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Executive Summary

Over the last two years, e-HR has become an irresistible force for change, or at least an enabler of HR transformation in some leading organizations – previously time-consuming transactions now take just minutes, self-service delivery models are deployed, great web tools are used by managers and employees, HR doubles outputs with the same resources/budgets and, more generally, e-working is embedding. In many cases, e-HR innovations boost the bottom line. Speed and agility have become key words for HR operations.

Significantly, these developments are becoming critical to sourcing, retaining, developing and rewarding the talent an organization requires to succeed. Some companies are using technologies to deliberately build an ‘employer brand’, pushing a strong self-image and a promise of prospects for attracting, perhaps, the people on your payroll. Web and voice technology-enabled ‘talent management’ is now the defining strategic issue for HR.

Chapter 1: The Case for e-HR provides the context for e-HR, examining both visionary and pragmatic perspectives, how e-HR visions are articulated and the paradoxes that developments or innovations may raise. A case study on Nokia is provided.

Chapter 2: Strategic and Business Dimensions of e-HR examines how developments connect to HR and corporate strategy, the need for a rational business case and the main impacts of e-HR on the HR function. The case study is BT.

Chapter 3: Service Delivery Approaches and Models discusses the principles and parameters of service delivery, how models are conceptualised and deployed, and the use of HR service centres, call centres and shared service facilities. The case study is IBM EMEA.

Chapter 4: Web-Enabled HR Processes highlights new HR process thinking related to technology, applications in resourcing, rewards, performance management and learning and more advanced interpretations of core HR processes. The case studies are Ford Europe and Getty Images.

Chapter 5: e-Enabled Employment Relationships examines how different technologies can lead to, directly or indirectly, different approaches for employers of choice initiatives, electronic communications/surveying, new forms of e-working and building an employer brand. The case study is Usinor.

Chapter 6: e-HR Third Party Relationships considers how relationships with third-party providers of products/services are extended with reference to outsourcing and shift to more strategic relationships, along with the issues that managing these relationships brings. The case study is Bank of Ireland.

Chapter 7: Delivering and Managing e-HR discusses the challenges of implementation, especially how the internal impacts of developments have to be expertly managed and how a balance has to be achieved between difficult paradoxes. The case study is Booker Tate.

The central message of this report is that the potential of e-HR cannot be ignored since, in successful organizations, it connects directly to HR transformation, improved manager and workforce productivity, business effectiveness and, ultimately, sustained business success.