Automating Employee Management

For most organizations, managing and controlling the administrative tasks that affect their employees on a day-to-day basis is a pain. Undertaking the associated management tasks is a nuisance, and from a corporate perspective, an extremely unproductive drain on resources that could be better utilized elsewhere. This has made companies take a hard look at how they use their management and employee resources.

The big picture

From an IT perspective, there are a number of options to what are HR issues, or people- and work-related issues. Organizations have problems managing people at a number of levels. These include the purely administrative, such as time management, controlling expenses, travel issues, and overtime reporting. However, in reality, the overall picture is far more complicated, and issues like project management, the charging out of professional staff against cost centers, progress management, and the administration of the working time directive are just a few of the issues that fall into this complicated arena.

So, is there an IT solution, a ‘silver bullet’ technology, with all the answers, or is there at least something that can assist with the problem, and provide solutions that are time-saving, and give a decent ROI (Return on Investment)? Are the Internet and Web-enabled technology capable of providing and delivering hands-on, self-service- based solutions to a workforce that, in many organizations, can be located across a wide area, both geographically and logistically?

Butler Group’s opinion: It is certainly not the case that workers have become disenfranchised due to a lack of technology and the disparate range of locations from where they are asked to operate. Just the opposite. In fact, there are probably far too many front-office solutions available. However, as we stand today, there is probably no single solution to the management of HR, and people and project-related issues. There are several technology solutions that merit consideration.

ERM (Employee Relationship Management) is probably the most well-known. But till date, this technology solution is too fragmented in its application, even from the vendor’s perspective, to offer anything close to a solution capable of supporting the complete employee life cycle. Whereas other, perhaps more mature, technology offerings, including Employee Productivity Management, Workforce Optimization, and Professional Service.

Automation solutions, are well worth taking a fresh look at. These solutions, which have evolved more from the middle-office than the front-office origins of ERM, and now include Web-based, thin-client deployment capabilities, are better placed to support the self-service-based needs of the workforce. Whilst at the same time as providing access for workers, via a range of communications channels, they have the functionality to automate many of the time-consuming HR, project, and people issues that afflict and over burden the management team.

Excerpted from OpinionWire by Butler Group (c) Butler Group Direct