One of the exacerbating factors in promoting divergent employee relations has been the pervasive use of metrics in analyzing the efficiency and effectiveness of performance parameters. Executive decisions are increasingly being subservient to the dazzling displays of HR dashboards without heeding the ‘human story’ that results in unfulfilled expectations.
Another aspect is the undulating economic environment that has resulted in a large pool of qualified applicants for limited positions who are subjected to the indifferent categorization and filtration of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software. The convenience of an online Performance Management System is resulting in the career progression of promising talent becoming precariously susceptible to stagnation and/or employee banishment to corporate wilderness based upon a tired, vengeful, pressured and/or hurried supervisor’s completion of the web-based performance appraisal form pertaining to an unsuspecting team member.
While reparations may be made later; the damage done to the morale and motivation has a lingering detrimental impact on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB).
THE SOLUTION
There is ample evidence available that touts the benefits of technology in greatly facilitating the streamlining of HR-related processes and enabling timely decision-making. However, the ‘art’ of leadership has to be balanced with the ‘science’ that works behind most of the technological solutions. The decision-maker and the decision-affectee are both humans, therefore, while technology boosts the efficiency aspects (the inorganic side); care has to be taken in terms of alleviating humanistic concerns (the organic side), as the ‘soul’ of the organization should not perish in its attempts to become more nimble in overcoming business challenges. Therefore, the following ‘Pyramid of Organizational Excellence’ for the 21st Century’ is proposed for progressive organizations:
HR Technolgy Feature