Introduction
Personnel records are the documents that are used to show the history of an employee from the day he or she began to work with the employer to the time he or she retired or terminated employment. They are either organized as personal files in hard copy or electronic formats. They include such details as the day of appointment, memorandum, correspondence, job advertisements, resumes, application letters, reference letters, appointment letters and acceptance letters. The records also have various information like leaves, immigration, position, salary and salary changes, awards, contracts and relief and release times (Abrams, 1997).
This report will highlight the importance of the personnel record to various parties in any organization. The report will highlight the importance of the records to the employer and how he can keep good records for his own benefit. It will also highlight the importance of the records to the employee and why he should thrive to ensure that purely positive accounts are in the personnel records that highlights his or her dedication to the employment and the various successes that have been accounted in the records.
The report will also highlight the importance of keeping personnel records and why organizations should endeavor to keep the records of their personnel. The report will also show why when the personnel come to retirement or terminate the employment his or her records should be stored rather than being discarded or destroyed. This is because they might be very useful in the future on various occasions (Isaacs, 2003).
Purpose of the Report
The purpose of this report is to show the importance of the personnel files. The report will show why personnel files should be stored and their importance to both the employer and the employee. The report will also show why your company will benefit from keeping personnel files and how it will ensure effectiveness in your human resource department. The report will also show how the personnel records will enhance the performance of the staff in all departments as well as the human resource department (Whittaker, 1996).
Personnel Record System Benefits
All organizations need to implement policies and come up with new policies and formulations so as to keep up with the ever increasing competition in the market. They also need to keep up a good rapport with their publics, these being their clients and suppliers and other parties that are concerned with their trade. In order for the organization to achieve these objectives, planning is an essential part and plays a very crucial role. Plans depend entirely on the organization’s information and the personnel planning also are very helpful for organizations. Personnel planning depends entirely on the information the organization has on its personnel and this information should be accurate so as to enable an organization to recruit and develop a staff that is full of potential and a very effective personnel. This contributes very much to the organization’s realization of its objectives and targets (Blandford, 2001).
Good records help organization’s managers to make sound decisions which are based on facts and not estimations or guesswork. They help in enlightening the managers of the personnel resources at hand and availability so as to meet the organization’s demands in the production and delivery of services and products as to the requirements. They also help the organization’s managers in precisely assessing the levels of performance of the personnel and their productivity levels. They also help the managers to identify the proceedings and absence levels, sickness, lateness, labor turnover, accidents, disciplines and other forms of issues that prevent the personnel from performing their day to day tasks. This will also help the managers to take the appropriate action so as to enforce the performance of the organization’s personnel (Soper, 1976).
Personnel records are very important because they give the management all the information and help in formulation and implementation of policies concerning employment. They also help the management and the human resource department in creating good guidelines for the hiring and recruiting of new personnel. Personnel records will also help the management in making crucial decisions concerning firing and dismissal of various employees who are not realizing their targets. The records also help on future hiring of personnel on grounds of sex, age, race and disability because the personnel records will give a clear factual about the kind of workers that perform highly in the organization (Carroll, 1987).
Accurate records also help in ensuring that workers get the collect pay and all other benefits that are qualified by them. This means that the welfare of the workers will be highly focused and this means that the personnel will be satisfied with the organization’s way of doing things. The company will also keep a good record as to which employees should be rewarded with various forms like pay increases and promotion. This information will be taken from the personnel records (Rodden, 2003).
Personnel records also contribute very much towards national statistics about employment and this information will only be taken from the personnel records. Such statistics show labor turnover, earnings, overtime and other statistics. This helps other entities like trade unions, employer’s association, and independent organizations among other to formulate and implement their own policies (Isaacs, 2003).
Personnel Records System Effectiveness
The information that is stored in the organization’s personnel records system includes very important information that could be used in many occasions that may arise. One of the information that it contains is the personal details of all the employees. This information is necessary for the security of the company so that it can also find their employees through various means in case of fraud. The systems also contain other information which includes work details. In this part, the system contains details of the work patterns of the employee, work contacts and photographs. These are very helpful for the company because it can also have the information about the employees who are performing and those who are not performing (Dix, 2002).
The system also have the personnel’ job and salary details. This means that the system can access information about the working records of the personnel and also the salary records of the personnel. The system also has specific details of the personnel job detail and where he or she is working and at which department, branch et cetera. The hours that the personnel are supposed to work are also contained in the system and hence when the personnel need to be called in by the management it is easy to locate him or her. The system also contains such information about the emergency contacts of the personnel in case anything happens. This is very helpful because employee’s can have their emergencies handled by their families who will be called in by the organization’s administration (Whittaker, 1996).
