Factors Impeding Effective Use of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) in Local Banks in Sri Lanka AS Siriwardene AS Dharmasiri Abstract Regardless of the growing concerns over the HRM and managing HRM through computer decision systems, there has been little research carried out on measuring the effective use of HRIS. The effective use of HRIS would minimize recurring costs as well as improve efficiency and the quality of information on decision making. This empirical study built upon how effective use of HRIS ought to be measured and what factors are impeding its effective use reveals the need to devote more time and effort, while lowering the level of technological complexity and increasing the level of end-user satisfaction, and would guide the effective use of HRIS. The study arrived at some definitive conclusions and pointed out the managerial implications of related issues. Keywords: HRIS, Local Banks in Sri Lanka Introduction The main cause of disappointment with current Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) was poor integration and design resulting from poor communication channels at the requirement gathering stage and lengthy reporting hierarchies. The inter-linkage between all HR functions is not observable (as shown in a pilot [AS Siriwardene is a Senior Software Engineer at Zone 24X7. anusha siriwardene@gmail.com Dr. Ajantha 8. Dharmasiri is a Senior Faculty Member and a Management Consultant attached to the Postgraduate Institute of Management. Email: ajantha@pim.1kstudy conducted by the authors). This would be the major pitfall of commercialized HRIS solutions, and would lead to a drop in. confidence in them and their practical applications. Another critical issue is that the outputs of HRIS are not aligned with the strategic objectives of the business, and as a result the goals becoming confused and finally productivity getting affected, (Pilot study). Indebted to their employees for their success, almost all the bankers regard their employees as their most valuable asset and in order to sustain their market position, they shifted to automating their HR processes without a second thought. However, HRIS was supposed to provide a complete solution to managing their employees with HRIS maintaining all records of the employees from their recruitment to retirement, According to the categorization of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) in ‘Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011’, Sri Lanka was placed in the 66th place out of 138 countries where the index measured, “the degree to which developed and developing countries across the world leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) for enhanced competitiveness.” In line with the Global Innovative Index, research by Gunawardana & Carter (2008) clearly indicates that the Sri Lankan companies are lagging in technology readiness. Asa potential knowledge hub and with enriched and experienced human capital, Sri Lanka can play a vital role in ICT in order to enhance their contribution to the global economy by effectively utilizing HRISs. Hence, the core management issue in focus was the ineffective use of HRIS in local banks of Sri Lanka. According to the pilot study, the research problem was identified as “What are the factors impeding the effective use of HRIS in local banks of Sri Lanka?” The main purpose of this study was to identify the use of HRIS in the Sri Lankan banking sector, with specific emphasis on key contributory factors. Despite the current use of HRISs and successes identified above, research studies () indicate that few firms are evaluating their Information Systems (ISs) on the basis of its ability to enhance their competitive position, Almost all the banks in Sri Lanka continue to consider their ISs primarily as an instrument for enabling them to perform routine tasks at an accurate and high processing rate, Though these ISs mainly focus on transaction processing, the significance of their contribution to HRM is not up to an acceptable level. For acompetitive advantage over a vast pool of human talent in the banking sector, management should concentrate more on the outcome of the HR linkage to the strategic level of the organization to uplift core or distinctive competencies (Gunatunge, 2003). At present, an in-depth analysis of HRIS and their use is lacking in Sri Lanka and this research aims to fill that knowledge gap by developing IT competency in HR professionals via creating a link between HR aspects for realizing the goals and objectives of the organization and re-evaluating the intensity of achievements/ shortcomings in order to implement corrective measures. Therefore, identification of critical impeding issues is the determinant of recommendations for corrective or preventive measures in the future, while regular revisits and reviews of stakeholder interests in the deployment of HRIS of the organization is desirable. This paper begins with the purpose, objectives and significance of the study and its scope. The literature review describes the previous research conducted on the subject and lays the basis for deriving the constructs and variables, and also provides the background for identifying the knowledge gap by covering a comprehensive knowledge of HRIS and their use. This conceptual framework requires the researchers to be consistent and rational throughout their study. Thus, the research model, hypotheses formulated, operationalization of concepts, selected variables of the study, their indicators and measurements are addressed. The methodology used in the research, the data collection process, the correlation and regression model, testing of formulated hypothesis and the relationship between