Managing Personnel Records - International Records Management ...

See Restructuring Current Records Systems: A
Procedures Manual for information gathering
methodologies.
It is also important to identify the organisation’s policy objectives for personnel
management before determining a plan of action. There are likely to be policy
statements and planning documents on the government’s objectives for the civil
service as well as policy documents specifically on personnel issues. The business
plan, where it exists, usually has implications for the management of personnel, and
this in turn has implications for the management of personnel records. For example, if
the government decides to increase the number of teachers or to make budget savings
by retrenching civil servants, these will all have implications for the management of
personnel records. Having obtained as much information as possible from written
documents, stakeholders should be asked for information to supplement the detail of
what has already been learned.
It is important to remember that different stakeholders will have differing and
sometimes conflicting objectives and priorities. If there are existing automated
personnel management systems, or plans to introduce them, the IT department will
also be a stakeholder with its own agenda, as well as being a service provider.
Priority 3: Analyse the Information Flows
An analysis of the way information flows within the organisation and between
organisations will identify unnecessary duplication, sometimes because the
information is simply not needed and sometimes because the activity it supports is no
longer meaningful. The analysis will also assist in identifying the boundaries of the
record keeping system and its main stakeholders. This is important because it is easy
to define the boundaries of the system too narrowly and then run into problems later.
The analysis may be represented in a simple flow chart or it may result in a much
more detailed set of diagrams and descriptive text depending upon the need. For
example the introduction of a computerised document management system will
require very thorough and detailed analysis of information flows (see Lesson 1). This
would normally be carried out by a specialist systems analyst. As a general rule,
wholly manual systems require rather less intensive analysis because manual systems
are much more tolerant of imprecision and ‘unwritten rules’ than automated systems.
The techniques outlined in Analysing Business
Systems provide an appropriate methodology for
analysing information flows.
Priority 4: Stabilise Existing Record-keeping Systems
The information gathering exercise should make it possible to decide where best to
direct the personnel records improvement programme. Because almost any change to
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