HRMS is a step towards design, develop, roll out and maintain

enhancing the efficacy and the eHRMS application.

transparency of government
organizations by focusing Key Features
on their employees. This
one of a kind application in the ••Single source of truth: The applica-
spectrum of e-Governance projects aims tion serves as a single source of employ-
to harness the capabilities of ICT to ee authentic data and is comprised of the
improve the way HR processes are record of complete employee service
carried out. It has been developed with data during the employee’s tenure, right
the objective of digitizing the existing from joining to retiring.
service books, creation of new service
 books for new employees and automa- ••Robust rule engine: The applica-
tion of the updation of service books tion has been meticulously designed
    thereafter for day-to-day processing. with the rules and policies laid down by
    The project is a unique initiative as it DoPT, governing all HR related servic-
provides workflow-based solutions for es availed by the employees. The rule
   all the HR related services that impact engine serves as the backbone of the
   service books. It will cater to approxi-
mately 60 lakh employees of the
application.

    Government of India across various ••Workflow based approval: The
offices throughout the country.
  
 path for approval process can be
customized by each department accord-
 The current system maintains service ing to organization’s structure and
 books in a physical format, which are
susceptible to misplacement, damage,
hierarchy. Various routes/ paths of
approval can be set based on conditions
  loss etc. On many occasions, the service and services.
books are not up to date, employee
  verifications are not regular, and in ••Dashboards: These provide a
cases of transfer, the service book is comprehensive idea about the breakup
moved to the place of posting after a of an organization based on parameters
long time. These issues lead to delay in such as gender, cadre, salary group,
sanctioning and payment of due bene- pendency of various applications and
 fits, pension etc. Many cases of regular- rollout status of an application. Users
 ization of leaves etc., received by the may further drill down to identify
       department during the tenure of an bottlenecks and existing issues.
employee or after many years of their
retirement often lead to litigation and ••Alerts/ Notifications: The system
uncalled for interest on delayed has a provision for alerts/ notifications
payments. Such issues impact the for employees so that they can check the
employment experience and overall status of their service applications, and
satisfaction of an employee. find out that with whom they are pend-
ing. The approvers also receive alerts
The Department of Personnel and for applications pending at their end.
Training (DoPT), in its large nodal role,
acts as a formulator of policy and ••Integration with other applica-
ensures that certain accepted standards tions: The application integrates with
and norms, as laid down by it, are external applications via web services.
followed by all the Ministries and Integration with the Public Financial
Departments. It has issued guidelines Management System (PFMS) has
for benefit of all the Ministries and already been completed, and the appli-
Departments, and it monitors the imple- cation also integrates with Bhavishya
mentation of the same. It also advises all and Smart Performance Appraisal
organizations of the Central Govern- Report Recording Online Window
ment on issues related to personnel (SPARROW) system.
management. DoPT entrusted the
National Informatics Centre (NIC) to ••Email and SMS services: Email
 In Focus

and SMS services have also been Front-end Technologies

provided, in addition to alerts in the
application, to remind employees of ••HTML 5
applications pending at their level, ••Cascaded Style Sheets (CSS)
training that has been assigned for them ••Java Server Pages (JSP) 2.0
etc.
••Java Script and jQuery
Besides these features, the application ••Bootstrap
also serves as a common document ••Google Charts
repository for employees. It enables
ease of sharing information among Database
stakeholders, along with round the
clock accessibility.
••Postgres 11
Languages/ Framework
Technologies Used
••JAVA, J2EE
State-of-the-art technology has been
used to develop the robust, work- ••Spring 4
eHRMS (electronic Human Resource flow-based eHRMS application. ••Hibernate 4
Management System) is a flagship program
of the Government of India being implement- ••Jasper Report 6
Each activity performed by an employ-
ed by this Department. eHRMS will digi�ze
HR process, leading to several benefits for
ee in eHRMS is treated as a service (for Security Measures
e.g., apply for leave, cancel leave,
the Government employees and also increas-
extend leave etc.). Each service has ••eSign has been used for non-repudia-
ing efficiency. It also provides analy�cs to the
senior administra�on. This will help in policy three layers. First layer is a form to get ••tion of data.
formula�on and implementa�on. I am glad input from employee, second layer is ••Provision is made for Single
to inform that eHRMS is now ready for the service workflow that decides the ••Sign-on.
roll-out. path to be followed from application ••Secured Socket Layer (SSL)
request to service book entry. Third ••provides network level security.
Dr. C CHANDRAMOULI, IAS layer is the service rule such as CCS
Secretary rules. Each layer is developed separate- ••Authorization matrix is provided to
Dept. of Personnel & Training ly and integrated as per the requirement. ••control the hierarchy of data access
This makes the software light weight ••rights.
and scalable. ••Provision for maintenance of Data

