Technology has influenced almost every walk of our life. Whether it is in shopping, healthcare, or home management, technology has crept in. In the same way, businesses have also transformed in a big way because of using advanced gadgets and machines. IT has been the main force behind this transformation. Enterprises have moved from brick-and-mortar buildings to websites. Many companies don’t exist physically at all. In the same way, human resource management has also undergone changes due to technology integration.
Understanding Human Resource Management
HR management courses teach that human resources management concerns everything about the people working for a firm. The HR department is responsible for placing people in various positions and ensuring that their efforts help the company achieve its goals. These officials must also help employees reach their personal goals while contributing to the company’s performance. The personnel department is responsible for training and developing workers to improve their capabilities to undertake higher responsibilities. This department has transformed into a vital part of every organization in recent years.
Like other departments in a company, HR has also undergone a transformation. But unlike other departments, the job nature of these officials has changed completely. From being mere administrators who looked after the records of employees, they have become vital persons in the growth and development of a company. In many firms, these people share space with the C-suit group. This is because company management has understood how critical employees were for an organization’s operation and profitability. Business owners realized that hiring and firing people will leave them with low-quality staff.
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Digital Transformation Of HR Department
The invasion of IT happened in the HR department too. Modern technology automated many tasks. As talent acquisition became a critical function, human resource officials started using modern technology to recruit the best talents. The use of analytics to understand the market availability of eligible people helped to find suitable candidates. Resume scanners are being used to get over the laborious process of going through them and eliminating those not eligible. Many HR managers use social media platforms to reach out to qualified and skilled people in remote locations.
HR software is being popularly used to manage employee details. There are many packages for payroll that help in recording attendance, leave, and hours of working. The software helps in automatically calculating the salaries of employees, taking into account all aspects. It also helps in paying taxes promptly. Companies use HRIS very extensively for managing staff and helping in their development. These packages assist human resource officials in the end-to-end management of employees. HR analytics courses delve into detail about the use of data and computer technology for making better decisions.
Influence Of IT On Human Resource Management
IT is helping many businesses reach their objectives. Company owners and employees have understood the importance of this technology in improving efficiency and saving time. Let us see how this modern science helps HR do its activities more effectively and help companies progress and develop.
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Better Collaboration With Line Managers
Line managers play a vital role in a company’s achievement of its goals. They are also crucial for getting information about various employees and knowing the training needs in their departments. IT tools can help in better cooperation between HR officials and line managers. They help in passing information effortlessly. Line managers can use them to inform about training requirements. Such tools help review whether the company must recruit new employees to ensure that it achieves its goals.
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Improved Management Of Employees
IT tools are greatly helping HR departments manage employees. Organizations must measure the performance of all staff members and reward those who have excelled. Such assessments help know how much employees have progressed and whether they are ready to take up higher responsibilities. It also helps in improving an organization’s performance. These IT tools help HR managers create benchmarks against which workers can be measured. They are used to engage employees also in the process.
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Recruiting Effectively
An XLRI human resource program can teach participants how important recruitment is. It is a process of selecting the most suitable people for the company. Recruitment starts with analyzing the company’s workforce needs and taking the necessary steps to fulfill them. IT tools can help significantly in finding out the actual workforce requirements of a company. Companies can spread their recruitment process far and wide using online media. This helps in improving the chances of getting the most suitable person for the job.
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Reduce Monotony And Improve Analysis
IT tools can reduce monotony. Many of the repetitive processes that were earlier done manually are now handled by software. This will include recording of regular employee activities like attendance. There is no need for anyone to record them physically as software can handle it. Analysis of employee performance is easier with such tools. All activities of workers can be fed into the system and measured. If there is any deviation from laid down working methods, managers can get an alert from such systems.
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Cost Reduction And Improved Efficiency
Many jobs like recording attendance, leave, and salaries are repetitive and require a lot of human effort. Once these are automated, it can help relieve workers from this job and use them for more creative work. Such software will also help to avoid errors that are common when performed by humans. Using human resources more effectively, these IT systems help companies save a lot of money while improving efficiency. Employees who do such monotonous jobs will be relieved and find themselves more motivated to work harder.
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Career Development
IT tools help to analyze the performance of every employee. This will give HR officials an idea about those requiring training to move forward in their jobs. Such tools are beneficial in finding people suitable for different types of jobs. It helps human resource managers easily motivate employees by assisting them in acquiring new skills. XLRI HR courses teach how important it is for companies to take care of employee career development. These courses are available in various durations depending on whether one wishes to earn a degree or a certificate.
