Casting a Wider Net - the effect of the Internet on human resource management - Brief Article

HR Magazine, August, 2001 by Dave Patel

Depending on where you stand in the great technology debate, either the Internet changes everything, or the Internet changes nothing.

But while the hype of the Internet economy may just be hot air, serious thinkers such as Intel president Andy Grove and Microsoft founder Bill Gates believe that Internet technology and its derivative applications will continue to revolutionize the way we conduct business and live our lives.

But that revolution is only reaching some. A U.S. Commerce Department study finds that only 41 percent of Americans have access to the Internet-whether at home, work, the library, etc.

The numbers are similar for PC ownership, with 51 percent of all households owning at least one computer. And though those numbers are increasing rapidly, income and age play a significant role when it comes to access to technology.

For example, only 34 percent of those making $35,000 a year, the medium income for the United States, have Internet access, whereas almost 80 percent of those making more than $75,000 have access, according to the Commerce study. Forty five percent of those making less than $35,000 own a computer, but 86 percent of those making more than $75,000 own one. Sixty percent of those under 24 have Internet access, while only 29 percent of those over 50 have access. And perhaps most importantly, 30 percent of those without Internet access do not want it.

Most striking, however, is that only 37 percent of full-time workers and 18 percent of part-time workers have Internet access at work, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington, D.C.

FIR professionals may be touched in several ways by this digital divide. The cost efficiencies achieved through the use of technology, in terms of time and money, are lost if HR has to produce paper for all its functions and manage the document flow for the majority of workers who have no Internet access at work or at home.

The elevation of the HR profession to a strategic partner may be much more difficult if HR professionals are mired in pushing paper to administer policies that could be easily managed electronically.

Additionally, policies such as telecommuting, an option used by almost 25 million Americans, also are affected by the digital divide. If only half of your workforce has access to a PC or to the Internet, will only that group be "eligible" for this alternative, or will the employer provide the necessary hardware and connection?

Clearly, as more people go online to conduct day-to-day activities such as business transactions, personal correspondence, research and shopping, being digitally connected becomes ever more critical to economic, educational and social advancement. And, at the same time, people who lack access to those tools are at a growing disadvantage.

Before business processes are automated and made available at any time, from any place, and before the notion of where and when we work is thoroughly changed by emerging technology, the level of digital inclusion--the number of people using the technology tools of the digital age--will need to be greatly increased.

Dave Patel is the manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM.