Employee relationship management

An employee relationship management (ERM^[1]) system is an information system that supports the relationship between a company and its employees.

Employee relationship management has focused on enabling employees to collaborate on typical managerial tasks with their employers. By engaging inputs from both sides of the employment relationship, ERM platforms aim to align the interests of both parties, worker and employer, and inform day-to-day business functions under a streamlined workflow.

Components and Functions

The components of an employee relationship management platform are multiple, and, as in customer relationship management, achieve the goal of assisting the employee in the whole life cycle of her/his activity in and for the company.

Employee relationship management platforms include but are not limited to the following functions:

• Job search and recruitment
• Job application and hiring
• Schedule generation
• Shift management (e.g. inter-employee shift trades and cancellations)
• Training
• Employee evaluations
• Workplace and manager evaluations
• Rewards and recognition
• Messaging and communication^[2]

and some other component may differ as the application changes.

Classification

The employee relationship management classification differentiates from other Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) and Workforce Management Systems (WMS) by considering the whole employee, taking steps to ensure that the employee's work-life needs are well balanced and accounted for in the computation of work assignments.^[3] For example, current platforms on the market, such as WorkJam, allow workers to find jobs based on their availability, and once they are hired, employees can view schedules and choose when they work in accordance to employer and regulatory staffing requirements.^[4]

References