The industrial revolution promised to set workers free with decidedly mixed results. The machines of the working man’s liberation in many instances became nothing less than soul-crushing boat anchors.
Analogous to this time, though decidedly less sooty and physically cruel, has been the corporate transition to digital technologies.
Going digital is a large and multi-faceted process for most business entities. The complexity of the process is well illustrated in the realm of human resources (HR). The operations that fall under the HR heading, from recruitment, payroll and employee learning to benefits administration and information management, have, to date, primarily used disparate, unintegrated technologies. Finally, digital technology delivers on the promises of the information age. On top of cost effectiveness, the HR component of the workday is indeed being made easier and friendlier for all.
Sierra Systems, based in Vancouver, is a relatively large information technology (IT) systems integrator with a management consulting arm that helps organizations set strategic IT directions. Its business centres on enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), of which one component is human resources. Here, personnel are now commonly valued as corporate assets. The systems may be digital, but the strategies are flesh and blood.
Up until about four years ago, says Kent Wilmot, a partner in Sierra’s Edmonton office, organizations were going through much re-implementation and integration of their stand-alone HR and payroll applications.
“What we’re seeing now is the whole concept of leveraging the Web and the Internet into employee self-service. That’s the wave we’re on now. Organizations are moving towards empowering their employees to be responsible for their own information as it relates to human resources.” Typically, this is being done in small increments where pay advice can be accessed and address information maintained by employees using the Internet or through a kiosk similar to an automated teller. The system can be expanded over time to include such things as benefits administration. “The value proposition in that,” says Wilmot, “is that people in HR can realign their efforts to help with more strategic decisions in the organization. They’re not just pushing paper, they’re helping answer real HR questions.”
“What most companies want to do now, especially the big corporations,” expands Bob Molle, director of sales at Ceridian, a major player in the Canadian HR software field, “is focus on their core competencies. McDonald’s does hamburgers. They want to focus on getting customers through and serving them hamburgers. So they outsource payroll and HR duties.”
The overall desire to get hands off the paperwork and back onto widgets is the same whether HR duties are outsourced, handled in-house, or in combination. There is a huge push on for Internet-accessible software that can be managed from any location. Powerpay, a Ceridian product aimed at smaller businesses, can execute HR tasks via any Web-accessible vehicle. “It doesn”t matter where you are. A guy could be teeing off at a golf course and do his small business payroll on a PalmPilot.”
There are several basic client needs driving innovation according to Molle. Getting onto a Windows platform is a common, if basic, demand. Next is the integration of payroll and human resources. The two have often been viewed as separate entities. Many businesses maintain an interface between the two or key in information twice. The margin for error is obvious. It may take a day to input the information and two days to fix the mess.
“The biggest thing our customers are asking for is access to information, meaning easy reporting,” says Molle. Ceridian’s Insync software features a report writer that can create both HR and financial reports, “whether hiring, salary grids, position openings, financial reporting : anything that’s driving one’s business. How fast can you give me that information back so I can make better decisions? It’s all response time,” emphasizes Molle.
Canadian Western Bank, a chartered bank headquartered in Edmonton, is currently customizing its Insync system. Audrey Belter, HR manager, expects it will take a year for the company to fully develop its expertise. “Our understanding is that it is going to be a very powerful tool and that it will be as good as the information we put in.” She gives the example of the company’s Infonet system for employee listings. Name, address and social insurance number, as well as employment equity and statistical information pertaining to legislated government employment requirements, are kept for the bank’s 538 employees. Reports using this information are needed by management every pay period. Recent reports have been used for employment equity tracking, reporting changes in each semi-monthly payroll to government.
Using the company’s old DOS-based Infonet system, a programmer was needed to design such reports. Utilizing Insync and its report writing software, Belter”s department was able to create that reporting itself with some training from Ceridian. “If you have a good technical HR co-ordinator or administrator, they can build those reports on their own. You are eliminating the programming section. You’re saving substantially.”
Canadian Western Bank has grown considerably in recent years. Where it once had a separate payroll system, it has chosen to unite payroll with other HR functions like benefits, recruiting, skills training and so on. Growing pains and an investment in the technology (approximately $10,000 direct and the same again in peripheral costs) are part of the conversion process, but Belter believes the payoff is worth it. “A one-database system will have huge returns in the long run. You don’t have to re-input employee names, salaries and addresses. It is a cost-effective process.” The efficiency of the system will bring long-term savings. “We want to be able to assist our branches,” says Belter, “by supplying them with the vehicles of attendance tracking and salary verifications. If we can make that simple for them, then they can work on what they’re out there to do.”
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