effective use of HRIS and the selected dimensions such as strategic and operational intention, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards using and stakeholders’ behavior, information and system satisfaction are dealt with next. The theoretical and managerial implications will discuss the areas that need essential management attention, and strategic focus for maximizing HR contribution within the organization as HR contribution would be more significant in competitive business world. Finally, the researchers discuss the practical limitations of the study they had experienced during this research and the limitations of the study and directions for further study in the effective use of HRIS in the future are described with the intention of encouraging more research on the subject with more realistic indicators at the organizational level.Literature Review and Hypotheses Derivation Over the last few decades there has been a considerable increase in the number of organizations gathering, storing and analyzing information regarding their human resources (HR) through the use of HRIS software or other types of software, which include HRIS functionalities (Ball, 2000; Hussain et al., 2007; Ngai & Wat, 2006). HRIS is essentially an information system, which should be used to develop theories to measure its effectiveness. In developing their representation theory, Wand and Weber (1990, 1995) suggested that any information system can be viewed as comprising three structures: (i) deep structure (the data, rules and funetions in a system that represent states, laws and functions in the world, e.g, the communication exchanges, messaging protocols and messaging features in an email programme); i) surface structure (the facilities that allow users to access the representations of a system, e.g., the user interface of an email program) and (iii) physical structure (the physical machines that support the surface and deep structure, e.g., laptop computers, cell phones, digital assistance devices and their networks via which a user can access email) (Weber, 1997). Wand & Weber's (1990, 1995) representation theory has three implications for measuring effective use that stem from the distinction between the three structures of a system, and the fact that any representation of the world (and any user's understanding of the world) will inevitably be partial and fallible (Suchman,1995; Jones & Grange,2008). One key aspect in this context is the ability to verify. It means the extent to which the user engages in actions to verify: (a) the representations in the IS, and (b) his/her understanding of the world. Such actions can involve: (a) verifying states in the world directly, (b) verifying other representational mechanisms or (c) attending to advice from people with knowledge of the domain (Butler & Gray, 2006). Another aspect that needs attention is the ability to learn. Its the extent to which the user engages in actions to learn the representations offered by the system and how to access them. This could involve exploring or experimenting with the system itself or learning from other users with more experience with it Mathieson et al. (2003). Jones & Grange (2008) proposed that the primary trigger to engage in system learning is the complexity of the system structures. Specifically, if a user is given a simple system, (s)he will have little need to engage in learning activities.One more aspect of HRISis the ability to adopt: This refers to the extent to which the user engages in actions to adopt IS or their use of it so that it provides representations more effectively or efficiently and users can adopt IS directly or indirectly (e.g., via placing change requests with IT staff) (Orlikowski 2000). As the poorer the representation offered by the IS, the more likely the users will engage in actions to improve it or else work around its limitations by adopting how they use it. According to the literature review and results of the pilot study, this empirical study deals with three research questions: 1. Does strategic level management rely heavily on the effective use of HRIS for their decision making in critical situations? 2. Does the technological complexity of the HR function increase when agile software/hardware technologies are deployed in HRIS? 3. Isuser satisfaction high when the information needs of the stakeholders are met accurately and fast, and is system execution user friendly? Based on the research problem and the research questions it was expected to investigate the factors impeding the effective use of HRIS in local banks in Sri Lanka. Factors determining the Effective Use of HRIS Johnson et al. (2001) reported that the overall IS project success rate increased from 16% in 1994 to 28% in 2000. He observed the top five factors that have caused this significant increase as executive support, user involvement, an experienced Project Manager, clear business objectives and minimized scope. ‘Wixon and Todd (2005) developed an integrated research model that distinguishes beliefs and attitudes about the system (object-based beliefs and attitudes) from beliefs and attitudes using the system (behavioural (based?) beliefs and attitudes) to build a theoretical rationale that links user satisfaction and technology acceptance. The key determinant of the effective use of HRIS can be categorizing into three levels as per Bondarouk et al. (2009): organizational factors, personal factors and cultural factors. The intensity of the effectiveness of each factor varies across the cultures studied, and management support is remarkable for any IS irrespective of the geography (Martinsons, 1999). However, management attention is a derivativeof organizational and personal factors (Bondarouk