Ever notice how things that we can’t live without today weren’t even on our radar just a few years ago?
The Internet, email, GPS and mobile phones are just a few of the technologies that have become so crucial to the daily lives of most people in advanced societies that they take them for granted – not giving their presence a second thought – until they are out of reach that is…
A recent Pew Research poll, ‘The Technologies Americans Can and Can’t Live Without,’ asked a group of Americans which technology would be the hardest to live without – television, Internet or cell phone? The majority of respondents, 53%, said that the Internet would be “very hard” to part with, while only 34% said the same of television, while a surprising 13% chose the cell phone as the technology they’d keep.
Another advantageous technology that is becoming a beneficial good habit for many at their places of employment, as well as a critical source of company news and information – is the use of Human Resources Shared Services. HR Shared Services solutions provide an organization’s employees with automated forms, policy and procedure information to streamline HR processes – but perhaps more importantly – these systems give people a personalized access gateway to their employer.
Self-Service Portals provide targeted content and tools based upon a person’s unique profile and role within the company. These displays are beneficial for both employee and employer – offering an automated anytime, anyplace method to access company content (news, events, policies) and employee HR information (benefits, payroll, opportunities) as well as a variety of communication methods such as email, live chat and surveys for streamlined input and feedback.
In his column ‘Why shared services will benefit everyone,’ John McKinlay, technology specialist and partner at law firm DLA Piper Rudncik Gray Cary explains, “What is often overlooked is that there are many advantages for the staff involved. In coming together, best practice can be shared, leading to better trained and skilled staff. Public sector staff can claim to be setting the standard. Greater job satisfaction can also arise from the opportunities to work within a dedicated team, with more frequent career advancement prospects, and to be closer to the ‘internal customer’.”