Data protection can be an area of concern to many HR professionals due to the significant amount of personal data that they come into contact with on a day-to-day basis. It is, therefore, of vital importance to ensure that an adequate framework is in place that complies with the requirements of data protection legislation and ensures that high standards are followed by all relevant personnel.

It is essential to have an understanding of what types of personal data are covered by data protection legislation. Essentially, any information that directly or indirectly allows an individual to be identified, either as a computerised record or held in a manual filing system is considered to be data. Personal data that is considered to be sensitive data requires a higher level of care as it has the potential to be used in a discriminatory manner. This includes information such as an individual's health, race, religion, sexuality or political views.

Personal and sensitive data
HR professionals have access to personal and sensitive personal data on a day-to-day basis and it is, therefore, important that there are appropriate policies and procedures in place that set out the way that such data should be handled. Data must be processed in a way that is both fair and lawful. There must be a valid and identified reason for processing data. Additionally, individuals need to be notified of what data is collected about them and how it will be used.

It is essential that thought is given to the standards that are put in place to govern the use of personal data. Any data processed must be relevant and must not be excessive. It has to be accurate information and should be updated. It should not be kept any longer than is necessary. Policies and procedures should, therefore, be drawn up, implemented and reviewed to ensure that proactive management of the personal data held meets with a set of pre-determined standards.

Right to request
HR professionals should remember that an individual has the right to request access to the personal information held about them. As well as computerised records and standard documentation, this can include hand written notes that are kept on file. It is, therefore, important that meeting notes and any comments written on documents are factual and could cause no embarrassment in the event that they require disclosure.

Due to the amount of personal and sensitive data that HR departments hold, it is essential that an appropriate level of security be in place to ensure that the data held is not compromised in any way, either deliberately or accidentally. Clear guidance should be drawn up about who is responsible for the security of data and how this will be managed. Robust policies should be implemented that set up a framework for the management of personal data and staff must have adequate training.

Data protection is an area of risk for HR professionals due to the nature of the personal information that they deal with daily. To mitigate this risk it is essential that an appropriate framework be in place that sets out the standards to be followed and responsibilities that others have to uphold, so that personal information is used in a fit and proper manner and not compromised in any way.

Photo: Svein M

Social recruiting is something of a hot topic and has become one of the buzzwords of 2011. It can, however, be difficult to know where to start or how to make sure that you get the most benefit from using web and networking sites. There is no right or wrong way to use social recruiting, however. It is a concept rather than a prescriptive way of doing things and as such, employers in many different fields are able to draw on the aspects of social recruiting that work for them.

Social recruiting is essentially a means of identifying and communicating with potential employees and building relationships with them. It is an additional tool rather than a replacement to traditional recruitment methods. It encompasses the basic elements that are required for any recruitment process, using new media as a means of attracting and carrying out preliminary vetting of potential candidates.

The web as a marketing tool
One of the simplest ways to embrace social recruiting is to use the web effectively as a marketing tool. By advertising online on websites that are relevant to the industry or field that you work in, you are able to target a much wider pool of people than by only using traditional methods. Twitter and Facebook can be a great way to advertise jobs, particularly if you work in an industry that is IT or media savvy.

For a more proactive approach to recruitment, it is possible to directly source potential candidates for roles that you are looking to fill. The website, LinkedIn is the largest user-generated database of individuals and holds information on employment history and skills as well as identifying whether the individual is open to approaches. This can be an invaluable way of identifying candidates with a background in areas that are important to you.

It is possible to take proactivity further and fully utilise resources that are already available to you. Many companies regard their employees as their greatest asset yet fail to tap into their knowledge and contacts when looking to recruit. Peer to peer recruitment can be an excellent method of identifying potential candidates. By using employees' social networks, it is often possible to identify candidates with similar values to those already employed. Additionally, such candidates often have a good understanding of the company culture from their existing relationships with your employee.

Degree of caution
This all sounds great but, as with anything, there are some drawbacks and a degree of caution needs to be exercised. Using social recruitment to attract candidates will only ever be successful if your target pool of candidates uses social media themselves. This can depend to a degree upon the industry you operate in. Unless you are employing in an area where aptitude for using social media is essential, it is important to ensure that you don't miss out on attracting excellent candidates. Continuing to use traditional recruitment methods is, therefore, important.

Additionally, whilst using social recruitment gives access to a much wider pool of people than traditional methods, it does not mean that any of them will be suitable for the role that you are looking to recruit for. It is, therefore, also important to have good search and screening criteria in place to ensure that your time is spent concentrating on candidates who have the potential to be right for the role you are looking to fill rather than sizeable numbers of those who aren't.

