DOCUMENT RESUME ED 084 382 CE 000 533 AUTHOR Bayhylle, J. E., Ed.; Hersleb, A., Ed. TITLE The Development of Electronic Data Processing in Manpower Areas; A Comparative Study of Personnel Information Systems and their Implications in Six European Countries. INSTITUTION Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France) . PUB DATE 73 NOTE 366p. AVAILABLE FROMOECD Publications Center, Suite 1207, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20006 ($8.50) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC- $13.16 DESCRIPTORS Case Studies; Data Bases; Data Processing; *Ecqnomic .Research; *Electronic Data Processing; Information Processing; Information Systems; *Manpower Utilization; *Personnel Data; Personnel Management; Questionnaires ABSTRACT Usable data about human resources in the ecqnqmy are fundamentally important, but present methods of obtaining, organizing, and using such information are increasingly unsatisfactory. The application of electronic data processing to manpower and social concerns should be improved and increased. This could stimulate closer exchange between government, institutions, and business enterprises in the collection and dissemination of manpower data. The first phase of the study was a broad-scope questionnaire of 38 companies in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and Switzerland which have developed, or are planning to develop, computer-based personnel information, systems. The second phase consisted of depth study of eight of the companies. Case study investigations were concerned with the content and function of the system and with the administrative and personnel consequences of the introduction of such systems. A set of key.points which emerged from the study is developed. A model demonstrates the need for coordination to increase communication vertically and horizontally. The questionnaires used and statistics analyzed are included.(MS) e* I ri` Lu I '4? 4 1.1.4()% 10 A( P.00". fS V11Rtc I DI PAY.I OS .41 At to. (At)fl I III1(A1104 IV) Ot:CD 11041 145111111) O (MCholy ,-)lArt.earn on(11.7.1W's (,PIRA TING ll, :)(Cal4Et PAWS WI,. T.)TICNIAt !,T,,11(orr DuC110 ILA/1.0141411'400 Dor/It!.01/15,01 .1.1I I)(SSIE V Pt I : 1 Oto.(..PI PV...:Sity,0) twrCooillow OVINE .r% THE DEVELOPMENT OF electronic data processing IN MANPOWER AREAS ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO.OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT 7 he Organisation for Economic Co-operation and nes el, opulentI 0 1.(' 1) ssus sct up under 1.1 CIMI'Clif ionsigned in Paris on 141h De( /S160, ssInch pros ides that the orC1) shall promote pf,licies designed to achiele the highest .sus'-rouble es- inornic gross!!! and employment and a rising standard of blow in 3/ember countries-, while Pt intaining 1. ,uncial sta- bility, and thus to contribute to the deselopm.nt of the world economy; to contribute to .sound economic e.sponsion in ,Sfernber (1% well as non-member countries tt the I. ,'t, ss ccommlir development ; to contribute to the etpartVon of world trade on a multilateral. nondiscriminatory ha,is in acciirdarice with international obligations.. The Afentherc of OECD are Australia, ,.1u.stria, Canada, DerimarA, /inland, France, the Federal ktpublic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan. I.u.tembourg, the ,etherlands, New Zealand, Nor way, t'ortagal, Spain, Sweden, Swd:eriand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1973. Queries concerning permissions ortranslationrights should be addressed t.): Director of Information, OECD 2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France. TILE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING in VANPOWER AkEAS (A comparative study of per:;onnel information systems and their implic.ations in six European Countries) Edited By J.E. Bayhylle, Manpower Planning Co-ordinator, Unigate Ltd., London, England. A. Hersleb, Manpower Planning Manager, Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd. London, England. iii CONTENTS Preface .. Chapter Title P. Introdk(`Aon - General Problems of Information about Manpower in Govern- ment and Industry 1 II Overall Sumoary, Conclusions and Recommendations of this Report .. 44 III The Case Studies No.1 --The Hamburg Power Company .. 59 No. 2 - The Ford Motor Co. Ltd. Cologne 70 No.3 - Siemens A.G. (Munich and Berlin) .. 82 No. 4 S.A.A.B. Scania A.B. .. 97 No. 5 Credit Lyonnais .. .. 108 No. 6 - Philips Industrie Ges. M.b.H. Vienna No. 7 - Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd... No. 8 Civil Service Department IV An Analysis of some Start-up and Operational Costs (Based on the U.K. Studies, but of general interest to all users) .. .. 191 V Analyses of the Study .. .. 210 ANNEXES Number Title rage, Outline for Inventory on "Co-ordination of Manpower and Related Data & Classification Systems" .. .. .. 323 lI Survey of Some Aspects of Manpower Information in the U.K. .. 326 III List of Participating Companies Appendix I Phase I .. 347 Appendix II Phase II .. 348 IV List of Experts Group .. .. 