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HRM and Technology

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Course

Date

Institution
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HRM and Technology

For decades now, technology has been evolving, bringing changes in various aspects of society,

including education, work, and other aspects of living. The changes in technology have led to

changes in different organizational processes, which have impacted human resource management

practices. With the fast-changing industries, markets, and services, organizations are looking for

the most effective ways of involving their employees in decision-making. HRM is one of the

most effective ways of involving the employees in decision-making and using it with technology

has made it much better. This report's main objective is to analyze why organizations incorporate

technology into HRM and the advantages and disadvantages.

Reasons for the trend toward increasing technology in HRM

HRM must remain up to date because it is one of an organization's most significant

functional areas. Organizations must ensure that they adopt the most current HRM practices.

Technology is one of the most influential determinants of management practices, especially

HRM practices, in an organization. For decades, HR departments in organizations worldwide

have strived to incorporate the latest technology into their HRM systems, making it one of the

most technology-based departments in organizations. The necessity for efficient talent

acquisition and recruiting is why HR departments in organizations worldwide resorted to

using technology. According to Silva et al. (2017), human resources play a significant role in an

organization because it is the only department responsible for attracting, selecting, and retaining

employees with appropriate skills and talents. Technology has enabled HR departments to

effectively collect, store, analyze, and distribute HR information.

The necessity for dependable and cost-effective HRM solutions is another reason that has

led to the HRM technology trend in organizations. As HRM is a department that holds other

departments in an organization together, many organizations have been seeking the most

effective ways to improve their HRM processes, and technology is one of the most efficient

ways. According to Paychex (2020), HR technology such as HR analytics helps organizations

make better HR decisions. Therefore, many organizations are shifting to more technology-based

HRM because of its advantages, such as better decision-making in HR.

Competition is another reason organizations rapidly adopt technology in their HR

departments. Today, organizations no longer compete within a region but globally, and

technology has made it possible for organizations to access both local and global markets and

labor forces. According to Profileasiapacific (2020), organizations nowadays use IT solutions to

improve performance. The IT tool that helps organizations compare their performance with other

similar organizations has made it easier to compete in local and global labor markets.

Ways in which technology is currently incorporated into HRM

Organizations have integrated technology into their HRM systems to enhance HRM

procedures. E-HRM is one of the ways that organizations use technology in their HRM

processes. It is a technology tool that enables an organization's HR department to manage and

organize human resources through the intranet, internet, and other networks available (Findikli &

Rofcanin,2016). Currently, organizations use E-HRM to execute several HRM tasks: HR

planning, HR development, which covers employee career management and development,

rewards and compensation, and to protect HR. HR departments in various organizations have

programs that help them perform all these tasks, which allows them to eliminate uncertainties

that often occur in HR departments, such as low accuracy and speed.

E-recruitment is one facet of E-HRM that has provided several benefits to HR

departments and the organizations that use it. It lets organizations post job openings online and

recruit candidates using online channels. Using e-recruitment, organizations have enjoyed

several benefits, including lower recruitment expenses, access to a larger pool of job seekers, and

increased recruitment process speed and accuracy. Due to the availability of AI to assist in

recruitment processes, HR departments no longer need to go through many applications to

identify candidates with the required skills and talents. According to Paychex (2020),

organizations have been able to recruit faster and more accurately using AI-enabled programs.

The programs aid the HR department in efficiently filtering and reviewing the skills and talents

outlined in the CVs of the numerous job applications they received. Therefore, they can select

candidates with the appropriate skills and abilities to complete the advertised vacancies.

E-training is another approach in which e-HRM has enabled organizations to incorporate

technology into their HRM systems. Organizations have been able to equip their staff with skills

while they continue to work, thanks to e-training. Organizations have provided their employees

with e-learning technology to study online from any location. E-learning facilitates students'

interactive, student-centered learning environment (Findikli & Rofcanin,2016). With this

technology, firms have provided their employees with an environment conducive to skill

development while the organization still employs them.

The e-HRM technology has also enabled HR departments to track employees'

performance through e-compensation. By adopting web-based solutions, HR managers have

efficiently compensated employees. The e-compensation system makes it possible to monitor the

performance of employees and accurately design and manage compensation systems enabling

the organization to reward best-performing employees and recommend the best training activities
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for poorly performing employees (Fındıklı & Bayarçelik, 2015). The e-compensation system has

improved HRM compensation and reward management processes, improving overall corporate

performance for many organizations.

Use of social media in HRM

Advantages and disadvantages of using various forms of Social media as a tool that would

assist in HRM

Advantages

Enhance e-recruitment; Organizations seeking to recruit new employees to fill some positions

can publicize such positions through reputable recruitment agencies. Most of these recruitment

agencies have profiles on various social media platforms, including; Facebook, Instagram,

LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Boosting corporate brand; through social media, an organization can market itself or the

products and services that it deals with. Nowadays, there are paid social media ad campaigns on

various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Through these

campaigns, new organizations can reach large audiences, thus making it even easier to post job

openings and quickly get the right potential employees.

Enhance employee career development and skill improvement; through social media,

employees get the opportunities to develop their skills and expand their knowledge. LinkedIn

and YouTube are the best examples of social media platforms where employees can improve

their skills. An employee can learn new skills through a YouTube tutorial.
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Promote professional networking: organizations' HR departments can keep abreast with other

similar organizations' HRM activities through social media.

