The orientation and planning on gathering of personnel data for all teaching and non-teaching personnel through-out the Division of Malaybalay City last September 25-27, 2013 started the first phase of the Human Resource Information System (HRIS). This activity involved all District Supervisors, School Principals and School Heads with their Information Communications Technology (ICT) Coordinator, after the said planning, the gathering of data also started in all schools covered by this Division following the prescribed template designed for the purpose by the DepEd Central Office.
This standardized Human Resource system can simplify various process of data gathering from the field. It was introduced by the Department of Education through the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) Project, a partnership of DepEd and the Australian Government through Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), which aims to improve the quality and access to basic education in Southern and Central Mindanao.
What is HRIS all about? Tannenbaum defined this as a “technology-based system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve and distribute pertinent information regarding an organization’s human resource”. Kovach defines it also as a “systematic procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving and validating data needed by organization about its human resources, personnel activities and organization unit characteristics”. It is basically integration of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Information Technology.
Currently, the department relies on the manual updating of its personnel information which is most likely inaccurately and not reliable. Since every field office has its own Automated Human Resources System in various formats and platforms. Integrating/consolidating such generated data takes time and often becomes a tedious process on the part of the Division Offices as well as the Central Office. In case of processing of appointment, step increments and employees’ Service records, the personnel in-charge has to take time browsing, scanning and reviewing voluminous documents filed by the Division office or rely mainly on the Personal Data Sheet (PDS) for work experience, trainings attended, educational attainment and many more. With the implementation of DepEd HRIS, teachers need not leave their classes just to request for service record or verification of their service credits. They will simply download in their District HRIS offices.
This program has been piloted in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Region 3, Region 4-A, Region 4-B, the National Capital Region (NCR) as well as the DepEd Central Office who had the first-hand experience on its successful implementation. Last September 2013 the DepEd Central Office HRIS Technical Working Team (TWG) conducted a regional orientation on the gathering of data to the rest of the regional offices throughout the department for the same purpose.
By the end of October 2013 the Division of Malaybalay City has submitted to be Central Office a consolidated Division personnel data of all teaching and non-teaching staff gathered from the schools and district offices and still awaits its full implementation. As DepEd Undersecretary for Budget and Finance Teodosio Sangil, Jr said, “This HRIS is the answer to DepEd’s pressing problems. It will make information readily available to the decision-makers in our department.”
By: Novem Abao Sescon