The Effectiveness and Efficiency of HR-ICT Governmental Unit. - PAFF 6315: Management of Government Information System

1. 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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3. 2 Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
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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5. 4 Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
An Executive Summary
Human Resources & Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
Analysis of a Local Government’s HR-ICT Governmental Unit
E. 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

7. 6 Human Resources and Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
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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References
A 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