Real-time information Preservation

• 24x7 Accessbility of infor- tion • Service books stored in digital
Pre
mation rma se form will be less susceptible
o
• Appropriate role based nf r to tampering, damage etc.
ei

va

availability of information
-tim

tio
n

to all the stakeholders

Real

Expected
Benefits
of eHRMS
Ac c u

Accuracy of information
• Three level (Agency, Employee, Transparency
ra c

cy

Admin) authentication to ensure • Increase in transparency

en
yo

in
ar

initial data accuracy sp in scenarios like transfer,

f

fo n
r
• Inaccuracies will get corrected ma
ti o n Tra promotion etc.
due to regular access to the • Will be the single source
application of truth for employees

Benefits of eHRMS

October 2019 | informatics.nic.in 23

In Focus

Employee dashboard 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.
••base Logs and Audit Trail have been available for employees’ perusal and Employees can use this module to edit
••made. requisite action. A provision for information related to their family
••Data hashing is also done to enhance downloads has also been provided members (occupation, marital status
••security. wherein employees can easily download etc.), nominations, address, reporting/
government forms related to various HR controlling officer, documents/
Modules services. certifications, qualifications etc. It also
All the modules in eHRMS have a enables them to access and verify their
robust rule engine and a eService Book
personal data and ensure that they are up
workflow-based approval process at its At the heart of the application are the to date.
backbone. In addition to the various digitized service books of employees.
services provided by each module, The initial step of the project Leave
employee level reports are also implementation is to scan the physical
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
Personal
Service Books
Information
Leave LTC Reimbursements 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.
eHRMS
Solution 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
Advances Tour Skill Helpdesk Payment-PFMS
Development Integration This module has a provision for
applying for four different kinds of
Modules in eHRMS application
reimbursements, namely Newspaper,
Telephone, Medical, and Children

24 informatics.nic.in | October 2019

 In Focus

Education Allowance (CEA) Leaves module in eHRMS

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.
preferences of location for their transfer Statement etc., directly from the
Skill Development/ Training request. eHRMS application. This is another
The skill development module step towards providing all services
facilitates user departments to register/ Reports related to Human Resources under one
engage different training institutes and Each module has a panel for report umbrella. Data exchange servers are in
then view the training calendar provided for employees. It has a section place to facilitate exchange of data from
published by those institutes. named My Reports, which consists of external applications. The system can,
Departments can select the trainings reports related to the application status hence, be easily integrated with other
required by their employees. The of a particular employee, for e.g., status applications like Bhavishya,
training may be assigned to individual of leave requests, reimbursement for SPARROW etc.
employees, who will be informed about current year etc. There are also
the same through the dashboard subordinate reports, which provide Dashboards
provided. Employees can also request details of application requests of an Currently, the employee service records
for additional training courses from the employee’s subordinates. This helps the are maintained in physical service
training calendar available. The system mid-level management to get a clear books and/ or loosely coupled HR
will also gather the work done by picture of the availability of modules. This did not allow for a
employees and the quality of work done subordinates, and it also facilitates comprehensive analysis of the service
by them in that domain. Based on the informed decision-making for approval/ data of employees. The eHRMS
data targeted, training programs may be rejection of application requests from application has provided a structured
assigned to enhance employees’ subordinates. data repository for all employee records
suitability for their roles. related to all the HR services. It is
Integration with Other Systems comprised of comprehensive,
Helpdesk interactive and easy to use dashboards
The eHRMS application seamlessly
The helpdesk module enables user to integrates with other systems such as for both the management and
lodge complaints regarding their PFMS, Bhavishya and SPARROW. employees separately.
applications. The admin can view PFMS is a platform that facilitates a
complaints, and there is also a provision sound public financial management Management Dashboards
for complaint resolver who is system for the government by Management dashboards have been
responsible to take due action and establishing an efficient fund flow designed with the aim of providing an
monitor/ update the status of system as well as a payment cum in-depth analysis of data available in all
complaints. accounting network. The eHRMS e-service books. It provides details
services are tightly coupled with the related to gender/ category/ cadre/
Transfer and Posting PFMS application. The two applications service group/ pay band/ educational
This module allows employees to apply have been integrated with the use of qualification. The very purpose of the
for transfer and deputation. Employees web services. Employees can now management dashboard is to enable the
can choose if it is a mutual transfer or request to view their salary slip, Form policy makers to draw actionable
otherwise they can fill in three 16, Income Tax Statement, GPF insights using the consolidated analysis