et al. (2009), and will be backed up by technological complexity towards user satisfaction (Martinsons, 1999). More recently, Stone & Davis (2009) provided a comprehensive overview of the obstacles encountered during HRIS implementation arguing that as with many other types of organization-wide change initiatives, it invariably lacked leadership, ‘was poorly planned, managed and communicated and often failed to take account of the prevailing organizational culture thus encountering low user acceptance. [HRIS: Human-Resouree-Information-System.] Kovach & Cathcart (1999) mentioned that lack of top management support, funds, HR knowledge of system designers and HR solutions are the main factors that keep organizations away from HRIS. Teo et al. (2007) also came up with similar findings, Departmental relative advantage, compatibility, top management support, size of the organization and HRIS expertise emerged as important variables differentiating between adopters and non-adopters of HRIS. A research conducted by the Institute of Management and Administration (2002) indicated the issues in managing an HRIS to include: lack of staff, lack of budget, problems with time management, need to work with other departments and lack of information technology (IT) support. ‘The same issues caused the lack of attention given to develop and enjoy the sophisticated benefits of HRIS, Gzgelik & Ferman (2006) state that HRIS may create resistance from employees due to emotional resistance to change or use of technology due to learning difficulties and fear of measures taken to ensure the security of information. Management Attention This finding supported Beckers & Bsat's (2002), and Kovach & Catheart’s (1999) research findings on barriers to the implementation of HRIS (Shrivastava et al, (2003). At the perceptual level, according to Roda & Nabeth (2008) “what we perceive impacts on what we pay attention to”. At the deliberative level our goals, motivations and intentions also play a role in the determination of the focus of attention, Therefore, a natural way to study the support of attention consists in the exploration of mechanisms facilitating the perception of the environment, the interpretation and the reasoning on this information,Strategic intention interprets our goals, motivations and intentions and plays a role in the determination of our attention focus. Furthermore, some of our actions may require a varying degree of cognitive effort depending on how well we can focus on the organizational strategic activities (Roda & Nabeth 2008) and hence on HRIS. Shrivastava et al. (2003), in their study on the topic ‘Liberating HR through technology’, concluded that there is universal agreement that large-scale technology projects failed due to managerial and not technical reasons, Thus, strategic management plays an integral part in that managerial aspect and positive relationship with HRIS use. Based on the above discussion, Hypothesis 1 can be formulated as follows: Hz: Strategic intention is positively related to the effective use of HRIS Operational intention means users may be positively supported by simplifying some attention-related operations such as restoring the context of interrupted tasks or by smoothing the operation of information use in IS (Roda & Nabeth 2008). According to Roda & Nabeth (2008), at a different level of observation, it is clear that actions require a varying degree of cognitive effort depending on the form and the nature of the task being accomplished. For instance, some activities may require a high level of concentration to get focused, a higher degree of vigilance, the switching between many subtasks or be subject to a significant number of interruptions. Therefore, at the operational level the provision of mechanisms allowing the users to be more effective in terms of the cognitive effort allocated to fulfil an objective represents another means of supporting attention. ‘Therefore Hypothesis 2 can be formulated as follows: H2: Operational intention is positively related to the effective use of HRIS. Technological Complexity The complexity of the system increases costs (Banker et al, 1991) and involves a higher degrees of organizational interaction and thus higher risk (Banker et al., 1992). The Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis,1989), specifies the causalrelationships between system design features, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards usage, and actual usage behavior. However, the actual usage behavior is merged with the attitude towards IS use throughout this research since attitude affects behavior, and researchers are not expected to conduct field studies for observing the actual usage behaviour. Perceived usefulness means the degree to which an individual positively believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance (Davis, 1989). The literature has suggested that perceived usefulness is a significant determinant of willingness to use any IS (Cai et al., 2007). Therefore, itis obvious that increasing attention on perceived usefulness would increase the effective use of HRIS. Therefore Hypothesis 3 can be formulated as follows: Hg; Perceived usefulness is positively related to the effective use of HRIS Perceived ease of use means the degree to which an individual positively believes that using a particular system would be free of physical and mental effort (Davis, 1989). It would positively affect using HRIS. Reddic (2009) arrived at an important conclusion: improving customer service and providing higher quality services were more important than reducing cost. In another sense, improving customer service and providing higher quality services means concentrating more on the perceived ease