The system also keeps such records as the employeesâ absences and time keeping defaulting. This means that the most efficient employees are recorded and the less efficient ones are also known. This helps the management in reprimanding the people who do not keep their time or those who are habitual absentees. The system also keeps such records as the holiday entitlements for the personnel and hence the people who deserve a holiday are never denied. This also applies to other benefits as well which include retirement, health, disability and other benefits that are entitled to the personnel (Soper, 1976).
The system also keeps the contract information and so the management will be well updated if any contract is ending. The system will also give the management an idea if the personnel has been performing and hence if it is necessary for the contract to be renewed. This means that the management is updated on all the employeesâ contracts and information about the people who are supposed to retire or those who are supposed to have their contracts renewed is also available to the management by the system. The record system also shows the various developments that the personnel have gone through since the appointment day. This helps in determining the various training the employees have gone through and how they are trained to optimize their productivity (Dix, 2002).
The personnel records system also contains the bank details of all the employees hence easing the mode of payment for the employees. This is both beneficial to the management and the employees because while the management will not have problems of the various payments methods, the employees will have easy access to their money (Rodden, 2003).
Conclusions
An effective personnel record system is very beneficial for both the management because it offers a good tracking of the personnel and also helps the human resource in determining which type of employees are best suited for the company. One of the importances of keeping personnel records is that they help the management in analysing what type of employee are best fit their companies. This is because the records will show what type of employees optimizes in the organization and how they can help the organization in achieving its objectives. Although it may seem as if the organization is victimizing some people, it is also true that certain people cannot perform as well as other. In this respect the management will do a demographic analysis which will help in determining which type of sex is better as employees, age and various other issues (Isaacs, 2003).
It will also help the management to plan well in terms of the benefits of the employees. This is because the records keep track of all the employeesâ benefits and which employees qualify for some benefits and which. This will also help the management in ensuring that every employee gets his or her holiday, vacation or leave when it is due and that nobody is denied off their benefits. It will also help the management in analysing how many employees benefit with paid absences which are attributed to vacations, holiday and leaves. This helps in providing a well motivated personnel and this plays a very important role in the enhancement of the organization’s overall performance.
The records also play a very important role in the management decisions of firing and resigning some personnel. This is because the records show the personnel ability to cope with the ever increasing demands of the organization. A good example is where the organization keeps records of the personnel ability to meet targets and beat deadlines. It is also important for the personnel to keep record of the personnel that does not keep time and are often absent from the job. This means that when the company finds a certain employee is not good at keeping time, beating deadlines and meeting targets it will make a sound judgement on whether to lay off the employee or reprimand him or her (Whittaker, 1996).
The records also help very much when it comes to emergencies. Some employees may have accidents or have conditions that may require specialized medication or the help of a family member. The records have emergency contacts of the various employees in the organization and hence there is no need for the organization’s administration to go looking for the employeesâ families or relations. This has helped in many instances when employees have had various conditions in the office and they have needed the assistance from their doctors or family members. This means that the organization will not be jeopardized by these scenarios (Carroll, 1987).
The information about the employees contracts are contained in the records. This helps the organization in determining which employee’s contract will be terminated, renewed or restored. The records about the performance of the individual employee will help in determining these facts. Organizations which do not have these records are sometimes faced with dilemmas when they have to lay off some of the employees. In order to evade such a scenario or avoid lying off some of the most productive personnel, it is important for the organization to keep the records so that they can refer to them when the necessity arises (Rodden, 2003).
Recommendations
For a company to be able to make policies that work and implement them it needs to keep a good record of their personnel. This will assist the companies in determining the companies’ weak points and also how they can handle it.
The companies also need to be updating their records from time to time so that anything new can be catered for by the best personnel. This will also help in the formulation and implementation of new policies for the organization (Dix, 2002).
The personnel records should be kept as confidential as possible. This implies that only the personnel and the management can access the information that is held within the records. Failure to this would jeopardize the privacy of the personnel (Isaacs, 2003).
The organization should invest a substantial amount of its resources in its record keeping so that they can have the best personnel record systems. This ensures that there records are well updated and that they are easy to access.
The Organization should also invest in the most modern means of record storage and retrieval systems. This ensures that their record systems are efficient and easily accessible. In the same respect the organization should ensure that their systems are secure and that they cannot be accessed without authorization (Whittaker, 1996).
The organization should also ensure that their systems can adapt to new changes with little jeopardy as possible. This means that the system should be able to adapt to new changes without affecting the normal running of the organization.
References
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