Notwithstanding these caveats, social recruiting is becoming an increasingly important part of any company's recruitment tools. Whether it is by advertising on social network sites such as Twitter or Facebook, targeting individuals via sites such as LinkedIn or by using employees' social networks, most companies will find that some element of social recruitment is beneficial to their own recruitment process.

Photo: Asthma Helper

The advent of social media is upon us and with words like 'twittering' and 'facebooking' fast becoming part of our national vocabulary, there are opportunities far and wide for businesses to make the most of social media channels for a variety of means. Marketing, networking and promotion are just a few ways in which the modern business is exploiting the opportunities these new communication channels have opened up, but what about adding something more concrete to our business plans via these new networks?

Recruitment of highly skilled and experienced employees via traditional channels can be a long, tiresome and often fruitless pursuit. Applications from piles of unsuitable candidates have to be sifted through and even after we have made our final shortlist, it is often the case that even these final few have some important shortcomings that deny their suitability for executive positions. Headhunting has always been a failsafe strategy, as long as you have the resources and know-how to find and effectively poach high performers from their existing teams, but with the introduction of the professional networking site, LinkedIn, this method of employee recruitment is fast becoming a popular tool.

New way of networking
LinkedIn is changing the way we operate our businesses across the world. Suddenly, business lunches and endless networking events are not as high on our agenda, as we strive instead to be 'connected' to those people who know the most about our industry and goals.

A completed LinkedIn profile gives us not only the person's current standing but also their CV in what is often an expanded and verified format. Recommendations from past and current employers, clients and colleagues lends a testimony to what the person can say about themselves and makes this social tool a viable forum for headhunting the crème de la crème for our own organisations.

Companies are now asking for LinkedIn profiles to be submitted instead of or in addition to a CV for particular roles. This method of recruitment definitely has its advantages in terms of the streamlining of recruitment processes, but there are some downsides to recruiting via LinkedIn that any potential employer should be aware of.

Firstly, there is the demographic and user numbers on the site. Facebook boasts over 500 million users whereas LinkedIn has just a tenth as many. The average user age of LinkedIn members is 41, which is perfect if you are seeking a director or senior manager, but if you are looking for younger, fresher talent you may need to widen your search. The LinkedIn community is still only semi-active, with many users only logging on if they get a direct message and there are plenty of incomplete profiles out there. In terms of headhunting, it may seem like using social media could be a convenient shortcut to finding highly qualified people. However, in reality, the process of sourcing and identifying candidates can take a while to establish and can be a good deal more time consuming than attracting applications via the more traditional routes.

Woo your candidate
As well as this, if you are looking for top talent the advice is to 'woo' your candidate, so instead of jumping right in with a job offer that could be seen as spammy and therefore ignored, recruitment experts recommend taking a softly softly approach. Spending time following the person on Twitter or LinkedIn and 'liking', commenting or re-tweeting their posts can be an effective way to get into their psyche. Again, this is incredibly time consuming and could end up having little to no positive effect on their view of your company.

In addition to these practical issues, there are also some issues with the type of person you could potentially recruit via such sources. If the person you are targeting is already an established professional in their field, chances are they come with a higher price tag than some less well known talent you might come across off the street.

If you are able to poach them away from their current company to work for you, their contacts and networks are still in place, so you will need to keep an eye out for information leaks and spoilers coming from them via their social and real life networks. Also, if you were able to poach them from company A, then what's to stop company B topping your offer and poaching them from you in six months?

While social networks such as LinkedIn have definitely changed the way we do business, some aspects have to be questioned, investigated and taken with a pinch of salt to ensure we are still making the best decisions for our business. A LinkedIn recruitment process has its time and place, but we need to be sure we are doing it in the right manner and for the right reasons.

When looking to fill human resources vacancies, it is important that you know exactly what it is you are looking for beforehand or the wealth of applicants may seem overwhelming. In today's climate there are more applicants per post than ever before and each will be trying to sell themselves to you as much as possible.

You will need to have an idea of the type of person that will fit into your organisation as well as the type of qualifications you are looking for from your candidate and this is where it can become difficult for many people. Do you want a candidate who is academically qualified or do you want someone who has experience in the role you are trying to fill?

Qualifications vs. experience is one of the more difficult decisions an employer must make as there are positives and negatives to each type of candidate and different posts may warrant a different attitude. Generally speaking, applicants with academic qualifications and little experience will be easier to train to your way of thinking whilst experienced applicants may come bursting with great ideas that they have used elsewhere to good effect. So, the question is, what do you want?