of use of any IS. Therefore, the same positive impact could be established for HRIS. Therefore Hypothesis 4 can be formulated as follows: H4: Perceived ease of use is positively related to the effective use of HRIS Attitude towards IS using and stakeholders’ behaviour is a person's affective evaluation of a specified attitude object (Fishebein & Ajzen, 1975). Thus, it means the degree of evaluative affect that an individual associates with using the target system in his or her job (Davis, 1989). This was merged with the actual usage behavior in this research where a person's belief about a behaviour refers to his/her subjective likelihood that performing the behaviour will lead to a specific outcome (Fishebein & Ajzen, 1975).Davis (1989) suggests that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness determine a person’s behavioral intention to use a technology. Through the analysis of this study, the researchers found that the potential acceptance of a system was higher among users who underwent the evaluation-based training programme compared to users who were trained using demo method. Thus, this study concluded that attitude towards IS use and behaviour are positively related to the effective use of HRIS. Therefore Hypothesis 5 can be formulated as follows: Hs: Attitude towards IS use and behaviour is positively related to the effective use of HRIS User Satisfaction ‘The EUCS model has five components, which can be categorized into two groups: (1) information satisfaction (content and accuracy) and (2) system satisfaction (ease of use, timeliness and format). Thus, comparing the TAM, EUCS and Cai et al. (2007), EUCS model, content and accuracy can be summed up as information satisfaction because of their high tightness and direct relationship, ease of use, timeliness, format and relevance which will be taken separately as system satisfaction since it more related with the data and individual usage rather than the IS operability itself. Information Satisfaction means the confidence percentage that more of the information collected can be trusted as valid and free of confounding variables (Doll et al., 1988, 1994) for using HRIS. “User involvement” in information system development is generally considered an important mechanism for improving system quality and ensuring successful system implementation”- (Ives et al., 1983). However, determining when and how much user involvement is appropriate are questions that have received inadequate research attention. This study holds that the link between information satisfaction is ‘a positive indication of system success, Therefore Hypothesis 6 can be formulated as follows: Hg: Information satisfaction is positively related to the effective use of HRISSystem Satisfaction denotes the extent to which data is applicable and useful for the task at hand (Doll et al., 1988, 1994).Timeliness denotes the extent to which the data is sufficiently up-to-date for the task at hand (Doll et al., 1988, 1994) possible within HRIS, The common benefits of HRIS frequently cited in studies included improved accuracy, the provision of timely and quick access to information, and the saving of costs (Lederer, 1984; Wille & Hammond, 1981). Lederer (1984) discussed why the accuracy and timeliness of HRIS is very important in terms of operating, controlling, and planning activities in HR. Thus, ifthe system satisfaction positively affects users’ attention to use HRIS would increase and vice versa. ‘Therefore Hypothesis 7 can be formulated as follows: Hz: System satisfaction is positively related to the effective use of HRIS Conceptual Framework Based on the above causal relationships, the following conceptual framework was derived. Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Study Management Attention Effective Use of HRIS Ability to Verify Ability to Learn Ability to Adopt Perceived Ease of Use de towards using and Stakeholders’ Behaviour’ Information Satisfaction System Satisfaction Source: Constructed by ResearchersMethodology This research adopted a mixed methodology which was dominantly quantitative. The approaches proposed by Roda & Nabeth (2008), Davis (1989) and Cai et al. (2007) were used in this study. ‘Sample - The banks involved with the study were code-named on request as Bank A, B, C, D and E. in order to maintain anonymity. There were five respondents from each bank who were attached to HR Departments with whom five in-depth interviews were conducted. The quantitative instruments were also administered to this sample of 175 and an attempt was made to use detailed inferential statistics in association with the quantitative instruments. Participants and procedure - The quantitative data was gathered from three departments, consisting of both HR and non-HR, and on average 15-20 executives are attached to a department. The majority of the respondents were males, almost more than 2.5 times of the female population of 27.7%. The highest participants’ rate was 26.85% for the age group between 36-40 years, and the average organizational tenure was 3.29 years, with a range from less than one year to more than five years. Participation was completely voluntary and participants were given six weeks to complete the questionnaire. Measures - The questionnaire designed items on management attention, technological complexity and user satisfaction measures to be consistent with the conceptual distinctions reflected in the dimensions of demographic variables: age, gender, tenure, department and education qualifications as described earlier. Management attention was measured with fifteen items developed by the authors using a 5-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Technological complexity was measured with nine items adopted from Davis (1989) by using the ‘same response scale as for management attention. The factor analysis results are shown in Table 1. “The degree of support given by HRIS to do routine work”, can be cited as one such item. User satisfaction was measured with ten items adopted from Cai et al. (2007). An item involved can be stated as “Does the system provide up-to- date information?”