Wednesday, January 24, 2007

HR and Information Technology

HR and IT Industry

In the near future, challenge in IT industry can be anticipated but IT boom would in the near future be taken over by what would be known as the H.R.R. (Human Resource Revolution & Renaissance).
How organizations are able to leverage IT to get advantage in a highly competitive market will be the key to success. Leading the way would be the organisations who are in the IT industry.These are the ones which have shown that the quickest way to business excellence would be through optimum utilisation of IT.
Major challenge that the IT industry has been facing is in the field of Human Resource Management.
The IT industry how well you are able to manage your human resources whose intellectual applications drive your business. Some of the HR challenges that the IT industry faces are in Recruitment, Performance Management, Training & Development, Compensation Management and HRM as whole.
Recruitment has become an important sub system in HR especially in the IT industry. When your major asset are your Human Resources, it is important that quality people join your organisation. How you are able to fine tune your recruitment process in a manner that you are able to get the best talent available and how well you have been able to put systems in place so that the people that you recruit are a perfect fit for the job and the organisation is one of the major challenges.
HR have to ensure that candidate must be most intelligent, Eager to job (means stay long time in company that is Important issue). How to hire a Best candidate within few minutes of Interaction. Because most of Interviewee have faced many times interview in otheres organization. So he may be confotable with HR. And know that how to behave within interview. And interviwer behaves different then he is. * Let all candidate who are participation in interview be confortable as a friend It’s very difficult and takes time. But sit with them and talk as a friend.They will behave as a natural after some time.
The challenge does not stop with recruiting the right person but with how you are going to manage the performance of your employees. The challenge would be to create a performance culture wherein opportunities are provided for enhanced performance and where giving out optimum performance becomes a way of life.
Training & and Development is another area where challenges arise. It will not be just identifying training needs and giving the required training. It is foreseeing and anticipating the requirements and develop suitable training so that the employees are well equipped to handle the challenges forehand.
The IT industry is one of the high paying industries. Since it is also very competitive, vying with each other to attract the best talent, offering the best possible compensation package to their employees is in itself a challenge.
But the real challenge would be how we are able to incorporate all the sub systems in HR and help them in achieving the ultimate goal – exceptional performance. In a high performance driven industry like IT, this becomes all the more important. People have to be groomed to get in tune with the performance culture. Creating an environment that stimulates the creation of knowledge, its sustenance and its decipation throughout the organisation will be the challenge for organisations in the future. How to go about doing this will fall on the HR department. No longer will the HR department carry on with its traditional functions. That will take care by Human Resource Information Systems that will be put in place. The function would be to build and sustain a performance driven culture. The role will shift to that of a facilitator. Facilitate the process of change, for change would be the only thing that will be constant in the future. HR will have to involve the whole organisation in this process and act as a guide, counselor and facilitator.In the future the competitive edge that the organisations will get will only be through their human resouces.How organisations are able to manage them ,will determine whether they will run the race or be left behind.
What HR Want?
In Ideal HR wants employees would love their jobs, like their coworkers, work hard for their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement, and flexible schedules so they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary. And never leave.

What Actually happens ?
But then there's the real world. And in the real world, employees, do leave, either because they want more money, hate the working conditions, hate their coworkers, want a change, or because their spouse gets a dream job in another state. So, what does all that turnover cost? And what employees are likely to have the highest turnover? Who is likely to stay the longest?







MAJOR ISSUES ?
RECRUITMENT
The major issue would be of getting the right type of person.The issue would be that we first have to find a person with the required skills and experience,and also he must be suitable for our organisation.Finding such a suitable person is the obstacle that we will have to cross over.
ATTRITION
Software is one of the industry with the highest attrition rate.The challenge facing software companies is how to keep this as low as possible.Various companies adopt different techniques to retain their employees.Most of them offer exhorbitent pay packets.Though our compensation has been on par with what the industry is offering,that’s not the reason why our rate is low.It has to do with the opportunities that are offered to our employees and organisational climate prevailing here.Our employees are given the opportunity to learn and grow in the company itself.They are given a lot of technical training and exposure to various types of project.The challenging work makes it difficult to leave our organisation.
What to do?
Think and do……….
Plan1
Maintain good relation with a middle level Employee to whom you know well. And ask his view about organization. Ask him about your performance and evaluate it yourself….thats makes a difference.
As you cross check it will make a difference,the slightest of deviation gives you ample proof of how your organisation is gearing up for the future and what you need to work upon.
Plan2
Get a Communication Audit done, placing of linkpins or knowledge of the undercurrents and grapevines in and out of the formal hierarchy level in the organization and evaluation of this information in light of the organisation’s vision. Get these titbits recorded regularly and notice how fast changes occur in the employees' mind and you get a visible solution-
Which employees / groups change at what pace and how to make best use of them?
Plan 3
During recruitment Interviewee always prepared and knows how to respond. It will be a few minutes process so they can easily hide weakness. Let all candidate who are participation in interview be comfortable as a friend and takes time. Making comfortable for candidates is required because by that only they behaves naturally. It will help for HR to identify right candidate.

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