined that the human resource department has an existing system that has become outdated and does not have the capability of managing the companies required information. Some important employee information is maintained in within the individual factories while other information is maintained in filing cabinets in recruiter's offices. With the ability to store resumes and current job openings in the same data base the company is unable to match in house skills to open jobs. The human resource personnel have been hiring from outside the company rather than advance their current employees. Integrating a database that contains their full time employees' information would reduce the time and money they invest in recruiting, hiring, relocating, and training outside personnel.

Another concern to be addressed is the lack of central employee files. This leaves the factory mangers responsible for tracking medical leave of absences and making accommodations for the employees with disabilities. Building and maintaining a central database with all the employees' information would free up factory mangers to manage their factories and the information on the employees could be managed by the human resource personnel. Employee files should also contain information on the conditions of the employees hiring such as their resume and interview. The employees file should also have a section that pertains to their yearly evaluations. These evaluations are currently maintained in the employee relations mangers desk. These reports and files are vital to the company not only retaining quality employees but also offering them promotions within the company.

The current system provides Riordan with the basic requirements for their employees' payroll, benefits, and tax information. By implementing a system that will track their employees not only by pay but also performance Riordan could save the expense of hiring additional human resource personnel in each factory and maintain a database that is easy to access in a central location. They company could also save additional funds by promoting individuals within the company and spare the extra expense of relocating and training.

In order to start incorporation of the new human resource system the company will need to invest in a HRIS system that contains four separate system modules. Using the existing network the human resource data base will accessible by the individual human resource employees in each factory through the companies network that is directly linked to Riordan's headquarters. The IT personnel in San Jose will maintain and manage each module.