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Ahmadu, AS and Blamah, NV (2006) A Web Enabled ... Bagale Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences, 5:25-30

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A WEB ENABLED HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR MEETING THE GOALS OFINTELLLECTUAL CAPITAL IN A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY

A.S. Ahmadu and N.V. BlamahDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Federal University of Technology, Yola{ahmaduasabe, blamahn}@yahoo.com

ABSTRACTThe major thrust of this paper is to explore the platform of the computer so as to strengthen the process ofHuman Resource (HR) Management. Traditional HR Management systems rely on the intuition of HRmanagers to take critical decisions on the selection, recruitment, development and utilization of humancapital. In the University system where intellectual capital is very critical the task of selecting and nurturingthe right talents for the growth of research and innovation is very important. The internet provides theuniversity HR manager the capacity to advertise, select and recruit staff around the globe cheaply. It allowsHR mangers to easily and cheaply collaborate with departmental managers and staff, thus improving theproductivity of staff members. The internet is a leveler, it will not only demystify the HR department, it will leadto more transparency, accountability and growth in the university system.

INTRODUCTIONThe problem of attracting, retaining,

developing and utilizing human resources arecomplex today because they must beaddressed within the context of governmentlegislation, shrinking supplies of energy andnatural resources, heightened concern overenvironmental systems, rapid changes intechnology and growing internationalcompetition. Organizational factors such asdecreasing productivity, soaring personnelcost, the increasing globalization of theworkforce and higher level of educationalqualification have serious impact for HRpractice. Because of these and several

factors, the HR practice in todays universitymust figure out how to deal with the followinghuman resource problems of how to: organize work and allocate it to workers recruit, train and effectively manage the

people available to do work create work condition, rewards and

disciplinary systems make the university to adjust to changes

in the environment and technology cope with competition, legislation and

labor militancy cope with and create a global workforcethat operate without fiction.Traditional systems have proved ineffective indelivering efficient HR systems. Automatedand web enabled solutions enforces theneed for global best practices in HR andequips the HR manager with the skills to keepup with the challenges of a technologybased workforce where intellectual capitalneeds top flourish.

Review of traditional HR system in the

UniversityTraditionally HR practice in the universitydiffers very little from what is obtained in otherfirms and organizations. HR focuses on linestaff relationship. There exist two types ofmanagement authorities viz: Line managersare responsible for achieving the basic goalsof the organization. To do this, they authorizeand direct the work of other staff managers.On the other hand are experts in particularareas (finance, personnel, legal, research,teaching) and they are authorized to adviceand assist line managers to achieve

organizational goals (French, 1978). The majorresponsibilities of a HR department are asfollows:

a. formulation of personnel policyb. implementation of personnel policyc. auditing and control

Structure and form of HR systems

Different organizations provide differentservices. Thus the structure of eachorganization and staff requirement shouldreflect the type of operations they perform.

An organization is social machinery forefficiency accomplishment through groupsand means for attaining stated purposes. It isequivalent to the blue print for the design ofmachine which is to be created for somepractical objectives (Beach, 1975). In theUniversity system the goal is to provide thefollowing services: teaching & research Produce graduates in various fields Incubate and nurture innovations


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Provide support to communityHR IN THE UNIVERSITYThe most important function of the Universitystaff system is to provide teaching andresearch services. To effectively provide theseservices, the University needs the services of

support staff, and ensure that there iseffective subsystem interaction. Thus theuniversity HR system must ensure theattainment of the following;1. That the personnel policy lays in line with

the current trend in worldwide selection.2. That recruitment, development,

promotion and disciplinary policies areenforced using the corporate personnelpolicy

3. Auditing and control function of thedepartments meets standard ofworldwide best practices.

A WEB ENABLED HR SYSTEMA model is a representation of a particular setof views (Sully, 1993). One of the essentials of

a model is that it should be partitionable i.e.allow an overall view to be broken into moredetailed viewpoints. Three modeling stagesare used here. They are entity relationshipdiagram (ER) for the structure of the model,the Data flow diagram (DF) for the Dataprocessing, and lastly the state transitiondiagram (ST) to express behavior. Entityrelationship diagram of HR system shows howall the subject and concepts areinterconnected.

