HRMS is a step towards enhancing the efficacy and transparency of government organizations by focusing on their employees. This one of a kind application in the spectrum of e-Governance projects aims to harness the capabilities of ICT to improve the way HR processes are carried out. It has been developed with the objective of digitizing the existing service books, creation of new service books for new employees and automation of the updation of service books thereafter for day-to-day processing. The project is a unique initiative as it provides workflow-based solutions for all the HR related services that impact service books. It will cater to approximately 60 lakh employees of the Government of India across various offices throughout the country.
The current system maintains service books in a physical format, which are susceptible to misplacement, damage, loss etc. On many occasions, the service books are not up to date, employee verifications are not regular, and in cases of transfer, the service book is moved to the place of posting after a long time. These issues lead to delay in sanctioning and payment of due benefits, pension etc. Many cases of regularization of leaves etc., received by the department during the tenure of an employee or after many years of their retirement often lead to litigation and uncalled for interest on delayed payments. Such issues impact the employment experience and overall satisfaction of an employee.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), in its large nodal role, acts as a formulator of policy and ensures that certain accepted standards and norms, as laid down by it, are followed by all the Ministries and Departments. It has issued guidelines for benefit of all the Ministries and Departments, and it monitors the implementation of the same. It also advises all organizations of the Central Government on issues related to personnel management. DoPT entrusted the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to design, develop, roll out and maintain the eHRMS application.
Key Features • Single source of truth: The application serves as a single source of employee authentic data and is comprised of the record of complete employee service data during the employee’s tenure, right from joining to retiring. • Robust rule engine: The application has been meticulously designed with the rules and policies laid down by DoPT, governing all HR related services availed by the employees. The rule engine serves as the backbone of the application. • Workflow based approval: The path for approval process can be customized by each department according to organization’s structure and hierarchy. Various routes/paths of approval can be set based on conditions and services. • Dashboards: These provide a comprehensive idea about the breakup of an organization based on parameters such as gender, cadre, salary group, pendency of various applications and rollout status of an application. Users may further drill down to identify bottlenecks and existing issues. • Alerts/Notifications: The system has a provision for alerts/notifications for employees so that they can check the status of their service applications, and find out that with whom they are pending. The approvers also receive alerts for applications pending at their end. • Integration with other applications: The application integrates with external applications via web services. Integration with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) has already been completed, and the application also integrates with Bhavishya and Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) system. • Email and SMS services: Email and SMS services have also been provided, in addition to alerts in the application, to remind employees of applications pending at their level, training that has been assigned for them etc.
Besides these features, the application also serves as a common document repository for employees. It enables ease of sharing information among stakeholders, along with round the clock accessibility.
Technologies Used State-of-the-art technology has been used to develop the robust, workflow-based eHRMS application.
Each activity performed by an employee in eHRMS is treated as a service (for e.g., apply for leave, cancel leave, extend leave etc.). Each service has three layers. First layer is a form to get input from employee, second layer is the service workflow that decides the path to be followed from application request to service book entry. Third layer is the service rule such as CCS rules. Each layer is developed separately and integrated as per the requirement. This makes the software light weight and scalable.
Front-end Technologies • HTML 5 • Cascaded Style Sheets (CSS) • Java Server Pages (JSP) 2.0 • Java Script and jQuery • Bootstrap • Google Charts
Database • Postgres 11
Languages/ Framework • JAVA, J2EE • Spring 4 • Hibernate 4 • Jasper Report 6
Security Measures • eSign has been used for non-repudiation of data. • Provision is made for Single Sign-on. • Secured Socket Layer (SSL) provides network level security. • Authorization matrix is provided to control the hierarchy of data access rights. • Provision for maintenance of Data base Logs and Audit Trail have been made. • Data hashing is also done to enhance security.
eHRMS (electronic Human Resource Management System) is a flagship program of the Government of India being implemented by this Department. eHRMS will digitize HR process, leading to several benefits for the Government employees and also increasing efficiency. It also provides analytics to the senior administration. This will help in policy formulation and implementation. I am glad to inform that eHRMS is now ready for roll-out. Dr. C CHANDRAMOULI, IAS Secretary Dept. of Personnel & Training
Benefits of eHRMS Real-time information • 24x7 Accessibility of information • Appropriate role based availability of information to all the stakeholders Accuracy of information • Three level (Agency, Employee, Admin) authentication to ensure initial data accuracy • Inaccuracies will get corrected due to regular access to the application Preservation • Service books stored in digital form will be less susceptible to tampering, damage etc. Transparency • Increase in transparency in scenarios like transfer, promotion etc. • Will be the single source of truth for employees
Modules All the modules in eHRMS have a robust rule engine and a workflow-based approval process at its backbone. In addition to the various services provided by each module, employee level reports are also available for employees’ perusal and requisite action. A provision for downloads has also been provided wherein employees can easily download government forms related to various HR services.
