The HRM field is entering smart businesses where the human,
digital and high-tech dimensions seem to increasingly converge, and HRM needs
to anticipate its own smart future. Technological developments and
interconnectedness with and through the Internet (often called the “Internet of
Things”) set new challenges for the HRM function. Smartness enacted by HRM
professionals – notions of “smart industries”, “smart things” and “smart
services” – all put new pressures on strategic HRM. Since the 1990s,
organisations have increasingly been introducing electronic Human Resource
Management (e-HRM), with the expectation of improving the quality of HRM and
increasing its contribution to firm performance. These beliefs originate from
ideas about the endless possibilities of information technologies (IT) in
facilitating HR practices, and about the infinite capacity of HRM to adopt IT.
This book focuses on the progression from e-HRM to digital (d-HRM) –
towards smart HRM. It also raises several important questions that businesses
and scholars are confronted with: What kind of smart solution can and will HRM
offer to meet the expectations of the
latest business developments? Can HRM become smart and combine
digitisation, automation and a network approach? How do businesses futureproof
their HRM in the smart era? What competences do employees need to ensure
businesses flourish in smart industries? With rapid technological developments and ever-greater automation and
information available, the HRM function needs to focus on non-routine and
complex, evidence-based and science-inspired, and creative and value-added
professionally demanding tasks.