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ARTICLES - HR Information Systems

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN HRD

Ritesh Agarwal
What is the utility of the Internet and more specifically the Intranet for the field of Human Resource development? This is the question, which is investigated and explored in this article. A few suggestions are provided, keeping in mind the Indian context. Its just another day on the Internet. Inside the offices of ABC company, a mid size Indian organization. Its HR manager is surfing his way around the world, and hes now looking for the next great wave. Sitting in front of his computer, he is browsing the Internets World Wide Web and using its sophisticated hypertext links and graphics to boldly go where HR has never gone before. With the click of a mouse button, hes inside the Indian Governments Human resource ministry server in New Delhi. Examining a schedule of upcoming state level HR conferences. Then, instantly, hes off to the Wharton Business school, looking at the latest research by its faculty and students. A few minutes later, hes made a lightning-fast pilgrimage to the Quality Wave, an index of

sites containing information on TQM, educational programs and business theories. Every time he sees something that piques his interest, he simply clicks on a highlighted word or graphic imageincluding high-resolution photographsto obtain more information. The text pours onto his computers screen, at which point it can be printed or saved for future reference. And if it so happens that hes jumping to another Web site, the system transports him there at warp speedefficiently and invisibly, regardless of whether the computer is located in Boston or Bombay. Of course, the World Wide Web is just one portion of the Internet. He also uses the Internet for E-mail and to subscribe to newsgroups that keep him informed on the latest industry buzz Cyberspace. Its certainly not the final frontier, but its fast becoming an important part of the corporate arsenaland psyche. Opening new doors and new opportunities for human resources professionals who have the equipment and the mindset to venture into the online arena. Today, a growing wave of HR managers are going online to recruit personnel, conduct research using electronic data bases, send E-mail, and engage in valuable networking and discussions. Using the Internetwhich connects upwards of 28 million people and 3.2 million host computers in 70 countriesas well as commercial services such as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online, these pioneers are venturing into a revolutionary new world where data and information flow at the speed of light. What is the Intranet? When discussing the idea of Intranet, its helpful to accept a working definition. Basically, its the use of Internet and Web technologies inside a com pany to enhance employees ability to find, manage, create and distribute information. In effect, its a private Internet behind the company firewall. A firewall blocks outside Internet users from accessing information on internal Webs, thereby ensuring company security of documents. People inside, however, can circumvent the firewalls to reach outside Internet sites and gather unlimited information. Why HR should use Internet/ intranet : For HR, the Web has led to dramatic changes. A high performance organization can operate globally and locally at lower costs, higher productivity and improved quality than their competitors. A HR department can help build a high performance organization by doing innumerable things via the internet, intranet and extranets: Its allowing corporations to market themselves directly to college students and professionals -- 24 hours a day. As resumes stream in, theyre automatically routed into databases. When a manager needs to fill a position, its possible to search on keywords and find top prospects. Then, using videoconferencing software over the Internet, its even possible to conduct a preliminary interview. Recruiting may have been the first big HR application for the Web, but it isnt the only one. Its also possible to outsource payroll, benefits administration and more. Its relatively simple to connect employees worldwide for training through the Net. And then theres the ability to conduct research on anything from benchmarking to TQM.

HR is at the center of a changing electronic universe. Its the department thats being looked at to drive gains and provides strategic skills. That means learning how the Internet works and how companies can use it to their maximum advantage. So be prepared to explore new opportunities. Broadly, one can divide the major functional areas of HR as : Selection & Recruitment Training & Development Compensation & benefits Performance appraisal Grievance resolution Welfare provisions Corporate news and information

Having divided the whole HR gamut of functions in the above mentioned 7 subfunctions, we will now see the use of Internet / Intranet for each respective function: Selection & Recruitment: Recruiting can become very easy with Internet/ intranet. Four reasons to elaborate: Internal job postings can be easily posted to the intranet. Employees can review latest job postings anytime anywhere via the intranet. This reduces the costs of photocopying and distributing job posting information while giving all employees the same information at the same time regardless of location. Employees, if interested, can apply for a new internal position via the Intranet. They fill in an on-line form and submit the application on the Intranet. The amount of information required to be filled in is limited as it is automatically drawn from the corporate databases. Paperwork is extremely reduced for applicant, HR staff and line managers. External job postings can be posted on the Internet. Once the senior management approves the job posting, the HR staff instantly posts them to the corporate Internet web site as well as to other web recruiting sites. This reduces time to posting, reduces recruiting costs for those positions amenable to web recruiting and expands the applicant pool. External applicant resumes are received electronically via the internet by the HR dept. the intranet. By tying in an applicant inventory and tracking system using the web and imaging systems all information can instantly be sorted, queried and viewed anywhere at anytime via the intranet. This reduces all paperwork; cuts time frames to review applications and improves the ability to find the skill sets youre looking for out of the many applicant resumes.

