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Name: Shahira Omran

Centre Name: ICS

ICS Student Number: 20958283

CIPD Membership Number: 41483788

Qualification Title: Foundation Human Resource Practice
Unit Title: Recording, Analysing and Using Human Resource Information
Unit Code: 3RAI
Assignment number:2

Candidate declaration:
‘I confirm that the work/evidence presented for assessment is my own unaided work.’

I have read the assessment regulations and understand that if I am found to have ‘copied’ from published work without acknowledgement, or from other candidate’s work, this may be regarded as plagiarism which is an offence against the assessment regulations and leads to failure in the relevant unit and formal disciplinary action.

I agree to this work being subjected to scrutiny by textual analysis software if required.

I understand that my work may be used for future academic/quality assurance purposes in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

I understand that the work/evidence submitted for assessment may not be returned to me and that I have retained a copy for my records.

I understand that until such time as the assessment grade has been ratified by internal and external quality assurance verifiers it is not final.

Name: Shahira Omran
Submission date: 2nd June 2014
Word count (excluding titles and bibliography): 1658
Task 1

Q1

The Organisation needs to keep records for employees for the following reasons:

1. To Satisfy legal requirements • As the HMRC may request information regarding the number of employees, working hours and their wages. • Provide data for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and dangerous Occurrences regulations RIDDOR to keep records of any accidents whether fatal or caused absence for more than 3 days. 2. To Provide the Organisation with information to make decisions such as: • The total salary bill: which would help it with decisions regarding budget allocation for instance, profit targets and salary raises or even cuts. • Average salaries per department or store: which might give insight about the trend of salaries across the whole stores and help with salary structuring and noticing any inequalities.
Q2

It would be beneficial for the organization to collect data related to employees such as:

Absence rate across stores: • It would give a trend about how different stores in different locations are functioning and whether there is a high absence rate in specific locations or in a specific line of industry (women, men or children if their stores were separate) and whether the causes are demotivation, or the nature of the location doesn’t attract much customers so there’s usually a low number of customers to serve in this location. • It is also useful to know if the absence rates change significantly during certain times of the year – during bank holidays or Christmas - and comparing these rates with rates of the previous year during the same time. • Also it is important to compare the data with other organisations in the fashion sector to notice if this is a common trend in this industry.

Customer Feedback

Employees are considered the internal customers for the organization. Their feedback is important for their motivation and for achieving a better customer service from them. This can be identified through: • Recording their complaints showing the nature of the complaint, how it was addressed and what has been learnt from it. • Are their complaints related to specific department store? • Is there a specific trend? Do their complaints increase for example during busy times of the week or during busy times of the year due to work pressure?
Q3

The best approaches that the organization might use to store the data are:

1. Spread Sheets • Spreadsheets are useful for tracking simple lists of data. • They can be easily used with graphs, charts and tables like pivot tables. • Efficient for analyzing data and repetitive calculations.

2. HRIS • The organization should have a Human Resource Information System to store all kinds of information from all stores. It is very useful when dealing with relatively big organizations that have varied data. The system would usually have the ability to report all types of data in different ways according to what type of information is needed from the gathered data. For example it can display reports for number of employees per store, or employees within a certain age group per store or across all sores, or average salaries per store, or number of sales achieved per store or area. • It can also provide contract details for employees and group employees per contract status, i.e. working on contract basis, permanent or temporary workers.
Q4

It is important for the organization to ensure that all information stored is accurate and up-to-date. This is because the system is only as good as the people using it. If the information gathered is not accurate or if any changes happened and were not updated the information displayed would never serve their purpose and would lead to misleading results.

For example, if the personnel system works with the payroll system all the details of new employees should be entered for the payroll system to be able to read them and thus process their salaries.
In this case also, Students and temp workers might be paid differently than contractors and permanent employees so any mistake in the personnel data might lead the payroll to read the wrong information and process wrong salaries.

