Effects of the Portal in the Human Resource at the Higher Zones Corps Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: EFFECTS OF THE PORTAL IN THE HUMAN RESOURCE AT THE HIGHER ZONES CORPS COMPANY Effects of the Portal in the Human Resource at the Higher Zones Corps Company Name Institution Effects of the Portal in the Human Resource at the Higher Zones Corps Company Abstract Human resource management is a diverse field in any organization that calls for the adoption of ideal information and technology strategies. The Higher Zones Corps Company is a leading international company that is actively involved in the stimulation of innovative economic diversification. Portal practices in this company revolve around the management of ideal data bases where by in the human resource management, such data bases can be used can be applicable in the collection of vital data, recruitment of employees, management of employee relations, training and career development alongside performance and appraisal. Thanks to the Microsoft Company for developing a very ideal soft ware that can be used in the collection, storage, and the performance review of vital information; the Server portal. For the Higher Zones Corps Company, two strategically located portals are in use. There is an internal portal system that forms the internet and the external portal system that forms the intranet. The sharepoint 2003 is the type of soft ware that forms the basis of both the internet and the intranet systems. The management of this software is held with the Information Technology department of the Higher Zones Corps Company. The adoption of this system of information technology was driven by the high level of efficiency that the company needed to work with and the need to shift from the manual operation of human resource practices in the company. The human resource docket in any company handles a number of operations related to the management of man power. The ancient operations though still in use by some other companies were disputed for the many challenges they posed to the manipulation of various procedures common to the human resource docket. This paper examines the applications of the SharePoint Portal server to the Human Resource management at the Higher Zones Corps Company. Introduction The sharepoint 2003 soft ware that has been adopted in the Higher Zones Corps Company has fostered a number of applications in human resource management. The use of this soft ware makes it possible for the human resource management to operate from a common data base whose applications can ideally be manipulated both internally and externally. Both the internal and external operations can further be merged from a single network connection. SharePoint 2003 is a soft ware with a combination of various soft ware elements. The various components of the type of soft ware that has been adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company entail various modules for process management, a web browser alongside other modules that can be used for a number of collaborative functions. This soft ware can be applied in the use of websites which allow access to various work spaces. The Higher Zones Corps Company has a website whose applications are common to the provisions of this soft ware. The various users of this soft ware are able to manipulate various priority controls that are commonly referred web parts. With the introduction of the sharepoint 2003 soft ware the users are able to interact using the various components of the net work provisions. Background The sharepoint 2003 software offers a wide range of service provisions that are common to the human resource management. For use in the Higher Zones Corps Company, the web browser makes it possible for the users to download various information and effectively monitor and interact with various structures of the human resource management. With the Higher Zones Corps Company, there exists one major portal for use in the entire company. Each of the various departments within the company is ideally connected with a portal. With the use of this soft ware in the human resource management, a user in a single department of the human resource department or any other department in the company can access the network and get on to the main server that would then make it possible for the same user to access information from various sections of the company using the same connection on to the server. The share point portal system entails a wide range of various information technology components not necessarily geared at replacing the functionality of a file server. The later is a type of computer connected network with the ability to provide a location that allow for the sharing of stored data using various computer files. In this system, the various workstations in a company need to be connected to a particular computer network. The adoption of the Share Point 2003 software is ideal for the manipulation of various company related functions. To effectively access the browser, the soft ware is connected to a type of user interface. The User interface refers to a type of aggregate procedure through which the various users can possibly interact with the entire system. This user interface offers a way through which the various human resource personnel can manipulate the entire system through data entry or in put and further allows the entire system to point out the consequences of the manipulation. The applicability of this soft ware is only possible with the existence of a company website. The Higher Zones Corps Company owns a very ideal website that can be accessed on the address www.zonescorp.com. The applicability of the soft ware with regard to the role of the company website has been very vital in the human resource department. The driving force behind the adoption of this soft ware was geared at promoting the ease of the recruitment role of the human resource management docket in the Higher Zones Corps Company. With the use of this soft ware, the human resource department has an easy time recruiting individuals to fill in vacant job positions. The various interested job seekers too have an easy time presenting their CVs and checking for available job opportunities. This function is fostered by the external internet connection