HRM: The key to winning the cloud war!

In addition to creating countless business opportunities for industries, cloud computing has changed the manner of information management in high-tech industries by pushing distributed management towards central management. Instead of a new technology, cloud computing is a concept of data calculation and processing using the Internet. In cloud computing, a large amount of storage and computing resources is obtained through virtualization technology and wireless networks to save hardware and software implementation costs and reduce system integration difficulties, allowing enterprises to issue immediate responses to ensure economic efficiency and thereby enhance corporate competitiveness.

Although the impact of cloud computing on Taiwan’s IT-related industries is inevitable, instead of a total replacement of hardware, thin clients will tend to replace conventional desktops and laptops, with software and service planning an increasingly important role. It is noteworthy that cloud computing will also change the structure of global competition by reflecting the advent of the pursuit of free development, unlimited expansion, innovative services, and flexible responses.

To cope with this cloud computing war, PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan (PwC Taiwan) suggests enterprises consider human resource management (HRM) resources in terms of the following four dimensions:

Grasping key competition resource: human resources

Based on the future corporate development plan, “strategic human resources” should be considered when recruiting human resources. Also, human resources should be assessed in terms of corporate strategy, core competence, and product and service characteristics, in order to find key human resources with the rise of cloud computing.

Additionally, cloud computing has promoted inter-industry exchange and thereby blurred the boundary of industries. Therefore, it is necessary for enterprises to break the limitations of individual industries, in order to develop interdisciplinary “cloud computing” human resources. The results of IDB’s 2010 analysis show that interdisciplinary and international applied human resources in the nest 3 years will be a major market demand as a result of industrial development trends. That is to say, besides professional knowledge and competence, human resources in the cloud computing era must be equipped with team cooperation, innovation, flexibly, and emergency response competence, in order to assist enterprises in creating market value in a changing business environment and enhance the organization’s future developmental efficiency in cloud computing.

Developing excellent contingency leadership ability

After finding key human resources, HRM personnel should consider if present leaders can effectively manage organizational human resources to make them display their assumed capacity. When leading a workforce of a complex structure with traditional methods of management, executives will probably feel powerless. In the future, it will be necessary for an organization to manage human resources formed by different groups, and a more flexible method of management to give more space to these people to effectively display their competence. Today, leaders must overcome the major factors affecting leading efficiency and adjust their mode of leadership according to the situation, in order to “teach what people can handle” and “act according to circumstances”.

Developing a flexible and adaptive organizational culture

A reform-adaptive organizational culture is the key to enhancing organizational flexibility and adaptability to adjust to changes in the business environment. In the process of organizational reforms, HRM plays the part of a coordinator between management and employees and assists the organization to successfully implant the value of reform into the behavior of employees.

To activate the awareness of reform in employees is the prerequisite to organizational reforms. HRM should ensure employees remain alert to crises at all times through different channels, such as providing honest reviews of organizational problems and public situations and continuously communicating to employees the potential opportunities and threats that exist. Next, it is to help employees to interpret the information relating to organizational reform and understand complicated reform plans by implementing a communication platform and through frequent communication. During the reforms, how to handle employees’ negative emotions from psychological factors, such as the “sense of uncertainty”, “sense of insecurity”, and “lack of faith” in employees, will be an important issue that should not be overlooked. Proper management of employee emotions can not only help to minimize the employee’s intention to boycott the reforms but also re-stimulate their enthusiasm to work. Lastly, the biggest challenge organizations usually face by the end of the reform is how to prevent employees from regaining bad habits. Apart from continuously emphasizing the importance of positive and aggressive thinking, leaders should behave this way to provide employees with a walking example showing the importance of behavioral or habit changes.

Grasping exact organizational performance

The grasp and use of organizational performance are common issues in HRM. Quantifying HR indicators to facilitate organizational operations and management are the central thought in HRM. When an organization is considering a transformation, human capital measurement must be included in the most important assessment item. As it is necessary for enterprises to become more flexible, changing and multinational to cope with the changes in a cloud computing environment, consistent measuring indicators for grasping organizational performance and human resources are exceptionally important. In general, measuring indicators have been established for major sub-fields in HRM including recruitment, salary and benefits, training and development, retention and productivity. However, besides quantifying HR performance, effective measuring indicators must be able to clearly and directly express integrated information and have a clear logical link to financial performance.

To seek continuous development and enhance competitive strength in the cloud computing environment, apart from playing well the role in traditional administration, HRM should be promoted to become a strategic partner of the organization, in order to propose HR viewpoints and strategies according to changes in the business environment and industry for enterprises to better plan for enhancing human capital to cope with challenges from business environment change.

(Originally published in Commercial Times on 2 December 2011)