From HRM to e-HRM: Enhancing stakeholders’ relations through optimisation and digitalisation of HR processes at Bpost

Details

Supervisors

Foret, Marc

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

From the lowest share price since the initial Public Offering in July and a deep lack of postmen which lead to a full week of strike in November to a final agreement with the social partners as a Christmas gift in December, what a turbulent year it has been for Bpost in 2018. This relational conflict between Bpost’s management and its employees has been the HR issue tackled in this thesis with the following question: How to create and enhance positive stakeholders’ relations by optimizing and digitalizing the HR processes of Bpost? Based on a literature review, we rewrite our research focus points as two distinct assumptions that we will assess through two projects. The first assumption postulates that improving the working conditions of employees by involving their preferences within HR processes would positively boost relations between HR managers and employees. The second assumption suggests that e-HRM initiatives aiming at automating and digitalizing business processes would yield positive results in terms of knowledge sharing, communication and relational aspects between stakeholders. The project developed to assess the first assumption was about the modification of Bpost’s scheduling model according to employees’ preferences in terms of workplace. Nevertheless, even if the Employee Champion role has been reinforced, the downside of such short-term initiatives is that the interactions generated will not last in the long run. Secondly, the project explored to assess the second assumption was an e-HRM project willing to automate and digitalize the Leave Management process in order to create a personalized Leaves’ Calendar in the form of an application. In this case, e-HRM initiatives developing the Change Agent role appear to be good at creating lasting relations between stakeholders. However, an e-HRM service’s success relies on intensive communication about its ease of use and usefulness, offered trainings and employees’ involvement. To sum up, practical results inform us that focusing on the short-term projects, typical for an Employee Champion, will quickly lead to relations’ enhancement but they will be temporary. Whereas developing long-term e-HRM projects as a Change Agent will generate long-term lasting relations between stakeholders but it takes time and their success is depending on the new service’s success which must be supported by an intensive communication campaign. Both approaches have up and downsides and they should ideally be performed together such that each role will cope with the other one’s downsides.