October 2019 | informatics.nic.in 25

In Focus

HR Strength: This section provides is extremely essential to assess various

charts related to category wise, service implementation activities going on in
group wise and gender wise distribution different Ministries. It is important to
of employees. It also provides crucial keep a track of number of service books
data related to an employee’s retiring scanned, employee authentication done,
and tenure of the staff. This section acts admin/ agency approval completed etc.,
as a decision support system for across various Ministries. This helps in
employee recruitment and selection understanding the quantum of work
strategies in government organizations. pending across Ministries/
Departments.
Pendency: This part of the dashboard is
dedicated to analyze the pending service Employee Dashboard
requests of employees. It has metrics
Employee dashboard provides
like the span of pendency wherein a user
employees with a single view of the
can drill down to understand the type of
array of services in eHRMS and enables
services that are pending for approval
them to access services to be availed.
and who is it pending with. The
DoPT's ini�a�ve on the implementa�on Besides modules, it also comprises of
pendency data may help increase
of eHRMS is a step towards good govern-
the following sections:
accountability in the employees and
ance. The Commission has also taken up also reduce unnecessary delays in Pending for approval: This shows the
this ini�a�ve on priority and enroled all approval of applications. application requests pending for action
its 246 employees, and service book of at the employee’s end.
most of the employees have been HR Development: This section
scanned and digi�zed. E-leave applica- provides charts related to the various Status of requests: This displays the
�on has also been implemented and is training and capacity building activities status of applications submitted by the
being used by maximum number of in an organization. It shows staff who employee. They can view whether the
employees since August 2019. The
are currently in training, various application is approved or pending, with
trainings taken by them in the current whom it is pending, type of application
system will significantly help in making
year etc. Training data of employees in etc.
public delivery more sa�sfactory and
an organization may eventually serve as
keep informa�on updated and accessible a source of analyzing employee skills.
to the employees. Training: This displays trainings
This may also be critical to understand assigned by the admin to the employee.
skill gaps in an organization and
P. DANIEL requirement of new training courses.
Addi�onal Secretary Target Users
Central Vigilance Commission eHRMS Roll-out Status: This section The eHRMS application touches all

Dashboard showing features of Pendency

of employee data available in the

application.

Management dashboards have been

designed and segregated into the
following categories:

HR Analytics: This section focuses on

displaying the distribution of employees
in an organization or in a service based
on metrics such as age, education
discipline and pay-band. It also
provides charts related to hire retire
ratios, types of leaves taken by
employees etc. This section carefully
uses data in the personal information
module and helps analyze the current
state of the human capital in a particular
organization/ department.

26 informatics.nic.in | October 2019

 In Focus

aspects of HR for an employee. Hence, Administration Employees

all the stakeholders currently involved
in Human Resource activities are the The application has a separate
target users of the application. role-based access for administration/
establishment employees in an
••All government employees organization. It has led to a drastic
reduction in the amount of time and
••Transfer and posting controlling effort that was required by admin to
employees
perform their day-to-day activities. The
••Promotion controlling employees application has simplified processes
••Vigilance and penalty controlling such as service book entry/ updation,
authorities organization management (section,
division, post etc.), employee
••Administration section of each
management (posting, transfer, change
office
in reporting/ controlling officer, change
••Personnel section of each office in work status etc.) and vigilance. Each
activity has witnessed an extreme
••Finance section of each office improvement in efficiency with respect With digital transforma�on in the Human
Services to Stakeholders to time and effort, thereby reducing Resource Management space, our
work load on administration offices. solu�on eHRMS has turned out to be a
Employees
one-stop solu�on addressing mul�ple
Digitized service books have increased Mid-level Management needs of an employee as well as an
accuracy and transparency in employees’ Apart from services offered to organiza�on. Func�onali�es like service
service books data. Employees can employees, the mid-level management book, leave management, reimburse-
access their data any time and request for employees can view data related to their ments, tour & travel etc., have not just
an update, if required. Unnecessary subordinates. The subordinate reports helped us build an organized HR ecosys-
delays in application approval and help approvers take informed decisions tem but have also paved the way to cull
disbursal of due benefits have also while approving/ rejecting employees’ out meaningful HR analy�cs and insights
reduced. All the HR related services can application requests. It also helps the
be accessed via the same platform, and that will help the government in formula-
mid-level management employees �on of various policies.
the pending application requests can also gauge the availability of their
be tracked. The advent of eHRMS has subordinates and plan accordingly.
made the HR activities for government eHRMS, driven by the Department of
employees seamless and hassle-free, Top-level Management Personnel & Training, is receiving
which may result in an increase in widespread acceptance by government
overall employee satisfaction. The application stores employee service organiza�ons and the demand is also
being experienced in the States.
Dashboard showing features of HR analytics
Dr. NEETA VERMA
Director General
Na�onal Informa�cs Centre

