Building a Global Human Resource Information System
When the HR department of a transnational conglomerate needs to notify employees of a change in benefits or policy, for example, a company like the British Airways, it has to deal with 24 time zones and dozens of languages and cultures. These days, managing a diverse and multi-cultural workforce requires the skill of a surgeon and the patience of an arms control diplomat. Laws, cultures, business practices and technological limitations are a constant reminder of how challenging a task global Human Resource Management actually is. Constructing systems that allow units to operate at peak efficiency while maintaining high level of compatibility is essential.
For designing an effective global HRIS system the following questions needs to be answered:
Should the organisation link the entire corporation under one umbrella of a single network or should it create independent and unconnected systems?
How can HR ensure that data flows smoothly between units and divisions in separate countries?
How can be it sensitive to cultural issues and aware of technological limitations while ensuring that systems work together synergistically?
A series of factors shall influence the above questions:
Culture
Finances
Organisational structure
Existing equipment at the various locations.
What goals the organisation is trying to achieve.
It is a highly individual process and needs to be tailor made to the situation. The technology doesn't drive these systems, the strategic thinking behind does. The success of an HRIS system finally depends on assembling work teams across international borders.
Northern Telecom has a system in place built on the simple premise that technology flows faster than people. It therefore created a central core and called it data depot. Now information regarding salary structures, recruitment, headcount information can be accessed from any position across the globe and can be continually updated from across multiple locales across the world. The company has taken into account regional diversities into account while designing this system. Thus Canada and US could be operated as a single system, whereas China and Germany can't be. Though the system is customised to the specific needs of the individual countries, the basic data fields of the central database are used globally. Though thousands of elements are used globally, only 120 are available throughout the system. It is designed to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. For seamless flow of data across multi-locations, the data that resides on a file server has been replicated and placed on all others. That allows faster access and better overall support.
The system however runs as well as its weakest link. If data gets garbled, or the system is incapable of importing data from a specific program, HR can well be in trouble. The company allows its divisions to use both in-house and off the shelf programs- it requires that units ensure that data will flow into the central corporate database before they install a system. The outside vendors must follow a strict regime and ensure that relevant data continually is input into the database. And when HR needs to update system components or provide software upgrades, it's able to use the network to send data directly to each user's desktop.
Compatibility, accessibility and timely data flow is a key component of many companies; data jam on the global technology highway can severely undermine HR staff in far flung corners of the world. In the past, Microsoft, who has a global presence in 56 countries, found that their subsidiaries and units did not furnish them with the data that they needed. Then Microsoft set basic standards for the employees across various locations but allowed them to customise fields for their own needs. That gave them an incentive to keep the system updated and served the company's purpose.
Microsoft's unique network allows HR data to be used by such other departments like sales and marketing to compare personnel costs in different countries. However, not all information is allowed to all units. However, this is not an easy task considering the fact that units clash with each other and the corporate HQ on what information it needs and what it doesn't.
Business rules and decision making are a key to ensure that technology works synergistically. It must be clear to the top management what it exactly wants and what it doesn't and the level of access it wants to keep.
Microsoft has pushed data inputs directly into the hands of the employee wherever possible and this has freed a lot of HR professionals from the daily administrative trivia. They have created a kind of self-service giving greater responsibility to managers in the field and promoted synergy. Microsoft is also planning to roll out a succession planning model and virtual career centre, which can be accessed, on an international scale. A person, say in UK, can apply for a vacancy in Microsoft India.
Not a completely smooth road ahead
One of the biggest problems is that links in the entire technology require proper technology and platforms. Many corporation are their wits end battling cost curves in developing counties. There is also a lack of trained personnel in developing countries. To get around this problem, many companies have client-server and mainframe systems to move data efficiently between both LANs and dumb terminals.
Chevron created a satellite-based system with sub-second response to most of its major centres. That, along with leased phone lines, allows the company to bypass most of the telecommunications problems. Although the system was initially created to transmit geophysical and financial data, HR piggybacked on this to fulfil its own purposes. The group included a business analyst to work in tandem with systems people to analyse local site needs prior to installation of the system. Only those modules are installed locally which the team feels essential for the purpose of catering to the local business needs. The team also maintains presence in those areas to ensure enduring and productive relation with the end users.
The analysis process takes some time since the team needs to get accustomed to the local culture and their specific needs and develop a one-to-one relationship between them. It also has to deal with considerable local opposition. In the case of small units- they seek out help of the team, as they want the systems in place. In areas that are relatively old and mature, there is lot of chauvinism about the way the business is conducted as well as considerable resistance to change. Such units do not see themselves as a part of the global company. In such cases, the team uses audio-visual support to instil in the local unit a sense of identity with the global company, while at the same time emphasising the local unique features they possess. Appropriate forms to suit such units’ needs often have to be made and integrated with global corporate system.
GEM
An interface in the local language with the ability to add fields for local requirement is very important. Northern Telecom is in the process of developing an HRMS that meets its unique flexibility requirements with global scalability and the ability to incorporate data standards. They call their system Global Employee Management or GEM in short.
GEM is the company's query and reporting tool that enables the company to maintain real time data to managers across the world. The system is a client/server HRMS that has completely customisable graphic user interface. It is similar to an application development tool than a customisable application. It uses standard company codes, but the user interface can be designed so that all field labels and instructional messages appear in the local language. It can also handle local currency and third party payroll data. Where local non-conforming site-specific codes have to be used like government ID, the company has a translation tool in its central database to deal with such non-conformation.
