HRM3703 Exam past papers.

HRM3703 Exam past papers. Information Systems And Technology. Identify the different structural approaches to HR administration. Discuss the portal as well as advantages & disadvantages: 1) The self-service portal (ESS): An electronic access point to an organisations HRM information such as company policies, benefit schedules, individuals payroll role & other records; access may be via a company’s computer intranet or from other locations via the internet. Advantages - Improved speed and quality of services to employees & managers - Simplified routine enquiries and changes - Enhance employee satisfaction Disadvantages - Possibility of security breaches and the associated negative outcomes, like identity theft, for affected employees - Privacy invasion when organisations fail to limit access to personal data in HRIS 2) A shared-service center (SSC) A technology-enabled HRM group focused on value creation by providing excellent service to internal customers while reducing costs through increased efficiency and continuous improvements Advantages - Permitting HR administration managers to focus on delivering the timely, high-quality transactions necessary to fulfil the requirements - Removing the artificial barriers inherent in the generalist-specialist continuum common in HR organisations. Disadvantages - Creating SSCs can lead to unanticipated power shifts in organisations - SSCs can lead to depersonalization 3) Human resources outsourcing (HRO) The practice of contracting with vendors to perform HR services and activities HR outsourcing is hardly uniform, there are many different types of providers, reflecting the diverse needs of organisations Advantages - Can be both financial and strategic - Ability of the organisation to better focus on its core business by transforming the HR function - Redesigned processes, improved quality, access to technology etc. Disadvantages - Likelihood that organisation will not achieve its strategic goals : - Loss of institutional expertise in the outsourced functions, making an HRO decision impossible 4) Offshoring An extension of outsourcing that involves contracting with vendors outside a nations boundaries to effect additional cost savings or gain other benefits over domestic outsourcing alone Advantages - Financial benefits - lower labour costs, increased profits Disadvantages - inconsistent with strategic direction Briefly describe the concept Talent management. Does an enterprise need both long-term and short-term talent management strategy? And why? Briefly discuss both these strategies: Talent management is the implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs. Yes, an organisation needs both short-term and long-term talent management strategies Why? – Since the dynamics in the market place can change easily Long-term: Organisations need to invest now in employee talent to sustain a competitive advantage over time. Short-term: tactics must be put in place to get past the economic downturn and keep employees motivated until the market improves. Explain 5 best practices to ensure that employee data is secured and employee privacy is protected. Discuss general best practices and not the prescriptions of POPI act: - Adopt a comprehensive information security and privacy policy - Store sensitive personal data in a secure HRIS and provide appropriate encryption - Dispose of documents properly or restore persistent storage equipment - Build document destruction capabilities into the office infrastructure - Implement and continuously update technical and non-technical measures - Conduct privacy ‘walk-throughs’ and make spot checks on proper information handling Discuss the POPI act in terms of the following: : What ‘personal information’ and ‘records’ are defined in the POPI act What are the 8 conditions for lawful processing of personal information? The personal information are defined as: - Information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health etc. - - Information relating to the education, medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person; - Any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number or other particular assignment to the person; - The biometric information of the person; - The personal opinions, view or preferences of the person; - Correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that will reveal the contents of the original correspondence; - The view or opinions of another individual about the person; and - The name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person. The 8 conditions are as follows: - accountability - possessing information - purpose specification - further processing limitation - information quality - openness - data subject participation Briefly discuss the differences between E-HRM and HRIS E-HRM: : - reflects a philosophy for the delivery of HR - it uses information technology, particularly the web, as the central component of delivering efficient and effective HR services - E-HRM tends to be more focused on how HR functionality is delivered (eg erecruiting and e-training) - See technology as enabling the HR function to be done differently by modifying information flows, social interaction patterns and communication process HRIS: - Reflects the computerized system used - Comprises the technology and processes underlying this new way of conducting HRM - More focused on the systems and technology underlying the design and acquisition of systems supporting the move to e-HRM - Includes technologies such as databases, small functional systems focused on a single HR application (e.g. performance management) or a large scale, integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) architecture and web-based applications In terms of an HRIS, provide a definition of each of the following terms:  An action and cross-tab query Cross-tab query= a type of query available in MS access that calculates a sum, average, or other types of aggregation and then groups the results by two sets of value Action query= performs an action on the table on which It is based. E.g. updating data in table, deleting records etc.  Entity and attribute Entity= an object or thing of significance to an organisation that have multiple characteristics of interest to the organisation Attribute= characteristics of an entity, e.g. employee ID, names, phone number  N-tier architecture The software and hardware configurations in which databases, applications, and other resources are distributed among different computers around the world  Project creep The addition of functionality beyond what was defined in the project scope  BOB system(s) An approach to acquiring HRIS capabilities where the company will pick the best application to support each functional area of HR. thus, the technology architecture combines the best-fit products from multiple vendors. :  Data mining The sophisticated statistical analysis of large data sets to identify recurring relationships and patterns.  