data in a structured form and facilitates

automatic updation of service books.
The structured data storage allows the
application to analyze service data and
illustrate them in the eHRMS
dashboard. The top-level management
may make use of the interactive and
comprehensive data visualizations in
the dashboard as a decision support
system. The dashboards are crucial to
provide data-driven decision-making
for issues like hiring, training, financial
planning, training requirement etc., in
government organizations.

October 2019 | informatics.nic.in 27

In Focus

Implementation Implementation Support application has generated a lot of

Methodology demand in government organizations.
The Department of Personnel and As a result, it will be soon rolled out to
The application has already been Training, along with the National the Supreme Court and Delhi
implemented in DoPT, and it is being Informatics Centre, is facilitating the Development Authority.
used by their employees. A set of process of training and implementation
standard processes have been put in place of eHRMS. A demo site is available to How to Access?
so as to ensure that the entire process of help end users explore the software with
test data. Module wise user manuals have To get hands-on experience and training,
roll-out is seamless and hassle-free.
also been prepared for ready reference of users may visit the demo site, which has
the users. In addition to the user manuals, been arranged for them to explore the
Following steps are being undertaken for
training videos explaining the software with test data. They may visit
the roll-out of the application:
functioning of various services have been the URL http://ehrms.gov.in/ehrms for
••Nodal officer who shall be prepared for easy understanding. These actual data entry.
responsible for coordinating the entire support materials are available on the
process of implementation shall be demo site as well as on the online site for Summary
identified from each Ministry/ users to view and download. To facilitate The vision of eHRMS project is to:
Department. a seamless implementation, a separate
manual has been drafted for roll-out ••Provide a single source of truth of
••Roll-out managers shall be Human Resource data for all the
appointed, trained and deployed at the managers, which is used to train them, employees of the Government of India,
premises of organizations for before they are posted to different wherein a robust HR application is not
handholding support. Ministries/ Departments for application in place.
roll-out. A standard operating procedure
••Organizations are registered on the has also been prepared, stating the ••Bring in transformational changes in
eHRMS platform; separate instances are process of implementation in a the processes, technology and mindset
created for each organization. time-bound and actionable manner. It behind HR related service requests.
lays down guidelines related to the ••Make the best use of emerging
••The existing service books are
scanning process, pre-requisites for
handed by respective admins for technologies and redefine how HR
scanning. implementation and stakeholders roles & processes happen in the government
responsibilities. organizations.
••Latest employee information which
is required for decision-making shall be Implementation Status ••Serve as a mode of communication
entered into the system. for all the employees of the Government
The application has already completed a of India to facilitate a more
••Scanned service books are uploaded very successful pilot in DoPT. The collaborative and cross functional work
for employees legacy data. services are in use by their employees, space.
and more than 13000 applications have
••The employee information shall be already been processed by the system. It ••Provide a platform for exchange of
shown to the employees for has also been rolled out to 31 Ministries/ best practices among government
self-verification. Departments with the eServicebook employees across India.

••After employee verification, the module currently being used. Other ••Enable comprehensive analysis of HR
information shall be shown to seven modules (Personal Information, data of government employees to provide
administration division for approval. Leave, LTC, Reimbursement, Advance, actionable insights for policy makers.
Tour and Training) shall also be
••Service workflows are taken from implemented in a short time. The
the administration office, discussed and
entered into the system for various
services of eHRMS.

••All employees with approved

service books (legacy data) can use
eHRMS services such as personal For further information, please contact:
information, LTC, leave, advances and MADHURI SHARMA
tour on a day-to-day basis. Deputy Director General
eHRMS Project Division
••Service books shall get updated NIC HQ, A-Block, CGO Complex
automatically. NEW DELHI - 110003
••e-signed pdf for each online service Email: [email protected]
shall also be stored automatically. MADHURI SHARMA Phone: 011-24305359

28 informatics.nic.in | October 2019