E-HRM: Modules and Outlook to the issues

E-HRM: Modules and Outlook to the issues

                                                                                                           -Abhinav Bhatt

Raise of Issue: 

Human Resource Management has been a very important issue that businesses pay lot of attention to. How can we make every employee create maximum value for the business? How to organize the employees that work in different parts of the business towards one common goal? How can we evaluate every employee's performance?

Basic Frame of the modules:

Aside from traditional HR management functions, e-HRM enables users to access the information system in accordance with their roles and security level. All the users are able to work collaboratively whether in or out of the office.
E-HRM is integrated with other modules. Therefore, employees can easily manage customers, work request, documents and assets related to them.

E-HRM is the core technology these days, which means people is the center of information process. This module enables the user to get all information related to one employee when he search the name of that employee, including information concerning documents, customers, assets, products, projects and tasks. e-HRM also offers customized portal for every individual user. Users, under certain security level, are able to visit the documents, process daily work and participate in related projects. E-HRM is the basis of business collaboration.

Besides offering traditional HRM functions, E-HRM gives all the employees access to your information systems via Internet. The role-based approach of E-HRM can enable all employees, partners, resellers and customers to be involved in your business processes electronically. People can work hassle-free, both within and outside the office environment.

The E-HRM is fully integrated with the other modules. And now the employee can easily track products, customers, documents, external and internal requests that are linked to his name.

E-HRM’s modules allow you to: 
· Manage systems and information
· Use yellow pages
· Generate reports and statistics
· Manage and delegate online
· Plan resources
· Get a clear overview of planning and statistics
· Manage workflow, absence and expenses
· Keep track of fringe benefit schemes
· Keep track of applicants
· Perform mail merges
· Manage your assets
· Track individual financial transactions
· Link to payroll 

Outlook to Issues with Human Resource Management and subsequently how this can be handled by E-HRM

There are issues which are handled by e-HRM with a lot of ease and in many aspects which the traditional HRM would rather find it difficult. Below are few insights to the same about how it has been taken care by e-HRM:

1.     Adding value to an organization both the labor force and the business itself: -

      HRM with its multiple modules has taken care of adding value to the organization as a whole. E-HRM can enable all employees, stakeholders, and business customers to be involved in the business processes electronically. People can work hassle-free, both from within and outside the office workplace.

2.     Manage talent within the organization - 

      Try to attract and keep talented and hard-working people in the organization: As is rightly mentioned and depicted in the diagram, E-HRM enables to plan resources and help keep them optimized. Proper allocation of Human Capital can also be done with ease.

3.     Globalization: 

      E-HRM facilitates access the employee/organization related data from anywhere across the world with the help of the HRM system being available via the internet hence giving more agility to access the information from anyplace to get work done and respond to requests faster on the move. And these days, with Gadgets/smart phones it is all the way easier to keep connected to the internet.

4.     Business Control: 

      E-HRM abets Business control by giving edge for preparing the strategies. How..??

•          By aiding HR directors in proclaiming added value in HR managing operations, justifying more funding.

•          By aiding financial directors in gaining cost overview and actual human potential overview.

•          By aiding IT directors in achieving seamless IT environment with HR system being the least distractive to them.

•          By aiding HR experts in providing know-how behind strategic reports.

•          By aiding Senior and group management in keeping management proactive.

•          By helping Company owners in successful propagation of their strategic agendas

HR FUNCTION IN THE ERA OF e-HRM - Meenu Singh

Ever since the Industrial Revolution changed the way the world and enterprises looked at the production – labor relationship, there has been an ideological debate on whether technology is just an enabler or whether it has the potential and the power to replace human effort, intelligence and sensibilities. The revolutionary strides technology has made especially in the last decade make the discussion on the role of IT in managing Human Capital equally extensive and perhaps even more interesting.

To what extent can technology be used to manage the labor force? Can computers and software programs be used to organize, guide and as many would argue, enhance effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and performance of the same hands and brains that created it in the first place..?!

e-HRM is one of the most pronounced ways that technology is influencing and changing the way Human Resources are managed by organizations. Before discussing the impact of e-HRM on the HR function, it is important to lay down a basic, well accepted definition of e-HRM :

e-HRM may be defined as a way of implementing HR strategies, policies, and practices in organizations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use of web-technology-based channels.