349 vi PREFACE The Development of Electronic Data Processing in Manpower Areas (A comparative Study of Personnel Information Systems and their implications in six European countries). The report that follows describes events occurring at the initiative of the O.E.C.D. that culminated in an in depth study of select companies in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland who have developed or are planning to develop, computer based personnel information systems. The report also describes the study (itself and attempts to examine the results therefrom in a way that will benefit government bodies who are engaged in national planning in manpower areas; institutions such as employers' associations similarly engaged; companies who are currently planning the introduction of such systems; and companies, such as the participants, who wish to exchange information and ideas that will enhance the viability of their existing systems. Although the study itself does not investigate the needs of national bodies in the collection of manpower data as such, we have included a discussion of these problems (see Chapter I) with a view to stimulating a closer exchange between government, institutions, and business enterprises to overcome or minimise the problems surrounding the interface between these organisations in the collection and dissemination of manpower data. The editors are grateful for the cooperation and time given by participating companies to the investigators of the study and hope they may find the results as useful to themselves as to otherswho may benefit. They would also like to thank Mr. Linder and his colleagues of the Swedish Council for Personnel Administration and Dr. Bartelt of the D.G.F.P. (German Institute of Personnel Management) for their invaluable contributions to the work. vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Manpower Information: The need for Mutual. Aid BY: A. Hersleb and E. Kempf THE UNDERLYING PURPOSE The aim of this introductory paper is to place the reported investigation and case studies of employer systems in their wider context rather than to review their specific contents and findings this will be done in the body of the report. Nor is it the intention to write an essay on theories of manpower classification, to discuss the specifics of computer applications and system operation, or to produce a design-study for a manpower information system. This preliminary section of the report is introductory in the sense that it attempts to illuminate the background needs and ideas commonly encountered at both macro and micro levels in regard to manpower information and its collection, processing and uses. In doing so it will try to make as concrete as possible by example the sort of problems which people come up against and the issues which have to be faced in seeking systematic and sensible ways of improving our common knowledge, overcoming novel and challenging difficulties, and meeting clearly defined and essential wants with utility and economy, and without causing administrative chaos or endangering the essential responsibilities and liberties of others in the process. The underlying conclusion and message emerging from the whole report is that this is a novel area in which knowledge and experience are being gained very rapidly and that we can all learn from and help each other. The report originates from an appreciation of this, gained from encounters with essentially the same problems concerning manpower data in many other OECD studies and situation reports, and from OECD's desire to promote this mutual-aid quickly and pragmatically in order to help practical men in authority overcome urgent and growing problems in sensible and efficient ways within the limitations of present knowledge and of what is possible. It is thus less concerned with what ought to be than with what can be. The need for common understanding and effective action in this general area is indeed becoming urgent. This introductory section hopes to emphasise this, and to show that although the subject of the report is that of the application of the computer to manpower information and its uses within enterprise, this and the similar studies which are needed in the manpower area are of wider significance to society as a whole and of particular relevance to the problems of governments and to informed and effective macro and intermediate level administration in general. Usable data about human resources in the economy and in its constituent employing organisations is fundamentally and increasingly important; so is knowledge about people as citizens and consumers of 1 administrative services; so, equally, is the counterglow of information to organisations and employees and citizens. This is why OECD commissioned the enquiry in the first place not to get personnel managers interested in computerised records and manpower planning (useful though this may be), but to get across to all in government and 1. industry and other concerned institutions that present ways of obtaining, organising_and using information about human resources are increasingly unsatisfactory and inadequate. It is. beginning to_be widely recognised that the application of electronics to statistical data, methods, and.communication has the capacity now to transform the rPsources and methods of administration.