Personnel Information at Your Fingertips

Personnel Information at Your Fingertips
By Gary Fung

On 19 April 2001, the new Banner Human Resources (HR) System was launched. It replaced the old Personnel Record System that had been in use since 1991. The new system has many advantages over the old one.

Being one of the modules in the CityU Administrative Information Management System (AIMS), the Banner HR System fully integrates with other modules such as the Student module and the Alumni module. As the personal data can be shared among these modules, data redundancy is therefore eliminated to achieve better data integrity. Furthermore, staff movement is reflected immediately in the other modules. This integration has indeed provided the University with an infrastructure for better data management of the administrative systems as well as the executive information systems.

The new Banner HR system is strong in position management. It allows better maintenance on the availability of position data and budgeting information, such as by keeping track of the filled and vacant positions.

The functions provided to the University community are all Web-based and can be accessed simply by choosing the “Personnel Info” icon on CityU Intranet homepage (located near the top, next to “Academic Info”). Then, select AIMS to login. There are essentially two groups of functions: one for individual staff members and the other for Heads of departments and departmental administrators. In the first phase, the functions provided to the individual staff members are as follows:

View and update individual personal data like residential address, office address and telephone number. These services can be found by selecting “Personal Services Menu” from the “Main Menu” of AIMS.

View the "Departmental Staff Directory" containing information on staff name, post, section, office address, office telephone number, e-mail address and leave status. Built-in facilities are provided for sending e-mail to staff and connecting to the "University electronic phonebook". Under the “Main Menu” of AIMS, click “Human Resources Management Menu” for these services.

Additional functions will be released in the near future. Plans are already in place to provide on-line leave application function in the second phase. It will allow individual staff to input leave applications directly on the Web, which will then be on-line approved by departmental administrators. Please watch out for the announcement on the new functions that will be available soon.