UTILIZATION OF E-GOVERNANCE SERVICES:

A CASE STUDY OF HRMS PROJECT IN KARNATAKA

VahiniRajeshwari R

Asst ProfessorsDept of Electronic Media

Bangalore University

Abstract • Karnataka is the first state to implement electronic

governance in human resource management system (HRMS).

• Karnataka has separate department of E-Governance which takes care of various electronic administrations across the government departments.

• Present study investigates the implementation, utilization problems and prospective of HRMS and online job recruitment process.

• Digital divide and knowledge gap are noted as barriers for this process.

Introduction

• E-Governance is the application of Information-Technology in the process of Government functioning to ensure the highest standard of services to the citizens by providing instant access to selected Government information, and interferes for communicating with the various government functionaries, wherever and whenever they need it.

E-governance in Karnataka

• Karnataka is in 3rd place with respect to e-governance implementation in India.

• Several e-governance projects are implemented in Karnataka successfully.

• Bhoomi, HRMS, Vahan, Sarathi, Khjane, Bangalore one, AWATR, Nemmadi, e-procurement, KSWAN, e-vahini etc are to name few.

• The focused area of this research is human resource development and management under government as part of E-governance.

On Going e-Gov Projects in Karnataka state

BHOOMI

KHAJANE

Bangalore-1

KSWAN

KIOSKS / Websites

LPO/ e vahiniSecretariat

e- Governance

AWATR

HRMS

III Position at the National level

Complexities of e-Governance.

e-Governance

Technology Management

Resource Management

Program Management Knowledge

Management

7 Steps in e Government Implementation

Concept understand

1Vision

2 Plan3

Capacity Building

4Execute

5Evaluate6

Integrate7

Slow evolution, but not a revolution

April 10, 2023 Assurance & Advisory Business Services 8

Critical factors for SuccessCritical factors for Success

TECHNOLOGYTECHNOLOGY

PROCESS

PROCESSPE

OPL

EPE

OPL

EAll 3 Components NeededAll 3 Components Needed

HRMS• Karnataka government implemented HRMS in

March 2005. • The HRMS system takes care of service records

maintenance and payroll generation of employees.

• The payroll module automates the pay process by gathering data on employee attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes, insurance, allowance, bank details, mode of payments and generating periodic pay cheques.

• In government, the pay bill is then submitted to treasury for payment.

Objectives of HRMS

System Architecture

Payroll generation in nutshell

FINAL PAYBILL

Enter Mode Of Payment

Deductions & Recoveries

Enter Insurance Details

Allowances

ECS/Cheque

Submit to Khajane

Generate Draft Pay-Bill

Attendance Register

Affect Increment

Stagnation Increment

Stoppage of Allowances & Deductions

ApproveDraft PayBill

Error Verify

Yes

No

RejectYes

Start

Annexures

Regenerate Paybill

Khajane Interface

Generate Pay bill in HRMS application Converted to

XML

Treasury verifies the receivedPay bill data

Make the payment for employees

If approved

If found wrong send the Message back to HRMS Using windows services

Sent to treasury

Online recruitment process• In Karnataka, all government recruitments are done

through KPSC. • The job notification and recruitment process

completely made online in 2009, with this there is no necessity of submitting hard copy of application.

• The online application filing process is minimizing the work load of recruiters, eliminating the data entry errors, providing platform for transparent selection process and saving the time.

• KPSC is outsourcing this from the stage of notification to compilation of job applications.

• The private software firm is providing software facility and server facilities.

Cont…• Online recruitment procedure is done in following steps:• Decision to fill vacancy, Department write to Public service

commission to start action, Notification for recruitment is posted to PSC web site, Application forms are completed, Data from published application forms is entered into the computer system including photos, Applicants are given receipt of application, eligible candidates list will be announced, examination date is notified, exams are conducted, result of the exams and key answers is announced, rejected candidates list also will be uploaded, 1:5 candidates are called for interview, Merit list is published, provisional selection list is made, after verification of records the final selection list is prepared and letter of appointment is issued. In this process every stage the fee paid will be validated with application filed, certain validation filters also incorporated in the application. While filing the application most of the ineligible candidate will be screened under validation procedures.

Theoretical Perspectives

• This field of study can be analyzed with the help of knowledge gap theory and digital divide.

• Knowledge gap theory demonstrates, the knowledge gap can result in an increased gap between people of lower and higher socioeconomic status. The attempt to improve people’s life with information via the mass media might not always work the way this is planned.

• The term 'digital divide' describes the fact that the world can be divided into people who do and people who don't have access to - and the capability to use - modern information technology, such as the telephone, television, or the Internet.

Objectives • To find out various e-governance projects in

Karnataka and across India• To collate the background and working pattern of

Human Resource management system• To find out the reach, implementation and

utilization of HRMS in Karnataka• To understand the process of online job

notification and recruitment process in Karnataka for government jobs

• To analyze the problems and prospective of online application filing process.

Hypothesis

• H1: Government employees of Karnataka are successfully utilizing the HRMS for their salary and service record maintenance.

• H2: For Government recruitments, online job notification and selection procedures speed up the recruitment process by reducing human resource involvement at the recruiters end.

• H3: Digital divide is preventing the eligible rural youth from applying for government job.