Q5

Under the Data Protection Act, there are some aspects that have to be addressed:

1. Data should be processed fairly and lawfully which means that:

• Employer must have legitimate grounds for collecting and using personal data. • Employer must not use data in ways that unjustified adverse effects on the individuals concerned. • Employer must be transparent about how you intend to use the data, and give individuals appropriate privacy notices when collecting their personal data. • Employer must handle people’s personal data only in ways they would reasonably expect. • Employer must make sure you do not do anything unlawful with the data.
ICO (2014) Information Commissioner Office (online) Available at: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_1http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_1 (Accessed May 14, 2014)

2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes. Which means that the employer must:

• Be clear from the outset about why you are collecting personal data and what you intend to do with it • Comply with the Act’s fair processing requirements – including the duty to give privacy notices to individuals when collecting their personal data • Ensure that if he wishes to use or disclose the personal data for any purpose that is additional to or different from the originally specified purpose, the new use or disclosure is fair.
ICO (2014) Information Commissioner Office (online) Available at: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_1http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_2 (Accessed May 14, 2014)

3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed. Which means employer must:

• Hold personal data about an individual that is sufficient for the purpose you are holding it for in relation to that individual • Not hold more information than needed for that purpose.

ICO (2014) Information Commissioner Office (online) Available at: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_1http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/information_standards/principle_3 (Accessed May 14, 2014)

Task 2

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Introduction:
The above bar chart shows the absence rate and the staff turnover in percentage over the last 12 months in stores A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H.

Findings:
From the above chart the following is noticed:

• The staff turnover reaches its maximum as the absence rate hits the minimum in store C. • The absence rate reaches its maximum in Store D. • The staff turnover in store B is exactly the same as store D however, the absence rate in store B is nearly half of that in store D.

Analysis: • In store C, a maximum turnover rate with a minimum absence percentage might suggest that the absence rate was at minimum in this store due to large number of staff were leaving. • The absence is usually an antecedent to turnover. However, in store C since the turnover reaches its maximum and absence hits the minimum this might suggest that high turnover in this store is due to hiring large number of students and temp workers which have limited time contracts and replaced relatively more frequent than other contract or fulltime workers. • The high absence rate in store C could be due to the fact that unauthorized absence is more common among new starters, as longer serving workers tend to know the organization’s policy and stay within its framework. • The absence rate reaches its maximum in Store D, hitting 7.2% which means that in every 100 days that an employee was expected to be at work s/he was absent for 7.2 of those days. • The high turnover in store C may also be due to location of the store. Urban stores tend to have more turnover rates than rural ones. • The staff turnover is quite high as well in Store D, which might suggest a lack of motivation in this store.

Conclusions: • There is a trend of high turnover across all stores which reach its maximum in store C. • The Lowest absence rate is in store C as well which suggests that this store employs large number of temp workers and students.

Recommendations: • A survey could be conducted to gather information regarding the reasons for absence to help identify the main reasons behind it. This could be either due to sickness, family obligations or lack of motivation. • A survey or an Exit interview could be conducted to have an idea about the main reasons behind the staff resignations (excluding the involuntary terminations and students and temp workers’ leave at the end of their contract period) • Reevaluating the recruitment plan and criteria. High turnover might mean that unsuitable workers are being hired. • To identify the severity of the problem, and whether the absence rates are within the accepted limits, the organization can measure absence through the lost time rate. Which shows the total time available which has been lost due to absence –from all the causes gathered – in a given period.

Total absence (hours or days) in the period / Possible total (hours or days) available in the period * 100 = Lost time rate

• A measure of frequency of absence is also important to show the variety of absence incidents. The frequency rate shows the average number of spells of absence per worker (expressed as a percentage) irrespective of the length of each absence spell.

No of spells of absence in the period/ No of workers in the period *100= Frequency rate

• As an overall approach to reducing absence, the organization should ensure that: ➢ Working conditions are improved and workers' motivation is increased to attend work. ➢ Good physical working conditions are provided. ➢ Ergonomic factors are taken into account when designing workplaces ➢ Health and safety standards are rigorously maintained. ➢ New starters, especially young people are given sufficient training and receive particular attention during the initial period of their work. ➢ Introducing flexible working hours, or varied working arrangements, if this would assist workers without conflicting with production or other work demands.

References • ACAS (2014) Advisory Booklet-Absence and labour turnover (online) Available at: ‘http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/q/e/B04_1.pdf (Accessed June 2, 2014)

• ICO (2014) Information Commissioner Office Available at: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_1 (Accessed May 14, 2014)

http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/principle_2 (Accessed May 14, 2014)

http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/information_standards/principle_3 (Accessed May 14, 2014)