‘Once the questionnaire was developed on a Likert 5 scale, it was sent to the research supervisor for feedback on face validity and amended based on the feedback received, by adding 2 open-ended questions to get individual perceptions on use of HRIS in order to ensure content reliability. The finalized questionnaires were sent to 15 Executives in selected banks and thereafter the results were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 to get an inter item and construct reliability of 0.7 and above as per Cronbach's Alpha and the result was .913 for all 46 items. Table 1: Factor Analysis for Technological Complexity Variable Complexity Extent to which you would like to accept added responsibilities in the 732 job by HRIS application Level of satisfaction on information/ reports/breakdown generated by 555 HRIS Level of satisfaction with training and support given by the user manual mu of HRIS How often do you use HRIS for your day-to-day tasks? 73. How often do you give suggestions to improve the performance and 969 quality of HRIS? ‘The vendor is not providing adequate training sessions for new 985 modules/functionalities implemented in HRIS can self-leam the HR functionalities given in HRIS, once I follow the 969 initial training session/s Thave to reformat the presentation of information provided by HRIS 936 How long have you been using HRIS? 969, Level of convenience in your use of HRIS application 842 Overall, how do you rate the complexity of the HRIS apy 942 terms of its usefulness (efficiency, effectiveness)? Extent to which overall HR functions are supported in HRIS application 908 How many experiments/shortcuts do you use to speed-up your tasks 555 in HRIS T like to follow the system usage policy/standards related to HRIS use 985, Cronbach's Alpha 96 Source: Survey DataData Presentation and Analysis Oftthe sample 112 participants responded to the questionnaire and 108 were selected by yielding a response rate of 61.71 percent. The highest percentage of responses — 29% was received from Bank C and the lowest percentage of 12% was from Bank A, where the HR Department is only allowed to access their HRIS database, Data gathering from Bank B and Bank E was very discouraging due to their internal controls, policies and accessibility restrictions. As for the age distribution of the sample the majority of responses received were from the age categories of 36 to 4 and 41 to 45 years. The relatively younger age groups are more aware about the effective use HRIS and its ROI to the institute, whereas the relatively mature age groups show more interest in the traditional documentation process. Executive category-wise the highest number of responses was received from the ‘Managers followed by Senior Executives. This high response rate shows the potential of their being strategically aware of the effective use of HRIS for decision making, while the middle layer of Executives also wants to mediate in the process of crafting an operational plan for the effective use of HRIS. The level of preference for using HRIS was high among the Executives; they know more about the productivity achievements by experience than the Managers, who look only at the surnmarized information generation of HRIS most of the time. According to this survey, 33 percent of respondents have more than three years of HRIS experience and nine percent have more than five years of HRIS experience. The least HRIS experience was of six percent between the Junior and Engineering Executives where their work assignments are not directly aligned with HRIS who leisurely deal with HRIS in their personal domain and decision making capacities. Descriptive statistics were used to identify whether there isa difference in mean values of effective use of HRIS between the HR Department and non-HR Departments. Table 2 shows the mean values and standard deviations of sub samples, HR and Non-HR.There was a numerical difference in the mean values of the independent variables in the effective use of HRIS between the two groups, and mean values of the HR Department was higher than those of the non-H Department, Table 2: Mean Values and Standard Deviations of Sub Samples Variable Mean/Standard Mean/Standard Deviation for HR___ Deviation for Non-HR ‘Strategic Intention 3-3155/0.41687 2.9367/0-36348 Operational Intention 3:6029/0.52644 2.9291/0.63364 Perceived usefulness 3:2024/0.61545 2.4924/0.62936 Perceived ease of use 2.8258/0.72585 2.5606/0.73649 Attitude towards IS usage and behavior —_3,1669/0.47029 2.9298/0.32519 Information satisfaction 3.5238/0.46799 2.9673/0.42789 System satisfaction 3.6829/0.54116 3.0352/1.00221 ‘Source: Survey Data Confirmation of Hypothesis According to Pearson Correlation results in Table 3, the derived values for all the ‘seven hypotheses were tested with a significance level of 0.05 and sig. (1-tailed) values less than 0.05. This indicated that 95 times out of 100, we can be sure that there is a significant correlation between the two variables. According to Cohen (1998), the correlation value from 0.1 - 0.3 has been considered as weak, and thus there is a weak relationship in all the hypotheses derived. Further, coefficient of determination (r2) which in-lined between 0.2 - 0.4 reflects that two to four percent of the variation in effective use of HRIS can be explained by each independent variable. As