The Internet Revolution in Human Resources

A labor shortage obviously makes qualified employees harder to find, but it also challenges employers in other ways. For many current employees, an abundance of attractive opportunities beckon, making employee retention more difficult. The costs of turnover are higher in a tight labor market. Service and customer satisfaction can suffer. Perhaps most importantly, a shortage of a skilled workforce leaves companies unable to react quickly when promising opportunities arise.

The Internet offers solid solutions for a wide range of these human resource (HR) challenges. Three factors combine to make the Internet an important tool for HR:

1. Universal reach. The Internet is nearly everywhere, connecting businesses with potential hires and current employees regardless of location. Job postings gain an instant national or international audience. And branch office or telecommuting employees can receive training on line without need for costly travel to a central locale.

2. Low entry barriers. The low cost of access and the scalability of Web-based services allow small and growing businesses to easily tap into powerful tools for recruitment, training, and personnel management.

3. The one-on-one potential of the medium. The Internet and companies' internal networks simplify and personalize HR services and communications to individual employees and job prospects. Employees can review and personalize their retirement savings and health plans on line, saving time and increasing employee satisfaction. Additionally, delivering HR services over the Internet frees up HR staff to focus on other tasks and reduces the need to add HR personnel as a company grows. This is a critical benefit in tight labor markets.

This article was adapted from Cisco's EZ Guide to Human Resources in the Internet Age. To download the entire PDF version of the piece, click here.