Compensation & benefits: In an intranet environment, all the employees would be required to make direct changes to their basic information such as name, address and contact numbers via the intranet. The information would automatically be then updated into the corporate databases. This reduces consumption of paper forms, personnel handling, processing costs and reduces updating time to being instantaneous regardless of time zones. Employees choose and change benefits options (Cash/ Bank transfer/ Cheque

etc.) via the intranet. This information is automatically put into the corporate databases. Employees can make and change their own selections any time, anywhere via the intranet. This reduces data entry costs by HR dept. HR staff spends little time answering mundane questions over and over while concentrating staff resources on the unique questions and the "human" part of HR. Employee benefits claims may be submitted via the intranet. On-line forms and document imaging systems mean an employee can make claims anytime with little or no paperwork at low processing and handling costs to HR.

Training & Development: Training can become very easy with Internet/ Intranet. Indeed, the benefit of the Intranet for HR and training departments is increasing the Intranets popularity. It can be an extremely cost-effective and efficient way to distribute training material as well as documentation. And although the Nets current technological limitations still prevent it from replacing CD-ROM, its important for HR to know what the Intranet can and cant do. This information will place the department in a better position to take advantage of the technology when its deemed right for its particular needs. Five reasons to elaborate: HR dept can post the list of training programmes chalked out for the week/ month/ year on intranet and then all the employees, staff and approved managers can instantly view individual training records at anytime via the intranet. This reduces calls to HR for records and verification of training, thus virtually ruling out any ambiguity which normally exists in Indian companies. All internal training programs can be made instantly viewable and book-able via the Intranet. Basic course information, qualifications and booking is all on-line. This reduces calls to HR about basic training information and lowers staff costs to book and arrange internal training regardless of location. External training provider programs are viewable and book-able over the intranet via an internet linkage with the providers. External training information is viewable from anywhere on the Intranet. Handling and processing costs between the corporation and the providers are thus reduced. On-line courses can be easily made available via the intranet and internet. This provides employees with training to the desktop and just in time training regardless of location and time zones. Costs are reduced for training delivery, courses can be customized for individuals and experts brought in electronically to assist where deemed appropriate regardless of location. Employee skills can be instantly sorted and queried by management via the intranet. This quickly allows management to identify and assemble project teams at low cost and fast time frames.

Performance appraisal Intranet, can reduce the unnecessary paper work and time spent in transfer of papers an integral part of typical Indian Performance Appraisal exercise-as well as make the process more interactive, confidential and responsible. Such an intranet based typical automated Performance Appraisal system would ideally have basically three forms, access to which would be given to each employee individually and no one else would be authorized to access the other persons forms. One form would be for self-appraisal while the second would be on the Feedback of