• Service Books • Personal Information • Leave • LTC • Reimbursements • Advances • Tour • Skill Development • Helpdesk • Payment-PFMS Integration
eService Book At the heart of the application are the digitized service books of employees. The initial step of the project implementation is to scan the physical service books and then digitize them accurately. The service book module allows employees to view their service data in both scanned and digitized formats. This will also allow employees to check if there are any discrepancies in data entered into the system and eventually, verify service books to check whether the data is accurate and updated. This module enables the annual mandatory self-verification of service books by employees. The service book module stores data in a structured format, thereby enabling robust analysis of employee service data.
Personal Information This module provides all the services related to viewing and amendment of an employee’s personal information. Employees can use this module to edit information related to their family members (occupation, marital status etc.), nominations, address, reporting/controlling officer, documents/certifications, qualifications etc. It also enables them to access and verify their personal data and ensure that they are up to date.
Leave Providing an array of possible services related to leaves, this module allows employees to apply for leaves, cancel the applied leaves, extend the leaves and join after returning from leaves. They can also change the type of leave and seek permission for station leave. All the rules associated with leaves are already programmed into the system, and therefore, employees cannot apply for leaves that are not allowed to be taken.
LTC Employees can view/declare their Leave Travel Concession (LTC) hometown. They can apply for LTC or leave encashment, claim LTC, cancel LTC etc., by using the module.
Reimbursements This module has a provision for applying for four different kinds of reimbursements, namely Newspaper, Telephone, Medical, and Children Education Allowance (CEA) Reimbursement. The module has been designed keeping in mind the eligibility of different types of reimbursements for different levels of officers.
Advances Employees can use this module to apply for advances (General Provident Fund i.e., GPF advance/withdrawal, house building advance, computer advance), cancel and refund advance, convert GPF advance to withdrawal, house building advance etc.
Tour This module allows them to apply for tour and tour advance, refund TA advance, cancel tour, and claim tour.
Skill Development/Training The skill development module facilitates user departments to register/engage different training institutes and then view the training calendar published by those institutes. Departments can select the trainings required by their employees. The training may be assigned to individual employees, who will be informed about the same through the dashboard provided. Employees can also request for additional training courses from the training calendar available. The system will also gather the work done by employees and the quality of work done by them in that domain. Based on the data targeted, training programs may be assigned to enhance employees’ suitability for their roles.
Helpdesk The helpdesk module enables user to lodge complaints regarding their applications. The admin can view complaints, and there is also a provision for complaint resolver who is responsible to take due action and monitor/update the status of complaints.
Transfer and Posting This module allows employees to apply for transfer and deputation. Employees can choose if it is a mutual transfer or otherwise they can fill in three preferences of location for their transfer request.
Reports Each module has a panel for report provided for employees. It has a section named My Reports, which consists of reports related to the application status of a particular employee, for e.g., status of leave requests, reimbursement for current year etc. There are also subordinate reports, which provide details of application requests of an employee’s subordinates. This helps the mid-level management to get a clear picture of the availability of subordinate, and it also facilitates informed decision-making for approval/rejection of application requests from subordinates.
Integration with Other Systems The eHRMS application seamlessly integrates with other systems such as PFMS, Bhavishya and SPARROW. PFMS is a platform that facilitates a sound public financial management system for the government by establishing an efficient fund flow system as well as a payment cum accounting network. The eHRMS services are tightly coupled with the PFMS application. The two applications have been integrated with the use of web services. Employees can now request to view their salary slip, Form 16, Income Tax Statement, GPF Statement etc., directly from the eHRMS application. This is another step towards providing all services related to Human Resources under one umbrella. Data exchange servers are in place to facilitate exchange of data from external applications. The system can, hence, be easily integrated with other applications like Bhavishya, SPARROW etc.
Dashboards Currently, the employee service records are maintained in physical service books and/or loosely coupled HR modules. This did not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the service data of employees. The eHRMS application has provided a structured data repository for all employee records related to all the HR services. It is comprised of comprehensive, interactive and easy to use dashboards for both the management and employees separately.
Management Dashboards Management dashboards have been designed with the aim of providing an in-depth analysis of data available in all e-service books. It provides details related to gender/category/cadre/service group/pay band/educational qualification. The very purpose of the management dashboard is to enable the policy makers to draw actionable insights using the consolidated analysis