TRENDS
The Rise of the HR Specialist
Gery Messer expounds on three particular trends in HR for 2012, including the rise of self-service which will reduce the need for HR generalists across the industry.
By Isabella Chan


APR 2012 | Corporate belt tightening will increase in 2012, and HR directors will need to take a holistic view about what employees find attractive, to retain their staff in light of a slow-down in recruitment. This is the view of NorthgateArinso (NGA), a global provider of Human Resource systems and services, who released in mid-February this year, their NGA predictions for 2012.

Gery Messer, President for NorthgateArinso Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, shared NGA’s HR outlook. “…If companies are not making redundancies then they will certainly be slowing down costly recruitment. Instead, we will see retention strategies implemented, with HR Directors [HRDs] looking to hold onto their staff by providing better training and opportunities as well as reward packages, ” Messer elaborated.

In an exclusive interview with HR Matters, Messer elaborated on these trends.

HR Matters : Do you have any statistics or survey reports you can point to on the rise of self-service?
Messer : In this day and age, there are over 4 billion mobile internet users and 1 billion PC internet users in the world. Anita Letnik’s white paper on ‘The Consumerisation of HR’ states that new HR professionals are technology savvy and incorporate this technology in their everyday work as a means of communication with current and future staff.

If we consider the process of leave management (absence), experience demonstrates that two thirds of manual administrative transactions can be automated through self-service, resulting in the following qualitative and quantitative benefits:

Benefits for the employee:
a. No need to search for paper forms;
b. Faster, more direct communication;
c. No ’hand-off' times;
d. Access from anywhere.

Benefits for the manager:
a. Better view of team absence;
b. Better tracking of absence.

Benefits for HR staff:
a. No manual re-entry of absence data;
b. Better and faster tracking of absence, with on time notifications;
c. Increased clarity on remaining time accounts.
The major long-term trend in HR management is to decentralise administrative and service functions via HR self-service solutions. This will enable employees and managers to handle most of their role-base data and processes.

By enabling Employee and Manager Self-Service (ESS/MSS) in an organisation, it will dramatically drive down costs and limit the administration of HR staff. At that time, HR contributes actively to the efficiency ratios and acts like a real business partner.

It is key to deliver an intuitive and ergonomic interface to the people in every HRO process. The table below (which is available on our website) shows that Tier 0 allows an HR personnel to solve 66 per cent of every employee or manager request by providing direct access (24/7) to HR data.

NGA TIERED MODEL. COPYRIGHT NORTHGATE ARINSO

As time goes by, HR self-service will become a thing of the past, with employees being able to access content and perform HR transactions the same way they can on Amazon.com or other self- service providers. 

HR Matters : Do you see the shift from generalist to specialist as a cyclical one ie will we revert to becoming generalists at some point in the future?
Messer : Human resources as a corporate support function dates back to the 1960s. At that time, many employers believed that a more strategic approach to workforce management was necessary in order to gain competitive edge. Over the years, the function of HR has continuously evolved. I believe the shift from generalist to specialist is part of the evolution of HR.

In 2012, we are now experiencing the Digital Revolution; a switch from analog and mechanical technology to digital technology. This began in the 1980s and in 1996, the Internet was unleashed. At this point of time, it is unheard of, for companies to be in business and not to be on the Internet. Our entire communications system has become interactive, integrated, always on, real time, seamless and available at any part of the world. As a result, the HR functions will have to change as well.

Moving forward, HR will be remote, mobile, social, automated, specialised and far smaller than in the past. This results in the need for HR to be specialised as all the general work will be automated.

HR Matters : Self-service takes care of a lot of the transactional work. What areas do you see organisations honing in on now as a result of this increase in automation and reliance on technology?
Messer : With the advancement of technology, many human tasks that can be automated will be automated because they are cheaper, more reliable and less error-prone. Workforce administration, for one, will be fully automated. Employees will be able to apply for leave from their mobile phone and this can be easily monitored and managed by HR staff. Digital HR access will give HR the capability to follow and measure interaction with managers and employees accurately at every stage with the ability to influence and track processes in order to optimise service delivery.

Employees will be able to access their information at any point of time and perform all HR transactions on the go. This will enable the HR staff to reduce inefficiencies, thus ensuring transparency and compliance. HR will then focus on value creation, flawless execution and a simplified operating
model.

Gery Messer is the President, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) at NorthgateArinso. A proven senior executive with more than 25 years of international experience in High Technology companies building and directing businesses for global companies in Europe and Asia Pacific, Messer has held numerous P&L and high impact revenue driving leadership positions with industry leaders such as NGA, Red Hat, EMC, Deloitte, SAP and IBM.

Messer is recognized as an executive with broad sales and operations abilities managing organisations with +1000 employees consistently meeting and exceeding goals and expectations. An experienced public speaker and media spokesperson with excellent communication skills and proven multicultural and multilingual background, he has lived and worked in Asia for more than 18 years. Messer is based in Singapore.