Recruitment and Selection and use of Technology

Recruitment and selection is the last resort for organization in sourcing people to work as organization’s prefer to internally promote people to enhance job satisfaction, motivation, career development for its staff. Any decision to bring in new blood will depend on the needs of the company. As exist employees understand the culture, systems and processes and therefore new employees need to adjust and or be trained to fit in to the various task and roles they are hired for.

However, with the advent of technological changes, the development of connectivity, website, internet and computers recruitment and selection processes have changed. Today HR Departments use company websites, social media platforms, job hosting boards. For an example Linked In, Instagram, Facebook are becoming popular means to hire people even in less developed countries such as Sri Lanka. 

Using on online platforms have numerous benefits it gets the organization a bigger number of applicants, its faster and cheaper on the negative side a person should be dedicated to the process of short list many applicants before they are selected to be interviewed and the process is also swifter for applicants within minutes through the click of a few buttons a CV can be sent to any employer that has an opening.

On the other hand, short listing, testing too can be done online today therefore employee can be short listed and hired faster (Gusdorf, 2008).  Companies use the intranet to post vacancies and communicate between group of employee opening within the company. Thus transfers, vacancies, promotions are therefore posted internally before one looks for talent outside.

This doesn’t mean that a company doesn’t resort to traditional means such as using head hunters, recruitment agencies and newspapers to look for people as these may be more suitable for the company. Often a mix of methods may be used depending on company needs and the level of the person that may be hired. Its more likely senior management positions may be internal promotions or if they are brought in from outside it will be based on networking.

Furthermore, many jobs that were traditionally thought human’s forte can done as it needed expertise and human judgement are changing too Manyika et el, (2017).  Again experts are of the view that the future of work is changing and jobs are changing that predicting the changes are impossible (Gumbel and Manyika, 2017)

In order to understand the impact of technology areas such as learning and development, and operational processes will be reviewed on the next blog.

References:

1. Gusdorf, M.L. (2008) Recruitment and Selection: Hiring the Right Person A two-part learning module for undergraduate students. Society for Human Resource Management.

2. Gumbel, P., and Manyika, J., (2017) What is the future of work? A new podcast series from the McKinsey & Company

3. Manyika, J., Chui, M., Miremadi, M., Bughin,  J., George, K., Willmott, P., and Dewhurst, M., A (2017)  Future That Works: Automation, Employment, And Productivity McKinsey, Global Institute, Copyright © McKinsey & Company 2017

Technology Change is the Number one challenge for HR managers

Technological changes is the number one item in the agenda of HRM; s today. They pose new problems such as White-Collar Crimes, phishing, identity thefts, IT security, hacking  (Rendall, 2016).  On the other side of the coin issues such as use of Mobile devices, 

Social Media Platforms are challenges the question is to what extend does the firm allow employees to freedom share information about the organization these are just some of the problems.

Technology challenges organizations to reinvent standards of transparency in communication and sharing of information between many of its stakeholders. This creates new levels of conflicts as when information of conflicting or confidential nature are shared in the social platforms   particularly when organization’s are faced with conflict and crisis situations as the problem of Panadol Syrup Problem of GSK(Anon, 2011).

New frontiers in collaboration, communication and control are being achieved by organization’s in dealing with virtual teams, remote locations and even crowd sourcing ideas. 

Proctor and Gamble for instance is crowd sourcing ideas for research and development despite the fact that they have a R&D division this has reduce the cost of research and development and the company has been able to convert ideas into commercially viable products faster and at lower cost since they started this process (Tapscott and Williams, 2010).

Human Resource Information Systems and Data Analytics

HRM has gone information based and such ideas as knowledge management and learning culture are based on the ability to manage information via Data Centre, Data Analytics etc. and HRM are exploiting these new technologies in effectively managing the HR function which as become business oriented and strategic oriented therefore HR managers are sitting in the C suite today (Angrave, et el, 2016). 

However, the extent to which HR Analytics are used varies from organization to organization one view by scholars is that HR analytic are not successful as HR Data is in many places and not centrally located in one place perhaps this is due to the geographic spread of modern corporates are they grow globally (Shmueli, et el, 2010)  

Therefore, HR has been influenced by technology to a greater extent the next blog will review the implications of technology in some basic HR functions and how they are changing the fabric of HR. Such as in learning and development, recruitment and selection the implications of technology and benefits.

Reference:

1. Anon., (2011). GlaxoSmithKline Case Study Through Mergers & Acquisitions to Success.. 1st ed. S.l.: Datamonitor Plc.

2. Angrave, D., Charlwood, A., Kirkpatrick, I., Lawrence,M. and Stuart M. (2016) ‘HR and analytics: why HR is set to fail the big data challenge’. Human Resource Management Journal 26: 1, 1–11

3. Tapscott, D., and Williams, A.D, (2010) Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the world. Atlantic Books Lond.

4. Shmueli, G., Nitin R. Patel, and Peter C. Bruce (2010) Data Mining for Business Intelligence, Wiley Publication

5.Rendall, M., (2016) Industrial Robots Will Replace Manufacturing Jobs — and That’s a Good Thing. Crunch Network. https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/09/industrial-robots-will-replace-manufacturing-jobs-and-thats-a-good-thing/

Changing Roles of HR, Work Place and Workforce

Scholars and experts are off the view that HR roles, designations are changing to meet the challenges faced by HR professional’s new designations such as Chief HR Officer, (CHRO). HR Generalist and HR partners are getting to be popular in the HRM function reflecting the nature and type of work conducted by HR professionals. Other new HR roles such as Compensation Specialist, Talent Manager are increasing in use. (Megatrends, 2013) These new titles as per researcher are arising as work as change with automation, increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence, Connectivity, Automation, and Robotics.