commonly termed as the external portal. This is where any information related to the entire company can be accessed by the general public (The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009). For the recruitment role of the human resource department, the web page displayed on connecting to the web browser offers a careers link. This forms the main channel through which the human resource department can get CVs from interested individuals. Initially, interested job seekers had to use the post office to get their job applications to the human resource desk in the company. This could only be done on the human resource management posting an advert in the print media. This was marred with a number of challenges with most of the job applications not being handled appropriately. It was very difficult for any job application to successfully be processed with the ancient system of recruitment. Most of the written applications would on many occasions get lost or possibly be forgotten in the various drawers within the human resource department. It was equally very hard for the job applicant to get to know of the progress or rather the status of his or her job application. This used to push most of the job applicants in to coming to the company premises or alternatively making a number of follow up phone calls to check on the status of their job application. This used to amount in to a lot of time wastage for both the applicant and the company itself. With the adoption of the internet portal system it became possible for any available job opportunity to be publicized on the company’s web site through the career’s link (The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009). Any interested job seeker would only have to get on to the careers link on the company’s website and check for any suitable job opportunity. In the event of any that pleases the applicant, he would then proceed to register for the available vacancies through guidelines offered by the same link. It later becomes possible for the same job applicant to constantly check on the status of the job application moments after posting the application via the link. Literature Review As the applicability of both the internet and the intranet grows, company management is actively pursuing ways that can help in the effective management of large volumes of information. The applicability of the most appealing internet service greatly aggregated by Netscape in to an ideal frame work now commonly known as a portal is highly considered (Alliegro, 2007).Various internet providers have now managed to aggregate their internet provision to ideally fit in to the needs of their various clients. This research discusses the applicability of the portal facilities in the Higher Zones Corps Company with regard to the operations of the human resource management docket. This will be done with reference to the various benefits accrued from the adoption of this soft ware: the Share Point Portal Server in line with the expected challenges. The share Point Portal server that has been adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company enables the various users to formulate custom views on the company’s web site (Fontana, 2008). This can possibly be done through both complex and relatively simpler ways. The type of soft ware adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company is such that is highly sophisticated in the sense that it is closely integrated with other soft wares including Micro soft Office. The adoption of this soft ware is greatly gaining acceptance owing to the related benefits that it offers to organizations that have adopted it. This server has been shown by a number of research studies to be the fasted growing soft ware in use. The development of this soft ware emanated from the development of what was termed as the digital dash board (Nucleus Research, 2009). The later made it possible for the concept of web parts to be introduced. With the introduction of this concept, it became possible to have various information boxes ideally represented in as an over view of the entire content of information. Through the combination of the various contents of each of the many parts of a particular page, it became possible for each individual user to customize the portal’s view such that it could present information that identified with them. In the actual perspective, every individual user of the portal was enabled to get a different scope of information on the same URL (Microsoft Business Solutions _ Navision, 2009). Since the type of technology incorporated in the design of the digital dash board was not very effective in addressing the many needs at hand, the need to develop a more collaborative solution could not be ignored. This was further aggravated by the growing demand of the many users to possibly contribute towards a single worksheet (Schaeflein, 2005). This led to the development of the Share Point Team Services. This was merely a web enabled application that made it possible for the users to share some documents and information. This application also made it possible for the various users at the end to make some alterations on the same site through the use of a web browser contrary to the initial application that called for the development of an oriented application. The share point server was later developed on the merging of both the collaborative and aggregative functions. The soft ware now commonly referred to as the Share Point Products and Technologies is much enabled to perform through an internet frame work. The resultant product is what has been termed as the Share Point Server 2003 abbreviated as (SPS). The related technologies common to the application of this soft ware are the various Windows Share Point Services. One very critical aspect with the adoption of the later soft ware is the need to have a Windows Server 2003 validity license. For the Higher Zones Corps Company, the adoption of the windows server 2003 enables the company to host a website that has been based on Windows Share Point Services. Among the major features of the Share Point server that has been adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company include the following; A page customization that is browser based An administration content that is browser