A survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests organisations are failing to make the most of the technology available. Human resource information systems have the potential to alter the way people management and development professionals work to relieve administrative burdens and allow them more scope to play a strategic role. The Survey finds less than one fifth (16%) of systems were integrated with an organisation-wide IT system.One of the main reasons for introducing HR technology systems is to reduce the administrative burden. However a third of employers believe the reduction in the administrative burden is less than they expected. HR Systems are most likely to be used to monitor absence management (85%), training and development (75%) and reward (75%). These functions were also those most likely to form part of an integrated system. Over a quarter (28%) considered that their system was difficult for the HR department to use.
The water industry watchdog, WaterVoice, is calling for greater use of water metering to help manage future supplies and to meet the demand of the increasing numbers of homes over the next 15 years. Maurice Terry, the WaterVoice Chairman, has challenged the Government and the industry to promote metering more positively to ease the growing strain on water resources in the fastest-developing parts of the country.In England and Wales less than a third of household customers have a water meter. The figures vary between 63 per cent for Tendring Hundred Water, in Essex and 6 per cent for Portsmouth Water. Of the larger supply companies only Anglian Water – 52 per cent – and South West Water – 56 per cent – have a majority of their customers using metered water.
A report today from the family law group, Resolution, is calling for urgent changes to the Child Support Agency to make sure that the money it collects gets to the families who need it most. The reports says that since it was created in 1991 the CSA has lurched from crisis to crisis and is still failing to deliver money to the many lone parents dependent on it.”Reforming the Child Support Agency – putting money where mouths are” says that according to family lawyers children are the biggest losers. The major weakness identified in the report include the complexity and lack of flexibility in the present system and the widening of the CSA ‘net’ in 2003, which, it says, led to more families than ever becoming unnecessarily entangled in the Agency’s bureaucracy.