Introduction
In this modern business era, the role of human resource management in organizations is critical. Human resources are a crucial function of any organization, which drives the whole workplace and business outcomes. Nonetheless, the current workplace environment or HR process has become outdated, as new methods and techniques have been adopted by companies to improve the workplace. Of course, some changes in the current workplace environment are in the limelight, which also creates an impact on human resource practices. In this comprehensive study, the emphasis is on one particular change in the current workplace environment and its impact on HRM practices. The application of the ethical and regulatory framework is also a part of this study.
Key Change in the Current Workplace Environment
Over time, the evolvement of the workplace environment is quite evident. Methods of doing work and managing employees changed with time. Human resource management shaped and executed new employee and workplace strategies due to the identified needs of the workplace. In short, the change process is constant, as the workplace is still evolving due to new requirements and trends. Nonetheless, instead of generalizing about the change, it looks compelling to focus on one particular change in the current workplace environment. This change in the contemporary workplace setting is elaborated, along with many insights.
· Workforce Reduction through Automation
Workforce reduction has become a new trend or change in many organizations. The intention is to bring new technology and reduce the business or workplace costs. Due to automation, many firms downsized, as millions of people lost their jobs around the globe. Automation is a significant source of a shrinking workforce. According to estimation, almost 30% reduction is visible due to a shrinking workforce through automation. It seems a vital change process for organizations, as they want to reduce personnel needs. Human resource management is collaborating with departments to understand what jobs are still to be done by humans. Accordingly, employee retention strategies are shaped by these companies (Boyd, 2019). Automation is a significant change, which can improve work efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. However, many traditional jobs still exist in the workplace. Interestingly, work reduction due to automation compels the companies to deconstruct the work. Due to interventions of new technologies or automation applications, different jobs in the workplace are triggered by fungible and independent components. Artificial intelligence and robotics are taking charge in the workplace, and dependability on humans is decreasing. Many non-routine jobs are eliminated in the workplace, and it helps reduce business cost. The pertinent example of workforce reduction through automation is a modern customer service department. For instance, jobs are deconstructed in these departments or companies due to robotic process automation. Traditional job tasks such as handling the customer’s complaint and maintaining the relationship by communication traits is to be done by employees. Nevertheless, customer identification, order tracking, and inquiries are to be done through robotic process automation. Of course, it reduces the workplace’s responsibilities, resulting in a shrinking and efficient workforce (Jesuthasan & Boudreau, 2018).
Many tasks in the workplace are to be repeated. It is time-consuming and less efficient. Employees usually spend a lot of time on completing tasks, which are to be repeated daily. Work repetition has been eliminated or reduced through automation and related applications such as robotics and artificial intelligence. Organizations are laying off those employees who are doing repetitive tasks, as all these tasks are to be completed by machines. Only a few employees manage or handle these machines are related. From the perspective of the company, business, or workplace, it seems an incredible change due to reduced business or workplace cost and better efficiency. Error-free workplace and rapid work processes have been enabled due to this change. Promptly, organizations are in a better position to retain only those who are needed to operate these machines. Workplace efficiency and profitability have become priorities, and these are also competitive factors for organizations (Smartsheet, 2018).
Influence of the change on HRM practices
The influence of this change on human resource practices is in the limelight. Several human resource practices such as recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and rewarding, and performance management are also changed with this time due to this emerging change. Before discussing the impact on these practices, the implications for the HR manager is to be elaborated. For instance, it has been that human resource managers are buried in hectic transactional tasks such as data entry and many simple math calculations. Companies usually hire many employees in HR departments to complete these tasks daily. However, the HR executive or manager can perform all these tasks at the same time due to automation. It can be said that the machines took responsibility, which enables the efficient, accurate, and reliable HR process (Morgan, 2018).
· Recruitment and Selection
The staff, which a firm usually hires for recruitment and selection, is reduced due to automation. It can be said that the HR workforce is shirking due to increasing automation in this particular function. For instance, in the recruitment and selection process, automation has changed resume screening. It is a fact that manual screening is to be done by multiple people in the HR department. Presently, automated screening has eliminated the roles of humans. Almost 80% of resumes are usually unqualified, and it seems better to bring automation to enable a pertinent screening, which is less time consuming and costly. Typically, a recruiter spends almost 23 hours screening resumes, even for a single hire. Still, due to automation, this process can be done quickly. Intelligent screening software has automated the screening process. Software or machine understands the pertinent job requirements and brings relevant resumes to recruiters. Recruiting software and automated resume screening always allows HR managers or executives to spend time on higher priorities instead of repetitive tasks. Thus, it can be affirmed that the impact of this change in recruitment and selection practice is quite evident.