The above definition makes it amply clear that e-HRM in many ways aims to improve the way the HR department functions by supporting or in many instances replacing the activities that were hitherto carried out by HR personnel. To what extent and degree this can happen, does e-HRM put technology in conflict with human endeavour or are they complementary to each other is the scope of this discussion.

The HRM function in most modern organizations can be said to have the following broad functional families: - Operational, 

- Relational and 

- Transformational.

It is increasingly evident that the heightened prevalence and integration of e-HRM is beginning to cause a textural change in the “focus” of the HR department and HR practitioners. The empowerment of managers and employees through e-HRM in directly performing certain chosen HR functions – especially operational and administrative ones is a key impact. This “dis-intermediation” of HR personnel is beginning to imply lesser administrative tasks for the HR department. These include work such as information processing, administration, registration and information distribution. Thus activities that can be termed as “transactional” are leading the early adoption process of e-HRM as they are the most logical and easiest to cut-over. Like self service ATMs and phone banking revolutionized the way we bank, e-HRM is revolutionizing the way such basic, routine activities are managed effectively and efficiently by employees themselves. This is a win-win situation – more empowerment for the employee and cost saves for the organization.

As far as relational activities are concerned i.e. those that involve training, performance management and recruitment, it is observed that e-HRM can be effective to a very large extent if not absolutely replace human intervention in all cases. For these activities, the HR intranet can come in very handy both for disseminating information on the one hand and in capturing factual data on the other.

The fact that Operational activities almost fully and Relational to a very large extent can be taken over by e-HRM implies that the HR function will increasingly have more time and energy to focus on the Transformational or strategic goals of the organization wrt to Human Capital. In these non- transactional HR activities, a continuum of e-possibilities exists. The conservative point on the continuum would suggest that no electronic mechanisms should be used to replace “people” activities, while the radical view on the continuum would suggest that technology could replace all direct human interaction with the HR customer.

So what does all this mean for the HR practitioner? Freed from the HR administrative workload, a company's newly streamlined HR function can act more strategically both in policy formulation and in business partner roles. Empirical studies on this topic – even though few - suggest that an investment in e-HRM will result in companies reducing the number of HRM employees. However, based on the earlier arguments, it is likely that this concerns primarily the operational/administrative HRM workers. At the transformational and strategic levels, HRM staff will remain necessary, but HR professionals will do well to orchestrate a shift in their expertise from face-to-face skills towards intranet and internet activities.

In conclusion, it is a given that E-HRM will play an active role for line management and employees in implementing HRM strategies, policies, and practices. In terms of the more operational and information processing work, such as administration, registration and information distribution, there will be less demand for HR people. However, as far as strategic activities like policy formulation is concerned, “HUMAN” HRM expertise will continue to be necessary – not just to partner with business but also logically to implement e-HRM itself!!

Role of HR in the new E-enabled organization

Author- Mittal Nagda

This course started with lot of anxiety in terms of what is that, we will take to our workplace from this module.  This I believe, was our thought process putting ourselves in the shoes of traditional employees of 20^th century for whom technology is a threat; Forgetting that we are in the age of knowledge economy where the most important contribution of an employee to the organization is his or her decision making capability and all transactional work is outsourced or taken care by technology. The same implies for the HR professionals. As I was trying to understand the relevance of the implementation of eHrm, I happened to speak to the HR professionals in my company who have seen the transition from doing manual HR operations to E-enabled HR operations. So I thought this would be the best topic to write a blog on. So here is my blog on What can be the role of HR in e-enabled environment.

HR has for long time has been locked into transactional activities (administration) and traditional activities (such as recruitment, selection and training) which take up the majority of time. And the HR professionals are so bogged down with such activities that they have no time for higher value added services such as knowledge management, culture management and strategic redirection & renewal. However, Information technology is changing things. Transactional tasks are now largely carried out using IT systems either in-house or outsourced.  Traditional and Transformational activities are also gradually moving this way with increasing introduction of e-enabled delivery of HR, saving more cost and time. This eHRM trend seems as though it will continue in the context of Internet and intranet based business model.

