Future Impact of Technology on Personnel Administration

Future Impact of Technology on Personnel Administration

More and more technology is impacting the every day aspects of employees in a variety of fields. Technology is increasingly becoming a factor for the administrative functions in K-12 school districts. Technology can help improve policies and procedures as well as data collection tactics for training, evaluating and utilizing staff in an educational environment to its fullest. In addition, in the future is it increasingly evident that technology will be utilized more and more to recruit qualified individuals to work in educational facilities across the nation. The impact of technology on personnel administration particularly with regard to K-12 districts is discussed in greater detail below.

Personnel Administration in K-12

Webb & Norton (2002) suggest that the climate that an organization functions in may impact the human resources function. With regard to personnel administration, organizational functions at the human resource level are very specific in a K-12 environment. The recruiting and training element of personnel administration is one of the most critical aspects of personnel administration, as educators and other staff working in an educational environment are continually required to update their skills and abilities to ensure that students receive the best possible quality education available.

How might technology impact personnel administration in the future? The HR recruitment program and personnel administration may work in a more integrated fashion when computer technology is integrated into daily functioning and processes rather than functioning as separate entities (Webb & Norton, 2002). Computer technology can be used to help facilitate more comprehensive evaluation, data sharing and training programs geared toward improving educational output and student achievement.

The trend of late is to incorporate technology as much as possible into every asset of HR functioning including personnel administration (Webb & Norton, 2002). Technology can be used to review an incumbents qualifications, keep track of instructor certifications and continuing education practices and even monitor progress within the classroom.

The responsibility for successful administration of the HR function in any organization is contingent upon the ability of central HR personnel and teachers or other members of an educational facility's staff to share responsibility for administration and evaluation of organizational programs (Webb & Norton, 2002). The human factor of administration is a critical and essential component to an organization's future success and process; the HR function itself encompasses many different aspects including development of people and the teaching environment (Webb & Norton, 2002).

Personnel administration deals with the HR function of creating policies and procedures related to the administration of an organization and conduction of programs including recruitment, selection, training, benefits and retention (Webb & Norton, 2002). An individual working in this area might help to integrate and analyze data that assesses student achievement, or may help develop occupational classifications that help utilize the workforce to the best of its ability. Technology can help facilitate all of these processes, so instructors spend less time working on administrative tasks that might be automated, and more time working on student achievement and other essential elements of a K-12 environment.

A person in personnel administration also help plan, coordinate and direct personnel training and staff development, one of the critical areas of focus in a K-12 environment. Training needs are established through this assessment process. Training manuals and testing and evaluation procedures are also consistently developed. In the future it is likely that technology will more often be utilized to help facilitate the assessment and evaluation process. With the help of technology HR administrators can more effectively evaluate staff qualifications, an organizations strengths and weaknesses with regard to educational programs.

HR functions including benefits administration will also be impacted by technology in the future. The effects of technology on these aspects of the HR function are more general and non-specific to the K-12 environment, but still applicable. More and more any process that involves annual tracking and evaluation may be managed from a technological rather than strictly human perspective. This may free up time allocated by HR professionals to focus on more 'human' matters within an organization rather than more administrative or paperwork oriented functions.