Human Resources Management HRM

1
Human Resources Management (HRM)

• The Impact of IT

2
Format of session

• Human Resources Management
• The Impact of IT on HRM and Organisational
  Culture
• Organisational Culture
• e-HRM
• Telecommuting (Remote Working)
• Job Design
• Summary

3
What is HRM?

• What are Human Resources?
• The talents and energies of people who are
  available to an organisation as potential
  contributors to the creation and realisation of
  the organisations goals
• What is Human Resources Management?
• The activities an organisation uses to affect the
  behaviors of all the people who work for it
• HRM is a Strategic Issue (Long-Term)
• Personnel Management is Narrow Practical issues
  (Short-Term)

4
A HRM approach

• The HRM Approach Emphasises
• Direct communication with employees rather than
  collective representation
• Developing an organisational culture conducive to
  the adoption of flexible working practices
• Group working and employee participation in group
  decisions
• Enhancement of employees long-term capabilities,
  not just competence at current duties
• Extract from Hannagan Management Concepts and
  Practices pg295

5
What is Organisational Culture?

• Organisational culture within a particular
  organisation refers to
• the pattern of beliefs
• attitudes
• and behaviours which influence how people work
  together
• Culture is to do with Groups
• Culture can Guide Behaviour
• Culture has an Impact on Success

6
The Impact of IT on HRM and OC (organisational
culture)

• People - their work, their feelings and
  motivation
• New ways of working and work environments
• The effectiveness of work-groups
• New communication patterns - changing people's
  and management's roles and power
• (David J. Skyrme, The Impact of IT on HRM and
  Organizational Culture)

7
The Impact of IT on HRM and OC (organisational
culture)

• Organisation structures
• IT helps knowledge networking
• it also allows significant restructuring for
  standard operations (e.g. Business Process
  Re-engineering)
• Integration - across functional and geographic
  barriers
• New strategic possibilities exploiting
  information, time and space (e.g. Internet
  Commerce)
• (David J. Skyrme, The Impact of IT on HRM and
  Organizational Culture)

8
e-HRM!

• The impact of the Internet is very significant
• We could web-enable an HRM function as part of an
  Intranet
• For example see www.cipd.co.uk
• We could outsource the HRM function to a virtual
  HRM provider
• For example see Ceridian

9
Telecommuting

• (Remote/Home Working)

10
Telecommuting

• What is Telecommuting?
• Work at a distance from the office
• Majority of time could be spent at home, with an
  employee only occasionally coming into the office
• Includes coming to work four days a week and
  working from home one day
• Self-employed workers working from home are also
  considered tele-workers
• Employees who spend at least ten hours per week
  away from home or the office on business trips
  and check in via a computer or phone are also
  called telecommuters

11
Telecommuting Benefits

• What are the Potential Benefits?
• Quality of life, reduction in commuting stress
  and more time with family
• Decreased absenteeism, minor colds won't keep the
  telecommuter from working
• Reduced office space requirements
• Increased productivity, GartnerGroup reported
  that productivity of home-based employees
  increased by two hours more per day
• Recruitment aid and employee retention
• Flexible work schedules

12
HR Issues with Telecommuting(Not including
technical issues)

• Issues to Consider
• Is there Actually a Real Business Benefit?
• Should all Employees be given the Option?
• Will Telecommuting Lead to Increased
  Distractions?
• Spouse, Children
• Suitable Office Environment
• Will Telecommuting Lead to Feelings of Isolation?
• How is Work to be Measured?
• Health and Safety (Accident Insurance)

13
Telecommuting technically

• The most prominent and popular method is to use a
  Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• VPNs are discussed after the break

14
Job Design
15
Job Design - Criteria for a Good Job?

• Physically safe
• Appropriate pay and other rewards
• Security
• Acceptable/viable pacing and loading
• Appropriate variety
• Identifiable mechanism for showing how the job
  benefits the organisation

16
Job Design - Criteria for a Good Job?

• Identifiable mechanism for identifying and
  rewarding performance in positive terms (not
  necessarily monetary or promotion)
• Ability to exercise individual discretion and
  control
• Sufficient resources provided to carry out job
  role
• Responsibility and obligations are defined and
  well understood
• Identifiable mechanism for influencing others,
  particularly those above them in the reporting
  line
• Opportunity for ongoing professional development

17
Job Design - Exercise

• Think of some jobs in your organisation and
  assess them in terms of the above criteria.
• Think of a poor job and decide how you could make
  it better for both the people carrying out that
  role and the organisation as a whole.

18
Acceptability Testing - User Cost-Benefit
Analysis (Eason, 1988)
19
Acceptability Testing - User Cost-Benefit
Analysis (Eason, 1988)
20
Acceptability Testing - User Cost-Benefit
Analysis (Eason, 1988)

• Present changes realistically and in a planned
  way.
• Get stakeholders to score -5 (cost) to 5
  (benefit).
• Add up totals for overall positive or negative
  score.

21
Acceptability Testing - User Cost-Benefit
Analysis (Eason, 1988)

• Aggregates across different stakeholder groups
  and overall.
• Look for the -5s the show stoppers.
• Get feedback about condition of change, - Id
  be happy with this if

22
Summary

• You should now have an appreciation of HRM and
  organisational culture and will have debated how
  IT is influencing the shape and delivery of both
• You know need to put this into context for the
  assignment
• What HRM would be appropriate for Highfields
  Recycling?

23
Reading

• Mumford E., 2000, A Socio-Technical Approach to
  Systems Design, http//www.springerlink.com/conte
  nt/yfkh0c78n3ahu7x0/fulltext.pdf
• Willmott H., 1994, Business Processing
  Re-engineering and Human Resource Management,
• http//www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContent
  Servlet?FilenamePublished/EmeraldFullTextArticle/
  Pdf/0140230303.pdf