Got a personnel query? All you have to do is Ask

IT giant IBM has set up a one-stop Internet HR shop in Portsmouth, which handles 80 per cent of personnel queries from staff based around the world.

Employees contact the centre, known as Ask HR, via the Internet, intranet or telephone. Inquiries are handled by 20 fully-qualified personnel professionals who are fluent in the caller’s language.

Peter Squire, IBM’s director of executive recruitment for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told delegates at the CIPD seminar on the global HR manager that the service had produced a more streamlined HR system.

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Squire said the centre, which deals with enquiries from an employee base of 100,000, had reduced the number of HR professionals in the region from 1,100 to 900 in the last five years.

He said, "These are the HR professionals of the future and have the opportunities to follow careers in HR management globally or in their own countries."