IRM controls on data shared with HR Outsourcing vendors is, in our opinion critical !

Outsourcing of HR processes has become fairly mainstream now with even some small companies opting for this service.Specialized skills, best-in-class HR programs, better compliance to legislative norms and of course lower costs are prime reasons for this shift. The most common processes that are outsourced are pre-employment background checks, payroll processing, time & attendance, accounts payable, compensation & benefits, taxation, garnishment and exits. Outsourcing of these tedious activities, that involve lot of paperwork and compliance issues, saves time and money and allows businesses to focus on other core issues.

The sparkling rewards of outsourcing, however, are accompanied with certain risks which, if not mitigated, can negate the value of the outsourcing. The risks are primarily around competency gaps, hidden costs, employee customer service and losing control over the critical and sensitive data. A lot of companies are sceptical of entrusting their critical data at the hands of the HR Outsourcing vendors.Control of data like employee information, payroll operations, compensation details, and corporate plans and statements is critical for businesses today. It is this data that needs to be shared with the HR outsourcing service provider for the provider to perform his duties. Information Rights Management(IRM) can help to a large extent here.

IRM systems equip enterprises with a mechanism to establish “ownership” of the data. The owner of the information can control access, editing, printing, copying, distribution, sharing rights with respect to data In addition, the enterprise is assured that its data can only be used by the rightful recipients and and that it can remotely remove the rights any time for any external or internal user of that Information.

IRM technologies allow for several levels of security at the volition of the owner. Functionality such as: Industry standard encryption of the information, disallowing the copying of data from the secure document to an insecure environment, preventing screen shots and printing, easy mapping of business classifications to information, Offline use allowing for users to create/access IRM sealed documents without needing network access for certain periods of time and full auditing of both access to documents as well as changes to the rights/policy by business users are key elements of an effective IRM solution.

The IRM system also maintains a comprehensive record of all the activities performed by different users on the document. A complete history of Who (users) has done what (view, edit, print, copy-paste, print-screen, etc) with the information, When (time) and from Where (location and computer) is completely tracked and logged. This helps organizations comply with regulatory norms like ISO 2700-1, PCI, HIPPA, etc.