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Improved Candidate Search
Hiring the most suitable people is the primary responsibility of HR managers. They must find a person who will fill an immediate requirement but also has the potential to take up more responsibilities in the future. IT has made this job more manageable as the internet allows searching for candidates anywhere in the world. Various tools use AI to help find a perfect match for a company’s requirements. This helps in eliminating those candidates who are not the correct fit and proceeding with the best ones. This saves time and helps get the perfect employee.
Also Read: The Key Responsibilities of a Human Resources Department in a Business
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Attract Better Talents
Companies must be able to attract the best talents in the market so that they can work more efficiently and achieve their goals quickly. The internet is helping to make this possible. It is very easy to improve the brand value of a company online using various tools. Some specialists can ensure better visibility for a company. The internet helps to spread the brand and attract the best people from the market. This makes it easy for human resource officials to recruit excellent people for the company.
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Use Of Analytics
There is so much data available both within a company and outside it. Analytics experts can use such information to find valuable insights that will help HR managers to recruit and retain the best people. But the job cannot be done manually. Modern IT tools are helping to perform analytics with a particular focus on specific goals. Companies can now find what reasons are making people leave them. They can find out which departments have the highest attrition rates. All this information will help in retaining good employees.
We have seen how IT and the internet are helping human resource managers do their job. The extensive use of such technology has given this kind of management a name – eHRM. Every human resource aspirant must understand in detail what eHRM is.
What Is e-HRM?
It is pretty easy to know what e-HRM is from the name. Everyone knows that anything prefixed with an “e” refers to electronics or, more precisely, IT and the internet. Human resource management that uses these technologies to complete various tasks in collaboration with other entities like employees and top management is called e-HRM. The system stores all data about employees. It also has valuable information about the company that employees need to access. The use of web technology is transforming HR the way it never has.
E-HRM is not similar to HRIS. While the latter is for the use of the human resource department only, the former is used by all entities in an organization. This technology helps to spread the activities of the personnel department to employees and top management members. It offers more opportunities for these actors to collaborate. It enables human resource departments to deliver a self-service system to employees. This system keeps everyone informed of important HR events and issues. Decision-making is much faster when using e-HRM.
Also Read: 6 qualities of highly effective HR professionals
Elements Of e-HRM
As the system helps in completing a variety of activities for both the department and employees, there surely must be many important elements in it. It is worth looking at these in detail. The first element is connectivity. It helps to connect individuals who are physically separated by space. They could be in the same room or on different continents. They can collaborate and complete tasks. This technology aims to connect and integrate.
Another important element of e-HRM is that it supports the partial or complete substitution of the HR team in executing their activities. It uses IT as a means of task fulfillment. As there are individuals and collective actors, this is a multi-level phenomenon. Certain groups and organizational units also interact with the HR team to complete staffing management tasks. There are three types of e-HRM functions.
Types Of e-HRM
The types of e-HRM are operational, relational, and transformational. As the name suggests, operational e-HRM is concerned with the department’s administrative tasks like payroll management and employee personal information. The second type deals with support offered to business processes. These include recruitment, performance management, and training. Transformational e-HRM deals with knowledge management, strategic reorientation, etc. Companies will use any type or a combination of these to achieve their objectives.
Goals Of e-HRM
What does this process aim to achieve? HR management courses can teach you that companies adopt this technology to reduce cost, improve HR services and enhance strategic orientation. It has helped many businesses to enhance the efficiency of HR departments and reduce human resources cost. It also helps in increasing the speed of various tasks. The process allows line managers to conduct appraisals and plan training. This technology also allows them to evaluate the cost of employees. It helps HR managers find reasons for absenteeism and turnover.
This process enhances the working of the HR department and allows it to play a key role in the achievement of company goals. Managers can make an HR plan quickly and accurately. They are also able to connect with people inside and outside the company. e-HRM improves human resource services to employees and the management. It reduces inefficiency in the manpower department. Employees are also able to access all HR information easily. They can create virtual teams with people at different locations.
Also Read: Why Should I Choose a Career in Human Resource Management?
Roles Of e-HRM
HR analytics courses inform participants that the process helps make the human resource department a strategic partner in the business. It enables the manpower department to help the company achieve a competitive edge in the market. This happens as HR officials are able to recruit the best talents and upskill the company’s employees. e-HRM helps companies to make better use of their workforce. The interactions between employees using this channel help transfer knowledge. This results in a more skilled workforce.