Where HRIS were directed to support the HR professionals in performing their HR tasks, e-HRM applications are directed not only to support HR professionals in performing their HR tasks, but also directed to support managers and employees performing their HR tasks. “E-HRM is a way of implementing HR strategies, policies, and practices in organisations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use web-technology-based channels” (Ruël et al.; 2004, p. 365-366).

Introducing e-HRM

The e-HRM technology supports the HR function to comply with the HR needs of the organisation through web-technology-based channels (Ruël et al.; 2004). 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 organization.

• E-HRM, enables managers access to relevant information and data, conduct

analysis, make decisions and communicate with others without being dependant on HR professionals

• E-HRM, enables employees to control their own personal information and update this information, make own decisions concerning their own situation without being dependant on HR professionals. 

• E-HRM affects the efficiency and the effectiveness of the HR system by reducing cycle times, increasing data accuracy, and reducing HR staff, 

• E-HRM, enables the HR system to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation by improving the capabilities of both managers and employees in taking 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 (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz)

This has consequences for the job content of the HR professionals. “Less administrative tasks for the HR department and therefore less administrative positions, more focus on strategic goals of the organisation and therefore an HRM staff consisting mainly of ‘thinkers’ (Ruël et al.; 2004, p. 369).”

The job of the HR professional

E-HRM does not only have an impact on the performance indicators of the HR system. As the use of the e-HRM technology also drives a change in the HR architecture, and therefore changes the time spent of HR professionals on specific HR activities, it is also expected that is has further consequences for the HR professional. “Extensive use of IT will likely influence the HR professionals’ focus as they may be expected to spend more time toward efforts to improve the organisation (Gardner et al.; 2003).” Besides the increased strategic role, the HR professionals also receive the responsibility of the e-HRM technology. “IT influences the focus of work that HR professionals perform by focusing more time on activities related to IT support, such as maintaining and developing IT-based HR applications (Gardner et al.; 2003).” Ruël et al. (2004) state that adoption of e-HRM technologies requires HR experience for the renewal of instruments and prepare these instruments for easy web-based use. The HR professionals also have a role in the accompaniment of end users of the technology. The end-users must be trained and motivated to use the technology. There is also the expectation that the adoption of e-HRM technologies leads to HR professionals being functional specialists supporting employees and managers instead of being administrative experts.  

The roles of the HR professional

The typology of Ulrich (1997) can be used to describe the different roles to be performed by HR professionals as business partners within an organisation. Four roles for HR professionals are defined based on the variations of two dimensions: strategy versus operational and people versus processes. The four roles of HR professionals described by Ulrich are-

Partner in strategic execution: The organisation’s executive team is responsible for the strategy of the organisation. HR, as a part of this executive team should impel and guide discussions of how the organisation should be organised to carry out its strategy. The responsibilities of the HR department are the following:

• Defining an organisational architecture

• Conducting an organisational audit to detect problems that require immediate improvements

• Identify methods for renovating the parts of the organisational architecture that need it

• Take stock of its own work and set clear priorities

Administrative expert: Traditionally, the role of the HR professional was that one of an administrator. Nowadays, the role has extended form just being an administrator, to being responsible for the efficiency of both their own function but also the entire organisation. Besides the financial benefits of decreasing costs, efficiency improvements will also build HR’s credibility to be a strategic partner.

Employee champion: The employee champion is mostly considered to keep the employees of the organization committed toward the organisation. Especially the disappearing of the employment contract has had an impact on the morale of the employees. The relationship between organisations and employees has become transactional. Employees give their time but not much more. It is the responsibility of the HR professional to keep the employees engaged to the organisation. Nowadays this often means that HR professionals should train line management about the importance of high employee morale and how to achieve it. Besides this responsibility the HR professional is the voice of the employees in management discussions, offer employees opportunities for growth, and provide resources that help employees meet demands placed on them.

Change agent: These changes in the organization, its environment occur in an ever-increasing pace. The winners in this fast changing environment are those organisations, which have the ability to adapt to these changes the quickest. The HR professional has the responsibility to build the organisation’s capacity to change. Besides this, it is the responsibility of the HR professional to take away any resistance and fear to change.