 Deloitte’s suggest that almost every job has been reinvented the work environment itself has changed in contemporary times. Use of disruptive technologies, mobile devices are the order of the day (Schwartz, Collins, Stockton, Wagner, and Walsh, 2017).  On the other hand, the work place itself is changing for instance offices are becoming more modern, with ambience like hotels, GYM’s, Crib and Rest Facilities. For example, Google Campus has food in all floors and a restaurant which is like a five-star hotel. People today tell commute and work from remote locations enable by virtual connectivity.   

Workforce is changing too more knowledge-based workforce, working with technology, virtual teams, contingent teams working from remote locations and telecommuting are in the increase. Although today some of these flexible work forces are going call backed to office for meeting today.

The technological changes have influence the workplace and workforce in contemporary work place including in processes, procedures and systems. Use of ICT is the order of the day and more tasks and roles are computer based or online for instance as in recruitment is online using company websites or Job boards and social media platforms. (Ma, and Ye, 2015). 

Experts are of the view that in the next ten years or so many new jobs will be reinvented and industry leaders and experts cannot even predict the new jobs that will be created in the next decade. Composition, dynamics and diversity is changing too in the workforce today. Further work diversity as in foreign nationals participating in work even in developing countries are changing as in Sri Lanka (Jaldeen, 2016)

Reference:

1. Schwartz, J.,  Collins, L.,  Stockton, H., Wagner,D.,  and  Walsh, B., (2017) Rewriting the rules for the digital age, 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends. Deliotte University Press.

2. Megatrends (2013) the trends shaping work and work lives, CIPD Megatrends. CIPD UK

3. Ma, L., and Ye, M., (2015) The Role of Electronic Human Resource Management in Contemporary Human Resource Management Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2015, 3, 71-78

4. Jaldeen, R.M, (2016) Megatrends; Human Resources Management 2020, Published by The Training Partnership. Series 1, Volume 1, 2016.

Stages in the development of HRM

Stages in the development of human resources management in countries such as Australia and Asia Pacific Region have evolved in similar patterns to that of USA and UK, with differences in the stages of developments and relative impact of social, economic, political and industrial relations elements. In the USA development of HRM the early emphasis is based on administrative activities, directed by senior management (Chukwunonso, 2013).  

Academics suggest that later there was a more confident move towards business oriented and professional approach towards 1980’s and 1990’s. In the UK however there was more early emphasis on the welfare roles of personnel practitioners cause due to high early capitalist industry, strong humanitarian movement and development of trade unions. 

In Asia, it is a blend of administrative, paternalistic, cooperative, and business-focused HRM that varies between countries depending on their cultures, stages of development, extent of government intervention in the economy and industrial relations systems (Nankervis, Chatterjee & Coffey, 2011).

Australia show, HRM developed through the following general stages. a) Stage one (1900–1940s): administration stage b) Stage two (1940s–mid-1970s): welfare and administration stage c) Stage three (mid-1970s–late 1990s): human resource management and strategic human resource management (SHRM) stage d) Stage four (Beyond 2000): SHRM into the future

Contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM) show a radically different image from its ancestor, Personnel Management (PM). The main differences between HRM and PM are shown in the table below:

Differences between Personnel Management and Human Resource Management

Element	Personnel Management	Human Resource Management
Tine and Planning Span	Short term oriented, reactive, unplanned, marginal	Long term, proactive, strategic, integrated
Employer /Employee Relations	Compliance Pluralist, collective, low trust	Commitment Unitarist, individual, high trust
Preferred structure/system	Bureaucratic/mechanistic, centralized, formal/defined roles	Organic, devolved, flexible roles
Roles	Specialized/professional	Largely integrated into line management
Evaluation	Cost minimization	Maximum utilization (human asset accounting)

Source: Adapted from Guest, (1987)  ‘Human Resource and Industrial Relations’, Journal of Management Studies, 24 May, p. 507.

However today, HRM functions, roles and profession has majorly changed. Scholars suggest that Work, Workforce and Work place has changed due to various reasons such as technology change and globalization of firms (Megatrends, 2013).

 Other scholars are of the view that HRM evolution can be viewed from four stages they are 1. The Industrial Era of HR, 2. Post FLSA Era refereeing to the fair labor Standards Act of 1938 in reference to USA, 3. 21^st Century HR, and 4. Information Age of HR (Davoren, 2018) This will be discussed in the next blog. 

References:

1. Davoren, J. (2018) "The Four Main Stages of How HR Has Evolved Over the Years." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-main-stages-hr-evolved-over-years-63019.html.

2. Megatrends (2013) the trends shaping work and work lives, CIPD Megatrends. CIPD UK.

3. Guest, D.E., (1987) Human Resource Management And Industrial Relation. Journal of Management Studies.

4. Chukwunonso, F., (2013). The Development Of Human Resource Management From A Historical Perspective And Its Implications For The Human Resource Manager. in Strategic Human Resource Management at Tertiary Level. Rivers Publisher. 87-101.

5. Nankervis, A., Compton, R., Baird, M., and Coffey, J., (2011),  Human Resource Management: Strategy and Practice, 7th Edition  Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.