The Human Resource Functions and Major Improvement in Technology - Essay Example

Impact of Technology on Human Resource Information Systems Technology is everywhere whether in a developed market or in a developing one, providing instant connectivity to information and people. In today’s world, companies use technology to gain competitive advantage over others in the market. Bringing our attention to the area of human resource, we find that technology is very useful in all processes from recruitment to retire functions. Technology has transformed the entire field, changing drastically the way employees and managers get access to human resource data (Mathis & Jackson, 2010, pp.1-67). The problem that human resource managers face today is how to use this technology to in a human resource perspective to connect people and information. Technology has been used in most of the human resource functions to increase the level of productivity by maximizing the value of an organization’s most important asset, the people. Technology is ever changing and it is the work of the manager to have a clear understanding of these changes in order to adapt and flourish. Adapting to these changes will give an individual the competitive edge over other managers in the human resource field. Technology therefore has had a great impact in the following areas of human resource: recruitment, training and development, performance and management, payroll and attendance records, employee appraisal and benefits among others. Taking the focus on recruitment we find that technology is playing a crucial role in the way organizations recruit their staff. The use of technology in recruiting is also known as E- recruitment. The use of technology in recruitment and selection of candidates has been growing in the recent years and most organizations report using technology for this purpose. A variety of reasons exist why an organization would resort to online recruitment as opposed to the traditional method of placing vacancies in the mainstream media. The first reason is that the method is cost-effective, as it only requires placing the advert on the organizations website or search engines where the cost is less as compared to the newspapers. The second reason is that it is popular among job seekers in the twenty first century as the internet is the first place they land when searching for jobs. The third reason is that it broadens the selection pool as so many people can be reached. The last reason is that it increases the speed at which the company is able to hire people (Society for Human Resource Management, 2006, pp.2-8). Technology is used specifically in the placement of job advertisement online. This can be done on several platforms that include the company’s website. This is usually the first place a company would advertise vacancies. The job seekers are known to visit websites of strong brands to look for jobs and therefore a company will have a section for this on their website. Another place to advertise is on the job sites: these are sites that are dedicated to updating job seekers about new jobs in various fields. They would visit these sites to get updates on vacancies that exist in organizations. The third place where adverts are placed is the social networking sites such as Facebook, Tweeter, and LinkedIn among others. The Trend here is to place a link to these sites so that during the process of networking people can be redirected to your website through the link and are able to read about the job vacancy. A good example is Vodafone Telecommunication Company that has a section for job vacancies on their website. Technology is used during the recruitment process to deal with the applications and the applicants in general. After a job advert is made the company will receive so many e-mails of people enquiring about the job and how they can apply in case there was no sufficient information about the application procedure. Some will send e-mails to enquire if they can apply even if they have not met the required qualifications. The human resource team will need to go through such e-mails and make a decision whether to respond to them or not. Apart from dealing with enquiries the company will also use technology in sending/receiving the application forms and in receiving the CV’s. Besides that it is also used in the completion of online application forms during the recruitment process. The third use of technology in recruitment is to select candidates. Selection is an important part of the recruitment process. Candidates are selected after they have applied for a particular job and the company wants the best people from the millions that applied for the job. It is used to test candidates before they are selected such that a candidate is given an online test to complete either through e-mails or a separate page that has the test. The company is then able to receive feedback and make a decision whether the candidate is qualified for the job or not. It is also used here to gather information about applicants. Applicants may be required to fill online forms that are then submitted to the company before the candidate is selected or after the selection (Kavanagh & Thite, 2008, pp.18-38). Technology is used to enhance the employer brand and in building a personal relationship with the talent pool. As the candidates engage with the organization, they develop a personal relationship with it. Depending on how they are treated during the recruitment process, they will come again or not. If the engagement is good they develop a positive attitude towards the organization which is a good thing for the organization as it will always have a pool of potential employees anytime. Just like in recruitment, technology still plays so many roles in employee training and development. Employee skills deteriorate over time and therefore training is important so that they are up to date with relevant information to increase productivity in the organization. Training is usually in two forms, corporate training that is initiated by the organization and personal training that is a result of an employee’s need for accomplishment. In both cases technology is employed differently to facilitate knowledge and skills acquisition. Organizations use technology or e-learning to train stakeholders both internal and external. For example an organization will resort to providing information about the company policies and structure through the company’s website. Instead of taking the stakeholders and new employees to training classes to train them on the company’s values, a company would send employees to their website where they can find lots of material concerning the company. This in a way saves time and the costs of employing training personnel to guide people in the training room. Another thing is that the staff that are usually employed to train are delegated to other duties and thereby helping the country in achieving other objectives (Bodimer, 2011). Technology is used to keep track of employee training needs and inform the organization appropriately so that action can be taken. Organizations use technology in storing employee information about their qualifications and level of training. Therefore technology can be used to track those employees that are constantly improving on their skills and those that are doing little to improve on them. At the end of the day the human resource manager is able to generate a list of staff that require training and in which areas (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Staff, 2007, pp.12-87). Technology is used to simulate industrial jobs and processes and show newly hired individuals how to go about a job. With the advent of computers it is easy to design a program and show employees what is done at each stage of the job or process. The employees are then taken through the entire session of the simulated process as if they were in the real manufacturing plant. This saves lots of time as the employees are not required to go round the company and see the process itself which takes a long time. They can receive the training both at the work place and at home. This increases efficiency and productivity of the employees as they go to the plant with information ready at their fingertips on what they are supposed to be doing at each stage of the process (e-Recruitment Buddy, 2011). Good examples of companies that do these are the car assembly companies such as General Motors Corporation Technology is used to enhance presentations during a normal training session. With the advent of computer based technologies it is easier to show the employees images that can be projected on a wide screen to be seen by a large audience. The use of multimedia ensures that the employees are able to fully understand the message as compared to the manuals and board writings. Therefore technology cannot be separated from the human resource functions as it aids in a variety of ways as explained above. Most organizations today have websites and intranets to post information about them either when recruiting or when there is need to train the stakeholders on a new process or operation (Boroughs, et al., 2008, pp.4-117). Together with the Human Resource Information systems, technology will continue to be an integral part of these two functions, now and in the future. Major improvement in technology will lead to changes in the way organizations recruit and train employees. List of References Bodimer Jeffrey (2011). Use Training and Development to Motivate Staff: Building Your Employee Training and Development Program. Retrieved on 9 05 2011, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/coachingmentorin1/a/trainmotivation.htm Boroughs Allan, Hunter Ian, & Palmer Les (2008) HR Transformation Technology: Delivering Systems to Support the New HR Model. Gower Publishing Ltd. Farnham.UK, pp.4-117 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Staff (2007) HR and Technology: Impact and Advantages. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Staff: London. UK, pp.12-87 E-Recruitment Buddy (2011) what is e-recruitment? Retrieved on 9 05 2011, from http://www.e-recruitmentbuddy.com/articlesnews/showarticle/4 Kavanagh Michael J., & Mohan Thite (2008) Human Resource Information Systems: Basics, Applications, and Future Directions. Sage publications: London. UK, pp. 18-38 Mathis Robert L. & John H. Jackson (2010) Human Resource Management, Cengage learning: London. UK. 13th Ed, pp.1-67 Society for Human Resource Management (2006) HR Technology: Leveraging the Shift to Self-Service-Its Time to Go Strategic. Society for Human Resource Management: New York.US, pp.2-8 Read More