other subordinates, peers and superiors. The third one would be meant for HR dept.. Having filled the self-appraisal part, the employee would share the access with the superior who is supposed to appraise him. Now the appraiser after going through it and as well as during Performance Appraisal review can give his remarks. Clubbed with telephone conferencing and E-mail network, he may consult other peers and superiors as well. There would be no dearth of space for comments. In such a provision.. Grievance resolution Frequently asked questions (FAQs) may be identified and posted on intranet for employees reference. In case, an employee has a typical doubt about a policy matter or any benefit scheme or wants help from HR dept. Or wants to resolve his tussle with his superior/ subordinate, he just needs to intimate it to HR by Intranet. Welfare provisions Consider this scenario: Your company has a new training manual it wants to distribute to a department of 200 people. But only 10 of them really need to read and keep the entire document. What do you do? In the past, companies such Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) would send a thick hard copy to all 200 employees. Those who didnt need it day-to-day would probably file or dump it. Think of the waste of time and money to reproduce these unnecessary copies. Benefits In the HR arena, sites such as Career Mosaic, Job Web and the Monster Board offer employer profiles, job openings, career information and human resources forums. In addition, there are long lists of consultants and services peddling their wares and offering their expertise on everything from training to career development. There also are government sites, including OSHA, where an HR practitioner can stay informed on current regulations, directives and even scan OSHA notices in the Federal Register. Its possible to jump from one subject or service to another in a matter of seconds by simply clicking a mouse button. Meanwhile, other portions of the Internet such as FTP, Usenet and Telnetoffer a mind-boggling array of additional resources. You can access mailing lists for your specific interests, along with interests, along with newsletters, academic studies and an array of background materials. Corporate News & Information: Employee handbook and other "binder" information is all available via the intranet. All employees, regardless of location and time, have immediate access to the most up to date information. HR reduces staff time and costs spent on assembly, reproduction, distribution and updating. Organization charts are available via the Intranet. Organisation charts can be automatically updated on the Intranet as changes are made to the human resource information system. Charts are "drillable" and "expandable" by simple point and click methods. Costly time to produce, maintain, and distribute org charts is reduced. All staff has the same information once the executive suite makes the decision. Basic telephone, departmental and e-mail information is on the intranet. This may even be combined with the org chart web pages. Employees can quickly filter contact information, view departmental and web page information without having to use outdated binders or call HR for the information. Corporate and departmental newsletters and communication pieces can be sent

via the Intranet. All general corporate news may be instantly made available to all employees at reduced production and distribution costs. Innovative new ways of communicating can also be used including corporate radio station via the Intranet, audio and video interviews with staff. External news sources on the corporation and key corporate indicators can be viewed on the Intranet with links to the internet. This keeps all staff equally abreast of news and changes. Its vital a high performance organization communicates to all staff all the time regardless of time zone and location.

To compete in a global economy one needs to ensure that his/her organization is heading in these directions. And he can modularly put his organization on the fast track by laying out a well thought strategic implementation plan for HR to use the Intranet and the Internet. The price points for implementing these tools and new systems are dropping while the ease of implementation is greatly improving. By taking advantage of the new mindset these tools offer, youll avoid being a low performance organization in a high performance economy. Box : Internet/Intranet Glossary of Useful Terms List of commonly used terms relating to the Internet and Intranets follows. Domain The name of a computer or service on the Internetreferred to by the characters following "@" in an online address. The process of receiving a file from another computer. Hardware or software that protects a private network from an unsecured or public network. An Internet protocol for transferring files to and from another server over a network.

Download

Firewall

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Groupware

An application that enables users to collaborate over a network. The first page of a Web site or group of HTML documents. The language in which World Wide Web documents are formatted.

Homepage

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Hyperlink

The linking mechanism that allows a user to jump from one Web page, graphic or

document to another. Internet Worlds largest computer network enabling users to send e-mail, transfer files, participate in newsgroups and access the World Wide Web. A private network that uses Internet software and standards. An object-oriented language, developed by Sun Microsystems, that creates distributed Web applications. An electronic bulletin board on which users can post and exchange messages. Provides authentication and data encryption between a Web server and a Web browser.

Intranet

Java

Newsgroup

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Upload

The process of transmitting a file to another computer. A standardized character string that identifies the location of an Internet document. Also known as a Web address.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Web Browser

Software that requests and displays HTML documents and other Internet or intranet data. The Internets worldwide, HTML-based, hypertext-linked information system.

World Wide Web References:

Joseph, P.T. & Kuchhal, Sachin, "Internet: Opportunity for Business in India : a study", MLS. Vol. 23, July 1998, pp. 410-420 Greengard, Samuel, "Extranets: Linking Employees With Your Vendors", Workforce, November 1997, Vol. 76, No. 11, pp. 28-34. Dick Grote,"Getting the most out of review process", HR Focus,Vol.74,issue 1,Jan 97,p.15 Stevens, Larry, "The IntranetYour Newest Training Tool?", Personnel Journal, July 1996, Vol. 75, No. 7, pp. 27-32.

Greengard, Samuel, "Finding Time To Be Strategic", Personnel Journal, October 1996, Vol. 75, No. 10, pp. 84-89. Greengard, Samuel, "Leverage the Power of the Internet", Workforce, March 1997 "Internet/Intranet Glossary of Useful Terms", Workforce, March 1995

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