HR Preaches Self-Help

In the cold, profitdriven corporate world, what could be more interpersonal than the department that bears the word "human" in its name?

Human resources has evolved from the limited personnel offerings of previous decades to provide cradle-to-grave services-from maternity benefits to retirement funds-that employees depend on.

Yet HR is far from unscathed by the Web revolution. In fact, it has undergone some of the most radical changes in the enterprise.

The InternetWeek survey of 305 IT managers ranked human resources among the five departments most impacted by Internet technologies.

Across the Fortune 1000 landscape, employees are surfing corporate Web sites to update their 401(k) policies, switch health maintenance organizations and check out adoption services-services once handled in strict confidence and with tender loving care by live specialists.

In HR circles it's called "online employee self-help," and it's touted as the next big wave in HR. And many employees are enjoying the convenience of having online benefits.

At Boeing Co., college internship coordinator Laura Sycamore says she likes having every HR document in one place.

"I find it convenient not having to rely on someone else,'' she says. "If the person I want to talk to is not there, I know I can find my answer online. Online HR saves a lot of time."

Online corporate benefit services are rapidly becoming as convenient as bank ATMs, reports HR technology specialist David Link, practice director for enterprise self-service at The Hunter Group Inc., a technology consultancy.

"Our society is becoming more convenience oriented. While HR personnel are moving from high touch to high tech, online services will only make these employees more valuable as consultants and career counselors."

In the early '90s American business took the first baby steps into online HR services by throwing benefits and personnel forms up on the Web, says Mike Method, director at the International Human Resources Information Management association. He's also operations manager of Ford Motor Co.'s global HR database.

During the past two years, Ford has gradually put its HR services online. This December, however, the company will unveil a major HR intranet strategy in which all HR services will be grouped under one HR Web umbrella, according to Mark Koval, Ford's HR Web manager.

Today, employees type in separate URLs to access various HR activities, Koval says. When the new HR intranet is launched, everything will be linked via one URL.

Software vendors such as Seeker Software and Edify Corp. started taking Web-enabled HR applications seriously two or three years ago, and the experiments have since picked up steam, Method notes.

According to Link, "HR is a megaphone for the company. Having an intranet lets employees be in the loop with what's happening at the corporation, and people like getting company information, good or bad.

The access to information makes communication easier."

At Boeing, Web program manager Graeber Jordan says that in 1996 the company decided that employee data belonged to the employee, so it erected the "My Information" Web site-one of 2,000 sites at Boeing. It gives more than 130,000 employees updates of their own benefit policies and files.

Indeed, migrating HR services to the network has gained mostly positive reviews from managers and employees alike. "This is what is going to get HR staff and HR managers out of the routine," Link says. "The HR VP becomes a value-added partner to the CEO, and companies are beginning to see it that way. The VP of HR now gets a seat at the round table with the CIO, CEO and CFO."

CEOs are recognizing the importance of retaining talent, and input from HR executives is essential to planning company strategy, Link says.

"Your package of benefits becomes a differentiator and a competitive advantage," he says.

More than 36 percent of the managers in InternetWeek's survey said the HR department's visibility has increased as a result of Internet technology. "Instead of seeing HR delivering stale reports a week late, managers are getting HR data fast and immediately," Link says. "HR is taking control of technology and using it to empower employees. The HR department is now seen as a high-tech leader."

As HR evolves, so do the jobs of HR employees. The upshot? Staffers and managers say intranets and the Internet empower them to make better choices and business decisions. Miscellaneous phone calls asking about 401(k) programs are a thing of the past because employees can look everything up themselves on the Internet or intranet.

For instance, a fast-paced international consulting business-especially one that recently merged with a competitor-requires HR to move quickly. According to Greg Myers, national HR director of technology solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, "The supervisors can do a better job because of the company intranet."

"Now that the paper-intensive administration functions are eliminated, they can focus more on the employees they serve," he says. Instead of answering repetitive questions, supervisors can help employees select a benefits plan that's best suited to them or answer more complex queries about medical insurance.

Job satisfaction is on the rise since his staff of three started surfing the Internet for recruiting purposes, says Ron Langdon, manager of employment information systems at Boeing.

"Their excitement and enthusiasm in the department is higher than ever before," he says. "They used to deal with page after page of paper. Now they type in a keyword and get material they want in minutes."

Judy Fox, manager of employment at Allergan Inc., agrees that the change from paper to Internet recruiting is a boon. As the supervisor in charge of recruiting for the $1.3 billion global pharmaceutical company, Fox says her job has become easier since the advent of electronic resumes.

At a few companies, HR employees are so used to making the intranet a part of their work life, they have a hard time remembering what life was like without it.

Take Gloria Debs, manager of employee services at Sun Microsystems. Debs has a full plate of responsibilities: health and wellness programs, work/family programs, adoption support, credit union and sports funding for employees who want to start a company team.

"Since everything has been online for the past six years, I have time to tackle the more important issues," she says. "Most of my time is spent in strategy and management. For personal research, I can use the intranet to view the org chart or order something from the company library."

Online is where HR is heading, and it sends a message that the company is technology-savvy. "I think what we are doing in HR is consistent with what other companies are doing. We want people to know we are also technology-driven and keeping up with the rest of the world as it is changing," says Don Bireley, vice president of human resources at Moen Inc., a $600 million plumbing and faucet manufacturer.

Time Compression

HR managers across the board say that one of the biggest advantages of going online is speedier transaction time. At Boeing, recruiting has been radically transformed. "In the past, if you applied for a job here, it used to take two to three weeks before anyone would notice your resume," Jordan explains. "Now if you submit your resume on our Web site, the key managers would know within an hour and a half, and that is a dramatic compression of time."

When it comes to hard savings, the results are harder to prove. Few companies actually have documented their savings because intranet technology is new to HR. "When many companies began with the Internet, no one was really thinking of it as a cost-savings area," says Boeing's Jordan. "It evolved, and then people realized it had many benefits."

Hewlett-Packard is one of the few companies that has documented savings and has had such success that the HR department publishes the numbers.

Hewlett-Packard used to issue its HR policies and guidelines to employees on hard copy. Total expenditures to print, shrink-wrap, package, warehouse and ship the 600-page volume would be more than $130,000 for 14,000 copies, considered the minimum required for managers domestically. Today, it costs only $200 to produce and distribute to more than 100,000 people globally.

Experts admit that online HR is still in its infancy at most companies, and managers are still wrestling with how to make employees feel at ease and master the technology.

"Older employees still look for that memo on their desk," says Greg Myers of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Sometimes it's hard to get people to use the system."

Marketing and promoting the HR sites are essential in getting employees to convert to the online environment.

At HP, HR intranet program manager Nancy Scollay says the HR department had included information on the online benefits in its HR newsletter sent to every employees' home. When Scollay went to various HP sites to give talks on the HR intranet services, she gave out "I'm Web-wise" buttons to employees who attended her sessions.

The Hunter Group's Link says companies have to market their services companywide to get employees to tap into the new services. For that reason, promotional T-shirts, flier campaigns, even free airline ticket giveaways are used to encourage online usage, he says.

Jason Cassee, Sun's HR communications manager, acknowledges that there is always a core of employees resistant to using online HR services. "Even though we are a technology company, people want someone to go to, to talk to," he says. "And we will still do that for them, but first we tell them how to find it for themselves."

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