Common e-HRM Activities
E-Recruitment
Recruitment through traditional media like print advertising is becoming rarer by the day. More and more companies are preferring the online route to get access to prospective employees. The process is completely done on the internet. Placing the ad, receiving applications, and creating a database are all done online. E-recruitment helps companies to have access to good candidates across the globe. Some companies may even prefer to have people working in remote locations if they are found to have better skills and cost less.
E-recruitment is a faster and cheaper way of finding suitable people from the market. It allows for better interaction between prospective employees and the company without having to meet physically. The main advantage of using the internet for recruitment is that it attracts people who have not heard about the vacancy or applied for it. Companies are able to attract even passive job seekers using various social media platforms. The recruitment process is quicker with this method. Candidates are also able to gather more information about the company from online sources.
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E-Selection
This is the step that comes next to e-recruitment. In this step, candidates are interviewed over the internet using various tools. They are also given tests to assess their skills. Once the company is satisfied with their performance, they may be asked to present themselves physically. In some companies, job offers are given online, and the candidates are met only when they arrive for the job. One can learn a lot about e-selection when attending the XLRI human resource program.
The HR department must take care to design the procedure correctly. Everyone must be able to take the tests without having to install any special software or extensions. The format must be simple and easy to read, even on mobile phones. There must also be a mechanism to give feedback to candidates on their performance. The assessment steps must be informed to the candidates beforehand so that they are prepared. The duration of tests must be told in advance for them to keep that much time apart.
E-Learning
Another important activity under e-HRM is e-learning. This is the training that is offered to employees using an intranet or internet. Employees get their lessons delivered on browsers. This is an excellent way to impart education to staff members and make them ready to perform more complex tasks. There are lessons that are taught by instructors and those that can be learned by oneself. These are delivered in static methods like hyperlinked pages, web broadcasts, videos, or audio. There is also an interactive way of teaching that includes chats, discussions, and video conferencing.
E-learning is an excellent way of training employees in a firm. They don’t have to take time off from work to travel to an institution. They can learn from wherever they are. The timings are also flexible as lessons are available online all the time. Employees can access the training materials through their mobile devices and learn even when they are commuting to and from the office. Many XLRI HR courses are also offered online for working people. These lessons can be accessed without installing any additional software or hardware.
E-Performance Assessment
Performance assessment is an important function performed by the HR department. This is how they get to know the effectiveness of work done by the employees. Such an evaluation is highly essential for employees too because they get their promotions or salary hikes on this basis. E-performance assessment is done using web-based tools. Both employees and the assessing officer can enter their opinions in this portal. There is a position description module that helps managers to extract this during evaluation.
This type of employee evaluation helps companies store the information for a long time. Managers and HR officials are able to peruse the earlier assessments of employees and see what improvement has taken place. They can also check if recommendations given by their team leaders have been followed. This system allows anyone with permission to retrieve the information for their perusal. It helps HR officials to recommend promotions to the top management with data ready at hand.
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E-Compensation
There are various web-based tools available to manage compensation details. These tools are web-based and not client-server or stand-alone PC-based. This makes it available to anyone with access anywhere in the world with just an internet connection and a device. Employees can view their compensation details from wherever they are. Storing such details helps HR managers to retrieve them at any time for their reports.
What is even more advantageous is that companies can integrate their payroll and attendance software with this tool. Biometric readers can also be connected to it, making the calculation of overtime very easy. Managers can retrieve salary and other payment information from the tool to make their budgets. This tool allows for easy calculation of salaries and avoids errors that can occur with manual entries.
E-HRM is not the only technology that has invaded the human resource workspace. There are various other modern developments that HR managers are finding highly beneficial to use. In fact, the present pandemic situation has given an opportunity for companies to use various collaborative tools as people are forced to work from their homes. Such collaborative tools are helping HR managers also to keep a close track of workers spread across cities or even countries.
Tools That Support HR Function
Access To Broader Talent Pool
There are many tools that help companies keep in touch with employees who are working from home. Project management tools like Trello and Slack are making it easy even for HR officials to keep track of those who work from home. They can see work progress using these tools. There are other cloud-based HR tools that allow companies to use remote teams effectively. This is allowing HR managers to look at hiring people from places where those who possess the required skills are available in plenty. This reduces the company’s cost greatly.