The HR professionals as business partner: 

“Business Partner = Strategic Partner + Administrative Expert + Employee Champion + Change Agent”

The diagram below can thus conclude as to what can the different performance indicator be for the HR in e-enabled organization and what could be the roles that an HR would require to get into.

Repercussions of Faulty Implementation of e-HRM – My Personal Experience

Repercussions of Faulty Implementation of e-HRM – My Personal Experience

Author- Ishita Alok

Thanks to Soniya’s blog topic, I do not need to enlighten any of you out there about what ESS can and can’t do. She has covered all the features and reasons as to why managing one’s own account at the work place is a convenient option and why every company today is trying to join this league.

Not to anyone’s surprise, 2 months back, the DGM of HR at my office too sent a power point presentation containing details of how all the earlier used softwares (like Empower, Orwell  etc..) were going to be old talk because they were being replaced by one single software called “MyManManagament – (M3) System”. This would be an effective replacement of the multiple tools that the company had been using to record and maintain employee data. There was buzz about it in every department as our earlier processes of leave approvals, attendance regularizations and clock in- clock out regularizations used to be manual and quite obviously tedious. I personally was elated about it because, having learnt about some of the SAP HR modules in the preceding weeks, I was excited to see their execution in my own company. But my thrill was only short lived. Here’s what happened with me.

When I had joined this company, the HR department had carried out its routine procedure of collecting my documents, getting my identity card readied, induction and of course getting my finger prints for the biometric machine. It so happened that the machine just never recognized my prints. It was always the case and it was a particular nuisance when in the evenings, the buses were leaving premises and I was standing in front of the machine and punching once, twice, thrice….I finally gave up and complained about this problem to the respective HR person, but in vain. He gave me an alternate solution. He said it would be ok to punch in 10 minutes before our shift ended. And it worked! I don’t know how but from then on, I started punching at approximately ten minutes to 5pm and was peaceful. This practise continued till Feb 2012 when M3S was introduced. The software went live on the 3^rd of Feb, 2012. Now, as data (like shift schedules, employee details, holiday calendar etc) was fed into the software in the beginning of the month, there was no changing it. At least, we couldn’t do it without some sort of an authorization from our managers. It was informed to us that the period of Feb-April would be a trial session for the software and payroll would be generated from here, May onwards. We were given an “orientation” regarding the usage of the software and many people were apprehensive because it changed a lot of the processes that had been in practise over here for more than five years. But the lady giving us the introduction said that it was to get used to the idea of M3S and that we were having a trial run so there was no need to panic. There was no warning given to us that the old softwares which we had been using would be rendered ineffective from that moment on.

Having been assured, people started checking out swipe in-swipe out displays, leave balances and team calendars on a regular basis on M3S. The general shift timings of our department is 8.30 am-5.00 pm. For the rest of the office, the general shift is from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. This data had been fed into M3S for every employee. The other 2 shifts are 6.30 am-3.00 pm and 3.00 pm to 11.30 pm. Another point to note here is that almost 90% of the crowd uses office commute to travel. So the shift schedules were fed into the software and employee biometric data was collected as always. As was my habit, I used to punch in 10 minutes before our shift ended. So when I checked my own M3S record, I was taken aback to see systemic errors against which it showed “Loss of Pay for early clock-out” in a yellow block against the date. This was the case on several days. When I checked with the guy who was responsible for the data maintenance of the software, he said that I was to punch out not a minute before 5 pm. The system was programmed to function this way and it would show these errors in many cases. That was the day I realised that there were n number of people throughout the office who used to punch out early just like me and we all had the same issue. We were again ensured (even in written communication from the head of our department) that there would be no loss of pay since this was still running on a trial basis. But at the end of the month, that very guy released a list of all those employees (which practically included most of the office) who had these kind of systemic errors and that the salary for the month was indeed going to be generated from M3S. There was a lot of retaliation from people. My immediate manager even took it up with the HR department and raised our concerns but he was also hushed up in a very unprofessional manner.

