Renaissance in Human Resource Applications

Payroll processing, because it is a highly defined activity involving considerable clerical tasks, was an early candidate for computerisation. Ironically, it has also been one of the last to become integrated into core, corporate systems - witness the large number of organisations still using external bureaux for payroll processing. Data Warehousing techniques, the demand for management information and new ways of capturing data have changed all this and a whole range of Human Resource applications are now enjoying an integrated, central role within corporate IT strategies. Geoff Griffiths, managing Director of Topaz Computer Systems, describes the very latest thinking.

I suspect that, hidden under a stone somewhere, there is a benign gremlin (benign to the IT industry, that is) who regularly comes up with issues that force organisations to re-evaluate their IT strategy. Year 2000 and EMU are obvious, topical examples that have done wonders for those of us who earn a living from software development. The very latest example is the Data Protection Bill, the UK's implementation of the EU Data Protection Directive which has to be implemented by 24th October 1998.

The Data Protection Act, it will be remembered, rather perversely identified electronic records as a potential threat to civil liberties. This ignored the fact that manually maintained records can be even more vulnerable to abuse, lack of security and so on. Shortly, all that will change, when manually maintained personnel records will have to meet the same strictures as computer databases. What better reason, then for reviewing the advances made over recent years in Human Resource applications?

It would be wrong to suggest that HR professionals have not already been enjoying some of the benefits of data processing, although according to a recent Ovum report, Human Resource staff are wasting up to two-thirds of their time because of inadequate use of IT. Typically, they have initiated their own isolated departmental solutions, sometimes based around personal productivity solutions, sometimes using shrink-wrapped PC packaged applications. Recently, however, there have been external pressures for improved access to personnel data. For example, ISO quality initiatives which, by their nature, demand a more structured and accountable means of maintaining records than can be easily achieved manually, or even by using piecemeal automation. The Investors in People programme, and more recently the New Deal, similarly require access to information which is ideally suited to 'data mining' techniques - all of which begs a single repository for personnel information. It is then a short step to a Data Warehouse which is equally accessible to other departments, such as the production planning function, for whom this shift's labour and skills availability is an essential component in their resource and production scheduling process. Suddenly, Human Resource information, which used to be historic, has become a real-time resource.

Integration and real-time processing mean that HR systems can now span the whole spectrum of activities from recruitment, through skills profiling, time and attendance reporting, labour resource management, right through to archiving. Recruitment might even begin by advertising vacancies over the Internet. This can be achieved through specialist Web Sites such as Jobsite UK Recruitment Forum, through traditional recruitment agencies such as Reed Personnel, who actively employ the Internet, or by publishing vacancies directly through your own Web Page. Organisations as diverse as the Royal Astronomical Society, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and MicroSoft all use the Net for recruitment. A very real advantage of this approach is being able to capture candidates' CVs electronically, via e-mail. It is then but a short step to using the computer workstation during the interview itself, capturing all the relevant data at source.

Electronic storage of records allows selective, secure access, whilst monitoring and recording who has accessed which records, and when. Employees can review their own personnel records, on demand, to check accuracy - another requirement of the Data Protection Bill. Conversely, others may have restricted access to just those elements of the records necessary to perform their job - such as access to medical records for the company nurse. With workstations proliferating around the organisation, many companies are also adopting the principal of allowing employees to update elements of their own records, such as change of address, applying for holidays or inputting expenses details.

It is now becoming common practice to maintain 'events diaries' on the system to trigger such events as appraisals. Again, by integrating what used to be isolated departmental records, events such as booking vehicle MOTs and updating vehicle insurance certificates can be incorporated in the personnel diary - after all, it makes sense to link company cars records with the user. In turn, company car details can then be automatically incorporated into relevant tax returns such as PD11s.

The inexorable movement towards a 'workstation on every desk', not to mention dial-up communications facilities with laptop computers, has contributed to the concept of real-time personnel records. The other contributor has been the improvement in specialised shop floor terminals. The 'clocking in' devices of yesterday were fine for batch processing or bureaux-based payroll systems, but they were not able to assist in managing labour deployment and were unsuitable for flexitime operation. Then, along came shop floor data collection devices, which were a decided improvement, but they tended to be very inflexible in operation - simply capturing data at source. Bad data as well as good. That has all changed. Organisations like ProMark have pioneered shop-floor data collection terminals that provide two-way communications, right there at the point of input. Incorrect entry is highlighted straight away, allowing the operator to put it right - even during the night shift. Jobbing transactions, reasons for late arrival and so on can all be captured there and then.

From dog-eared punched clock cards to the Internet - Human Resource applications have certainly come a long way.