Employees are also able to imitate the environment of an office using tools like Focusmate and PukkaTeam. These tools help to create virtual coworking spaces enabling employees to form social connections and avoid feeling lonely while working remotely. VR conferencing is a technology that will soon replace video conferencing completely, making the remote working experience even better. There are also sites that connect employers with prospective employees that will help recruiters find the best talents from other locations. HR managers can look at a much bigger talent pool with these tools.
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Managing Remote Teams
It is evident that remote teams are here to stay. Companies have discovered various advantages with keeping employees at home. There are many savings by way of infrastructure and utilities. Employees are enjoying a lot of flexibility. There is no need to spend a long time traveling to the office every day. But these employees need HR services too. If workers can be remote, then HR operations can be remote too. There is no need to have them at the office. Cloud-based HR tools are helping human resource managers deliver their service to remote employees.
Such tools incorporate a lot of separate HR aspects like payroll, benefits, time management, and collaborative software. With such packages having a lot of advantages, HR managers are starting to use this cloud-based software for managing local employees too. These services are easily scalable and are highly advantageous for growing companies. Employees get better access and control of their data with these tools. Companies are also able to assess employee engagement in a better way. Companies can save money spent on costly hardware and software.
Economical Hiring Process
Hiring employees is an expensive and time-consuming process. The traditional methods of advertising in print media fetch a lot of applications that can take much time to go through. Employers are resorting to more modern methods of attracting people to join the company. Online advertisements for jobs are proving to be more effective and economical. It helps companies to access a much wider talent pool as there are no geographical limitations to online advertisements. It is also easy to spread the brand image of a company online.
Technology is enabling companies to build job boards and company review sites. There are also tools that help connect them with career sites. Social ads targeted at the right candidates are more effective. Many tools help companies to use social media platforms for searching for talents. All these tools enable present and past employees to write about their experience in working for a company. This improves a company’s reputation and also helps prospective employees to connect with existing or old workers.
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Improving Recruitment Experience
Everything today is about the experience. Companies create websites and applications that help improve customers’ buying experience. HR officials are trying to make the employee experience better by way of various programs. Technology is already making the recruitment process simpler and more efficient. HR officials can save time by using tools that help to make receiving applications and scanning resumes much easier. HR managers are trying to make the experience even better by using modern tools. There are tools like Pathmotion which assist candidates in connecting with existing employees.
Finding the most suitable candidates is becoming increasingly difficult. But modern technology is allowing HR managers to find people across the world. This helps to find the required talents from places where they are cheaper. Platforms like Honeypot enable employers to reach out to suitable candidates instead of the other way round. Chatbots are also being increasingly used during the screening process. This can reduce the time considerably. Chatbots also help in scheduling meetings or asking standard questions, helping candidates to move forward quickly in the recruitment process.
Making Training More Effective
Training is a part of employee development. HR is responsible for ensuring the growth and development of every worker. They must give necessary support to staff members to acquire new skills and advance in their careers. Training is usually provided using external agencies or experienced staff in the company. Online training is becoming more popular now because employees need not take time off their work for this purpose. They can access study materials at any time from their homes. Today, there are various tools that allow employees to train as per their pace and to suit their learning styles.
Companies are also using AI, AR/VR, and gamification to make study materials more interesting and easy to understand. The other advancement that can be seen in this regard is the use of tools to create a career path for each employee based on their potential. Tools like PathSavvy can identify the skills of individuals and suggest the best career paths for them. This will also help in customizing training methods for different employees. Skill gaps can be filled using these tools.
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Improving Employee Engagement
Gone are the days when HR departments remained aloof and are approached only when there are some issues. Today this department plays a proactive role in improving employee engagement. HR managers keep their doors open for any worker to walk in and discuss their issues. Such employee engagement has become essential in the face of increasing staff attrition. Understanding their requirements and fulfilling them can help to retain people in a company. This information is vital for HR managers.
Using AI-enabled analytics helps companies find out what factors are responsible for people leaving a firm. Platforms like Peakon help HR managers use data to find out what factors will drive employee engagement. Augmented analytics platforms use machine learning and natural language generation to automate data usage to provide valuable insights. Such platforms are more user-friendly and allow easy analysis of employee data. These tools deliver insights in a form that anyone can easily understand.
Better Access For Employees
HR managers are often the link between management and employees. They are also those who have information on various company matters. These officials have updated information on almost everything related to workers. This makes employees approach them frequently to find answers to any queries. Human resource staff finds it difficult to attend to their work which in itself is quite voluminous. Self-service tools are coming to the rescue of human resource officials in delivering information to employees. Employees can access any information that they need.