Look for experience
If your business is new it might be a good idea to take on someone with a wealth and variety of experience. You may have to pay them more money than you had originally intended but the benefit to your organisation will be worth it.

A widely experienced Human Resources professional will be able to assist you in setting up all the policies and procedures that your company will require to function. If you choose someone with recent experience, they should also have a good working knowledge of employment law and legislation that can save you time and money in the long run.

Experienced staff will also be able to help you manage the rest of your team and offer innovative advice based on their past experiences. In the context of new business, experience is often the best choice as they will be able to assist you with areas of the business that you are unsure of.

In established companies, experience is also often preferred over academic qualification and this is especially true when you are looking to fill a vacancy internally. Internal staff know your business best and, even if they have not been working within the HR department, they should be able to demonstrate at interview a wide working knowledge of the existing HR policies and guidelines.

Often, staff members who are moving in from other departments such as training and development, frontline management or administrative positions are ideally situated to identify any issues with the existing department. Their knowledge and experience of the culture and staff of the business can be invaluable in pushing forward and managing any situations that may arise.

If, however, you are looking to recruit an entirely new member of staff to an existing team, there are two things that you must consider; are you recruiting because of an existing issue or are you just in need of a new team member?

Tackling specific issues
If you are recruiting in order to get help for an on-going or existing issue, an experienced human resources professional may be the perfect solution. You can even use the situation as a hypothetical interview question in order to gauge in advance if there are any candidates with experience uniquely suited to tackling the problem.

If, however, you are looking for a supporting member of staff or a manager who you would like to merely take up the reins of an existing set of processes, a recently qualified professional with little experience would be your perfect choice.

Candidates with recent qualifications will be right up to date with employment laws and will be able to easily slot into their expected roles as they will bring no expectations from previous posts. This type of candidate can be ideal if you are looking for support for an existing department, as it will be very easy for the team to update them quickly.

Experience versus qualifications is a question that can really only be answered dependent on the circumstances under which you intend to hire. Think closely about what you require, taking the above into consideration and it should help you whittle down your interview list, making the choice that much easier for you.

Twenty-five years ago if you had significant technical skills you could count on a good, well-paying job, according to blogger Dan Erwin.

That was especially true in manufacturing. But even in other vocations, little more than a well-developed technology was all that was required to rise in the organization and get a good-paying job.

Of course the introduction of desk-top computing in the mid-1980s started to change that. Over the next ten years it became clear that everyone in business had to understand and be able to use the digital tools. The US economy was beginning to travel beyond the industrial age.

Visit danerwin.typepad.com to read the full article.

What are knowledge workers? Are they a new breed or just a variation of the 20th century professional class, asks Jarche.com. According to the site, Neal Gorenflo, co-founder and publisher of Shareable Magazine, has identified (a very preliminary idea) a certain type of knowledge worker:

- Knowledge workers understand information as currency. Sharing is a core strategy for success even in a corporate context. This can bring knowledge workers to the commons.

- Their worldview is informed by systems thinking or is polyglot. It’s not informed by a single political ideology.

Visit the jarche.com website for the full article.

A shocking 91% of recruiters screen applicants via social networks, according to online reputation manager Reppler.

Reppler has included that data point in an infographic created in time to plug the latest upgrade of the vendor’s reputation monitoring service, which has expanded to include LinkedIn and Twitter in addition to Facebook profiles.

Reppler evaluates profiles based on the tone and appropriateness of their content, as well as the consistency of their information across social networks.

Visit the Allfacebook.com website to read the full article.

A recent amendment to the law pertaining to unfair dismissal is courting controversy as unions argue that workers' rights have been subjugated in an effort to placate business. Earlier this month, Chancellor George Osborne announced the controversial change at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. Claiming that businesses would save up to £6 million a year, the Chancellor extolled the development as a victory for the economy and a saviour of the unemployed, but what exactly is this miraculous change?

As of April 2012, no employee in the UK will be able to claim unfair dismissal unless they have worked for their employer for at least two calendar years. The previous law affecting unfair dismissal set the minimum term of employment at one year; thus, employees are now required to work a further 12 months before they can rely on the law in the event of them being unfairly dismissed.

The impact of the Chancellor's decision has been strongly felt in many quarters. Rather than afford greater rights to workers, Mr Osborne has handed companies the opportunity to unfairly dismiss staff at little risk in a legal context. Whilst other aspects of employment and contract law will continue to govern the relations between employers and their workers, extending the qualifying period for unfair dismissal is clearly not in the best interests of workers.