Disadvantages

Promote technical risks; using social media for HRM risks the organizations' computer

systems. It makes it easy for hackers to hack into the system and viruses to enter the systems. It

may also breach the organization's privacy by posting on social media.

Negative exposure; during recruitment, the HRM department of organizations conducts

background checks through social media, which may lead to the disclosure of personal

information. Social media profiles for various social media platforms, such as Facebook, contain

personal information, and conducting background checks through these social media platforms

may expose private information to the public.

Risk ruining reputation: An employee's negative comments on social media platforms may

destroy the organization's reputation since such comments may go viral in minutes.

(a) Case Study: HRM Social-Using social media in Hiring Poses Discrimination Risk

Question 1: The findings show that many employers make employment decisions after

conducting background checks on the candidates' social media profiles. Hiring through social

media leads to discriminatory hiring decisions since employers use personal information from

the candidates' social media profiles. These social media profiles may reveal information,

including; the candidate's gender, religion, or nationality. After conducting background checks,

many organizations use such information to make decisions on the candidates they are to

interview instead of using their resumes.

Question 2: Organizations nowadays use social media as a tool for recruitment. During the

recruitment process, they conduct background checks on the candidates' social media profiles.

During the process, they access tons of personal information that could influence employment

decisions. However, it is up to the candidates to decide on which information they should not

reveal through their social media profiles. Some of the personal information that I could avoid

exposing on social media sites include; sexual orientation, ethnicity, and religion. Some of the

information that may be difficult to prevent disclosing include gender, complexion, and

disability.

(b) Case study: HRM Social- Conducting background checks via social media.

Question 1: By searching social media, employers can obtain reliable, high-utility, valid, and

legal information that they could use to select who to employ from among the candidates. For

example, by just searching a candidate's name, the employer can find some work-related details

in the candidate's social media profiles, including former employer and positions. Also, they can

gather information on where the candidates studied and match them with the details they have

provided in their resumes. Such information may help determine which candidates to select or

promote.

Question 2:A search for public information about my name would only reveal some information

about me. It will reveal some of the photos I posted online, other social media platforms, and

probably where I went to school. Even though social media gives us freedom of expression, we

should limit our social media presence since the internet never forgets. Anything we post online

may affect us in the future. Since employers nowadays conduct background checks through
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social media, we should always be careful of what we post online. What employers see on our

timelines may positively or negatively influence them to hire or promote you. Always revealing

information about your former employer may negatively influence the potential employer from

hiring you since they fear you could do the same to their organization. I don't mind my employer

viewing my social media profile since it is legitimate, just as my friends consider it.

Advice as an HRM professional to a small organization with no HRM department.

Since the company is small and with no HRM professional, I will assume the HRM role

because of my HRM skills. HRM is one of the essential parts of the organization, and it can only

get better by using technology. Since the company is small but aims to expand, it will be

recruiting several new employees to fill some vacant positions, and social media is one of the

most reliable and readily available tools to do this. Social media can aid HRM when the HR uses

it well. To reap maximum benefits of using social media in HRM, there are some pros and cons

that the HR department must be aware of. According to Kluemper, Mitra & Wang (2016), an

organization would effectively improve its image by leading to a large pool of potential

employees by providing more information about the organization on its social media platforms.

When using social media to recruit, the company will advertise all the job openings. To

effectively reach a larger pool of individuals with the skills they need, they should consider using

paid ad campaigns and reputable recruitment agencies. Once they have the applications coming

in, the company can conduct background on their candidates via social media. For the best

results, they should hire third-party companies to help conduct background checks and give the

candidates information related to the job to avoid discrimination and biases.

Some of the things that the organization should avoid when using social media in HRM

include; discriminatory decisions during recruitment due to personal information about

candidates they obtain in their social media profiles. They should avoid making decisions to

recruit individuals due to personal data from their social media profiles that they obtained during

background checks.

In summary, technology has improved HRM performance, which is why organizations

globally have been incorporating technology into their HRM practices. They have reaped

benefits, including faster and more accurate recruitment processes, easy access to the labor force,

and reduced HRM costs.

References

Biro M. (2018). How technology is changing human resources.

TalentCulture. https://talentculture.com/5-ways-technology-is-changing-the-face-of-hr/

Fındıklı, M. A., & beyza Bayarçelik, E. (2015). Exploring the outcomes of Electronic Human

Resource Management (E-HRM)?. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, 424-

431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.10.112

Findikli, M. A., & Rofcanin, Y. (2016). The concept of e-HRM, its evolution, and its effects on

organizational outcomes. Technological challenges and management: matching human

and business needs (1st edition), CRC Press, Boca Raton, 35-51.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/b19570-3

Kluemper, D. H., Mitra, A., & Wang, S. (2016). Social media use in HRM. In Research in

personnel and human resources management. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0742-730120160000034011/

full/html?fullSc=1&mbSc=1&fullSc=1

Paychex. (2020). Technology trends in HR for

2021. https://www.paychex.com/articles/hcm/technology-trends-in-hr

Profilesasiapacific. (2020). Impact of information technology on human resource management.

Profiles Asia Pacific. https://www.profilesasiapacific.com/2020/01/21/information-

technology-hrm/
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Silva, M. S. A. E., & Lima, C. G. D. S. (2017). The role of information systems in human

resource management. Management of Information Systems, 16, 113-126. DOI:

10.5772/intechopen.79294