There were issues like the buses coming in late due to traffic, some emergency popping up due to which employees got late by a few minutes and on some days, overly large queues to punch in! We were in such a helpless state and there was no one to understand us. The worst thing that happened in that month was that people in that list had to regularize their attendance using their respective leave quotas. And there were people who had as many as 27 LOPs. For all the people whose case was like mine (early punch by 1 or 2 mins), it was quite distressing as we were very much present in the office premises till the end of the shift, we all use the office commute and hence there was no way we could’ve taken off earlier than scheduled. But no amount of pleading worked with the HR department. They said nothing was in their hands and that it was a group office order so we all had to abide by it. Strangely enough, hardly any of the employees from the HR department had issues of this sort which is probably why they never understood our frustration. It was the most unfair usage of power displayed by our DGM and many people went on to saying things like the office was just looking for a second source of income. Today, thanks to this system, I have just 3 leaves left in my quota for the rest of the year (my leaves for this year will be credited on 31^st Dec, 2012 as per company policy). Mine was the only department that had the option of Casual Leaves (CLs) as we’re a 6 day working department, but since M3S couldn’t accommodate CLs, and so we were deprived of this privilege too.

The reason behind narrating this long incident in my blog is that I wanted you all to understand the depth of the problem. Mismanagement of the software by one single department (in fact only a handful of people) has caused problems in so many people’s work lives. I’m not making it up when I say that there are quite a few people who’ve put down their papers just because they do not agree with the level of discomfort that this software has caused. Of course, the soul motive behind implementing this system was to introduce a far more superior tool to manage employee data. But it back fired really badly and is very easily visible on people’s faces. Employees have become victims to the CEO’s orders and are paying for it through their noses. After a lot of poking around, a few seniors found out that the entire training program given to the people in the HR department for the implementation and smooth running of the software was of low quality. The trainers as well as the trainees were under qualified and one can only imagine the level of understanding and knowledge transfer that would’ve taken place during the 2 month long training session. The guy who updates the software currently can speak nothing but Hindi and Marathi, and his communication is insufferable. If this is the kind of people who’re going to manage employee data, where are we to go! Who do we go to, to raise our concerns and who will be a solution provider to us?

This blog covers a very narrow aspect of a wide range of problems that could be faced in many other ways in different companies. Unless there is understanding of the importance of these kinds of softwares, technology can help us only so much. Just as significant is the usage of e-HR, its enactment has an equal weightage. Mismanagement of systems like these will only aggravate employees into taking drastic steps and in the end the only losers will be the management.

Will Humans perform better if appraised by Machines ?

Author- Rashmi Singh

Why does an organization want E-performance ?

High competence

High congruence

High commitment

Cost effective……….. Uff, these jargons !!! Transformation. Demand of the day.

Three things that can happen:

You Think, Think and Think !   Quite entertaining actually !!

But do you THINK?

Of course, you are just another Thinker !!

What do you Think :

What do you think of your own performance?

What do you think of the ratings given?

What do you think of the feedback generated?

What were the circumstances that you over performed or under- performed?

With Automated Performance Appraisal Software

Performance Appraisal Software has given freedom from dreadful paperwork, managing leaves, attendance, holidays, absenteeism, training etc.

This robust software has initiated a silent but powerful revolution in the HR department by helping a smooth transition from a total manual job to fully automated process. A standard Employee Appraisal System enables the organizations to seamlessly align their corporate outlooks with that of the employees. Now, equipped with this tool, the HR manager can fill the appraisal forms, prepare the questionnaire via online medium and forward them to the selected employees and receive them in the same way.

Easy ain’t it !!

Performance appraisal software saves HR Management's time significantly over manually maintained records. Managers can more easily communicate business strategies, plans and produce measurable targets for their employees that will support specific and overall company objectives. It provides management the tools of individual performance measurement so they can identify and cultivate top performers for further development and establish a pay for performance compensation plan.

Automated appraisal systems helps to maximize Return on Talent Investment.

How do they do it ?

Performance Management Module enables monitoring each employee's performance, picking up the flaws and finding the areas for which the concerned employees need to be trained.

The whole system automates the task of chalking out, implementing, tracking, and evaluating a robust appraisal process in systematic and confidential way for ensuring best results.

The methodology adopted and parameters evaluated by organisations to measure employees' performance varies greatly. Employee Performance Appraisal System is designed to agile  and flexible to enable companies define the desired fields and parameters associated with the process as and when required . This ensures flawless and more accurate mapping of employee-wise role to their Key Performance Indicator and Key Resource Area.