the relationship between the two variables is significant, all the derived hypotheses were accepted. Demographic Variables ‘The effect of demographic variables - gender, age, education level, job category and banks were measured by using the Chi Square Test. First, descriptive statistics were used to see whether there are any differences in HRIS. usage vs. each demographic variable, and the results show that there are differences among all demographic variables.Table 3: Correlations ERHRIS SI ol PU _PEU_ATT iS 3S EMHRIS 1 st 0200" 1 o1 O90" 0224" 1 PU 213% 0201" 0212" 1 PEU 202 0026 o.les* 325" 1 P arr 210" 0.050 0.008.178" = o.zas** 1 1s 217 0.126.199" AIS 0.280" 0.343" 1 Ss 191" __0.118__273**__0.343"* 0.326" 031s 412 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed) . Correlation is significant at the 0.08 level (1-tailed) Source: Survey Data Table 4: The Effect of Gender on Use of HRIS Value af Asymp.Sig. (@tailed) Pearson Chi-Square 301638 =—=O«S 0.038 Likelyhood Ratio, 33.159 4 0.001 Linear-by-Linear Association 179 1 0.181 N of Valid Cases 108 3 cells (30.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .28. Source: Survey data The null hypothesis formulated for the test, that is, effective use of HRIS is independent of gender and as Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) is less than 0.05, and therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. As such, it can be concluded that the two variables are associated significantly with each other. In other words, the results indicate that gender has an impact on HRIS usage. The Effect of Age on Use of HRIS The descriptive statistics show that there is a difference in HRIS usage among the age ‘groups. The 41-45 year age group which was about 69% were neither unhappy nor happy with HRIS usage whereas 45% of the 36-40 year age group was happy with the current HRIS usage. In order to establish whether there is a significant association between the two variables, the Chi Square Test for Independence was performed and the results are shown in Table 5.Table 5: Chi Square Test for Independence for Age vs. HRIS Usage Value af Asymp.si (railed) Pearson Chi-Square 32.1748 4 0.048, Likelyhood Ratio 3151 4 0.049 Linear-by-Linear Association 2451 sy 0.42 N of Valid Cases 108, . 3 cells (30.0%) have expected a count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 28. Source: Survey data As Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected. As such, it can be concluded that the two variables are associated significantly with each other. However, the linear-by-linear association was not significant between age groups and HRIS usage. The Effect of the Bank on Use of HRIS ‘The descriptive statistics show that there is a difference in HRIS usage among banks, and about 42.6% banks were happy or extremely happy to adopt HRIS, whereas 57.4% banks were unhappy with their current HRIS. In order to establish whether there is a significant association between the two variables, the Chi Square Test for Independence was used and the results are shown in Table 6. The null hypothesis formulated for the test was that the usage of HRIS is independent of the bank and as Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected. As such, it can be concluded that the two variables are associated significantly with each other. In other words, the results indicate that the bank has an impact on HRIS usage. ‘Table 6: Chi Square Test for Banks vs. HRIS Usage Value ar Pearson Chi-Square 726.2838 16 0.050 Likelyhood Ratio 28.938 16 0.024 4325 1 1 0.42 N of Valid Cases 108 ¢. 3 cells (30.0%) have expected a count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 28. Source: Survey dataThe Effect of Education Level on Use of HRIS Table 33 shows that there is no significant difference in HRIS usage among different education levels, and about 42.6% higher diploma holders were happy about their current HRIS, while 19% of postgraduates were unhappy with their current HRIS, This figure was significant when considering the respondent sample as they gained a knowledge of banking and being in the banking sector, they play higher roles in the decision- making process. In order to establish whether there is no significant association between the two variables, the Chi Square Test for Independence was used and the results are shown in Table 7. The null hypothesis formulated for the test was that usage of HRIS is independent of the level of education and as Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) is greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis was accepted. As such, it can be concluded that the two variables are not associated significantly with each other. In other words, the results indicate that the level of education has no impact on HRIS usage. ‘Table 7: Chi Square Test for Education Level vs. HRIS Usage ‘Value af ‘Asymp.Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Chi-Square 15.1378 20 0.768 Likelyhood Ratio 16.726 20 0.671 4.125 854 2 0.355 N of Valid Cases 108 dg cells (30.0%) have expected a count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 28. Source: Survey data The Effect of Job Category on Use of HRIS Table 35 shows that there is a difference in HRIS usage among different job categories and about 25% of Senior Managers were happy to use the existing HRIS while 57% of other job categories were unhappy with their current HRIS. In order to establish whether there is a significant association between the two variables, the Chi Square Test for Independence was used and the results are shown in Table 8. The null hypothesis formulated for the test was that usage of HRIS is independent of job category and as Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected. As such, it can be concluded that the two variables are associated significantlywith each other. However, linear-by-linear association was not significant between job category and HRIS usage. Table 8: Chi Square Test for Job Category vs. HRIS Usage Value af Pearson Chi-Square 41434a 20 (0.003 Likelyhood Ratio 92.656 20 0.037 4125 4.7 1 0.291 N of Valid Cases 108 €. 