Your HRIS Options Custom or Out-of-the-Box

As a medium-sized employer, you need more sophistication from your HRIS than what a payroll or simple recordkeeping program provides. You are growing to the point where managers and employees will rely on the HRIS to provide information that helps employees grow in their job, and managers to help with the job of managing people.

So what are your choices, and how much can you expect to budget for the systems that provide the best value? On average, implementation costs will run anywhere from 2-4 times the cost of the software. So for a $5,000 HRIS system, you can plan on spending an additional $10,000 – $20,000 on implementation alone. These costs generally fall into the following categories, with estimated “market” costs for representative systems:

The choice of which systems to use depend on your own circumstances and the amount of customization you need. Therefore the best way to hold down costs is to make every attempt to conform your policies and practices to the requirements of the system you purchase.

Any changes or special programming required will not only add cost, but may push you into purchasing a more custom product, which will generally be more expensive right out of the gate.

Link to listings of HRMS articles and vendors.