Computers in Personnel: Slow Progress
| Pages | 3-6 |
| Date | 01 September 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057411 |
| Published date | 01 September 1985 |
| Author | Derek Torrington,Laura Hall |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Computers in
Personnel:
Slow
Progress
by Derek Torrington and Laura Hall*
Department of Management Sciences,
UMIST
"The information on which this article is based comes from a ma-
jor piece of research on the changing nature of personnel manage-
ment, which is being conducted by the authors and Lesley Mackay
at UMIST. The work is being funded by the Leverhulme Trust in
col-
laboration with the Institute of Personnel Management. The first
phase of the research was the completion of extensive and detail-
ed questionnaires about personnel practice in 350 different
establishments during the Spring and early Summer of 1984. The
data are still being analysed, but the second stage in the research
began at the end of 1984. This is a series of interviews with ques-
tionnaire respondents. Conclusions from the research will be publish-
ed progressively between now and the middle of 1986.
Conferences on computers in personnel provide a platform
for pioneer organisations and software manufacturers in this
area. This article in contrast, gives a picture of general ac-
tivity at ground level.
Introduction
Although a series of articles on the subject of computers
appeared in Personnel Management, the journal of the In-
stitute of Personnel Management, as long ago as 1969, it
was not until the 1980s that personnel applications became
a central—and apparently enduring—topic of interest. A
series of articles appeared in the same journal in 1982
deal-
ing specifically with personnel management's use of com-
puters, and describing how some employers had progress-
ed in this
field.
The Computers in Personnel conference has
run with great success each year from 1982 to 1985, under
the auspices of the IPM and the Institute of Manpower
Studies. In our survey of 350 establishments we found
evidence to indicate how recent this development is. The
number of personnel departments using computers is ex-
tensive, but the application is frequently superficial.
Extent of Computer Use
A computer was used in some way for personnel work by
238 (68 per cent) of the establishments in our sample. The
level was higher in the public sector (71.5 per cent) than
in the private (66 per cent), but this difference is not
statistically significant. In 1982 and 1983 Colin Richards-
Carpenter[1] reported in Personnel Management levels of
usage of a computerised personnel information system of
40 and 59 per cent so our 1984 figure shows the continued
growth.
This growth is confirmed by preliminary results from
the 1985 IMS survey which indicate that 73 per cent of
respondents used a computer in some way for personnel
work. [2].
Despite this growth, there remains a minority of personnel
departments which show no interest in computerisation. In
our survey almost two-thirds of those not yet using a com-
puter plan to introduce computer use by 1987, but 9.7 per
cent of the total sample have no plans to use a computer
in personnel work within the next three years. Of those
establishments not already using a computer for personnel
work, 84.2 per cent of public sector establishments and
59.4 per cent of private sector establishments were plann-
ing/intending to introduce computer use within the next
three years[3].
How the Computer is Being Used
Respondents were asked to indicate the way in which the
computer was used for various specialist activities within
personnel work. The range was:
(a) Records stored;
(b) Analysis as well as recording of the data;
(c) Modelling facility used
("what
if?" questions);
(d) Automatic up-dating of all records when new data
are input, and
(e) Up-dating to an employee's records causes any rele-
vant letters to be generated automatically.
The results of this question are shown in Table I. Payment
administration has 534 mentions, individual employee
records has 407 and absence 283. This seems to suggest
either a lack of imagination as to how the computer could
be utilised, or a shortage of the necessary software. Com-
puterisation of the payroll is long established and the ap-
plication of the computer to employee records and absence
can be clearly seen, but there is a definite bias towards the
record keeping and data analysis applications. They are
mentioned 933 and 703 times respectively, with automatic
up-dating next at 479. Modelling and automatic letter pro-
duction trail at 128 and 116. The emphasis seems to be on
the basic and routine activities to take the drudgery out of
clerical work rather than those applications which would
involve a different approach to personnel work. It is also in-
teresting that the grid of Table I allows a maximum of 65
different computer applications to be indicated by a respon-
dent; the maximum from any respondent was 40 and the
average was 10, with the numbers being slightly higher in
the private sector than the public.
More detailed statistical analysis of the data (cross tabula-
tion of computer use with formal status of the establish-
ment) shows that almost without exception the private sec-
tor of employment is more involved than the public in com-
puter activities for the areas of recruitment/selection,
train-
ing,
management development, appraisal, payment ad-
ministration, fringe benefits, employee relations, discipline/
grievance and redundancy/dismissal. In contrast, the public
sector respondents have greater involvement in health, safe-
ty and welfare, absence and individual employee records.
Significant differences were found between the public and
private sector for some specific computer activities in the
areas of performance appraisal, job evaluation and payment
IMDS ∙ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ∙ 1985 3
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