E-commerce and Internet technology is changing the face of HR in Hong Kong and the way companies do business. New technologies are being developed every day, with each new innovation promising increased employee efficiency and greater and greater interactivity. The impact of these new technologies on the human resources professional is both profound as well as challenging.?The challenge is to define what the new HR role is and determine how it can best be aligned with evolving business strategies.?But the challenge is also whether HR professionals are willing to embrace technology as a competitive weapon and integrate its potential power into the development of solutions-based strategies that increase business value.
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The changing world we work and live in % b' e6 f, a8 L& b0 b7 Y/ y3 r

4 i4 N2 A7 z2 L9 r0 B8 f$ |, |"Blur - The speed of change in the connected economy" "An economy is the way people use resources to fulfil their desires. The specific ways they do this have changed several times through history and are shifting yet again - this time driven by three forces - Connectivity, Speed and the growth of Intangible Value. Because we are so caught up in the whirlwind of this transition we are experiencing it as a BLUR." Davis & Meyer - 1998
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( }$ v! a3 N; bTake a look at the context of the current market and how it directly affects the role of HR. Right now, the previously well-defined boundaries, objectives, issues and opportunities within organisations have all become "blurred" ?overlapping responsibilities, cross-market initiatives, performance imperatives reliant on new skills and experience ?and all of these shifts in paradigm are happening at an ever-increasing pace.
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Connectivity Everything is becoming electronically connected to everything else: products, people, companies, countries, everything
' P0 l  V! z4 y9 u2 B* t$ C/ {Speed Every aspect of business and the connected organisation operates and changes in real time
0 f0 Z6 V2 C9 d5 B9 Z) o) A0 gIntangibles Every offer has both tangible and intangible economic value. The intangible is growing faster
6 s# O0 L: E( Y4 VThe most dramatic aspect of the "Blur" is this last point. The growth of intangible value and the drive to increase this value has not left HR unaffected. The most striking change in the new economy is the realisation of the intangible economic value of Human Capital, and how that translates into fundamental business imperatives to attract, retain and develop that Human Capital.

HR in the virtual world
. J. W) r' W- C) Y  eResponding to the increasing business imperatives above, HR has had to move with the times in order to cope. And in a world becoming more and more comfortable with access to real-time answers and solutions, HR has only one way to go ?the transformation of systems, processes and outputs towards real-time delivery. HR professionals who have embraced the challenge have been able, in recent times, to adopt and (in some cases) innovate interactive HR transaction and delivery systems that meet flexible and highly fluid human capital needs.The have found the means to:
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Utilize technology as a strategic business tool ! q: [0 o* R$ w" E) w. p" I' y
Organize a fluid company that embraces a culture and a desire to continually learn, innovate and advance
6 r( T: n6 Z/ l% B' gChallenge and outperform conventional recruiting
3 ?1 R6 g7 `! MImprove and integrate hiring, appraisal, training & development, and succession planning 1 P' v3 d; Q% Q6 N% w8 @
Investments in self-service at varying levels of complexity and value
2 N2 }+ J8 p! TManage knowledge, learning and development, rewards administration and multi-directional organizational communication via personal portals
9 J+ }9 t9 N8 RIntegrate products and services of different vendors into one seamless system
( Y0 U2 f" N' k: v1 W; _Taking a closer look3 H2 T8 l. c; A) ~
As a first step, many organisations developed HR Intranets as a means of delivering information, with varying degrees of complexity, that have been proven to be effective in:
$ d. J6 U3 a9 c$ U) oimproving service to internal customers,
) r' |9 b- q4 v+ T, ?helping HR interact with employees more effectively, and reduce many routine administrative costs.
9 k/ u# |: ?3 R2 Nswitching from paper to electronic forms to request anything from vacation days to annual benefits enrollment. . q9 V! s! \! `" O7 m2 w6 x
Providing a seamless and intuitive medium for employees to interact with the company and amongst themselves in a comfortable, relevant and logical way.