Staffing:
Business needs manpower without employees is practically impossible to run smooth functioning of a business. One of the key roles HR is to recruit efficient manpower; Job description and job specification are useful tools for staffing process, which is one of seven functions of HR which we will discuss in this paper. In an organisation which runs on large scale the employee turnover is usually high where employees are leaving are being promoted which leads to the need of recruitment but who to recruit and how this is the function of HR where they know who they want, what skill do they require . In large organizations, an employee requisition must be submitted to the HR department that specifies the job title, the department, and the date the employee is needed. From there, the job description can be referenced for specific job related qualifications to provide more detail when advertising the position-either internally, externally, or both (Mondy and Noe, 1996). Now it’s the function of HR to attract qualified applicants through job postings and other forms of advertising, then the going through the screening of the candidates and finally the interviews of the successful candidates. The final say is of the line manager assuming all the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requirements are met.
IT could be a lot of help in the recruiting process as it has made the job a lot more easier over the past a few decades, where the job is normally posted over the internet with the exact description of the skills required and usually the first replies are over the internet via emails saving time to go through the mails by post and also saving time through fast communication. Most companies use online or telephonic interviews for the first screening to shortlist candidates.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Once the talented individual has been recruited the organisation it’s time to keep a check on their performance and recognise need of skilful training required. It’s very important to keep the staff motivated to get the best out them which is yet another function of HR, HR department arranges periodic reviews to assess their staff. Because line managers are in daily contact with the employees and can best measure performance, they are usually the ones who conduct the appraisals. Other evaluators of the employee's performance can include subordinates, peers, group, and self, or a combination of one or more (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Cherrington (1995) illustrates how performance appraisals serve several purposes, including: guiding HR actions such as hiring, firing, and promoting; rewarding employees through bonuses, promotions, and so on; providing feedback and noting areas of improvement; identifying training and development needs in order to improve the individual's performance on the job; and providing job related data useful in HR planning.
IT can be a very useful tool for appraisal processes as through IT systems like ACT! We can easily monitor the performance of the employee by constantly updating information about their tasks and the results they achieved, on the other hand it can also be used to remember important dates for the employees as it will alarm you their birthdays and etc. which can be a useful to motivate the staff by building a healthy friendly environment.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFIT
Compensation is the salary paid to the employee for their services to the organisation which benefits refers to the motivational and appreciation of the employees by paying them insurance, pension, holiday pay, sick days or discounts etc. an employee’s performances is directly influenced by these techniques of HR. It has been seen through surveys where employers appreciate more there employees through offering benefits have achieved much better results than the others who don’t. This makes the employees feel more appreciated and know they are worth something to the organisation. Compensation should be legal and ethical, adequate, motivating, fair and cost-effective, and able to provide employment security (Cherrington, 1995).
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The most important role of HR is to recognise the need for providing training to the staff where required, as performance appraisals not only assists in determining the rewards to be given out but the identify the need of training to acquire necessary skill to improve the workforce in their current position and also prepare them for future opportunities, as the organisational structure continuously keeps changing through the expansion the need of training and development programs increase accordingly. "Training focuses on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or task or to improve upon the performance of a current job or task, while development activities are not job related, but concentrate on broadening the employee's horizons" (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986, p. 5). Education, which focuses on learning new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be used in future work, also deserves mention (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986). Because the focus is on the current job, only training and development will be discussed. Training can be used in a variety of ways, including orienting and informing employees, developing desired skills, preventing accidents through safety training, supplying professional and technical education, and providing training and executive education (Cherrington, 1995).