Fig 1 Selection/Recruitment ER diagram

Fig 2: ER diagram Non academic staff

Fig 4: ERD Candidate Placement Academic

Fig 6: Appraisal ER diagram

Candidate Post*Qualification

*Years ofexperience

Fig 5: Training & skill gap analysis

Non

academicSenior

Junior

Qualification

Post TrainingQualificatio

n skills gap

Retirement

Promotion

PostNo Change

in Status

*Appraisalscored last

*Promotion date

* Time in Rank

Discipline

PostAcademic

Non -

academic

Qualificati

*Qualification*Years of

experience*No of papers

Candidate Post

Fig 3: ER diagram Academic staff


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DF Diagram and ST Diagram

Candidate appliedUpdate 1

Application under reviewUpdate 2

Candidate EmployedUpdate 3

Candidate PromotedUpdate 4

Candidate TrainingUpdate 5

Candidate DemotedUpdate 6

Candidate on Retired

Update 7

Candidate ResignedUpdate 8

Candidate record above5 yearsupdate 9

A catalogue of the systems keyfunctionalities include modules for staff

querying and discipline, appraisal, leave,general error handling and datamanipulation.

Another feature that characterized thesystem is the high level of security that wasbuilt. Various levels of access can be givento users by the database administrator(DBA),

Candidate not present

Candidate present

Candidate under

Candidate employed

Candidate promoted

Candidate for training

Candidate demoted

Candidate retired

Candidate resigned

Promotion

CandidateNo Change

in Status

*Qualificatn* Years of

experience

Discipline

Fig 7: Non Academic Placement


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Table 1: Appraisal TableStaffNo SalGrade Rank

SN211 04/01 LECT I

SN227 04/02 LECT I

SN311 05/01 SNR LECT

SN345 03/04 LECT II

SN349 05/02 SNR LECTSN455 02/03 ASST LECT

SN789 03/03 LECT II

which means users are confined to theirassigned levels. A tree structureddialog box that looks like the main menuwas designed in order to aid the DBA in

carrying out this task. The dialog box isdisplayed below.Each item that is ticked on this dialog boxenables access for the item to the particularuser, and any one that is un-ticked disablesthat particular item on the menu against theuser. The dialog box above displays

information about the DBA, and since s/he

has control over the entire system, all the

items are enabled. Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0was used for the front end while MicrosoftAccess was used as the database. Thecodes for the various modules and samplereports generated from the system follow.

Error Handling Module

The module for the entire systems errorhandling is listed below. Any error thatoccurred would be generated andreported by this module, depending onthe error number/type. This method isdeclared public because it must bevisible to the entire project, as this isintended to be a general module.

Public Sub errorHandler(DataErr As Integer,Response As Integer)

'This is where you would put error handlingcode

'If you want to ignore any error, commentout the next statement,

'If you want to trap them, add codes here

to handle themMsgBox "Data error event hit err:"

& Error$(DataErr)Response = 0

End Sub

Promotion/Appraisal Module

The appraisal module is one majorfeature of the system. Promotionsdata are updated automatically bygoing through the appraisalrecords. The biodata form is

displayed below, which captures all thenecessary recommendations regardingeach staff during appraisal. The formconsists of three tabs (pages) two relatedto official information (appraisal is on page2) while one is related to staff personal data.

This form is directly connected with therecommendations and discipline tables, so

Table 2: Biodata before update

StaffNo Surname OtherNames Dept. SalGrad Rank

SN211 Moses Daut E. Geology 03/05 LECT II

SN227 Samaila Golong P. Maths 03/06 LECT II

SN311 Baba Moses T. M/Bio. 04/03 LECT I

SN345 Jessy Ubani W. Physics 02/05 ASST LECT

SN349 Kasim Ibrahim L. E/E 04/04 LECT I

SN455 Adamu Aso K. IT 01/06 GRAD ASST

SN566 Mike Moris C. Econs 07/02 PROFESSOR

SN776 Bright Algo D. Stat/OR 06/02 ASSO PROF

SN789 Woolder AsemleVan

Maths 02/04 ASST LECT

Table 3: Biodata after update

StaffNo Surname OtherNames Dept. SalGrade Rank

SN211 Moses Daut E. Geology 04/01 LECT I

SN227 Samaila Golong P. Maths 04/02 LECT I

SN311 Baba Moses T. M/Bio. 05/01 SNR LECT

SN345 Jessy Ubani W. Physics 03/04 LECT II

SN349 Kasim Ibrahim L. E/E 05/02 SNR LECT

SN455 Adamu Aso K. IT 02/03 ASST LECT

SN566 Mike Moris C. Econs 07/02 PROFESSOR

SN776 Bright Algo D. Stat/OR 06/02 ASSO PROF

SN789 Woolder Asemle Van Maths 03/03 LECT II


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that each time the appraisal exercise isthrough, the modules are activated and thenecessary recommendations and disciplineare automatically updated. Changes inlevel/rank are performed based on theinformation obtained from the appraisal

table. Prior to performing any operation inthe database, variables were declared toaccess the database, and recordsetsopened on the database to navigatethrough it, as usual. The module belowaccomplishes this.

