Digital HR systems adoption and administrative efficiency in public institutions: the role of employee digital literacy

Purpose In Nigeria, public institutions often rely on traditional administrative practices, leading to slow decision-making, frequent errors, process bottlenecks and disorganization, largely stemming from the lack of digital HR systems adoption. It is in light of that that this study aims to examine digital HR systems adoption and administrative efficiency in public institutions: the role of employee digital literacy. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a positivism research philosophy with the use of a survey research design. The population of this study is 2,718 non-academic staff of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. This study used a systematic sampling technique to select a sample size of 349 determined through the Taro Yamane sample size formula from the population. The questionnaire was used, and items of the questionnaire were adapted from the previous studies. This study used descriptive statistics to analyze the profile of the respondent and items of the questionnaire, while inferential statistics via partial least squares (PLS) were used to analyze the formulated hypotheses. Findings The results of this study revealed that the adoption of digital HR systems has a positive and significant effect on administrative efficiency. And that employee digital literacy mediates the relationship between digital HR systems adoption and administrative efficiency. Originality/value This study introduces employee digital literacy as a mediating variable, offering a fresh perspective to understand the dynamic interactions between digital HR systems and the adoption of administrative efficiency in public institutions. Also, by applying this framework to public institutions, this study contributes original perceptions that inform targeted interventions and culturally relevant strategies to promote administrative efficiency.