Methodology• This study uses secondary data from the government

departments related to various e-governance projects in Karnataka and Online application process implemented by KPSC.

• Primary data is collected with the structured questionnaire and In-depth interview with the survey research design.

• To accomplish objectives survey is conducted with two distinct groups.

• Total sample size is 122.First set is having the sample size of 60, which is divided into two categories namely drawing officers/ administrators and Government employees who come under the purview of HRMS.

• Sample size of second group of respondents is 62, including job aspirants from rural and urban with system administrators and recruiters.

Locale of the study

• Karnataka state is taken for the study. • Karnataka is divided in to two parts, North

Karnataka and South Karnataka. • Each part is given equal representation in

sample selection. • From each part rural and urban areas are

given equal representation. • Telephonic interview is conducted among

respondents with structured questionnaire. • In-depth interview is done to collect data from

system administrators.

Data gathered from 60 respondents HRMS

Table 1.1 Respondents Distribution

Category South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Employees 13 12 12 13

Drawing Officers 2 2 2 2

System Administrators - 1 - 1

Table 1.2. Respondent’s responses on the infrastructure facilities under HRMS

Category South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No

Employe

es

10 3 12 0 7 5 10 3

Drawing

Officers

2 - 2 - 0 2 1 1

Table: 1.3. Respondents opinion on making SR online

Category South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Yes No Don’t

Know

Yes No Don’t

Know

Yes No Don’t

Know

Yes N

o

Don’t

Know

Employees 8 3 2 12 0 0 6 4 2 10 0 3

Drawing

Officers

2 - 2 - 2 - - 2 - -

Online job notification process

Table: 2.1 Sample distribution

Category South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Job aspirants 15 15 15 15

System Administrators - 1 - 1

Table: 2.2 Digital literacy rate of respondents

Reply South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Yes 10 12 5 6

No 5 3 10 9

Table: 2.3 Respondent’s opinion regarding online application filing.

Reply South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Dependent 12 10 15 15

Non-dependent 3 5 0 0

Table 2.4 Response for the online application intimation

Source of Information South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Friends/family members 8 3 11 5

TV/Radio/Newspaper 7 8 4 8

KPSC Website 0 4 0 2

Table 2.5 the hazards in online application filing

Hazards South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Technical problems 12 4 15 8

Lack of information 6 6 6 6

Accessibility 4 0 5 0

No hazards 2 10 1 5

Internet facility

South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

At home 0 4 0 2

< 5 KM 2 11 1 13

6-15 7 0 5 0

16-25 5 0 4 0

26 < 1 0 5 0

Table 2.6. The distance need to be travelled in filing online application

Table 2.6. The distance need to be travelled in filing online application

Table 2.7 Respondent’s opinion on continuation of online application process for recruitments

Reply South Karnataka North Karnataka

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Yes 6 12 6 12

No 5 3 4 3

With modification 4 0 5 0

Discussion

• Drawing officers are the opinion that the HRMS brought a single window system to keep service records and salary bills, this is beneficial to all especially during transfers.

• System administrators expressed that the HRMS brought in discipline among staff. With HRMS, drawing officer and caseworker need to be very careful and on time. Some of the drawing officers are finding it difficult without any technical training.

Cont…

• The system administrators are of the opinion that the online application filing procedure is beneficial and speed up the process of recruitment.

• The scrutiny of application is made easier where the recruiter just need to take the final statement of applications filed online.

• Many respondents irrespective of their locality lost the chance of applying due to lack of information on online notifications.

• Several times over rush in the cyber centers and DTP centers, candidates failed to apply.

Conclusion• The evaluation of HRMS reveals that, the project is

successfully implemented and being utilized in Karnataka state. The data gathered from the respondents points out the systematic administration through HRMS is saving lots of human resource and bringing in discipline among employees and drawing officers.

• Online job recruitment procedure is taken a momentum in Karnataka. The recruitment process got speed up and decreased the burden of recruiters through online application filing. The digital divide is the major hurdle in this system. As mentioned in the knowledge gap theory the digital literacy plays important role in gaining knowledge in present information society. Socially, economically backward communities are not able to get acquaint with present revolution in information technology so that with online recruitment process.

Recommendations• The employee interface should be provided with respect to

service record maintenance under HRMS.• Government need to quickly provide infrastructures to

drawing officer and more training programs should be conducted.

• Mobile inter-phase facilities should be provided for the employees to make the project more user friendly.

• Employee should be able to apply for leave online through the mobile phones.

• The administration procedures are still manually done with physical file movements. By providing smart card and digital signature facility the administration work should be made online so that the process saves time.

Cont…• Job recruitment notification should be intimated to colleges and

universities and government should take care of proper publicity of the message.

• The selection list, examination date, result announcements should be made available at all local government agencies like Gram Panchayat, Nemmadi centers and public distribution centers.

• During application filing days 24 hours helpline should be made available instead of present office hour’s helpline.

• The filed application should be made available for the future corrections with secured user ID and pass word.

• The repeated notifications should be given till the deadline through all possible government communication system till the state achieves digital literacy.

• Since rural areas are not having cyber centers and other internet facilities, allied government organizations at villages should provide the opportunities to file the application.

• Visual demonstration of application filing will help the candidates.• Once created user ID and pass word should be made available along with

submitted Data for future application purpose as in UGC NET application filing.