based Various aggregation capabilities Document Repository Ad-hoc data storage Various Email notifications A message board An event calendar, contact list and some announcements Other than being an ideal intranet portal, the share point server offers a wide range of uses to the Higher Zones Corps Company. Among the various vital uses of this software are the various pre-defined web site templates for facilitating meetings, project management and document creation. Other than the enabled site creation aspect, it is equally possible for the various teams to effectively create and make use of a created website without necessarily requiring the assistance of the department of information technology. The template for use with the work space document makes it possible for various individuals to effectively work on a particular document (F5 Application Ready Network Guide, 2009).This particular template offers a combination of certain document repository with a list of various links and task links. It is possible to have a user opening a certain document and concurrently viewing the available lists of links or tasks when working with the word 2003 (Microsoft Business Solutions, 2009). It is possible for the available users at any time to notice any alteration made on any task that they could be working with. No editing is lost since the document library in use allows for various forms of versioning (Microsoft Pin Point Company, 2009). For the browser based feature of page customization, this soft ware offers a combination of an ability to possibly develop various ad-hoc lists and further makes it possible for a highly competent user to develop a link for any possible use. This research is geared at enabling an individual to understand the applicability of the Share Point server with regard to its adoption in the human resource management department at the Higher Zones Corps Company (MircoSoft.Net. Com, 2009). Methodology To ideally establish the applicability of the Portal in the Higher Zones Corps Company, an interview was conducted from the company. The manager of the information and technology department in the company was interviewed on the various applications of the Portal in the human Resource Department of the Company. In the interview, the Information and technology manager had to provide detailed feed back on a number of questions posed to him regarding the application and functionality of the portal. Among the questions posed to the IT manager included the general concept of the portal adopted in the Higher Zones Corps Company. He indicated in the feed back that the company operates with two portals, one for the internal operations and the other for the external operations of the company. The two portals according to the IT manager are interfaced to the main portal. Regarding the type of soft ware adopted in the portal, the interviewee indicated that the company is currently using the Share Point 2003 version of the portal. The coordination of the operations of the portal according to the interviewee are had held with the information and technology department. Regarding the various uses of the portal in the company, the interviewee pointed to the collaboration of information, finding various people especially employees within the company, publication of announcements and notices, various forms of advertisements and the launch of new company policies. (The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009). With regard to the connectivity of the portal in the Higher Zones Corps Company, the interviewee indicated that there is one major portal for the entire company with each of the many departments having its own portal that is further channeled to the main portal. The main purpose of this interview was geared at establishing the applicability of the portal to the human resource department. According to the interviewee, the human resource department is held with the responsibility of managing the entire man power of the company and thus ensures the recruitment, training, career development, and the performance appraisal of the employees. The portal as indicated by the interviewee has been of a great impact to the human resource department with regard to the publication of available job opportunities, the reception of applications from interested job seekers and the processing of the applications. How this is done was well explained by the interviewee as well. The company on its portal has a link to the available careers where on registration, a job seeker will be guided to the available job opportunities where he or she can proceed to fill in his application details and further upload the curriculum vitae. The process is managed by the external portal where on reception of the various applications, the internal portal is networked for further processing and reviewing of the applications. Yet another application of interest that the interviewee was asked to explain was how the portal fosters the relationship of the employees in the company. According to the interviewee, the portal has been applied in the enhancement of communications in the company among its various departments. Yet another area of application is related to employees’ advertisement and the posting of emerging announcements. It emerged that the company was looking forward to the adoption of a portal that would possibly incorporate the various festive seasons like the month of Ramadhan and the creation of various albums pointing to a number of events. To proof if what the interviewee was saying was indeed true, I had to visit the company’s website. On gaining access on to the website through registration as a new user, I was able to observe various applications of the Portal internet system in the Company both within and externally. The web site is very enabled with links to each of the data sources that I wished to review. The ease with which a new user can navigate across the company’s net work has been highly fostered with each of the various data links and documents opening on a single click. I also managed to interview a few job applicants who were logged on to the same website with me trying to check the status of their job application. Majority of those interviewed identicated that it was indeed their first experience to have a job application