Such tools will help HR officials to save a lot of time and attend to their work with better concentration instead of getting disturbed frequently. Employees can remain updated with information themselves using the self-service tools. Human resource officials can work more efficiently and attend to more serious worker issues. These tools increase transparency inside the organization. Employees are able to see all data. It also helps to keep them updated with the latest regulations.
Ensuring Proper Attendance Recording
Those studying HR management courses know the importance of attendance in companies. Employees must necessarily record their presence at work. HR must also know who has reported to duty on a particular day and at what time. This is crucial for deciding workers’ salaries and other benefits. Recording the time of arrival at work is also essential for calculating overtime. But most methods used traditionally could be manipulated. Moreover, maintaining these details is a time-consuming process. Doing it manually could result in errors.
Using PIN numbers or ID cards that could be swiped to mark attendance were not foolproof systems. The technological revolution in this area came in the form of biometric scanners. This could not be manipulated in any way as the person must be present for marking attendance. The biometric system can be integrated into the payroll software, and this helped prepare salaries for staff without errors. This can be used for remote employees, too, as it can be easily integrated with smartphones also.
Also Read: What Role does Analytics play in HR?
Use Of Wearable Devices
The health of employees is very important for all firms. Only healthy workers can reach their full potential in working. Their full contribution will justify the cost incurred by the company for keeping these employees. But there may be instances where employees don’t fully report their health problems. These can result in dangerous accidents if they are working in such critical areas. Moreover, companies must know the health details to provide benefits like health insurance. Having their health records also helps in negotiating with insurance companies when claims are made.
Wearable devices are efficient in giving real-time information on employee health. Such tracking devices help companies to harness the health data of employees to make sure that they are not endangering themselves or others at work. Another big advantage of such wearable trackers is that managers can know the whereabouts of their team members at any time. This helps in connecting with team members easily. IoT-enabled trackers are proving to be very useful in many firms.
Preventing Harassment
There have been increasing reports of harassment at the workplace from all corners of the world. These are just the reported cases. There could be a million such incidences that are not being reported. There are various reasons for this. Fear of reprehension is one reason. In many cases, there are no proper means of reporting such matters unless one scheduled a meeting with the HR manager. Some women find no way to escape from such situations, and later, their stories are not believed by the management.
But technology is helping these women report such cases immediately. There are various tools that help women report different issues that they face at the workplace. There are platforms for reporting workplace discrimination. One can also report harassment of all sorts anonymously. Such reports will be taken up seriously by HR and investigations conducted on them. Messenger chats and hotlines also help victims to get immediate relief. Technology is helping women report danger even before they fall into any trap.
Also Read: Is Human Resource Management a Good Career Option?
Employee Scheduling And Rearranging
Those attending HR analytics courses know that talent management is not an easy job. Employee scheduling must be done for various projects and meetings. It is not possible to do this manually as there is the danger of overlapping tasks. Projects are always filled with unexpected events. This necessitates changes to be made midway. Many projects may require the rearrangement of employees in different tasks. This is a very complex task, and HR officials could be left struggling to complete it. AI is helping these managers predict possible disruptions in projects.
HR managers are using various AI-enabled tools for forecasting changes in various tasks. Many tools help these officials know how much workforce will be needed at different stages of the project. This helps in the accurate scheduling of workers. Accurately forecasting changes helps to improve plans and avoid last-minute scrambling to find resources. Another use of AI is in automating various tasks, thus freeing people to do more creative work.
Helps Being Inclusive
An XLRI human resource program can teach that being inclusive is not just a necessity as social responsibility. Increasingly more youngsters look at such qualities in a company they want to join. Including people of all genders and communities improves a firm’s reputation and attracts the best talents in the market. Apart from this, a diverse workforce produces increased creativity as there are many perspectives to work on. People from different backgrounds bring with them their opinions, and this helps in developing better products and services.
It is not easy accommodating people from all backgrounds in a company. There must be various special facilities that need to be included to help these people work comfortably. One of the changes that need to be brought is in the language used for official communication. Gender-neutral language is a necessity where people who identify themselves as non-binary are employed. There are various software packages that can help in converting all communication languages in a company to gender-neutral ones.
Wrapping Up
Those aspiring to become HR officials must know that technology invasion will continue to happen in every field, including theirs. It is necessary to adopt them wherever required. XLRI HR courses highlight the need for people to keep themselves abreast of the latest technological developments that can help make their work more efficient and easy. However, it is necessary for human resource experts to always remember that despite using the most modern technologies, their focus must always be on people.
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