Week Four Learning Log - Sections Five and Six: Tie-in to Manager’s work with HR and Learning Lessons

Week Four Learning Log - Sections Five and Six: Tie-in to Manager’s work with HR and Learning Lessons

Section Five:  How the information encountered this week could be important as a manager tasked with working with HR.

As a manager tasked with working with HR, there are several concepts that stood out to be important this week.  By understanding how HR is using technology in my company, I can have an awareness of how job candidates can be attracted and information relayed.  I also feel that HR's use of technological tools in administrative work as well as communication internally and externally is paramount.

I also have learned that important gaps can be brought to light through metrics and measurements.  HR metrics can and should be used to enhance human capital decisions and help make the connection from human resources to the organization's strategy (Jamrog & Overholt, 2005). Through this analysis, I feel confident that HR's data can help myself as a manager make more targeted hiring and business decisions.

Jamrog, J. J., & Overholt, M. H. (2005). The future of HR metrics. Strategic HR Review, 5(1).

Section Six:  Evaluation of most valuable information discovered throughout this week’s assignments, discussions, readings, or research.

I was fortunate enough to discover a lot of valuable information this week with the informative readings and insightful discussion questions.  I really exciting found how technology has helped HR with a myriad of tasks.  These include recruitment, oversight of legal and regulatory compliance, benefits administration and the safeguarding of confidential employee information, which cannot be carried out effectively without the use of sophisticated technology tools. There are some incredible opportunities through the use of social media to the productivity enhancer that human resources software brings to the table.  However, the risks, and the benefits, of the utilization of social media is also critical and was an eye-opener to research. 

It is essential an organization's social HR strategy reflects its culture and not emulate another's approach. Social media in human resources has been used to successfully cut across the organizational barriers (such as function, location and level) to create a climate of engagement and collaboration by openly enabling employees to provide input on specific challenges (Kofman, 2011).  The proceed-with-caution approach appears to be the best bet with careful monitoring of the sites critical to mitigate risk and keep the information current. 

Kofman, B. (2011). Human resources, social media already inextricably entwined. Canadian HR Reporter, 24(15), 17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/895978889?accountid=33575