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HR and the WWW The Business impetus for Web usage I recently presented to the Institute of Personnel and Development on this topic. As I was preparing my talk I scanned the Sunday paper for some up-to-date statistics on Web usage. The Business section of the UK's Sunday Times (13/2/2000) had no fewer than 12 major articles about the Web - from the recent attacks on commercial web sites to the investor's growing preference for Internet over Blue Chip stocks.
Even since that date two major stories have been in the headlines. One is the move to un-metered telephone access to the Internet, removing one of the main barriers to growth in Internet usage in the UK. The other was the overhaul of the FTSE (the UK stock market index) when nine profitable, household name businesses exited the index and were replaced by dynamic technology companies. Out, for example, went Whitbread, the employer of 98 000 people with pre-tax profits last year of £365 million. In came Baltimore Technologies, the employer of 500 people and a loss in 1999 of £31 million.
By 2001 it is forecast that e-business will be worth £1, 700 billion worldwide - that is about 7% of world GDP and more than the economies of the UK, France and Germany combined! (Source Nortel) This is accounted for not simply by new Internet start-up companies, but by the embracing of Internet technology by well-established businesses in a combined strategy known as 'clicks and mortar.' My own bank has recently added PC banking, not as a substitute for telephone banking, but as an additional option for customers. Not only do they dramatically reduce transaction costs every time a customer clicks rather than dials, but the customer, who now has more options, perceives this as improved service. What's more, companies can revive their flagging market values as Reuters found recently, by wholeheartedly embracing an Internet strategy.
The real story then is that the Internet, once the preserve of the hobbyist surfer is now the domain of big business. It represents increasingly:
What does this mean to HR?
Firstly, new technology frees employees from the shackles of location. The mobile office is already a reality for some - work is wherever there is a telephone socket to plug into - and soon, with the advent of mobile computing, not even that will be needed. Virtual teams now have fast and efficient ways of co-ordinating their work across the boundaries of geography, time zone or organisation. They don't even need to share an Intranet, as Internet-based services are developing to meet their need. Just as the Internet is transforming businesses and markets, it will change the shape and structure of our organisations, our working practices, our contracts of employment. It will require new skills of our employees - not just the ability to use the technology as some sort of 'add on skill', but the ability to integrate and use the technology to perform many of their work activities.
To take a simple example, Intranet technology can transform administrative processes. In companies that adopt self-serve HR processes employees can submit expenses, book a temp, request their holiday dates, change their health scheme options or track their stock options, all online. In one company over 420 paper forms were eliminated in the space of a year - the handful that survived were necessary to meet legal requirements (e.g. contracts of employment)
A recent survey in the UK showed that the Internet is the preferred option for 60% of jobseekers, yet 30% of top FTSE 100 companies do not have a recruitment website (source Independent on Sunday 13/2/2000). I suspect that many more who find jobs advertised in traditional media will check out the company web-site before attending an interview or even before applying. At a time when there is much talk of 'Employer Brand', what does your Website say about your company, its culture, its values, and its HR practices? If it focuses only on attracting investors and customers, what message does that give to potential employees? And if you have no Website at all, what does that say about your company? What can HR professionals use the Web for?
Although HR has, potentially, a strategic role in equipping organisations and individuals to compete and thrive in the cyber economy, it can hardly take on this mantle if HR professionals are laggards in using the technology themselves. Yet there are many possibilities offered by the Internet to simplify the life of the busy HR manager. To take just 3 examples:
Published on HBC Web-site 03/2000
Copyright (c) 1999-2002 Helen Bouchami Consulting. All rights reserved.
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