Technology Will Continue to Change the Role Human Resource Function and Human Resource Professionals - Coursework Example

Technology will continue to Change the role Human Resource Function and Human Resource Professionals Name Institution Date Technology will Continue to Change the role Human Resource Function and Human Resource Professionals Introduction Business landscape is rapidly transforming. Stiff competition for the global market and the fight to harness talents are observably some of the emerging trends dominating various business organizations. Moreover, the functions of human resource department and human resources (HR) personnel are currently being reshaped by the stringent forces of emerging technology, globalization and talent constraints. Basically, the major driving forces behind the reorganization of the HR planet are the technology and the talent management initiatives. This implies that human resource management systems will always be altered by the ever evolving technological innovations. In addition, managing the talents within an organization also presents new dimension about the functionality and strategies of HR professionals. The paper critically examines how technology alters the human resource functions as well as the professionalism of HR practitioners. The Impact of Technology on Human Resource Functions The contemporary technological trends especially the social media platforms are constantly reorganizing human resource processes which include employee recruitment, training, sourcing and managing workforce performance. According to Gartside et al (2014), digital technology is reshaping the manner in which business organizations and government agencies conduct their operations. This ranges from the way in which they interact with customers and citizens to how they handle their employees. In this instance, the digital technology is viewed as a tool which disorients the traditional HR functions thereby refiguring the future functions of HR personnel. According to Gartside et al (2014), this is made possible by the fact that the digital technology enhances greater integration and flexibility of workforce as well as empowering the voice of workers hence giving them opportunity to determine their own work experience. There is quite a number of significant ways in which technology shifts various functions of HR professionals within an organization. For instance, the digital technology is changing the initially known methodologies of collecting data on employees. Gartside et al (2014) observe that the new technologies such as Cultureamp’s Murmur paint the traditional analytical data collection methods as expensive and time consuming. Therefore the new technology enhances quick collection of employee data by offering real time platform for surveying employees on everyday basis. Additionally, new dimensions of HR data collection technologies such as master data management (MDM), data analytics and industrial; consolidation will enable organizations to control the challenges that impede the collection of unaltered, integrated clean and integrated data (Virginia 2002). These improvements make it possible for firms to organize data on employees within a single data base system. In essence, this implies that both the employers and the employees now have the privilege to access and view all data with ease. This possibility shifts the employee data management function which has been a popular function of HR professionals to both employees and line managers. Gartside et al (2014) observe that as the digital technology continues to evolve at higher rate, it will empower firms to be more responsible with regard to talent management and HR activities. This implies that the emerging digital trends can effectively play the role of talent management. As a result, they have the capacity to reshape the traditions of talent management which have been centralized as HR activity over the years and integrate them into normal business activities. The advances in digital technology are hereby giving organizations the chance to shift the role of talent management the HR professionals to the employees. This includes HR based functions such as recruiting, hiring, succession planning defining career paths which will eventually be transformed to the powers of the employees due to the emerging trend of social and market based digital instruments. Isaacson and Peacey (2012) note that acquisition of talents is among the areas within an organization in which utilization of social media was initially applied. If properly utilized, this technological advancement can significantly escalate the process recruitment. The new technology provides elaborate and easy way to source potential candidates, review their resume thus improving the recruitment procedures. Gartside et al (2014) argue that the onset of new technologies makes it possible for the line managers to participate in the vital talent enhancing activities such as organizing the working workforce, evaluating the gaps between existing employee base and the nature of workforce performance. Therefore, it is easy to observe that the new technologies are posing as tools of diverging HR practices the way in which they have been known to a totally new phase. More responsibilities of managing workforce talents are gradually and steadily being carried out by the employees and the line managers (PWC 2014). For instance, there are platforms like work.com through which both workers and line managers can give report on concerning work performance especially (Gartside et al 2014). Work.com is a web based portal designed to help the sales persons to traffic the sales performance information to the customer services department or representatives without altering its applications. Since sales feedbacks are required on daily basis, this gives employees and line managers an opportunity to utilize tools such as work.com frequently and on daily basis. It is noteworthy to observe that in the course of the whole process, HR functions has been diverged from HR personnel and handed over to the line managers and the employees (PWC 2014). The use of mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones and laptops is steadily gaining grounds in various organizations (Kanaracus 2012). In addition to the traditional training techniques, the presence of these devices and availability of cooperate versions of the social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as YouTube make it possible employees to access information and learn together. Similarly, employers also have the opportunity to harness and tame various talents from diverse job market through employees’ social network skills. Furthermore, in the traditional set up, HR professional were charged with responsibility of accessing and advising career counselor on how to counsel employees (Gartside et al 2014). However, the social networks have change this trends thus enabling the employees to access the counselors on their own and advise them on how they should be counseled. Strohmeier (2013) points it out that the debates on how to manage the current workforce have encompassed additional dimensions which include employee relationship management (ERM). Generally, ERM stems from customer relationship management (CRM) and focuses on transforming the principle based-technology which enhances relationship building from