Making sure data is secure
January 13, 2009
A friend of mine recently had a complete nightmare with lost information. The server that all the company information was stored on was stolen in a burglary and unfortunately the backup drive that was used to take backups of the data was still plugged into the server! All the company information was completely lost.
For my friend, who is a HR Officer, this meant that all staff information was gone; she had no idea of people’s holidays that they had taken, absence records, policy documents, staff correspondence, and the employee database had gone. It has taken a long time to try to re-create all the files that have been lost, and some information will never be replaced. Fortunately because a lot of HR paperwork needs to be signed, they had a lot of employees’ documents in hard copy in a filing cabinet, but the whole episode has been extremely difficult to deal with.
Data security is such an important matter for any business, and in HR the loss of information could have major repercussions, especially if the information lost could be needed for things like disciplinary and dismissal decisions. There is also the question of data protection and the fact that personal information is now somewhere outside the company.
Ensuring data is secure and regular backups are taken should be part of company policies and procedures, with responsibilities for day to day back ups for employees, and key requirements for server backups on job descriptions for relevant personnel, such as IT Managers.
Another option, rather than having in-house data backup systems, which is subject to human error, is to use online backup services from companies that manage your data security for you. These services can be described as disaster recovery (i.e. recovering all data after hardware is lost, e.g. in a fire or theft) or business continuity (which includes automatically saving changed documents as new versions so that you can keep a record of the progression/change history of a document).
These options are now being used by many companies that want to avoid the kind of problems that my friend experienced through a human mistake, which can happen to anyone, as we know from the countless episodes of lost Government data that happened last year.
Recruitment is taking on a different dimension
January 9, 2009
In the organisation I work for, we are lucky enough to still be growing even in the face of a national recession, and when the news brings stories of thousands of job cuts each day from the likes of Marks and Spencer and Nissan, we are still sourcing candidates for a number of positions on a daily basis. However as with the learning and development budgets as discussed in my last couple of articles, recruitment budgets have been squeezed so that per candidate, only half the budget that was available last year is available again now.
These changes mean that the method of recruiting candidates is taking on a different dimension, and this is also affected by the external labour market and the wider effects of the economic downturn. Just one year ago, the highly competitive labour market meant that it was very difficult to source candidates without the assistance of a recruitment consultant. Our online advertisements were lost in the massive databases on the likes of Monster and Total jobs, because recruiters seemed to have the monopoly over this medium with their larger budgets and multiple adverts which knocked our ads out of search lists. Most candidates in the market for this industry at that time searched for jobs through recruitment agencies, so we didn’t have much choice but to use them, which meant the costs for recruitment were astronomical.
Now, it is becoming easier to source candidates through alternative methods than the recruitment consultant, because there are so many more people in the labour market that are looking for work. Low cost and free websites (such as jobcentreplus) have proved quite successful in delivering good quality candidates. There are more people searching themselves for jobs instead of using recruitment consultants, this may be because fewer jobs are being given to agencies to source. This has been found by many of the major agencies, as:
“Hays said its UK business had collapsed by 22% in the three months to the end of the year. Michael Page said the Christmas quarter had brought a dive of 20% across its UK offices” (thisismoney.co.uk).
We are also looking at exhibitions and shows that will take place throughout the year, particularly in the graduate area. This can be a low cost way of generating a large pool of candidates, but don’t forget to factor in costs such as any display equipment such as posters or stands, travel and transport costs, and any corporate gifts you may wish to give out such as pens, keyrings etc.
The difference in the way we are now recruiting has been quite dramatic and surprising, however I imagine that it is reflective of many organisations across the country that are recruiting at the moment. How has the changing job market affected the way you are recruiting candidates?
How do you keep learning and development up when budgets are cut? (2)
January 8, 2009
Yesterday I was discussing the difficulties in providing adequate learning and development opportunities for employees when training budgets have been cut, with ideas for achieving learning and development objectives with low cost options. Today is a continuation on this theme.
3. Implement experiential learning
The economic climate is providing vast learning opportunities for people who have never experienced the conditions many companies are now facing. Reviewing job roles and responsibilities, and providing opportunities for things like secondments and shadowing will allow key staff to learn through experiencing situations first hand, with the guidance of more experienced employees.