3 cells (30.0%) have expected a count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 28. ‘Source: Survey data According to the results of Chi Square Test, gender, age, job category and banks have a significant relation with usage of HRIS. Further analysis performed in different banks reveals that the strategic intention is the most intense factor in the effective use of HRIS. The data also shows that the education level of the users has no impact, on the effective use of HRIS. Discussion on Theoretical Managerial Implications According to Singh, Jindal & Samim, 2011, HRIS is causing significant benefits for the banking industry in developing countries and based on their research findings, the effective implementation of HRIS requires re-engineering of business processes, which many banks find hard to adopt. The employees lack sufficient training to adopt the new system and at the same time, the information systems of most of the banks are not up to date. It reduces their efficiency. The question arises when asking this basic question: HRISs have the ability to produce metrics, analytics and data about an organization and human capital (Gueutal, 2003; Lawler, Levenson & Boudreau 2004; Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, (2003). Secondly, the implementation of HRIS in itself has implications for the talent required for the effective management and delivery of HR services (Bassi & McMurrer, 2007; Pilbeam & Corbridge 2006). The results of the analysis indicate that a satisfactory system satisfaction was the most important factor among the age groups. The strategic intention was the most important among the gender group and the job categories. Moreover, due to the topmanagement's lack of HR knowledge and of the potential benefits of HRIS to the business could also have a negative impact owing to a lack of strategic intention. 44.4% of the respondents agreed that the top management was aware about the core functions of the HRIS implemented and 15.7% were totally unhappy about the situation. According to the case study (Effecting HRM-style practices through an integrated human resource information system: An e-greenfield site), with the many different applications of HRIS, it is difficult to understand how the programmes benefit companies without looking at companies that have already benefited from such programmes. The benefits were measured from a user perspective and according to the survey data, 46.2% agreed that the degree of support from HRIS to do routine work is considerable and no one gave it the “extremely happy” status, which is significant and it displays a clear vacuum in HRIS usage support at the individual level. However, the statistical analysis does not reveal that the operational intention was significant for the effective use of HRIS, though a clear gap could be noticed between HR and Non-HR departments. Further, 41.6% agreed that their current HRIS solution is able to cater to the HR functions and 40.7% were satisfied with the training and support given by the user manual of HRIS, The earlier literature has suggested that perceived usefulness is a significant determinant of willingness to use any IS (Caietal., 2007). However, this factorwas not identified as the most significant from the correlation and other inferential statistical analysis performed. From the data gathered, 15.7% provided the suggestions to improve performance and quality of HRIS which is not acceptable in any industry. The evaluation should determine whether or not HRIS has performed up to its expectations and also whether HRIS is being used to its full advantage (Byars & Rue, 2004). The attitudes towards using HRIS could be influenced by this evaluation of HRIS effectiveness. According to the survey data, 75.9% agreed or strongly agreed that HRIS improves their job performance. This is a positive trend and displays the individual level of interest in the effective use of HRIS. However, 57.5% do not prefer to attend and follow discussion meetings to improve the quality of HRIS (which would be a painful area for enhancing the effective use of HRIS).Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. (TAMS) putaall employee benefits information online and created an open enrolment option when TAMS changed healthcare providers. Almost immediately upon rolling out the UltiPro portal (new HRIS technology] to employees, TAMS began seeing improvements, with an estimated 70% increase in open enrolment efficiency (Wojcik, 2004). By determining the efficiency of the new programme, TAMS was able to realize the benefits of the new HRIS system. However, this was not seen in this study as 46.2% feel that the system did not meet the information processing needs of the business, while 49.9% were not satisfied with the timely information provided by HRIS. From the respondents, 44.4% agreed. that the system did not provide up-to-date information which would be a major shortfall in any IS. This would drastically affect confidence in HRIS and may affect the productivity of the HR Department. Tansley & Watson (2000) examined the processes associated with the design and implementation of HRIS in a large organization and found that the successful introduction of these systems can neither be understood nor practically achieved without considering the change processes used to embed them. More recently, Stone & Davis (2009) provided a comprehensive overview of the obstacles encountered during HRIS implementations arguing that, as with many other types of organization- wide change initiatives, they invariably lacked leadership, and were poorly planned, managed and communicated and often failed to take account of the prevailing organizational culture so that they encountered low user acceptance. [Human Resource Information System — HRIS: Human-Resource-Information-System.] However, HRIS is being under utilized by organizations and research has shown that most organizations appear to resort to technology merely to automate routine administrative tasks (Ball, 2000; Kinnie & Arthurs, 1996; Yeung & Brockbank, 1995). The communication gap in HRIS implementation was clearly observable during the study and 68.6% of the participants feel that the level of awareness and training in HRIS usage is highly important or important whereas 19.1% do not feel that awareness and training in HRIS usage is not important. However, satisfaction with the system is one of the most significant factors merely because of its visibility to the end users.The theoretical implication for the researchers is to conduct more socio-technological research in measuring the effectiveness of IS in Sri Lankan business and build upon a suitable model. This could be either qualitative or qualitative and vary from Small and Medium Scale (SMEs) business to multinationals, and research might show a significant result deviation in IS usage against organization size, Why do the authors stress that Sri Lanka needs a significant effort in this research area? We need substantial empirical evidence for aligning our HRIS to strategic decision involvement, whereas now we rely more on the tacit knowledge of HR professionals especially for operational level decision making, This practice would be disadvantageous in some instances as it is very subjective. ‘As Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets managed”. This is true of any IS. In Sri Lanka, another preferable research sub-domain is assessing the data generated by HRIS. Recent studies conducted by Lawler & Mohrman (2003) show that the relationship between the data generated by HRIS systems andthe degree to which it is being used as a strategic partner is close. It shows that HR is most likely to be a full partner in the strategy process when a completely integrated HRIS system exists, In order to become a strategic partner, there should be empirical studies on assessing the effectiveness of data and related best practices. ‘The implication for practitioners is that management practices should co-operate with HRIS implementation and should strengthen the strategic bond between HRIS output and strategic management. A number of studies have investigated the Potential for the HR function to be a strategic partner and found that it can be a value-added function. For example, Becker & Huselid (1998) found that there is a relationship between HR practices and a firm's performance. Another crucial implication is that as the information age has transformed the way organizations do e-business from brick and mortar business, it has also transformed the way we measure ROI on Information Systems. An Executive Committee appointed for a feasibility study of HRIS should be confident enough to provide ROI information since strategic management is more concerned with statistical evidence. Itis also easy to convince top management about the accepted rationale. The third managerial implication is to consider the “agile project management method”, which focuses more on the communication and people-centric aspects of project management. According to Ambler (1999), agile project management can bebuilt on a framework where equal emphasis is given to people, process, milestones and working conditions. The benefits of HRIS would further extend to a Knowledge Base, that is by the stakeholders to make fast and accurate decisions. Later, this would lay the foundation for gaining competitive advantage over rivals where information is imperative for stepping ahead of close rivals. Limitations and Directions for Future Research Itwould be useful to compare the results of this study with data from a significantly large sample of dissatisfied users of HRIS. The sample can perhaps comprise SWP (Service Quality of Software Providers), and KI (Knowledge Involvement) of the end users of HRIS, The variables would be more important in explaining satisfaction of dissatisfied users (this has to be further conceptualized during the pilot study) and similar studies can be carried out in the near future with a large sample of banks in Sri Lanka, Currently, most of the business entities are in the preliminary stage of implementation, and the standard approach of calculating ROI (Return on Investments) on HRIS could have a significant impact. The review of HRIS measures in this study should be further expanded with less subjective yet very sensitive variables like cost, time and cultural dimensions, A promising area for future research is the development of a comprehensive psychometric instrument and validation of that instrument to measure user expectations to determine construct dimensionality. Conclusions The study confirmed that HRIS usage is at a low level among bankers in Sri Lanka. However, the results indicated that the effective use of HRIS in the HR department and non-HR departments does not differ significantly in terms of attitudes towards management attention and technical complexity. However, user satisfaction differs significantly when non-HR users are not satisfied with the information they require in order to perform their daily tasks. 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