Every training method mentioned has its benefits to both the employee as well as the organisation, some of the benefits are to cut down the learning time and save the time and money wasted in new recruitment. By teaching the employees to be familiar with the new technology is better to have recruited new personal for the job as it improve the loyalty and motivates the staff, while in production department it can reduce the number of accidents happening because of lack of training of staff to know how to use the machinery properly, providing better productivity and also it can enhance the level of customer services through skilful training improving quality, quantity and productivity. The type of training usually depends upon the time and budget available one of the ways of training is to mentor the staff or one day workshop which allows participants to demonstration to how to do their work efficiently. But these days IT has made this process a whole lot easier by providing online crash courses and training where the employee can learn within their own time without taking a day of work learn at home or are at their desk. IT based training programs can be delivered anywhere in the world without having to actually travel saving time and cost at the same time. Training focuses on the current job, while development concentrates on providing activities to help employees expand their current knowledge and to allow for growth. Types of development opportunities include mentoring, career counselling, management and supervisory development, and job training (Cherrington, 1995).
EMPLOYEE AND LABOUR RELATIONS
Along with keeping the track of properly trained staff human resource developers also make sure that there are groups of employees organised as unions to address and resolve employment related issues. Unions have been around since the time of the American Revolution (Mondy and Noe, 1996). Most of the people joining these unions are to either have higher pay or to eliminate conditions. Some of the outcomes of union involvement include better medical plans, extended vacation time, and increased wages (Cherrington, 1995). Now the function of HR is make sure the relation between the employees and the employer are smooth and always in good friendly environment where they are appreciated and treated as a part of family.
SAFETY AND HEALTH
Health and safety is one of the major issues in the world these days where there is high governmental involvement in the issue regarding the safety of the employees. HR is required to make sure the rights of the employees are not violated in any case, while the employees work in safe and healthy environment. Mondy and Noe (1996) define safety as "protecting employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents" and health as keeping "employees free from physical or emotional illness" (p. 432). ). In order to prevent injury or illness, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970. Through workplace inspections, citations and penalties, and on-site consultations, OSHA seeks to enhance safety and health and to decrease accidents, which lead to decreased productivity and increased operating costs (Cherrington, 1995). Health problems recognized in the can include the effects of smoking, alcohol and drug/substance abuse, AIDS, stress, and Through employee assistance programs (EAPs), employees with emotional difficulties are given "the same consideration and assistance" as those employees with physical illnesses (Mondy and Noe, 1996, p. 455).
IT has dramatically changed the face of health and safety as the technology updated so did the ways to provide people a safer environment with the launch of computer based systems that constantly keeps a check on the environment the staff works in and alarming as soon as something hazardous happens. For examples laboratories are always under a check of these new IT based systems which detects even the minor changes to the environment which could defy the health laws. Then there are new breed of security and fire alarm systems that automatically informs the appropriate authorities in case of an emergency before anyone realises what’s happening.
Revolution in Information and communication technologies (ICT) is dramatically changing the way of life and how things are done in nearly every aspect of human activity. The global economy is putting a competitive pressure on businesses compelling them to embrace ICT to keep up with the market at its frenetic pace. ICT gives it the competitive edge, convince, quality of service, affordability, creativity and much more advantages. Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) defines (Mitchell et al.1998) “study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.” According to a study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) for the
World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) released in October 1998, the world IT marketplace was approaching a size of US$2 trillion in the second half of 1998 (WITSA 1998). It is also growing at a rate substantially faster than worldwide GDP. Data for the study were gathered from the 50 largest country markets in GDP terms. Which shows how the field has grown over the past a few decades and how important it is for an organisation to update itself with ICT capability to keep in the race.
Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT
ICT plays a significant role in not only organisations but also the daily human life from business to leisure and our society.
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Advantages of information technology:
Globalization – ICT has not only brought the world a lot closer but also turned the world economy into one single system, which means that information can be shared quickly and efficiently breaking the unbreakable barriers between different cultures linguistics and geographical locations.
Communication – with the help of ICT communication has become easier, quicker and cheaper. We can now communicate in any part of the world instantaneously. The internet has opened new doorways for fast reliable communication and even conferences through video calling without actually leaving the comfort of your office or home.