4. Free training
There are many free courses available through non-profit or Government related organisations, particularly in qualifications based training such as NVQs. There are also many free online training courses, mainly in things like PC skills. The best thing to do is Google what you’re looking for and call the local authority or local colleges.
A key factor in implementing any of the above ideas is ensuring good communication with employees on the learning and development opportunities they are experiencing, especially if it appears that the availability of external or funded training has reduced. The opportunities to grow and develop in a role are a key factor in employee job satisfaction and engagement, and looking for inventive ways to continue to invest in employees in a time where budgets are squeezed will highlight the fact that the company still has employee development as a key objective, regardless of constraints. This is something that employees will value as part of the total employment package.
Ways to communicate learning activities that benefit the employee are in appraisals and reviews, company announcements (e.g. ‘X is taking on a temporary secondment to X role, lets all congratulate them) and newsletters or emails announcing learning activities such as workshops and online sessions.
How do you keep learning and development up when budgets are cut? (1)
January 7, 2009
In the current economic climate, it will be hard to find a company that is not making cost cuts and reducing budgets in many business areas, and it is quite likely that learning and development will be one of the first areas to lose out. However the UK Commission for Employment and Skills recently published an advertisement citing evidence that “firms that don’t train are 2.5 times more likely to fail than those who do”. It is a strongly held view that in order for businesses to survive the hard times we are facing, they must focus on the skills they have in the workforce, and invest in staff to keep them engaged and ensure the business is ready to go once we come out of the recession. Businesses that do so will be better placed to out perform their competitors when the markets pick up again.
But this knowledge doesn’t change the fact that most HR professionals will have to achieve the same development outcomes or better, with much reduced funds, so how can this be achieved? In this post and the next one there are some ideas:
1. Focus the budget in the most appropriate areas.
The changing state of the economy will mean many changes within organisations, whether it is reorganisation of work, restructuring of teams or alternative product packages. This means that the learning and development needs will change accordingly, and should be reviewed to ensure that the activities are focused in the right areas and any available budget is spent wisely.
2. Use internal expertise
In many situations, the best knowledge and skills are in fact already contained within the company, and tapping into this experience could be even more beneficial than buying in external training. In my organisation we implemented a workshop programme last year where internal experts in different fields led training sessions or workshops on a specific subject. Some sessions were compulsory for some groups of employees, others were open house. This has proved to be quite beneficial and a new programme has been developed for this year, with the benefit of a year of feedback and refinement of existing sessions. The HR or L&D departments may need to support the experts in terms of putting together meaningful learning sessions and developing skills in presentation and training.
… continues in tomorrow’s post
New year, new deal?
January 6, 2009
The Government has announced new plans to create 100,000 jobs through a number of public works programmes including schools, hospitals, transport and environmental work. This is a move that is also being developed in America, where President-elect Obama has indicated his desire to emulate the type of projects introduced by Franklin D Roosevelt in the early 1930’s to help the United States pull itself out of the Great Depression. Gordon Brown has said:
“The imagination and humanity at the heart of some of the great New Deal innovations changed American politics for ever and shaped the future of progressive politics across the world”.
This news comes as yet more jobs are lost on the high street, with Woolworths finally closing its doors and a succession of other retailers following the same path over the last few weeks including Adams and USC. Marks and Spencer is also expected to announce 1,000 job cuts after a poor period of trading over Christmas.
It is hoped that the Government proposals will help to reduce the impact of the recession on the numbers of unemployed people, although how big a dent this will make is unclear, given that the British Chambers of Commerce has predicted one in ten Britons will be unemployed by 2010. However the New Deal style interventions appear to indicate more than a practical exercise to combat the effects of the recession; this is a move away from a style of Government implemented in the 1980s under Thatcher; which advocated less Government intervention in business and the economy, and more self-regulation and ‘look after yourself’ ideas. It has been argued that this way of thinking is the reason the credit crunch eventually happened, so a new way of leading the UK and US, with more state intervention, may be a popular move with the general public.