What does it take to implement Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) at scale? Analysis of the expected benefits and actual outcomes

Human resources information systems (HRIS) have potential to help organizations to achieve their strategic objectives but few academic studies have provided evidence of their effectiveness in doing so. This is especially true for HRIS studies conducted within the context of healthcare sector, where most literature related to IT has tended to prioritize clinical systems over administrative ones. This paper addresses this research gap and reports intermediary results from a study of the development and implementation of HRIS in national health organization of one European country. Drawing on the results of documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews, it compares the expected benefits driving implementation of the system with those that were actually achieved, as well as the unintended consequences and aspects of the development and implementation process that led to the current project outcomes.
The preliminary analysis suggests that HRIS implementation in health organizations is driven by similar expected benefits to those driving implementation on other types of organization. However, they are also driven by organizational practices to benchmark themselves to the sector leaders and by particular requirements of the health sector, such as achieving adherence with statutory health workforce reporting requirements and optimising patient care. In this multi-site HRIS programme the benefits are likely to derive not from the direct effects expected from the system but because the HRIS project acted as a catalyst for greater consensus on the need to standardize HR information practices. A range of additional sociotechnical factors –Technological, Environmental, Organizational and Local - helped to shape the implementation of the system and affected the realization of its envisaged benefits.
The study adds to the interdisciplinary literature on HRIS in health organizations by addressing gaps in (a) studies of large-scale transformations in healthcare; (b) studies of national-scale HRIS projects; (c) empirical comparisons of expected benefits and outcomes, and factors influencing them; (d) and demonstrations of HRIS programme benefits at different organizational and institutional levels.