Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

Analysis of a Local Government’s HR-ICT Governmental Unit

An Executive Summary

Author: E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)

College of Liberal Arts

Public Affairs & Security Studies

Master of Public Affairs-Administration

October 3, 2015

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An Executive Summary

Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

Analysis of a Local Government’s HR-ICT Governmental Unit

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Author: E. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate

October 3, 2015

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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)

Public Affairs & Security Studies

Master of Public Affairs-Administration

PAFF 6315: Management of Government Information Technology

Lecturer: John R. Milford

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An Executive SummaryHuman Resources & Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

Analysis of a Local Government’s HR-ICT Governmental UnitE. Rey Garcia, MPA Candidate

October 3, 2015

This Executive Summary seeks to demonstrate an analysis of the City of Weslaco’s HR-ICT

governmental unit, and how the Human Resource Department effectively and efficiently

integrates with the Information Technology Department’s (IT) - Information &

Communications Technologies (ICTs), which is defined by Rouse, M. as “an umbrella term

that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular

phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the

various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance

learning.” Government Information Technology departments use ICTs to deliver public

information directly to users’ smart devices via a network of secure servers, routers, computers,

with cloud computing access to apps, social media, mobile web, texting, email, blogging, etc.

Human Resources is defined by Investopedia as the department in charge of finding,

“screening, recruiting and training job applicants, as well as administering employee-benefit

programs.” With the approval of the Mayor and City Council, the HR Department must keep a

current copy of all HR-Laws, job descriptions, employee salaries and grade structure, and the

organizational structure, employee evaluations, and other HR-related forms and documents,

including a copy of the city’s personnel policies, which govern the organization’s professional

culture. The Human Resource Department plays a key role in helping the city’s directorial

structure to keep current with a fast-changing environment, which demands staying current with

the latest government enterprise technologies, a demand for higher education and professional

experience, and a skill-set which demands an inordinate amount of job responsibilities for the

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city’s department heads. According to a research conducted by The Conference Board, a not-for-

profit organization for businesses that distributes information about management and the

marketplace, the following are six key people-related activities that human resources completes

and add value to the organization:

1) Effectively managing and utilizing people.

2) Trying performance appraisal and compensation to competencies.

3) Developing competencies that enhance individual and organizational performance.

4) Increasing the innovation, creativity and flexibility necessary to enhance competitiveness.

5) Applying new approaches to work process design, succession planning, career

development and inter-organizational mobility.

6) Managing the implementation and integration of technology through improved staffing,

training and communication with employees.

HR-ICT, an Efficient and Effective Governmental Unit - Weslaco’s Human Resource and IT

Departments are both located at Weslaco City Hall. The HR-ICT infrastructure operates via an

Intranet and Extranet through a framework of network computers, thin-client computers, servers,

all via the city’s Enterprise Architecture, which, according to Google Online Dictionary, is “a

conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of an organization. The intent of

an enterprise architecture is to determine how an organization can most effectively achieve its

current and future objectives.” The city’s state of the art, robust and secure Multiprotocol Label

Switching (MPLS) encrypted fiber network, a protocol or special set of rules that end points in a

telecommunication connection use when they communicate. Protocols specify interactions

between the communicating entities and are used for network acceleration and regulation of

traffic flows or data transfer to assure a certain level of performance and quality of service. This

complex fiber network allows for little to no-downtime and gives employees from the city hall

and remote locations, or those working from home, the ability to securely access a collaborative

Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) 6

environment within the city’s Intranet processing data transferring on a protocol of inbound and

outbound interactions via the fiber network’s Extranet environment, linking all remote facilities

and staff to all of the city’s proprietary software and files, and HR-related documents, such a

policies, procedures, training, disaster recovery information, the organization’s strategic goals

and mission statement, and other HR forms which reside within the city’s main data server(s),

housed at the City Hall Data Center, thus allowing for redundancy in case of a disaster recovery

phase. It enables both the improvement of services to the employees and allows the HR staff to

have a central point of management within the Intranet-based ICT infrastructure, which allows

HR staff administrative access to all personnel policies and all HR-documents, allowing for

instantaneous updates to the organization’s HR documents that govern the culture, leadership

and employees in the shared environment of the HR-ICT governmental unit.

Open Government is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OEDC) as “the transparency of government actions, the accessibility of

government services and information, and the responsiveness of government to new

ideas, demands and needs.”

E-Government is defined by the World Bank as “the use by government agencies of

information technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens,

businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of

different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions

with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more

efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption,

increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.”

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The Human Resource and IT Departments, by continuing to work together, and delivering an

HR-ICT system that harnesses both Open Government and E-Government, building the

framework of the HR-ICT governmental unit that works in a collaborative network, ensuring up-

to-date information in little to no down-time, and allowing employee accessibility to HR-

documents and promoting a higher-level of leadership credibility, ethics and morals based on

public trust, establishing a system of transparency, participation, and engagement, where

openness strengthens democracy and promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of our

government. Governments who establish transparency via Open Government or E-Government

and follow best practices for delivering data, use the HR-ICT infrastructure to deliver the Human

Resource Department’s information via the Information Technology Department’s Intranet to

city employees and use both social media, the city’s portal website, mobile web, and the

Extranet/Internet to engage with the public.

Governments must seek to adopt the following six success factors that are part of HR

reengineering efforts through the use of IT. 1) Senior management involvement, 2) Clear

vision and model, 3) All-level of staff involvement, 4) Early, ongoing, candid

communications, 5) Support systems integration, and 6) Empowerment of teams and

promoting accountability. Furthermore, the role of HR and information systems are

transitioning from focusing on operational and administrative to being more strategic,

consultative, and proactive through the Three Stage of IT use and its impact on HR, including:

the Operational, which is used to reduce the need for personnel; the Informational, and

Relational, which goes beyond automation to focusing on the effectiveness and the benefits for

those using the HR-ICT system; the Transformational fosters a climate of professionalism in

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the organizational culture, endorsing both innovation and altering the structure of the

organization and it’s leadership.

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ReferencesA Citizen's Guide to Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0. (2013, June 10). Retrieved June 1, 2015, from https://onlinempa.unc.edu/a-citizens-guide-to-open-government-e-government-and-government-2-0/

Reddick, C. (2012). Human Resources Information Systems. In Public Administration and Information Technology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Rouse, M. (n.d.). What is ICT (Information and Communications Technology - or Technologies)? - Definition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved August 30, 2015, from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/ICT-information-and-communications-technology-or-technologies

Human Resources - HR Definition | Investopedia. (2005, March 10). Retrieved October 2, 2015, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humanresources.asp

The Conference Board | Investopedia. (2005, January 4). Retrieved October 2, 2015, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conferenceboard.asp

What is Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2015, from http:// searchenterprisewan.techtarget.com/definition/Multiprotocol- Label-Switching