Private Sub SalaryIncr()Dim hrms As DatabaseDim AppraisalRec As RecordsetDim StaffRec As RecordsetDim OldGrade, NewGrade, NewRank As

StringSet hmrs = OpenDatabase(App.Path &

"DatabaseFolder\hrms.mdb")Set ApprasalRec =

hrms.OpenRecordset("Appraisal",dbOpenSnapshot)

Set StaffRec =hrms.OpenRecordset("Biodata",dbOpenRecordset)AppraisalRec.MoveFirst

With ApprasalRecWhile Not .EOF

NewGrade = AppraisalRec!SalGrade

NewRank = AppraisalRec!RankStaffRec.Filter ("StaffNo = '" &

AppraisalRec!StaffNo & "' AndSession = '" &

AppraisalRec!Session & "'")OldGrade = StaffRec!SalGradeIf OldGrade < NewGrade Then

StaffRec!SalGrade = NewGradeStaffRec!Rank = NewRank

End If.MoveNext

LoopEnd With

End Sub

A sample run from the module above usingthe Appraisal and Biodata files is givenbelow. The sample run was filtered for onesession of appraisal. Table 1 is used tocapture appraisal data before the moduleabove is run, while table 2 is biodata tableprior to the execution of the module. After

running the module, data in the table 1 wasused to update the table 2, thereby yieldingtable 3 as the new biodata table. As thetables display, only the records thatappeared in the appraisal table wereaffected in the biodata table.

The Web Backbone

Solutions must scale up to meet the growingdemands of the operating environment. Tobe able to attract quality intellectualcapital, the system must be global in thenature and offer global best practices in theselection of staff recruitment, training andpromotion. The system is based on databaseconnectivity software like SQL 2000 ororacle. It uses the thin client front andsolution that is browser based.

Role based security structure

Security is a prime conservation in softwareimplementation. This is so because theintegrity of data is crucial to the attainmentof the objectives of the software service. Arole-based access system allocates roles tousers and enforces the operations they cancarry out. At the browser front end,candidates register and create curriculumrecords. After that, they are issued a uniquepersonnel identification number with whichthey can track and update their Curriculum

Vitaes (CVs). Internal users have role-basedaccess control facility that defines theoperations they can perform. These includecreation of staff records, editing of records,viewing records, printing of reports, grantingof access rights and so on.

Essential characteristics of the software.

If the model above minimizes a real worldproblem then it should be applied to aspecific problem. The desirablecharacteristics of this software will be asfollows:

a. Robustness: the ability to function inabnormal circumstances or inunintended manner

b. Extendibility: the ease of adopting aproduct so that it may be easilyextended to capture new behavior.

c. Reliability: the capability to bereused in part or whole and when


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used in another context it has all theappropriate behavior as a unit.

d. Compatibility: the ease with whichproducts may be combined

Functionability of the software

The Functionability of software is the totalityof the services it offers its users. The webbased HR system will offer its services to thefollowing class of users:

* External users

The external users are potential users that willuse the software to post CV records, trackthe status of the CV and update them asnew skills are acquired.

* Internal users

These users consists of internal staff whoshould be able to create new staff records,update staff records, delete records, viewreports, assign access rights to various usersand create review transaction and access.

CONCLUSIONWe are living in an era where technologyhas created serious impact onorganizationalforms and structures. A University faces thechallenge of streamlining its services to meetthe competition of attracting new entrants

and research funding.

The final product of the University is thequality of graduates it produces and the

quality of its research efforts. To be able toachieve this, the University needs to attracthigh quality graduates and researchers. Aweb enabled HR system eliminates thebarrier of time and space in the attraction oftalents. It will also make the HR process more

transparent and accountable, thus makingthe enforcement of global best practicespossible. This will lead to better qualityresearch and higher flow of research grantfrom multilateral organizations. It will alsogenerate greater overall productivity in theUniversity system.

REFERENCEAhmadu, A. S. (2002). A computer basedhuman resource system. MSc Thesis, ATBUBauchi.

Sully, P. (1993). Modeling the world withobjects. Prentice Hall.

McEvoy, K. (1988). A Game plan for systemsdevelopment. Yourdon Press.French, W. L (1978). The PersonnelManagement Process. Houghton MifflinCo.

Beach, D. S (1975). The management ofpeople at work, New York, Macmillan .

Argyris, C. (1964). Integrating the individualand the organization New York, Wiley.

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