HR

HRIS, in plain English.

Workzoom defines HRIS as follows. A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is the central database of record for every employee profile, position, compensation, and history. A true HRIS does more than store...

Book a Workzoom walkthrough → 25+ years of HR and payroll production. Live in Canada, the US, and the Bahamas.

  • Since 2000. Workzoom has run Canadian payroll for 25+ years.
  • Canadian data residency, AWS Canada (ca-central-1). Canadian customer data stays in Canada.
  • SOC 2-aligned controls. Encrypted at rest, role-based access, immutable audit logs.
  • Trusted by County of Renfrew, Silvera for Seniors, and Cable Bahamas. Built for 50 to 5,000 employee organizations.

The short answer

A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is the central database of record for every employee profile, position, compensation, and history. A true HRIS does more than store records: it runs payroll, scheduling, and talent management against one single employee record. Workzoom is an HRIS that runs payroll, workforce management, and talent on the same record across ten countries.

How HRIS works.

An HRIS holds the authoritative record for each employee: identity, position, compensation, employment status, and the effective dates that govern when each value applies. Every other system that touches people data either reads from it or reconciles against it. The practical test of one is whether a change entered once propagates everywhere, or has to be re-keyed into payroll, benefits, and scheduling separately.

Where HRIS goes wrong.

  • Running an HRIS alongside a separate payroll database, so a mid-year salary change lands in one and not the other.
  • Storing employment history as a current-state snapshot with no effective dating, which makes retroactive correction and audit reconstruction impossible.
  • Treating the HRIS as an HR-department tool rather than the system of record, so finance and operations keep parallel spreadsheets.

Where HRIS sits between HR and payroll.

HRIS does not stand alone. The concepts most often paired with it on a HR run are HCM, HRIS vs HRMS, Single employee record, Effective dating. Each is defined elsewhere in this glossary so you can trace the full chain without leaving the site.

How HRIS runs on Workzoom.

HRIS is part of the Workzoom Hr Suite. Workzoom runs HR, workforce, and talent on a single employee record across ten countries: Canada, the United States, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and the United Kingdom. Full gross-to-net payroll runs live in Canada, the United States, and the Bahamas. Pricing starts at $4 per employee per suite per month.

See Workzoom in 30 minutes →

Questions about HRIS

A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is the central database of record for every employee profile, position, compensation, and history. A true HRIS does more than store records: it runs payroll, scheduling, and talent management against one single employee record. Workzoom is an HRIS that runs payroll, workforce management, and talent on the same record across ten countries.
An HRIS holds the authoritative record for each employee: identity, position, compensation, employment status, and the effective dates that govern when each value applies. Every other system that touches people data either reads from it or reconciles against it. The practical test of one is whether a change entered once propagates everywhere, or has to be re-keyed into payroll, benefits, and scheduling separately.
Running an HRIS alongside a separate payroll database, so a mid-year salary change lands in one and not the other.

Workzoom

Run HR, payroll, workforce, and talent on one platform.

$4 per employee per suite. 50 to 5,000 employees. Sprint-based, client-paced go-live.