Managing Personnel Records - International Records Management ...

? After twenty-six weeks, they may be entitled to statutory maternity pay.
? After two years, they may be entitled to a written statement of reasons for
dismissal, protection from unfair dismissal, redundancy compensation, paid time
off to look for work in the case of redundancy and guaranteed return to work after
pregnancy.
It is essential that the personnel records are kept in good order, so that they can
demonstrate the organisation’s compliance with the laws or policies in force.
Traditionally, the majority of staff employed by the civil service and other public
sector bodies have had permanent status. This status normally entitles them to fulltime
employment and often a pension on retirement, in both cases subject to
satisfactory performance. They may also be entitled to allowances for
accommodation, travel, free or low-cost health schemes and other benefits such as
pensions for widows and children. Each of these various allowances increases the
complexity of the personnel management process and generates additional records.
The purpose of the legal framework for managing personnel
is to define the rights and obligations of employers and
employees and establish mechanisms for resolving disputes.
IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS
The public sector is generally the largest organisation in a country, often accounting
for between thirty to fifty per cent of national expenditure. Of that share, as much as
eighty percent may be spent on salaries, wages and pensions or other benefits for
public sector employees.
Because of its size and complexity, the public sector often faces considerable
problems in maintaining an accurate and up-to-date record of its employees. This
difficult, in turn, can result in excessive expenditure on the one hand and injustices to
individual staff on the other. The improvement of personnel management systems is
increasingly seen as a means of providing significant benefits to the government and
to individual staff, and the management of personnel records can make a vital
contribution to this process.
It is of primary importance to identify those people who create, use and are affected
by personnel records, in order to ensure their needs are met as personnel records
systems are improved. These people are known as stakeholders:
Stakeholder: Any person, group or other organisation
that has a claim on an organisation’s attention,
resources or output or is affected by that output.
MANAGING PERSONNEL RECORDS
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