19-10-2012, 12:31 PM
Electronic-Human Resource Management
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INTRODUCING E-HRM
The HR function of an organization is responsible for complying with the HR needs of the organisation. As with other business functions, strategies, policies and practices have to be implemented to ensure smooth operation of the organization and prepare the organisation in such a way that smooth operation can be guaranteed in the nearby future. Using e-HRM technology is a way of implementing these HR strategies, policies and practices. The e-HRM technology supports the HR function to comply with the HR needs of the organisation through web technology- based channels. The e-HRM technology provides a portal which enables managers, employees and HR professionals to view extract or alter information which is necessary for managing the HR of the organisation.
Lawler III (2005) suggests that e-HRM and its self-service characteristics can be the cheapest and fasted way to provide specific HR activities.
With e-HRM, managers can access relevant information and data, conduct analyses, make decisions and communicate with others and they can do this without consulting an HR professional unless they choose to do so.
For the HR function, e-HRM has the potential to affect both efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency can be affected by reducing cycle times for processing paper work, increasing data accuracy, and reducing HR staff. Effectiveness can be affected by improving the capabilities of both managers and employees to make better, timelier decisions. E-HRM also provides the HR function the opportunity to create new avenues for contributing to organisational effectiveness through such means as knowledge management and the creation of intellectual and social capital. The use of e-HRM technology, as it is a way to implement HR strategies, policies and practices, is expected to have an impact on how the HR function operates. Moreover, it is aimed to improve the HR system. The impact of e-HRM technology on the HR system however, is expected to be dependent on the way the technology is used. It is dependent on what and how the technology supports the HR function but also on how the technology is constructed.
MEANING OF HRM
Human Resources Management is management functions that helps managers’ recruit, select, train and develop members for an organisation. Obviously Human Resources Management is concerned with the peoples dimension in organisations. HRM may be defined as programmes, policies and practices for managing workforce of an organisation by human resources reveal total skill, knowledge, talents, creative ability and aptitudes of people in the workplace along with the approaches, beliefs, values and aptitudes of the individuals of an organisation.
MEANING OF E-HRM
People mean different things by the term “e-HRM”. It is a web-based solution that takes
advantage of the latest web application technology to deliver an online real-time Human
Resource Management Solution. It is comprehensive but easy to use, feature-rich yet flexible enough to be tailored to your specific needs. It also refers to the processing and transmission of digitized information used in HRM, including text, sound, and visual images, from one computer or electronic device to another. It will be able to meet the demands of today's Human Resource Management.Typically, the term e-HR is used to describe technology’s role in enabling the transformation of solely HR activity. Instead of a centralized personnel team handling everyday tasks such as approving pay rises, sorting out training and checking holiday entitlements, these can be handled by the employees themselves or their line manager. Crucially, the adoption of e- HR seeks to minimize or eliminate intervention from HR staff, allowing managers and employees to perform HR tasks directly with the self service tools. These can contrast with the shared service center environment, where the service would normally be expected to be delivered by a customer service operative or other category of HR staff. Before starting to define e-HRM, it is also important to identify terms that possibly carry similar meanings to the term e-HRM, Wright and Dyer (2000). In addition to e-HR and e-HRM terms are used such as virtual HR(M), HR intranet, web-based HR, computer based human resource information systems (CHRIS) and HR portals. We are excluding HR information systems (HRIS), since there is a fundamental difference between HRIS and e-HR in that basically
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (HRM) AND E-HRM:
HRM: has developed in recent years as a broad encompassing field of study that incorporates and synthesizes elements from personnel management, organisational behaviour and industrial and labour relatives, building broader concepts from a variety of cognate disciplines including economics, law psychology and sociology amongst others). Thus it has become a pervasive and influential approach to the management of employment in a wide range of market economies.
E-HRM: Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) provides the information required to manage HR processes. These may be core employee database and payroll systems but can be extended to include such systems as e-recruitment, e-learning, performance management and reward. The system may be web-based, enabling access to be remote or online and at any time. Although technology allows having digital services for HRM which we refer as virtual HRM, this type of services are coming with four significant pressures .
E-HRM GOALS
As mentioned in the introduction, the investments to implement e-HRM technologies are
high. Organisations thus have reasons to implement these technologies otherwise the
investments would not be justifiable. What are organisations trying to achieve with these
technologies? What are the goals of the implementation of e-HRM technologies?
Organisations strive for different goals to be achieved with the implementation of e-HRM
technologies. For recruitment, organisations are utilising their own web sites ever better
because of the rising costs of web advertising and decreasing ease of finding qualified
applicants. Some organisations strive to free HR professionals for more strategic tasks . HR professionals are enabled to spent more time on strategic aspects of HRM when are freed from administrative day-to-day activities. Other organisations strive for a better overall financial performance .
Cost reduction / efficiency gains:
In the year 2002 a survey was conducted by WatsonWyatt (2006) to research the impact of e-HRM technologies. Cost reduction was found to be a top metric in formal business cases for the adoption of the e-HRM technology. As public organisations have a monopoly position in providing their services to civilians and organisations (public and private) they have the responsibility of meeting the needs of these civilians and organisations (Rijn; 2001). It is therefore important to act responsible with resources acquired from civilians and organisations; save cost whenever possible and work as efficient as possible. However, the committee Van Rijn (2001) concluded that reducing costs was not necessary because money, in their opinion, was not a real problem. The problem was the shortage of qualified employees on the labour market and therefore the public sector risked not being able to provide the services demanded. The public sector therefore should work more efficient to be able to more with less (more work with fewer employees) and in this way guarantee service provision. Especially the staffing and management activities should be reorganized (Rijn; 2001). It is therefore expected that the adoption of e-HRM technologies at the Dutch MIA was driven by the need of cost reduction and efficiency improvements of the HR system.
Allowing integration of HR functions:
According to Ruël et al. (2004), the need for integration of the HR function can be an e-HRM goal. Although, the authors found this goal within international organisations it is expected that this e-HRM goal also can be found within the public sector as the adoption of a Shared Service Centre HRM is initiated by the Dutch Ministries. The committee Van Rijn (2001) concluded that the different HR functions of the different parts of the public sector should be integrated into a single Shared Service Centre HRM. Another suggestion made by the committee was outsourcing parts of the HR function to the private sector. IT should enable the integration of the dispersed HR function and therefore could be HRM goal for the adoption of e-HRM technologies within the Dutch MIA. Lepak & Snell (1998) state that IT can be of support when the HR function is to be integrated as different parts of the HR function are provided by different parties (managers, employees, HR professionals or even other organisations).