Page 45 - DMGT106_MANAGING_HUMAN_ELEMENTS_AT_WORK

Unit 2: e-Human Resource Management

technologies. The authors interviewed HR professionals of several organizations, which had Notes
adopted e-HRM technologies. The HR professionals indicated the increased importance after
e-HRM adoption of:
• Strategic skills • Functional skills • IT skills

Strategic Skills
The increased strategic responsibilities require additional skills of the HR professional. HR
professionals therefore, should receive proper training and education to be able to carry the
responsibilities of such a role mention several skills that enable HR professionals to have
a strategic focus. The authors mention:
• Understanding of the financial, strategic, and technological capabilities of an
organization.
• The ability to align HR strategies with business vision and communicate them to the
workforce.
• The ability to consult with line managers to analyze and solve problems.
• Understanding of how HR can create profit.
• The ability to view issues from a customer perspective.
The following aspects should be considered when the need for additional strategic HRM
skills was measured:
• Additional strategic HRM skills.
• Received strategic HRM training and/or education.

Functional Skills
The reduction of administrative and transactional responsibilities allows the HR professionals
to adopt more specialised roles, which require a higher level of expertise within specific
functional areas of HR. This specialisation in specific functional areas should lead to service
quality improvements. HR professionals therefore should receive proper training and
education to be able to specialise themselves. There are several skills that enable the
improvement of the functional delivery of HR activities:
• Knowing and being able to deliver state-of-the-art innovative practices.
• Being able to deliver practices to organizational members.
For the specialisation however, the HR professionals need additional skills. Therefore, the
following aspects should be measured:
• Additional functional skills.
• Received functional training and/or education.

IT Skills
Besides the additional strategic and functional skills, HR professionals need additional IT
skills. Several authors elaborate about the responsibilities of HR professionals for the e-HRM
technologies. As information technology emerges as a key delivery vehicle for HR services,
it becomes increasingly important for HR professionals to demonstrate technology expertise.
HR professionals receive the responsibility for the use of the e-HRM technology and therefore
they require additional skills to be able to cope with IT issues. The HR professionals are
responsible for developing new HR instruments and prepare them for easy web-based use.
The HR professionals therefore need additional IT skills to comply with these requirements.
There are following skills concerning IT expertise:
• Proficient with HRIS usage.
• The ability to use web-based channels to deliver services.
• The ability to teach others how to use HR technology.
• Understanding of the technology aspects for identifying technology needs and managing
technology vendors. Capabilities for using technology to collect data and transform
it in strategically valuable information.

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