answered indicating that the previous mode of recruitment through posting of letters had not made it possible for most of the job applicants especially those who do not merit to be answered in any way. At the time that I visited the web site, there were about five job opportunities that had been posted like a day ago. I could see various job aspirants logged on to the website trying to upload their CVs through a link to the careers option provided on the company’s web page. I was also compelled to interview an employee of the company on how communication is fostered through the internal portal connection since it was not possible for me to access any information from the same as it is only open to registered employees of the Higher Zones Corps Company. The lady employee was kind enough to log in my presence and she explained to me the various notices and new announcement that she got from the web page pertaining a forth coming meeting and the arrival of two new employees. The Findings How the Portal fosters employee relations in the Higher Zones Corps Company The adoption of this portal soft ware greatly enhances the level of communication among the various employees and the many departments in the company. With the adoption of this soft ware, employees are strategically in a position to launch their own adverts. This is possible in the sense that if for instance, a certain employee has a property to dispose through selling; he or she can place an advert pointing to the property on the same company portal. With the Portal soft ware, new announcements can easily be communicated to the entire work force within a very short span of time. Since the Higher Zones Corps Company is established in the he Muslim word, various religious functions can ideally be connected to the main portal pointing to the various festivities of the Muslim faith like the Holy Month of Ramadhan (The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009). For the template that facilitates meetings, the attendance list, the agenda and the view of the function of the Calendar are depicted. It is possible for any user posting a request for any meeting to ideally develop a work space with the same server when working with Outlook 2003. It then becomes possible for the workspace URL link to be automatically added to the message being posted with the list of those meant to attend being included too. It however emerged that the portal currently in use is not very ideal for enhancing a knowledge management plan. It is not possible for the various employees to communicate and possibly share their knowledge with others like it ought to be in any company. The need to adopt a portal that can foster the dissemination of vital knowledge among the employees of the Higher Corps Zones Company should be highly considered in the adoption of the next version of a portal. The applicability of the Portal to the performance appraisal at the Higher Zones Corps Company It emerged that the portal soft ware that has been adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company does not in any way foster the performance appraisal. As indicated by from the second interviewee who happens to be an employee of the company from the human resource management department, this seems to be an aspect that is highly being considered. It is thus expected that the portal would in the near future foster performance appraisal. The training and development of employees With regard to the type of portal soft ware currently in use by the Higher Zones Corps Company, there exists a number of ways through which the training and development of employees is ensured. Among such ways included: Training schedules for each of the various training institutes in which the various institutes responsible for facilitating the training of the company’s employees have their training schedules constantly updated within a period of about three to six months. The various employees of this company are ideally provided with a certain form that they are supposed to fill indicating their training needs. On getting the approval from the top human resource management, the respective employees can then proceed to attend the particular training. The portal being used by the Higher Zones Corps Company does not allow for any form of online learning, however, each of the various departments within the company is required to post vital information on its portal so that it can possibly be used as a form of shared knowledge by other departments as well. The quality assurance department in this company is held with the responsibility of ensuring that all the various processes are ideally documented in line with the certification of the requirements needed by the company to attain an ISO certification. It is highly expected that the next portal to be adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company would be such that can strongly enhance the training and development needs of the work force of the company. The recruitment process Before the adoption of the Portal, the human resource management used to post a job adverts in the print media. Interested applicants would then proceed to send their applications through post to the company possibly via email or postal office. The Human resource would then receive the various incoming application letters or emails at their desk. It was very possible for the various job applications to be misplaced or possibly be left lying in the drawers within the human resource department. To further complicate the job application and reviewing process, there was no proper way of processing the incoming job applications. With the adoption of the portal soft ware, the application processing has greatly been enhanced. The applications are mainly processed with the Intranet portal then further channeled to the internal portal in line with the Human resource system in use (The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009).On registering on to the web site, the job seekers are then guided on to the careers link where they can complete the job application form and proceed to upload their CVs. The department of human resource will then receive the application and subsequently process it by channeling it to the internal portal system. The job applicant would then be in a position to view