Hello and a warm welcome to Transport for London (TfL).
We are delighted to have you on board as our new HR Director and look forward to working with you.
Collecting HR data (1.1)
With over 26,000 TfL employees, we need to record, maintain and present accurate HR data. We collect and record HR data for forward planning and organisational development. You’ll be aware of the upcoming organisational change programme (OCP) which will involve redundancies and structure re-organisations to improve organisational efficiency. It is not possible to plan for the future if we don’t know the current position so the HR data we hold will aid decision-making.
Another reason we collect HR data is for TfL to be fully compliant with all relevant regulations and legislation relating to HR data. The government can request information on employees so it is imperative that this data is collected. For example, the National Minimum Wage Act (1998) requires specific records relating to pay based on an employee’s age and if requested, TfL must show how it fulfils this requirement and complies with the legislation.
Data collected within TfL (1.2)
•Remuneration- this data is used for performance management, recruitment and retention. We use remuneration data to calculate bonuses and salary levels to benchmark and ensure market competitiveness. We also regularly review the benefits package to maximise motivation and retention. •People of interest- we have people of interest associated with TfL who are part of the day-to-day operations. These include security staff, cleaners and maintenance personnel. Although not directly employed by TfL, we need to collect their HR data for reasons including but not limited to payroll. Storing records (2.1)
The Research paper on Analyzing And Interpreting Data
The ultimate goal of descriptive statistics is to describe a set of data, identify patterns, and draw a conclusion, which enables an organization to make effective and informed decisions (McClave, Benson, & Sincich, 2011). The company, Ballard Integrated Managed Services (BIMS), a support services company will leverage statistics to gather information on the company’s employees to analyze and ...
Here at TfL we use SAP, an enterprise resourcing solution which records and stores most of the employee HR data including payroll, personal data and absence and attendance. With an electronic system such as SAP, data is readily available, easy accessible and can be easily manipulated to present in the appropriate format for your audience. It allows us to identify trends and supports decision-making. As we have also implemented employee self-service, employees can update their own personal information which eliminates the need for HR involvement.
We also store data manually in the form of interview records. Interviews are held during recruitment, appraisals and exit. Interview notes are written manually and stored in data centres. The benefits of this method are, it’s less expensive than an electronic system, the risk of data corruption/loss is reduced and no specific training is necessary to do it.
Legal requirements (2.2)
The Freedom of Information Act (2000) – gives individuals the right to ask any public sector organisation for access to the recorded information they have on any subject. There are no restrictions on who can make a request but the type of information requested may be handled under different regulations. The organisation must provide the requested information within 20 working days. More information can be found here.
The Data Protection Act (1998) – controls how personal information is recorded, stored and used in organisations. All data-users must adhere to the ‘data protection principles’ (appendix 1) to prevent data misuse and this includes both electronic and manual data. More information can be found here.
Appendix 1
The Data Protection Principles
Anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight Data Protection Principles of good practice. They must ensure the data is:
The Essay on Examination on the Strategic Use of Information Technology in Tanzania Service Industries
Businesses can attain sustainable competitive advantage by utilizing Information Technology (IT) in responding to the changing customers’ needs and changing business environment. (Talebnejad, 2008). This demands the organization to know how to apply this technology, and also devise appropriate and cost effective method for successful implementation. For example in 2004, the study of the relation ...
•used fairly and lawfully
•used for limited, specifically stated purposes
•used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive
•accurate and up-to-date
•kept for no longer than necessary
•handled according to people’s data protection rights
•kept safe and secure
•not transferred outside the UK without adequate protection.
Some of these principles are legally enforceable and they all must be satisfied.
Analysing and Presenting HR Data
Analysing and interpreting HR data (3.1)
The Information Management (IM) department have begun the consultation period for the upcoming organisational change programme (OCP) which is being carried out to make cost savings and improve business efficiencies. One of the work-streams is focused on non-permanent labour (NPL) within IM. Criteria has been set to terminate the contracts of all NPL with over 2-years continuous service. If it is determined that the services of any of the affected NPL are still required, a business case will need to be submitted and approved by the Managing Director.
I exported the relevant data from SAP and then analysed and interpreted it to draw accurate conclusions about the current NPL workforce which will allow the OCP team to make decisions. To do this I ran an ad-hoc query to identify all active NPL within IM. I then ran the query again to identify the active NPL with more than 2 years’ service. I exported the results to Microsoft Excel (Appendix 1) and presented the data graphically.
This statistical analysis is an accurate headcount of the current NPL within IM and will be used to make strategic decisions during the OCP. From these queries, I have found that IM have a total of 654 NPL and of those, 74 have more than 2 years continuous service.
Presentation of findings (3.2)
It’s vital that I present my findings appropriately and I’ve made sure that the information is easily accessible to whoever needs it. If the data is unclear or ambiguous it is not fit-for-purpose and is therefore redundant. When deciding on which methods to use, I was mindful of the audience and the information they needed. This information will be presented to senior managers as well as HR administrators so I have chosen to present my findings using methods that fulfil the requirements of all parties; spreadsheets (Appendix 1) and a pie chart and bar chart (Appendix 2).
The Business plan on Data Warehouse Information Database Analysis
1. DATA MINING 1. 1 INTRODUCTION TO DATA MINING The past two decades has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of information or data being stored in electronic format. This accumulation of data has taken place at an explosive rate. It has been estimated that the amount of information in the world doubles every 20 months and the size and number of databases are increasing even faster. The ...
The spreadsheets contain detailed information and will be used to determine exactly who the affected NPL are. As I included the contract end date in this report, the data can be used to identify NPL who are nearing their 2 years of service and as a result may also be affected by the OCP.
As these extracted reports are quite complex, I’ve also chosen to illustrate the data visually using a bar chart and pie chart. Both are clear, concise and easy to analyse. The charts clearly show the variance in NPL and I used different colours on the pie chart so that the difference is even more distinguishable.
Now that I have provided the relevant information, the NPL work-stream are able to make decisions regarding employing NPL in IM with more than 2 years’ service. I have presented the data using different methods to support this process and will make the team aware of the data limitations. One limitation is data accuracy. It is possible that some of the NPL contract data has changed since I’ve run the report which is hard to avoid. However I can analyse and present this data whenever required to ensure high levels of accuracy where possible.
Appendix 1
Ad-hoc query 1 selections
Field nameValue
Employment status3 (Active)
Employee group2 (Temporary worker)
Company code1001 (IM)
Ad-hoc query outputs
•Personnel number
•Valid from date
•End of contract date
Number of hits produced- 654
Ad-hoc query 1 results
Ad-hoc query 2 selections
Field nameValue
Employment status3 (Active)
Employee group2 (Temporary worker)
Company code1001 (IM)
Length in service (in years)2 (>)
Ad-hoc query outputs
•Personnel number
The Research paper on Data Warehousing Warehouse Operational Information
Contents 1. Introduction 2. What is a data warehouse 3. Past, Present and Future 4. Data Warehouses and Business Organisations 5. Conclusion 6.Bibliography 1. 0 Introduction In recent years, data warehousing has emerged as the primary method of analysing sales and marketing data for a competitive advantage. As the number of knowledge workers using the data warehouse / data mart grows and the ...
•Valid from date
•End of contract date
•Name of superior (OM)
Number of hits produced- 74
Ad-hoc query 2 results
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Freedom of Information Act-https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/the-freedom-of-information-act http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents
Data Protection Act-https://www.gov.uk/data-protection http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents
Data Protection Principles- http://www.belb.org.uk/downloads/foi_data_principles.pdf
