Recording, analysing and using HR information Essay

Recording, analysing and using HR information GFM needs to collect and record data for legal and internal reasons. Legally we need to ensure that we are complying with the â€Å"Working Time Regulations and pay rates for the Minimum Wage Act 1998 and tax and national insurance obligations†, we also need to be complaint with the data protection and freedom of information act. We need to ensure that employees know why we are holding this information and how we secure it. Internally we use the information to send reports to managers on absence, performance, salary, leavers and joiners, recruitment and health and safety. We also use this information to help us communicate any necessary information regarding themselves or company policies to individuals. The following data is collected from an employee either prior to their commencement of employment or the day that they start with us: CV / Application form New employee form, on this form it asks for personal information i.e. name, dob, contact numbers, address, marital status, national insurance number, next of kin details, bank details (sort code, account number and bank address) P45 or P46 Health and safety questionnaires Equal opportunities data Valid UK passport or full birth certificate Signed contract The reason the above information is collected is to support the HR function in the following ways: Legal / Compliance – with WTR, MWA, DPA and FOI Communication – To keep in touch with employees, address for written communication, phone numbers for verbal communication and next of kin details in case of emergency. We need to inform employees of any contract changes and policy and procedure changes Payroll – to ensure that we have the correct details on file so we can pay staff for the hours that they have worked in line with the Minimum Wage Act 1998 and tax and national insurance obligations Data capture – to produce accurate reporting on absence, recruitment, equal opportunities and health and safety, findings are presented to line managers for effective management  of their teams This information we hold is stored on our secure HR electronic system and manually in a locked filing cabinet. Holding this information electronically means that the information relating to any employee or former employee can be accessed quicker and the management of employee documents is easier. Another benefit of this is accuracy, easy to search for items contained within some ones file and less chance of someone else’s details being stored in another personnel file. It also requires less physical storage space, so if you are a company with limited storage space then this is a very effective solution. A benefit to having manually locked filing cabinets would be that it is less expensive to set up , if the computer systems were to fail you would still have access to all employee records and information, there would also be less risk of corrupted files and or loss of data should the electronic system fail. At all times any personnel or data capture information relating to an employee or organisation must be compliant with the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act. The Data Protection Act â€Å"gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them, and provides a framework to ensure that personal information is held correctly.† To HR this means that information must be held securely, protected and that only relevant information relating to that employee is held on their file. The Freedom of Information Act is the request for public records relating to something specific. In HR if we were asked to release information, specifically related to our head count or equality information we would be obliged to make this information available to the public.