Huge rise in use of HR technology and outsourcing services - 08/2001

The use of specialist HR technology and outsourcing services is set to rise dramatically as HR departments seek to control expenditure, manage an increasingly remote workforce and wield greater influence in the boardroom. This is one of the key findings from new research - Predicting the workplace of 2010 - recently completed by Cubiks.

The research, based on the responses of more than 100 participants from around the business world, reveals that the HR function will soon enjoy greater involvement in strategic issues. As a result of this change of focus, companies will increasingly rely on niche consultancies for the management of specific projects such as recruitment, assessment, training and reward management.

These are the key areas that will demand special attention if organisations are to maintain a competitive advantage, as the following points explain:

- Investment in selection systems is needed to avoid the pitfalls of poor recruitment - Employers need to concentrate on finding the best people and avoid making poor recruitment decisions that frequently cost between 20,000 and 40,000 per position, but can sometimes cost up to 100,000. By investing in leading edge e-selection systems that provide accurate information for decision-making, organisations can achieve savings that far outweigh the combined annual cost of such recruitment mistakes.

- Imaginative rewards and incentives must be offered if businesses are to maintain a competitive market profile - Although 83% of companies benchmark salaries with others in their industry, businesses will need to do much more than this to remain competitive in future. More than four fifths of respondents expect the use of performance-related bonus packages and employee share option schemes to become more commonplace, and 91% expect the popularity of career breaks to grow.

- Training will increase in importance, and the way it is delivered will change radically - The days of the 'talk and chalk' training programme are numbered, with 92% of respondents expecting the use of e-learning packages to increase and more than two-thirds anticipating that these products will reduce training expenditure.

- The nature of the employer-employee relationship will change considerably - Employees are becoming more mobile, less loyal and, in industry sectors such as IT and telecommunications, are operating in a seller's market. Employers will maintain high expectations, while responsibility for personal development will shift to the employee. For many jobs, IT literacy will be considered as basic a skill as the ability to read or write.

- Remote working patterns will not reduce stress - 92% expect working from home to become increasingly widespread but only 24% expect the average length of the working day to decrease. Even fewer believe that the stress levels of the average employee will be lower by the end of the decade than they are at present.

Commenting on the report, Barry Spence, CEO of Cubiks, said:

Technological developments are driving the pace of change in the modern business environment and organisations need to move quickly to harness the new technology for their advantage.

The implications for the HR community are significant as it is this group that will be charged with the task of managing, developing and deploying an increasingly remote workforce. If HR professionals can make software and the Internet work for them, they will see valuable time released for channelling into more strategic activities.

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