customer to employee sphere. According to the study conducted by Strohmeier (2013), centralizing the needs of employees and creating genuine employee value is a strategic tool for attracting and retaining talented and qualified employees. Moreover, the research further states that managing employees through effective ERM collaborative processes have constructive benefits organizations. In this instance, collaborative processes are defined by the relationship between the organizations and their employees in regard to initiatives that build and maintain positive relationship such effective recruitment procedures, employee development and compensation. Collaboration processes puts more emphasis on the roles of the employee thereby empowering them to participate on the decision making processes on matters concerning their wellbeing. In a sense, the new dimensions of strategic ERM erode the border that has for so long existed between the employees and the HR professionals. For instance, the decisions concerning the welfare of the employee were initially being initiated by the HR personnel but the current systems require the participation of the employees (Virginia 2002). Cloud computing also disfigures the functionality of HR professionalism (Gartside et al 2014). Contrary to the traditional industrial HR application where all company information were centralized within a single HR system, the cotemporary trend, defined as cloud computing, enables organizations to access information, shared resources and software over the internet. Similarly, the new cloud- based tools such as those from Salesforce.com and Workday are based within web portals, open architecture and orientation toward data analytic integration. In this sense, accessing information has been made easy and less expensive for new cloud based solutions to connect others. Therefore, the future of the HR professionalism is currently being reorganized collaborative HR applications and the integrated network systems which are provide efficiency in delivery of HR functions (Gartside et al 2014). The Risks of Employing Social Media in HR Professionalism Application of the social media within organizational systems can attract a wide range of constructive impacts to organizational performance if properly utilized. Nevertheless, social media presents significant sets of risks to organization which affect both external and internal environment. According to Isaacson and Peacey (2012), various organizations which adopt social media within their systems are still struggling on how to efficiently and effectively integrate it into their daily business activities. These challenges are often located within the context of creating, implementing and enforcing social media policies. As a result of these challenges, many organizations dismiss the need for new technologies specifically the use of social media within their systems. Additionally, many organizations that are utilizing social media platforms in their systems do not possess social medial policies to regulate social media usage. Contrary to the popular notion that social media enhances employee involvement, Isaacson and Peacey (2012) argue that most organizations find it difficult to implement social media policies due to lack employee engagement and training on that field. In regard to the internal retrogressive impacts of social media, Isaacson and Peacey (2012) argue that in some cases employee may accidentally or intentionally leak vital organizational information. According to Gartside et al (2014), mobile devices such as tablets and laptops are increasingly being adopted in various workplaces. It is worth noting the fact that most of these mobile devices belong to the employees. Therefore as they use them to access company information through social media networks, some of the vital organizational information is stored in them. To this extent, organizations loose the control of imperative data as employees can do as they please with the information. The end result in this case is that organizations may loose the protection over their data due to data security breaches. The use of social media such as Facebook is popularly associated with sharing of sensitive personal information such as politics, religious backgrounds, and sexual orientation and lifestyle issues. Therefore, adoption of these new technologies introduces such sensitive information in various work places. As a result, this may present negative implications in workplace relationships (Cameron & Miller, 2008). An example includes discriminating against each other along political and religious lines. This may in turn cause confusion and diversion in the employee base leading to formation factions. This implies that member of the organization with same political or religious background may from small groups within an organization which may discriminate or be discriminated against by other members from different political or religious backgrounds. Additionally, the information about sexual orientation of employee may generate mixed unethical reactions. For instance, knowing that some of the employee is gays may cause mixed reaction whereby some employees may accept them while others condemn them. In either way, social media in this case can impede competitive advantage which may distort their public image e group work and eventually slow down organizational performance. The adoption of the new technology possesses detrimental impacts in the scope external business environment as well. In this case, the new technological innovations such as social medial platforms that are increasingly being adopted in various HR systems can damage the reputation of an organization and impair the brand image. For instance, since the new workplace dimensions permits the employees to access company information through their personal devices (Gartside et al 2014), it is imaginable that such devices can either be lost or stolen. Such situations can impose retrogressive impacts image and reputation incase those devices land on the hands of the rival companies. The case is even made more badly in case some employees leave the organization. Such employees always carry with them vital production techniques and innovative measure of product differentiation. It is likely that x-employees may air information to the rival companies that they join. In such scenarios organizations loose competitive advantage. Similarly, exposing vital company information to the competing firms may suffocate the brand image in the public domain (Kanaracus 2012). Conclusion The new technological inventions are substantially gaining grounds on the contemporary business world. The modern workplaces are characterized by emerging technological trends that are significantly altering the entire organizational processes and performance. The paper has critically examined the influence of emerging technologies such as social media invention HR functions and HR professionalism. It is evident that indeed the new technological dimensions are altering the functionality of human resource departments and human resource personnel. For instance, it has indicated that most HR functions are currently being shifted to the shoulders of employees and line managers. Moreover, the paper has explored the possible challenges facing the adoption of technology HR systems. 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