Importance of the internet to human resource practitioners in Hong Kong

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the perceptions of the importance of the internet to human resource management (HRM) and to understand the existing human resource (HR) practices and needs of the internet to support HRM functions. Design/methodology/approach - A structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data from selected public companies quoted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Questionnaires were returned by 147 respondents and used for the analysis. The overall response rate was 29 percent, which was higher than expected. Findings - The findings indicated that the most frequently cited internet-supported HRM function in the existing literature is recruitment and selection. The results showed that there are no significant organization size differences or significant differences in internet connectivity as far as the perceived importance of the internet to HR practitioners is concerned. Specifically, helping managers to stay informed is the most important reason for adopting the internet for HR practitioners. Originality/value - This study has proved that internet-based HR offers enormous opportunities to improve organization performance. This paper introduces the reader to the potential use of the internet to support HRM.