E HRM - HR & TECHNOLOGY

HR executives are looking to technology and the information it provides to help them drive decisions that will lead to success of the organization as a whole (Wilcox, 1997). Snell, Stueber, and Lepak (2002) observe that HR can meet the challenge of simultaneously becoming more strategic, flexible, cost-efficient, and customer-oriented by leveraging information technology (IT). They point out that IT has the potential to lower administrative costs, increase productivity, speed response times, improve decision-making, and enhance customer service all at the same time. The need for cost reduction, higher quality services, and cultural change are the three main forces that drive firms to seek IT-driven HR solutions. The rapid development of the Internet during the last decade has boosted the implementation and application of electronic human resource management (e-HRM) (Strohmeier, 2007).  Virtual HR is emerging due to the growing sophistication of IT and increased external structural options (Lepak & Snell, 1998). Surveys of HR consultants suggest that both the number of organizations adopting e-HRM and the depth of applications within the organizations are continually increasing  IT is beginning to enable organizations to deliver state-ofthe-art HR services.


In e-business, the implications for the HR function are not yet fully visible, but it is certain that e-HR will revolutionize the HR function within the three next years. The main challenge in e-HR is the alignment of processes in the HR function according to the future e-business challenge (Svoboda & Schröder, 2001); similarly observed by Caudron (2003) that IT can automate other routine tasks such as payroll processing, benefits administration and transactional activities so that HR professionals are free to focus on more strategic matters, such as boosting productivity. Increased use of human resource information systems (HRIS) allows professionals to achieve improved performance and thus facilitate participation in internal consultancy activities . In latest research, Hussain, Wallace, and Cornelius (2007) observed that for senior HR professionals, strategic use of HRIS is increasingly the norm, irrespective of company size and this had led to the HR profession providing a value-add for the company. According to them strategic use of HRIS enhances the perceived standing of HR professionals within their organizations, a view however, not shared by their more senior non-HR executives.


E-HR is not a just technology issue and in fact it must enable HR professionals to improve and manage the organization’s human processes more effectively in relation to business planning, along with managing employee information. The main advantage of e-HR is to find out appropriate person from all over the world. Ralph Tribe of Getty Images summarizes the following benefits from e-Hr as (Anonymous, 2002):

• Enabling employee self-service, mainly through third parties;
 • Removing basic, time-consuming HR tasks and information handling;
• Dynamic, real-time HR reporting and enhanced decision making as a result; 
• Opportunities to rethink and improve core HR processes;
• Optimizing HR performance by outsourcing noncore activities to external experts.



References :

Wilcox, J. (1997, June). The evolution of human resources technology. Management Accounting,

Snell, S. A., Stueber, D., & Lepak, D. P. (2002). Virtual HR departments: Getting out of the middle. In R. L. Heneman & D. B. Greenberger (Eds.), Human resource management in virtual organizations (pp 81-101). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Strohmeier, S. (2007). Research in e-HRM: Review ad implications. Human Resource Management Review, 17(2007)

Svoboda, M., & Schröder, S. (2001). Transforming human resources in the new economy: Developing the next generation of global HR managers at Deutsche Bank AG. Human Resource Management,

Caudron, C. (2003, February). Counting heads and hiring, firing, and managing them too. PROFIT Oracle’s e-business magazine,