Activity 1
Rationale
Acquiring and retaining different types of data about employees is an integral and essential part of a company’s function. The significance of information about staff members is justified by legal, economic, and financial reasons. First, a company needs to know that the employee working for them does not have any unresolved criminal issues. Next, a firm needs to be able to keep in touch with staff members in case of emergency.
Data Types
- Age, gender, address, etc.;
- Locating the employee’s gender and age group allows for more precise identification of the individual’s needs and qualities.
- Academic record and degrees;
- Although an employee’s academic record does not guarantee performance in the workplace, it is still necessary to identify the employee’s area of expertise, as indicated by their academic record of performance, including major.
- Skills and competencies;
- In a similar way to the previous data set, information about the areas where the staff member performs with the best proficiency can help in identifying potential future assignments and the company’s succession in planning.
- Previous work experience;
- The previous work record will offer essential data concerning the employee’s overall performance and skills.
- Possible criminal record;
- It is imperative to make sure that the staff member applying for the position should make no attempt at committing corporate fraud or engage in any other criminal behavior.
- Benefits package retrieved;
- It is essential to make sure that the employee’s needs regarding the provision of time off, retirement options, etc., are met; otherwise, poor performance is to be expected (Ventola 487).
- Salary and financial incentives retrieved;
- Keeping the track of financial rewards retrieved from the organization will help in understanding whether the staff member in question is satisfied, and whether performance delivered correlates with resources invested.
- Health issues;
- Identifying any health issues on the part of the employee, as well as managing the sickness absence, will help estimate the approximate number of sick days that they are likely to take in the near future.
- Overall workplace performance, etc.
- Information regarding employee performance is crucial to determining personal and professional growth. As a result, the degree to which the firm should invest in the staff member under analysis can be identified (Mollica 5).
Types of Data Storage
Types of Data Storage.
Data Storage: The UK and the Saudi Legislations
Data Protection Act
According to the Data Protection Act 1998, the personal information of users must be handled fairly and lawfully. Furthermore, the identified information must not be kept longer than necessary. Finally, safety and security are viewed as the top priority (“Data Protection Act 1998” par. 2).
Saudi Arabia
According to the Shari’ah principles, any invasion in one’s personal information is punishable. Therefore, data privacy violations are a punishable offense.
Activity 2
Analysis
The graph shows the current tendencies in vacancies filling in the UK. The data provided below has been retrieved from the CIPD database. The graph represents the changes in the filling of the existing vacancies in the public, private, and voluntary domains, as well as the areas of healthcare and administration. According to a recent CIPD report, there have been consistent issues with the choice of required HR strategies for attracting staff members over the past few years (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2).
As a result, the employees report numerous issues, including difficulties with filling vacancies, especially in the areas of health care and public administration. As the chart below shows, the current levels of recruitment success have dropped significantly over the past two years.
Findings
It would be wrong to assume that companies are not responding to the issues identified above. However, the approaches that have been undertaken so far and implying upskilling, in order to address the problems mentioned above, seem to be rather inconsistent and not quite sensible. As the CIPD report states, most organizations tend to focus on the strategies revolving around upskilling employees. Although this measure cannot be deemed as fully inappropriate, nevertheless, it fails to address the problem at the core of the phenomenon under analysis.
As the information in the graph shows, employers evidently seek to raise the standards for the upskill vacancies that need to be filled. Although understandable, the current strategy does not work, as the organizations under analysis seem to be unwilling to invest in the employees’ progress. Instead, employers should consider offering employees required for identified vacancies any necessary benefits that will encourage them to consider choosing from one of the organizations in public, private, and voluntary sectors, as well as in healthcare and public administration, as a possible workplace.
In addition, it would be a sensible step to offer staff members more opportunities for working in a more favourable environment, along with a more impressive benefit package. This step would create premises for the staff members to develop better communication skills and feel comfortable in the workplace; as a result, staff satisfaction rates would be expected to increase. The latter phenomenon would set prerequisites for increasing the employees’ competencies, which could be achieved by introducing a training plan of competency enhancement courses into the design of a company (Al-Misary, Al-Rifari, & Al-Monany, 2015).
The measures outlined above are admittedly difficult for an average organization to undertake. Investing in the development of staff’s communication and negotiation skills improvement can be a challenging process, requiring a major redesign of the company’s overall financial strategy and a radical change in the way the company’s financial resources are distributed among different departments of a firm.
Nevertheless, it is expected that the identified approach is going to have a large effect on current recruitment rates. Particularly, the process of filling vacancies is going to occur at a faster pace, as soon as companies promote better communication and contribute to the design of the strategies that will help address the emergent conflicts in a more sensible manner. Specifically, the employees will have to be able to learn to negotiate and acquire experience even from negative interactions, thus, solving a communication problem efficiently.
Addressing recruitment difficulties is a challenging task that demands impressive flexibility and HR skills. However, a closer focus on the rates of employee satisfaction may help address the problem. Therefore, it is essential that companies should consider investing in employees as a possible and promising tool for improving the current workplace environment. Although raising the bar is crucial, with an eye to keeping company standards high, it is also necessary to provide staff members with an opportunity to evolve and better their professional abilities within the company, thus contributing to the future development of the company itself.
Works Cited
Al-Misary, Maali M. M., Abedallah Al-Rifari, and Mohammed O. E. Al-Monany. “Training and Its Impact on the Performance of Employees at Jordanian Universities from the Perspective of Employees: The Case of Yarmouk University.” Journal of Education and Practice 6.32 (2015): 128-140. Print.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2016, Labour Market Outlook: Views from Employees. 2016. Web.
Data Protection Act 1998. 2016. Web.
Mollica, Kelly. “Banning the Box” in Employee Hiring.” Journal of Academic and Business Ethics 10.1(2015): 1-9. Print.
Pinfield, Stephen, Andrew M. Cox, and Jan Smith. “Research Data Management and Libraries: Relationships, Activities, Drivers and Influences.” PLOS One 9.12 (2014): 1-28. Print.
Ventola, Lee.C. “Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices.” Pharmacy and Therapeutics 39.7 (2014): 491-499. Print.