· Training and Development
The impact on the training and development process or practice is also apparent due to this change. Due to automation, it is seen that the workplace is digitized. Instantly, training employees’ approach is also changed to let them lean on digital or artificial intelligence skills. Typically, the training and development process is to be done to help employees adopt skills used in different transactional tasks. Now, in this dynamic work environment, which is driven by automation, proactive training approaches have been adopted by HR management. It is an excellent opportunity for human resource management to improve its training and development functions or practices. If the company adopts automation to reduce the workplace and bring efficiency, it also has to identify the skill gap. If an employee does not have programming skills, he cannot conduct effective and efficient work on the computer system. Thus, automation is a significant change that compelled human resource management to streamline the skill or performance gaps. Accordingly, training and development or learning and development strategies are to be shaped. More than 50% of work is automated in the current workplace environment, and accordingly, training and learning needs have also been developed (Workforce Partnership Staff, 2017).
· Performance Management
Performance management is one of the most critical functions or practices of human resource management. Automation is a significant change in the current workplace, which has changed the performance management process. In many organizations, human resource management conducts performance appraisal, which is irrelevant and unproductive. In short, the traditional performance management system is ineffective, as it does not create an impact on employee jobs, performance, and work quality. Due to automation, performance management or appraisal is no longer manual, as it is entirely automated. Even at a small scale, employees are provided a smart workflow tool along with a pre-filled form. This pre-filled form grabs or captures essential information. Hence, in this automated process, the standard field for employees and managers is provided. In the automated system for performance management, automated reminders, loops for feedback, predefined processes, and manager’s approvals are possible, making the whole performance management process unique and differentiated. In this contemporary business environment, a customized performance management process is possible. Automation has helped to improve the interaction between employees and managers (Park et al., 2016).
· Compensation and Reward
The change in the workplace environment also created an impact on compensation and reward practices. It can be said that this practice is also automated to save time and cost of the company. Traditionally, only human resource management can have a record of employee’s compensation or rewards. Promptly, an online portal is provided or authorized to employees, as they can also view their progress as far as compensation and earn rewards. It also reduces the work burden on HR management, as it is an automated process. Automation has reduced errors and confusion. Apart from it, it enabled the shortened compensation planning cycles. Centralized planning dashboard and multiple reporting tools are part of the compensation planning, as it is unique as compared to traditional practices (Lawson et al., 2008).
Ethical and Regulatory Framework
The most appropriate ethical framework in terms of automation is an ethical framework for data and artificial intelligence. This ethical framework depicts four dimensions or trust in the automated workplace. For instance, these four dimensions are privacy, security, bias, and people’s impact (Joshbersin, 2019).
Privacy: In the automated work environment, employees must have a right to know what kind of information is captured by the company. Information or data privacy is critical to justify the essence of automation in the current workplace setting.
Security: Another dimension is security. The information of employees must be secured in an automated or digital system. Employees must have a right to claim damages in case of any loss of data.
Bias: Personal information in the automated workplace setting such as gender, race, religion, education, and background must be used ethically. The new workplace setting after the significant change cannot be biased.
People’s Impact: Subsequently, automation in the current workplace setting must create a positive impact on people’s life. Ethically, quality work is to be enhanced along with a reduction in working hours to keep the work-life balance in a loop (Joshbersin, 2019).
On the other hand, the work health and safety regulation act 2011, which is evident in Queensland, can be applied to the change in the workplace setting. Workplace health and safety must be ensured at the workplace, as new technology or interventions must not provide harm to employees. Ensuring the safe usage of machines and secure handling and storing is mandatory to integrate with this framework (McLellan, 2017). Fair work act 2009 is also crucial legislation or legal framework for employees in this modern workplace. For instance, this framework streamlines some terms and conditions for employees. Relevant to the content of this study, employers in Australian cannot terminate employees due to automation in the workplace, as they have to invest in training them and providing equal opportunities (McCrystal, 2010).
These are some ethical and legal frameworks for companies, especially for those who have adopted automated as a significant change in the workplace. These moral and legal frameworks are applied to this workplace change, and companies have to act accordingly.
Conclusion
In the end, it is to conclude that workplace automation is a significant change, which changed the dynamics of the business functions, especially human resource management. Work automation helped organizations shrink the workforce and reduce the business cost. With the perspective of business and human resource management, companies have gained multiple benefits. However, this approach has been questioned due to increased turnover and downsizing of the organization. Consequently, a critical strategic recommendation for companies is to identify skill or performance gaps to retain employees. The reduction in the number of employees is noticeable. However, ethical and aim works must be aligned as well to keep the balance.
References
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