Sarah Starkey
September 14, 2008
FMIS 2201
Assignment 1
Information Technology in Human Resources
Knowledge in Information Systems is an important asset in almost all business
professions today. A possible career choice with my finance major is in Human
Resources, a department that almost all successful corporations comprise and are
investing time, energy, and funding in today. A general responsibility of anyone in
Human Resources is company employee and community communication1, which is
commonly done through networking using computers and e-mail to efficiently relay
messages and memos on a large scale to everyone who needs to be involved. In any
setting where possibly conflicting schedules need to be interwoven, communication and
planning are often done online using e-mail and different scheduling systems. Some of
the other responsibilities held by those managing a Human Resources department include
but are not limited to those of employee orientation, development, and training2, in which
successful communication by use of technology is prevalent.
Other responsibilities held by those in the Human Resources profession may be
that of employee safety3. In an instance read on an online blog, a store manager was
concerned about the regulations regarding employee scheduling at night in a more
dangerous part of an urban city4. The scheduling was planned around the number of
transactions made an hour, which were very few in the late evening hours. Because the
transactions were so few, only one person was needed for the night shift as to not waste
company money on unnecessary labor, though the situation of working and closing the
store alone may have been potentially harmful to the employee working. It would have
been against policy to schedule another worker even though it would have made the
situation more bearable to the working employee to have a fellow closer. The solution to
the problem was to look back into records regarding the busiest money-making hours.
Quite often these records are kept in a spreadsheet format which would be accessible
using a program such as Microsoft Excel, a program requiring knowledge in Information
Systems. It would have been this particular manager’s responsibility to maintain and
analyze these records. These recorded busy hours where most money was made had two
people scheduled, leaving room for considering only having one very efficient employee
work during those hours, while the other would instead be an additional closer. This
solution kept payroll costs steady while providing security for anyone closing the store5.
My interest in Human Resources brought me search for future career possibilities
and an actual job posting at careerbuilder.com, where searching for a wide range of
options in one’s career area is made easy. The only keyword I needed to use was that of
1
Roos, Dave. "How Information Technology Works." 04 December 2007. HowStuffWorks.com.
<http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-information-technology-works.htm> 15 September 2008.
2
Roos, Dave.
3
Roos, Dave.
4
“Hiring and Staffing.” 10 September 2008. HumanResourceBLOG.com.
<http://www.humanresourceblog.com/category/hiring-and-staffing> 15 September 2008.
5
“Hiring and Staffing.”
“Human Resources”, which gave me a wide range of possible job opportunities. After
browsing through a few descriptions, Maxim Healthcare Services became of interest to
me. This healthcare company “is one of the leading providers of medical staffing, home
health and wellness services in the United States6”. Information technology is important
in this particular job setting because one of the requirements of the job is “Communicate
effectively with employees, clients and internal office staff7,” which is often done
through e-mail and the internet. Another of the important responsibilities is “recruiting
through various sources such as the internet8” and analyzing financial reports while
editing the weekly payroll. These last two duties would use various computer systems
that would require more than basic computer knowledge.
As a finance major, it would be very hard to find a job that did not involve the use
of information systems at work. If I end up in a starting position at a company where I
am in charge of duties such as payroll I may need to have extensive knowledge with
Microsoft Excel, while if I end up doing some sort of marketing for a company I may
need to know how to build and maintain a web page that represents the organization I
work for. All of these instances make knowledge in Information Systems very important,
as it may someday decide my qualifications for a particular career opportunity.
“Health Recruiter/ Entry-Level Sales Management. CareerBuilder.com.
<http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=QHKCV&sc_cmp1=JS_JR_ViewJ
ob&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J3G75H6RD6P7M0JYZBF> 15 September 2008.
7
Health Recruiter
8
Health Recruiter
6