Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and the Recruitment Process in Ministry of Health, Uganda

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and the recruitment process in the Ministry of Health in Uganda. The independent variable was ‘HRIS’ while the dependent variable was ‘recruitment process’ in Ministry of Health. Specifically, the study sought to: investigate the relationship between e-advertising, eapplication and e-interviewing on the one hand and the recruitment process in the Ministry of Health, on the other hand. The study adopted a cross sectional study design which involved the collection of data from Ministry of health staff using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaires and an interview guide were used to collect data. Analysis of quantitative data was done with the aid of SPSS data analyst, while qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis method. The findings of this research revealed that eadvertising has a weak negative relationship with the recruitment process in the MoH. On the other hand, e-application and e-interviewing have a significant positive relationship with the recruitment process in the MoH. It was therefore concluded that Strategies for e-advertising could negatively impact on the recruitment process in the sense that some suitable candidates may miss out; MoH has had minimal investment in technology which could be a supportive pillar for e-application, yet the policy also does not favour e-application as a strategy; strict adherence to the traditional forms of interviewing candidates drains the already struggling resources of MoH- financial, time and human resources. Basing on the findings, the study recommended that the Management of Ministry of Health should revise its Human resource Management Policy to incorporate the new trends (e-application and e-interviewing) brought by technology advancement. In addition to that, the study recommended that capacity of the existing staff in the Human resource department should be built to use HRIS and also approving more research projects in this area.