Barriers in Adopting Human Resource Information System (HRIS) : An Empirical Study on Selected Bangladeshi Garments Factories

Garment industry can be considered as the sprinter of the economy in Bangladesh for its significant contribution to the economy. Demand for Bangladeshi garments products are increasing so are the competitions. The garment industry, to keep pace with the increasing competition, needs to adopt Information System (IS) in business functions that help ensure cost management effectively in the labor-intensive garments factory. However, very few garments factories have adopted IS in their operations. This paper tried to identify the factors inhibiting the adoption of HRIS in the garments industry of Bangladesh through a semi-structured questionnaire survey of 150 samples from 25 garment factories in Bangladesh. We have used Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) method to identify the factors impeding to adopt HRIS in garments sector of Bangladesh. From the study, we have identified three broad inhibiting factors termed as Financial, Management related, and Organizational; specifically, High investment, Costly maintenance, Long-term benefit, Organizational Structure, Culture of the Organization, Top management support, lack of experts and user, are found as major barriers in this regard. The findings may be useful to both the academicians to explore the factors in their respective countries and the HRIS practitioners in garment sector to emphasize on these areas so that organizations can ensure better HRIS implementation