But as it is employers who are now the paternal figure in most areas of employee health and welfare, it is they who are increasingly taking responsibility for the complete life cycle of their employees - from the moment they are recruited to the point they may have to be let go, and everything else in-between. Fortunately, there is more help than ever before to equip HR professionals to deal with these processes in the form of improving HR technology.
This is why in this special technology supplement we have looked at where HR technology is making a difference during the different stages of an employee's employment in an organisation.
We start at the recruitment process and ask whether online psychometric tests are a useful addition to have at the online application stage. We ask whether it's good to weed applicants out against personality traits before recruiters have even met them, but report on how technology providers are gearing up to provide this. Once hired, employees need training, but can HR professionals self-author their own e-learning material? Several providers now believe the technology has reached the point where they can, meaning greater control and cost reduction.
We also uncover how HR and payroll can work together with aligned HR systems to make the employee's life better.
Sadly, there comes a time when some employees have to be let go. But even here technology is touching the world of HR and is now being far better utilised to make the severance process fairer, more understanding and, ultimately, to help employees move on to better jobs.
No one should be a slave to technology, or implement it purely for its own sake. But in these testing economic times, its potential for making a greater impact on employees' lives, at a lower cost, can surely not be ignored.