Cost effectiveness - Information technology has computerised all the business process thus streamlining businesses to make them extremely cost effective, increasing the productivity which gives rise to profits meaning bonuses for employees and for organisation leaving less room for human errors and delay in production.
Bridging the cultural gap - Information technology has bridged the cultural gap by helping people from different cultures to communicate with one another, and allow for the exchange of views and ideas, thus increasing awareness and reducing prejudice.
More time - ICT has made it possible for businesses to be open 24/7 around the globe. Business can stay open any time anywhere, making purchases from different countries easier and more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered right to your doorstep with having to move a single muscle.
Creation of new jobs – Along with the above advantages the best one is that ICT opened new door for career developments, as well as created new opportunities in the field of information technology.
Disadvantages of information technology:
Unemployment – While ICT created new jobs in the IT field it also crated job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing, Which reduced or cut down a lot of jobs with the front line workers and mid-level jobs.
Privacy – Although ICT made the communication a lot easier and more convenient, it has also raised the issue of invading privacy through phone tapping, hacking and other activities causing worries of safety through the private sector.
Lack of job security - Experts believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as the technology keeps on changing with each day meaning that the learning process should be on going to secure their jobs.
Dominant culture - While information technology may have made the world a global village, it has made the dominate culture to overshadow the weak as US is blamed to have influenced the young generation around the world to adapt their culture and language as English is commonly as the primary mode of communication for business and everything else.
Importance of HR and ICT to work together
It is vital for the integration of ICT in an organisation to be done through appropriate channel of human resource management because without the co-ordination of both its very hard to achieve results. In a study done by D.E.Villiger in 1985 where he studied the impacts of new ICT development program in Phonecorp a large US based telephonic company revealed in his analysis of the implementation of FACS (facility assignment and control system) in Phonecorp. FACS was a computerised, fully automated information system for connecting new customers to the telephone network. Same FACS equipment was introduced in nine local loop assignment centres (LACs: where all order processing for new lines was done). Most of the centres which introduced FACS early in the process, experienced serious problems of all kinds, insufficient training of the LACs operators proved to be a major problem causing major delays in processes and missing the performance goals set. On the other hand the centres which installed FACS a few months later with their HR department provided sufficient training courses to the staff ran smoother, faster and efficiently.
In this fast age in time it’s very important for one to keep them updated with the new technology. ICT has emerged as a global phenomenon and brought along its new ways to deal things by ICT tools which could be used different processes of an organisation such as manufacturing, resource planning, office automation, computer supported co operated work, distribution, supply chain, enterprise management and much more. Through the fast technological advances in the field of ICT management can now transform their organisation by changing the way people work. Information systems have helped Human Recourse management to develop according to the new age by providing a new knowledge of e-HRM and HRIS human resource information systems.
The use of ICT includes new development within an organisation making better, faster and more reliable productivity, strategic planning and managerial models. IT is becoming more tactical partner of HRM, determining the factors that utilised in HR information for strategic decision making purposes. ICT give much more flexibility to the organisations HRM process.
Transforming Human Resource's
Information technology has allowed HR activities to convert themselves enabling the employee to have a quick access to all the information required with the limitations of the organisation without actually interacting with the HR personal. Where also the performance of the work force can be evaluated through computer based systems, this new technology has successfully integrated in the HR structure changing the ways of HR process making them easier and faster.
Conclusion
After going through all the evidence and studies done by researcher in the field of HR and information technology we can conclude this paper by saying even then the markets have moved and ICT has changed the face of the earth in many better ways making life easier, faster and more efficient. But at the same time critics foresee a mixed future for ICT as it has brought good along with bad by downsizing firms more and more people replaced by machines. And also heavily rely upon this technology to live our lives we forgotten the ways of our ancestors who took a more safe approach for doing thing, which leaves me with a single question in my mind would life seize to exist the day I wake up without electricity?
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DJ Cherrington - 1995 - New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs
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