Automated appraisal systems, can evaluate your employee in absolute terms and compare his performance with other employees doing the same job. It is widely believed that competition always motivates employees to enhance their performance significantly. The resulting evaluation identifies the best as well as weak employees and distinguishes them for performance appraisal.

Performance Appraisal System as a module can have a 360° appraisal process, managing Appraisal Managers and complete database having external appraisers, standard/customized templates etc. The matured HRMS (Human Resource Management Software) having all the functionalities and all data in structure form provides lot of analytics part to evaluate the employee performance.

How does it help?

1.     With an increase in the completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness of information gathered

2.     Plenty of feedback, a relatively higher level of organizational control, and a greater ability of the organization to judge performance

3.     Increase in the importance of quantitative measures in the evaluation and thereby increase in the importance of the evaluation itself

4.     Higher quantity of work output and a corresponding increase in productivity

5.     Increase in the level of stress, a decrease in satisfaction, and a decrease in the quality of relationships with peers, supervisors, and senior management.

What do we achieve ?

Enhanced capability to control the quantitative aspects of individual performance

Without Automated Performance Appraisal Software

Ok, so you can Think !!

But do you FEEL?

Of course, you are just another HUMAN !!

What do you FEEL?

If everything is automated, what are humans needed for?

Feel, how will you react to a feedback given by a machine?

How will you feel if continuously monitored by your system?

Whom do you trust, people or machines?

Are we forgetting the Human aspect to the whole thing???

Although e- performance appraisal can have several benefits, but can technology replace aspect that can only be human?

Lets refer to the 5th point again :

“increase in the level of stress, a decrease in satisfaction, and a decrease in the quality of relationships with peers, supervisors, and senior management”

How about a dialogue !  Words can heal numbers cant !!

Employee Motivation and all those theories to enhance performance!!

Extensive use of numerical performance feedback seems to create a more competitive environment which may decrease the quality of social relationships between peers and between supervisors and subordinates.

Does an employee needs to be measured for everything. How will you perform in a controlled environment and continuous monitoring ??  I will run away :D

Most likely, any computerized performance monitoring may result in a workplace that is less satisfying to many employees.

Will this kind of system not highlight the negatives or negative ratings rather than the positives?

A computerized performance monitoring system may provide an increase in the amount of quantitative feedback and minimize the emphasis given to subjective information in performance evaluations. Reducing the emphasis on subjective measures may improve performance evaluations only to the extent that job performance can realistically be measured using numerical counts. On the other hand, many aspects of an individual’s work may not lend themselves well to numerical measurement. One simple example is the thoroughness with which a claims investigator processes a claim. Strict use of numerical counts leads to the undesirable attitude portrayed by the comment, “When in doubt, pay out!”

Lets review it with the Model of Performance Monitoring. How do you implement the Expectancy Model of extrinsic motivation, (perceived increase in productivity) since the outcome of performance should be given as feedback to the employees and to be tied to a reward structure?

Behavioural aspects of performance measurement. How can you apply the Behaviourally Anchored Rating System to the organization and get behavioural based scores. Can a automated system anchor human behavior?

It might be still easier to give employee ratings and create an organization based Performance Bell Curve. But can a machine give individual feedback and restore the fact that it has to be taken positively by the employee.

Infact, there might be a need for a more comprehensive model of performance monitoring and control systems. Which works simultaneously with human intervention as and when required. It may include:

the flow of performance related information in the organization, the process whereby managers use this information, employees response to the process of measurement, the type of feedback and its subsequent influence on behavior, and potential changes in the underlying social structure of the organization, identify human behavior and response to situations, measure their actions and reactions to activities, measure employee work interest areas, measure there approach towards work, employee enthusiasm and so on.

Fairness of these Automated Performance Monitoring Systems would purely depend on researchers’ ability to gather “sensitive” data on individual performance, process all sensitive and non- quantitative and subjective data/ information to accurately access the employee performance, gather individual reactions to performance monitoring systems, and organizational monitoring and control decisions.

How fair is this fairness, only future can tell !!               

Some references from googlebaba.com, rest is original :)

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