Cloud computing The delivery of software functionality over the internet where HRIS functionality is delivered to companies via the web. For the company, there is no hardware and software to install. Explain the impact of future trends in HRIS and HR technology on HRIS and HRM programmes. Focus only on BYOD, SaaS and the cloud and web 2 0: (12) Bring your own device (BYOD) The change is a dramatic departure from how organisations had previously managed their technological. Today employees are more likely to want to use their own personal mobile devices to work. Employees are using these devices to share information, to connect with other employees, to become more responsive and to increase productivity therefore organisations are increasingly providing support for personal mobile devices. However BYOD does create some issues such as an increase in the complexity of managing network and data security, which means organisations will have to rethink data and network security practices to support these device. Companies will have to develop policies with regard to the use of these devices and who will pay for these devices. Mobile computing increases access to HR data. No longer are employees ‘chained’ to their desks. Employees can do everything they need when they are located. Software as a service (SaaS) and the cloud: Traditional software models are being replaced by ‘on-demand’ software plans, which see the company or customer as leasing access to as few or as many functions as it wishes to access. This approach is call SaaS. With SaaS, small and medium-sized companies are now able to access HRIS capabilities that were previously only available to large organisations. These companies currently comprise the largest customer pool for new HRIS packages. Companies are able to adopt only the amount of functionality currently needed and then scale up to additional functionality as their HR needs change. The newest trend in delivering software to companies is cloud computing. With cloud computing, HRIS functionality is delivered to companies via the web, without the requirement of purchasing and maintaining hardware and software (e.g. - Facebook, iCloud, Instagram). Cloudbased software can provide more control over data while reducing reliance on IT staff. Organisations find moving to the cloud attractive because employees find these systems easy to use and because it leads to both lower up-front and ongoing costs Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is the second generation of web-related services focusing on creativity, collaboration and sharing. With web 2.0 users not only access information but also generate, share, and : distribute new content. Web 2.0 can drastically change the way in which employees communicate with each other and with customers. Using Web 2.0 will require the HR department to pay greater attention to the legal, ethical, and security implications of information exchange. Examples of Web 2.0 = social network sites , wikis, blogs, mash-ups, podcasts, personal websites. The last phase in the systems development cycle is maintenance. Maintenance in the SDLC serves a number of purposes. Briefly discuss the four main purposes of maintenance services: (8)  Corrective maintenance- there will be times that despite the best efforts of designers and implementers, something in the system won’t work properly and must be fixed  Adaptive maintenance- the HR environment is always changing and evolving and therefor need to be able to adapt  Perfective maintenance- goal is to tweak or improve on the existing system.  Preventative maintenance- focuses on the ongoing requirements of maintaining the hardware and software that runs the HRIS. This will prevent future system crashes due to inadequate hardware Discuss and explain the two justification strategies to justify the investment in an HRIS. (9) (pg. 203) Risk avoidance – is used when investments are believed to eliminate or mitigate significant future risks faced by the organisation, for example, generating reports of the gender and racial diversity of employees. The potential outdating of legacy computing systems was a prototypical risk avoidance scenario. Old systems needed to be changed to avoid Y2K problems and because it was out of date. They need to comply with laws and regulations, and changes to these laws provide other circumstances in which justification based on risk avoidance is popular. Risk avoidance justifications focus on the magnitude and probability of risks. Organisational enhancement strategies – highlight how the effectiveness of the firm will be improved by the addition of a new or improved HRIS- as measured by increases in revenue or reductions in costs such as voluntary employee turnover. Organisational enhancement justifications are more challenging to ‘sell’ to decision makers than risk avoidance ones because enhancements do not carry the threat of real loss if no action is taken. Decision makers become more risk seeking and willing to make investments to avoid losses than when investment alternatives are framed as gains. Investment justification by organisational enhancements typically require more rigorous support and are subjected to more intense scrutiny by decision makers Discuss and indicate the meaning of the N-Tier architecture. Include an example and goal of this system: (6) The software and hardware configurations in which databases, applications, and other resources are distributed among many different computers around the world. : The ultimate goal is to provide a single data truth so that all enterprise data can be accessed by users whenever and wherever needed. Data should not be duplicated, re-entered or copied to multiple systems. So even though the architecture may be more complicated, the logical view of the system remains relatively simple and this complexity is hidden from the end user. For example- a consultant for a large IT Company can travel through the world, with multiple clients, but still be able to record his or her time and expense reports with a single browser application from any hotel room. Point out 5 aspects that an enterprise should consider in terms of BYOD and employees (5) - How to deal with the privacy issues associated with the storage and use of personal work data on the same device - Organisations will need to rethink data and network security practices to support these devices - Companies will need to develop policies in regard to the use of these devices and who will pay for these devices What are the concerns about using social network for recruitment purposes? (4) - Organisations may be reluctant to use SNW’s for employee selection purposes because of potential legal issues associated with using SNWs in this way and the inability to verify with confidence the profile information on these sites. - The saliency of negative information on SNW profiles seems to have greater influence on selection decisions that positive decisions - Considering the legal implications, many questions are asked about whether SNWs are a worthwhile recruitment source and screening device. - SNW’s and online search engines are being used more frequently now as an HR tool then ever before Discuss basic elements of HR measurements, metrics analysis. Make notes on the following: -Getting started, the role of ‘why’, putting HR metrics and analysis data in context and reporting what we find. (8)(pg 186) Getting started : The first question an organisation needs to answer is ‘What problems in the organisation are worth solving or what opportunities for enhancing organisational effectiveness exists?’ due to current improvements in computing and communications may not differ dramatically. Thus choosing to spend your time on projects with a greater potential return for the company makes good business sense. Once a problem and an opportunity are identified, the first step is to determine the organisational outcome that is associated with the problem. Outcome measures capture the extent to which a problem exists and should provide an indication of the extent to which actions taken by the organisation are successful The role of why Most organisational members have their own personal theories regarding how their companies work. Choices for outcome measures to assess are often based on these personal theories, and these theories may not always reflect reality. An important test of the appropriateness of outcome metrics is the ‘why’ test. When one considers a potential outcome, it is useful to ask why the organisation is interested in that particular outcome. If the answer is because it impacts some other variable the influences the important outcome, then care must be taken to assure the changing intermediate outcomes also impacts the distal outcome. Asking why helps highlight the potential casual sequence through which these intermediate variables effects are expected to have their influence. These analyses can highlight which metrics are likely to be more critical and provide a framework for understanding hoe change in these metrics should be interpreted Putting HR metrics and analysis data in context Data points representing important organisational outcomes become useful when the decision maker can attach meaning to them. Often data will need to be placed in context. Reporting trend information for metrics is one way to provide the context that gives meaning to data, thus creating useful information. Bench marking is a second method for adding context to an organisations metrics. HR benchmarking data need to be considered in the context of how the organisation has structured the HR function. Senior managers need to ensure that the HRM function is supporting organisational effectiveness. Then the HR organisation can be structured in order to maximize HRM effectiveness in supporting organisational objectives. Reporting what we find Reporting data is a key component of their success stories. Reporting incorporates decisions about (a) what metrics will be reported (b) how these metrics will be packaged (c) how (d) when , (e) and to whom they should be reported. How metrics should be reported focuses on depicting metrics for decision maker’s so that the ‘message’ relevant to them has a greater profitability of being understood. How questions deal with choosing between distributing metrics to decision makers using email or creating opportunities for decision makers to extract metrics as needed When questions deal with the timing and frequency of metrics reports. Reporting is currently done annually, quarterly or monthly. To whom questions address who receives metrics data. It is most common for metrics and analytics to be reported first to senior executives : HR metrics and analytics can be reported in a number of ways. Generally a combination of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ means of communication will work for most organisations. Push systems = push communication channels such as email actively push information and analysis to the attention of managers. Push systems are excellent for getting information to decision makers. However sending irrelevant or poor information can contribute to information overload and reduce manager’s sensitivity to messages Pull systems= ways of making information available to managers so that they can access any of it at a point in time when it will be most useful for their decision making. Pull systems avoid the email clutter of push systems but pull systems can be ineffective because managers may not know what information is available or when or where to look for the information Discuss the role of HRIS in performance management design, decision-making and administration by concentrating on the typical data inputs, the typical reports, data outflows and decision support (11) (pg 462) Typical data inputs Data inputs for PM systems include organisational-, job-, and individual-level data. Organisational-level data- consists of links to organisational and unit goals and strategies and business plans. Job-level data- a significant part of the PM system. Key tasks, responsibilities, and outcomes should flow from job data sets to individual performance plans. Individual-level data- because performance begins at the individual level, most of the data in the PM system are individual data. Data include all the performance criteria developed by the manager for the individual, the particular measures that will be used to rate the individuals performance on each criterion, and the performance standards for each measure. Typical reports: Most important reports produced by the HRIS are the performance contract and the annual summary appraisal for each employee. Other reports include aggregated performance data by unit and reports comparing aggregated unit performance within unit output. The HRIS needs to have the capability of achieving data so long-term performance trends for individual and groups can be tracked. Data outflows: Performance data are used in many HRM decisions and will flow automatically into some processes or be available for others as needed. One automatic flow will be compensation. Organisations with merit pay need performance distributions to construct a merit matrix. Performance data on various performance dimensions are used in decisions relating to promotion, layoffs, assignment to training programmes, and developmental assignments. Performance data are central to HR planning.