the status of his or her job application in the mean time. The portal system offers various benefits over the ancient system of recruitment among them being the fact that: It saves a lot of time both for the job applicant and the company. It reduces the costs implicated in advertising the job position Cuts down on unnecessary paper work Foster effective tracking of any application Automates the job advertisement process Though the job advertisement process has be automated with the adoption of the Portal, there is need to greatly enhance the recruitment process. The merit on which the job applicants are selected need to be automated too such that there exists no form of negative human influence that can foster tendencies of favourism. The next portal to be adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company should be such that can be able to foster an automated recruitment process of new employees. The age of the Portal currently in use at the Higher Zones Corps Company The portal that is use at the company is a 2003 version that is lacking a number of new applications. This version is lacking various Microsoft office applications that have been incorporated in the latest version alongside a number of web management applications. The soft ware is also not fitted with a number of document and record management applications that have been incorporated in the latest version. The latest version has a number of other very vital applications including the various functionality wikis and blogs alongside an information delivery system that is capable of storing information in the share Point through RSS. The ability to get various content lists offline using both Microsoft Access and Outlook 2007 that are lacking in the 2003 version have been incorporated in the latest 2007 version that need to be adopted by the Higher Zones Corps Company(The Higher Zones Corps Company, 2009) . The need to adopt the latest version and shift from the version currently in use needs to be highly considered by this company. Probably the many sophisticated features offered by the latest version would make it possible for the Human resource management to overcome some of the challenges that it is currently facing with the use of the 2003 version of the portal especially the need to automate the recruitment process. Conclusion The share point server is becoming a must have technology for any fast moving company. This soft ware offers a wide range of applications especially to the human resource management department in any company. The adoption of this soft ware in the Higher Zones Corps Company has translated in to a number of benefits especially with regard to the collaboration of information, employee communication and the publication of available job opportunities. This soft ware has also been of vital importance to the general public especially jobseekers who with the adoption of the soft ware are now able to quickly present their job applications and follow up through checking on the status of their job applications on line. Before the adoption of this technology, the human resource department spend a lot of money and time posting the job adverts in print media. The general public had equally been disadvantaged with this initial process of presenting their applications as most of the applications got lost of were probably never handled at all. It was equally expensive for the applicants since with the former system, they had to commit themselves to traveling to the premises of the company or alternatively making a number of phone calls just to get a briefing of the status of their job application. The adoption of this soft ware has not only benefited the human resource department of the company but also the entire work force of the same company. With the adoption of this soft ware, it became possible for the employees to also post their own adverts on the same portal used by the company. For instance if any among the employees had a property to sell, he or she would possibly present an advert pointing to the particular property on the portal of the company. The company is currently using the 2003 version of the portal which though beneficial is lacking in a number of applications that have been ideally incorporated in the latest version; the 2007 portal. This explains the need for the higher Zones Corps Company to consider the immediate adoption of the latest version. Though the human resource department has greatly benefited from the adoption of this soft ware, the recruitment process has not been transformed with the highest expected efficacy. Though the job application process has been transformed, the recruitment process is yet to receive the same transformation. The need to adopt a soft ware that would automatically handle the entire recruitment process needs to be highly considered by the Higher Zones Corps Company. References Alliegro. C. (2007).Research Report: SharePoint Matures and Expands Role. Retrieved on 222nd Dec 2009 F5 Application Ready Network Guide. (2009). Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2003 from http://www.f5.com/pdf/application-ready- network-guides/microsoft-sharepoint03-arng.pdf> Fontana. J. (2008). Microsoft SharePoint Taking Business by Storm. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 Microsoft Business Solutions _ Navision. (2009). The User portal. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 < http://docs.google.com/> Microsoft Business Solutions. (2009). The SharePoint Server 2003. Retrieved on 2nd Dec < http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp. Microsoft Pin Point Company. (2009). Vorsite Builds on Existing Systems for Maximum ROI. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 < http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en- US/Content.aspx? Ctid=828>. MircoSoft.Net. Com. (2009).Net and Server Applications. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 < http://www.progent.com/netservers.htm> Nucleus Research.(2009). Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 Schaeflein.P. (2005). Introduction to Microsoft SharePoint Server. Retrieved on 22nd Dec 2009 < file:///J:/ij_02_04_05a.html%20portal.htm> The Higher Zones Corps Company. (2009). Interview with Zones Corps. Retrieved on 22nd Dec < www.zonescorp.com> Read More