Virtual HR - the Irresistible Force? Part 2
Posted August 21st, 2009 by SSON
Pressing the demands for cost-reductions may be, but the impact of the increasing trend towards “virtualized” HR services and increasing self-service goes well beyond the bottom line. Just as the rise in social networking and the development of the idea of the online self is changing the way in which social interactivity occurs in the wider world, the shift in the relationship between employee and HR – between user and provider of service – must surely have some consequence for the relationship between employee and the wider organization?
In an interview last year with the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network, HR heavy-hitter Dave Ulrich warned of the possible negative ramifications of the “switch to digital”: “Technology has good and bad news. The good news is efficiency, connect 24 hours a day, and distributed work. The bad news is isolation and lack of emotional connection. Not over-relying on technology will help HR do a better job.”
That “lack of emotional connection” could prove especially problematic during a stressful (for employer and employee) economy when industrial disputes have a habit of coming to the fore and the lines of dialogue between parties tend to prove more tense. Existing prejudices against the proliferation of call centers, for example, have been seen to be magnified among discontented workers whose primary grievances may be very different. Proponents of a more automated HR model can and do blame such situations on faulty engagement or a host of other factors, but regardless, the mere fact of the question arising is proof of the added complexity generated by increased virtualization.