The basic philosophy of companies like Northern Telecom is that people won't change to fit technology's needs, rather, technology should change to fit the needs of the people. The key to success lies in not only deploying systems, but also to allocate time and resources to establish partnerships at the local levels
From India, Mumbai
1When the HR department of a transnational conglomerate needs to notify employees of a change in benefits or policy, for example, a company like the British Airways, it has to deal with 24 time zones and dozens of languages and cultures. These days, managing a diverse and multi-cultural workforce requires the skill of a surgeon and the patience of an arms control diplomat. Laws, cultures, business practices and technological limitations are a constant reminder of how challenging a task global Human Resource Management actually is. Constructing systems that allow units to operate at peak efficiency while maintaining high level of compatibility is essential.
For designing an effective global HRIS system the following questions needs to be answered:
Should the organisation link the entire corporation under one umbrella of a single network or should it create independent and unconnected systems?
How can HR ensure that data flows smoothly between units and divisions in separate countries?
How can be it sensitive to cultural issues and aware of technological limitations while ensuring that systems work together synergistically?
A series of factors shall influence the above questions:
Culture
Finances
Organisational structure
Existing equipment at the various locations.
What goals the organisation is trying to achieve.
It is a highly individual process and needs to be tailor made to the situation. The technology doesn't drive these systems, the strategic thinking behind does. The success of an HRIS system finally depends on assembling work teams across international borders.
Northern Telecom has a system in place built on the simple premise that technology flows faster than people. It therefore created a central core and called it data depot. Now information regarding salary structures, recruitment, headcount information can be accessed from any position across the globe and can be continually updated from across multiple locales across the world. The company has taken into account regional diversities into account while designing this system. Thus Canada and US could be operated as a single system, whereas China and Germany can't be. Though the system is customised to the specific needs of the individual countries, the basic data fields of the central database are used globally. Though thousands of elements are used globally, only 120 are available throughout the system. It is designed to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. For seamless flow of data across multi-locations, the data that resides on a file server has been replicated and placed on all others. That allows faster access and better overall support.
The system however runs as well as its weakest link. If data gets garbled, or the system is incapable of importing data from a specific program, HR can well be in trouble. The company allows its divisions to use both in-house and off the shelf programs- it requires that units ensure that data will flow into the central corporate database before they install a system. The outside vendors must follow a strict regime and ensure that relevant data continually is input into the database. And when HR needs to update system components or provide software upgrades, it's able to use the network to send data directly to each user's desktop.
Compatibility, accessibility and timely data flow is a key component of many companies; data jam on the global technology highway can severely undermine HR staff in far flung corners of the world. In the past, Microsoft, who has a global presence in 56 countries, found that their subsidiaries and units did not furnish them with the data that they needed. Then Microsoft set basic standards for the employees across various locations but allowed them to customise fields for their own needs. That gave them an incentive to keep the system updated and served the company's purpose.
Microsoft's unique network allows HR data to be used by such other departments like sales and marketing to compare personnel costs in different countries. However, not all information is allowed to all units. However, this is not an easy task considering the fact that units clash with each other and the corporate HQ on what information it needs and what it doesn't.
Business rules and decision making are a key to ensure that technology works synergistically. It must be clear to the top management what it exactly wants and what it doesn't and the level of access it wants to keep.
Microsoft has pushed data inputs directly into the hands of the employee wherever possible and this has freed a lot of HR professionals from the daily administrative trivia. They have created a kind of self-service giving greater responsibility to managers in the field and promoted synergy. Microsoft is also planning to roll out a succession planning model and virtual career centre, which can be accessed, on an international scale. A person, say in UK, can apply for a vacancy in Microsoft India.
Not a completely smooth road ahead
One of the biggest problems is that links in the entire technology require proper technology and platforms. Many corporation are their wits end battling cost curves in developing counties. There is also a lack of trained personnel in developing countries. To get around this problem, many companies have client-server and mainframe systems to move data efficiently between both LANs and dumb terminals.
Chevron created a satellite-based system with sub-second response to most of its major centres. That, along with leased phone lines, allows the company to bypass most of the telecommunications problems. Although the system was initially created to transmit geophysical and financial data, HR piggybacked on this to fulfil its own purposes. The group included a business analyst to work in tandem with systems people to analyse local site needs prior to installation of the system. Only those modules are installed locally which the team feels essential for the purpose of catering to the local business needs. The team also maintains presence in those areas to ensure enduring and productive relation with the end users.
The analysis process takes some time since the team needs to get accustomed to the local culture and their specific needs and develop a one-to-one relationship between them. It also has to deal with considerable local opposition. In the case of small units- they seek out help of the team, as they want the systems in place. In areas that are relatively old and mature, there is lot of chauvinism about the way the business is conducted as well as considerable resistance to change. Such units do not see themselves as a part of the global company. In such cases, the team uses audio-visual support to instil in the local unit a sense of identity with the global company, while at the same time emphasising the local unique features they possess. Appropriate forms to suit such units’ needs often have to be made and integrated with global corporate system.
GEM
An interface in the local language with the ability to add fields for local requirement is very important. Northern Telecom is in the process of developing an HRMS that meets its unique flexibility requirements with global scalability and the ability to incorporate data standards. They call their system Global Employee Management or GEM in short.
GEM is the company's query and reporting tool that enables the company to maintain real time data to managers across the world. The system is a client/server HRMS that has completely customisable graphic user interface. It is similar to an application development tool than a customisable application. It uses standard company codes, but the user interface can be designed so that all field labels and instructional messages appear in the local language. It can also handle local currency and third party payroll data. Where local non-conforming site-specific codes have to be used like government ID, the company has a translation tool in its central database to deal with such non-conformation.
The basic philosophy of companies like Northern Telecom is that people won't change to fit technology's needs, rather, technology should change to fit the needs of the people. The key to success lies in not only deploying systems, but also to allocate time and resources to establish partnerships at the local levels
From India, Mumbai
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