Put HR Under IT in the Org Chart (Part 1)

Greetings folks!

The following exchanges, part 1 and part 2 come from some classwork I was doing for my MBA curriculum. Most of the time in class I may put forth my ideas, though usually I look to follow the thought pattern proposed by the class text and the instructor.

First week of this HR class however, it became apparent to me that the textbook authors were enamoured of HR, overreached the realities of what an HR person or department could realistically accomplish, and really piled it high in trumpeting the value of an HR department.

The following became quite clear to me, and has generated some discussion in my class, some of which is incorporated into the Part 2 portion of this posting.

HR from my experience is given the following tasks (no I did not find this in the textbook, but from my experiences and discussions of those in the world of work):

1. Maintain knowledge of skills, wages, benefits in a geographic or competitive area


2. Maintain employee knowledge and skills (training) in task performance


3. Maintain employee knowledge and skills in company policies and procedures


4. Maintain and give access to Employee records and status of various employment related knowledge and activities in relation to employee


5. Awards, celebrations, employee/superior relationship problems

It is my perception that IT systems can do a better job at most of these functions than human HR department personnel. For the functions that IT is not better at, IT can interface with systems from vendors that can be more effective, cost and performance-wise than internal HR departments. The HR information can be made available on management control panels on intranets or SharePoint portal type systems.

Examples:

#1 above, some job sites make this type of information available already. It could be better organized and made available through an intranet or SharePoint part for a department manager who needs to do hiring, and tied in with corporate budgeting such that the hiring manager would know if they could act as a company to lag, meet or lead in pay (Dreher & Dougherty, Chapter 3, p. 40).

#2 Training can most often (and is already frequently) created by a vendor and made available through an interface in an intranet or SharePoint, again an IT function. In addition, employee skill inventories (Dreher & Dougherty, Chapter 6, p. 38) and record keeping for government bodies can be automated (like OSHA training requirments, technical certifications).

#3 Availability of policy manuals, employee handbook, etc and searchability of content is superior through intranet or SharePoint, again an IT function.

#4 Great for intranet/SharePoint portal (IT).

#5 Awards/Celebrations - Charismatic leader in tandem with tickler system (on intranet/SharePoint)

#5 Employee/employee or Employee/superior relationship problems - internal/external professional counseling (outsource).

HRM would under my model become Human Relationship Management or more likely Internal (Employee) Relationships Management, like CRM - Client Relationship Management or VRM - Vendor Relationship Management which are external relationships. There may still be an "HR" department, but it will be staffed with IT specialists/data entry personnel with HR "overtones" or training in the human element of a company.

I realize and fully recognize the need for "humanists" in a company, especially a large one, and I think that current HR practices miss the mark and potential of the department to optimize human relationships within a company. Then again, I am a computer geek and have not really been inside of an HR department or its inner-workings in order to see what type of positive affect and how it has a positive affect on an organization. I may be missing the mark. Still it is obvious to me that most of the functions of HR as I have outlined them above are better suited to information technology solutions.

References

Dreher & Dougherty. (2001). Human resource strategy: A behavioral perspective for the general manager. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved April 21, 2008 from University of Phoenix, Resource, MBA/530 - Human Capital Development Website: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary/content/eReader.h

Portions credited, cited or referenced are copyright their respective copyright holders. The rest is (C) 2008 - Aaron L. Richards of Richards Media Net LLC - Great opportunities for Media Technologies!

A vision from a man who grew up in the Internet Age, writes computer software and develops Internet systems for a living, and has visions of the future that keep him up at insane hours of the night.