Do you know what was one of the biggest derailers in SaaS HR adoption? It was security. We in HR have always been too cautious about our data, and when suddenly a system came in, which threatened to take our precious data from our premises to the cloud, our obvious answer was no. Well, things have improved since then and today more than 80% of organisations are looking to take their HR on cloud. But even today one of the biggest fear of HR leaders from cloud solutions is the security.
So, let’s discuss security under three major points, which can definitely help you overcome these worries and ensure a secure, smart and SaaSy HR.
Confidentiality
One of the major concerns for every HR leader while moving to a cloud based system is whether my employee data is in safe hands. To maintain confidentiality, data should be kept secure at all the layers be it database or network.
Database Security
Ensuring database security allows you to be assured that the vendor’s HRMS platform will not break your ability to uphold control over your sensitive information. To evaluate the security of a SaaS HR system, organizations should enquire vendors regarding their database security strategies. Like:
- Where are the data centers situated?
- What is the backup plan?
- Are their multiple firewalls, fine grained access controls, intrusion detection systems to avoid any external intrusions?
- Are there regular database audits through audit and log trails?
- How load balancing is checked?
- How full and incremental data backups, full archive logs backups are taken up daily & weekly?
Network Security
Organizations should ensure the network security pipeline by determining:
- How securely the data is processed?
- How data at rest & data in transit is encrypted?
- How (which order) the changes are propagated to the destinations?
- What are the routing rules defined for each piece of data?
- Finally, how it is integrated with data at the destination, including authenticating the data, data masking, making use of digital signature, decrypting the data, and examining it for security vulnerabilities such as viruses, worms, Trojans, etc.
An authentic HR SaaS vendor should be supported by a different access layer with Tripe AAA Implementation for Web, Network, Database, application & Infra.
Network infrastructure should be enabled with IPS & HIDS (host intrusion detection systems) to manage the network security and undergoes VAPT (Vulnerability assessment & penetration testing) every six months.
Integrity
Does the HR SaaS vendor have the necessary certifications?
One of the significant attribute is to ensure that the SaaS HRMS Platform is the integrity issues.
- Does the vendor have authentic certifications when it comes to managing client’s data?
- Is the data hosted in a protected server environment that practices multiple firewalls, access controls, intrusion detection systems?
Every SaaS vendor follows any of the two common approaches. Some vendors define the steps they take to ensure privacy, eventually leaving it to you to choose whether they are adequate. Other vendors proactively seek certifications from a third-party such as SSAE16 or SAS 70, ISO 27001 certified so they can present that they are compliant. This is a more desirable and worthy choice to opt for.
Availability
How does the data center operate?
Choosing the geographical area of the data centers may not be in your control as this depends on the SaaS HRMS provider. But, remember to consider security/privacy laws in place at various physical locations of the vendor’s data centers. Prefer to choose SaaS vendors who have state-of-the-art architecture, with security protocols in place and have undergone stringent security procedures of standard audits that examine and verify the data center’s level of security.
How is the data available?
Another critical aspect you should definitely consider while choosing a SaaS HR System is availability, whether users have access to data and applications 24/7 globally. While measuring the availability of any HR SAAS based product, you should be able to find the answers for the following:
- Is there any disaster recovery plan?
- What is the maintenance plan?
- What are the monitoring standards?
- What are the product update release plans?
You should always review against service level agreements as committed by the vendor, should keep a track on the uptime of the system. The platform chosen should always be aligned with the planned release updates. So that you always remain updated on the product and its use.
There are several choices in the SaaS HRMS market due to improved innovation and competition in this industry. Each SaaS HR system has its own sole set of features and advantages that can improve a human capital approach. Yet, it is these same choices that can overwhelm an HR practitioner who’s searching for the best HRMS for specific business needs. However, ensuring above five features in selecting the right SaaS HR system – along with an excellent process redesign – holds the key to HR’s strategic impact to an organization’s success.
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