Managing Personnel Records - International Records Management ...

The card will also record information about the employee’s career, such as
? details of postings and transfers, promotions
? retirement date, or date of leaving the service.
In some countries it may be difficult to gather all of this information about the
employee. Many employees may not have telephones, or the political situation may
make it inadvisable to ask employees about their ethnic background. Particularly in
countries where transport facilities are limited, employees from rural areas may find it
necessary to stay with friends or relatives while they are working. In organisations
where this situation is common it is wise to record both permanent and temporary
postal addresses.
Some details may be impossible to obtain. Employees may not always know their
date of birth. In this situation, registration clerks should be instructed to obtain a
statement from the employee about his or her approximate age. If the age has been
estimated, the entry should be clearly marked with an agreed wording such as
‘estimated’ or ‘approximate’.
This personal record card is a key document. Where significant information is
recorded (such as about a promotion), there is usually space for the signature of the
line manager and date of authorisation. Information from the personnel record card or
sheet should provide the basis for the design of personnel management databases.
These cards are sometimes scheduled for permanent preservation, rather than
preserving the entire personnel file, because they take up much less space. However,
this can only be considered if the cards contain complete and verified information.
A sample personal record card is shown in Figure 8.
Activity 9
Does your organisation create a personal record card? If so, examine the card or sheet
and compare it with the example in this lesson. Write down at least three suggestions
you might make to alter the organisation’s card to improve its layout, presentation or
content.
MANAGING PERSONNEL RECORDS
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