Mr Osborne, however, has championed the decision as a victory for the unemployed. After all, if more workers are unfairly dismissed in their second year of employment, more vacancies will arise for the unemployed. Logical, perhaps. Fair, just and reasonable - perhaps not. Addressing his fellow Tories, Mr Osborne said, "I know it's important to respect employment rights, but we also respect the right of the unemployed to get a job." He went on to talk about the need to not overprice the employment market and to avoid employment tribunals. Unfair dismissal claims, he explained, would not be pursued until two years' employment had come to pass and this will assure business owners.

The Government has also chosen to change the employment tribunal system, which will soon be subject to fees. Taking effect from April 2013, the tribunal fee system will require workers to pay £250 to apply for a tribunal and a further £1,000 if the application leads to a hearing. The fees are repaid only if the claim is upheld. The change is expected to reduce the number of employment tribunals in the UK by approximately 2,000 a year.

Business Secretary, Vince Cable supported the move to change unfair dismissal laws, stating, "the priority of this Government is to increase growth in our economy." Mr Cable feels that the present dismissal rules discourage businesspeople to hire new staff.

Unfortunately, there is very little workers can do to change the Government's policy on the issue, not least because unfair dismissal is one area of employment law that is not subject to a European directive. With this in mind, workers perhaps ought to brace themselves for further change.

Human resources is a business-strategy aligned function of corporations, designed to assist the organisation in achieving its goals through effective recruitment, development and retention of staff. A good HR function can help a company gain competitive advantage in the market through these practices. In more recent times the function has increased to take on additional areas such as well-being, safeguarding, internal communications, community involvement and corporate social responsibility amongst other areas.

It remains a valuable area for aspiring professionals to move into and to have a rewarding and challenging career. Jobs within HR tend to be very transferable and many roles have acreditations attached that facilitate this. The roles within HR can be generalist or focused into specialist areas, particularly as an individual's career and experience develops.

A starting role will generally operate at the administrative side of HR. This might involve preparing and sending out contracts, administrative paperwork, internal forms, pay reviews and other activities. Employee databases are kept updated and the team will work closely with other functions such as payroll.

HR administrators will also typically deal with administrative processes for new starters, such as paperwork and induction processes. They will deal with leavers, sickness, disciplinary issues, bonus and pay reviews, maternity, development and other HR areas in similar ways. They will probably be expected to work within an SLA, responding to queries within established timeframes and following strict procedures for administrative records, paper trails and database updating.

As the HR practitioner develops, they will likely start advising managerial staff on staffing issues, disciplinaries, grievances and more. Trade Union involvement may be a factor, along with changes to HR legislation, involvement with internal communications programmes, internal change programmes and more.

The usual path is that a new entrant will work as an HR assistant for two to three years, whilst studying for their CIPD professional qualifications. Ideally, that person will be partly qualified when they become an HR advisor. After three years, a good advisor should be in a position to progress to a managerial role. Some people enter the profession via the university route and large companies will take on graduate trainees within the function to fast track to senior roles. At the most senior HR positions, the role will take on a strong strategic focus, including disciplines such as long term skills and workforce planning, succession planning, corporate and cultural change programmes, high level union involvement and strategic advice and direction to company boards.

Many practitioners also choose to specialise in certain areas as their career develops, for example into training, consultancy, culture change programme development and implementation, psychometric testing and specialist recruitment, mentoring and coaching or systems development. Regardless of what level you're at in your HR career, certain skills and abilities are essential across roles and these include great communication skills, good attention to detail, an approachable manner and the ability to remain confident in difficult situations.

It can be worth looking at building a career within a smaller company if you are unsure which particular area of HR you are interested in. A smaller business with a tight HR team will probably offer the best opportunities for getting involved in a wide range of issues and tasks and getting hands-on experience with many different scenarios, from bulk recruitment through to strike action, TUPE transfers and legislation change implementation.

In a larger company, a good tip can be to get a mentor within the field to advise and guide you, especially in the earlier days of your career. Also, learn as much about the business as you can. A good HR practitioner will understand the role of HR clearly within the wider business context and eventually be able to advise you on good HR practice from the point of view of the wider business benefit, keeping logistical, financial and operational considerations in mind.

There is no doubt that a career in HR is challenging, rewarding and mentally stimulating. It offers great opportunities for development, employment across a range of industries and even countries and good earning potential too, particularly through accreditation and experience.

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of CVs and have noticed patterns in people’s attitudes and approaches to writing their CV. However, there is one issue that stands out above all others and it manifests itself in the conversations I have with prospective customers.

Their typical questions are often along the lines of: “Can you make my CV look better?” Or: “I need my CV to be more eye catching.” While many often ask: “Can you make my CV look more professional?”

Now you might be wondering what is wrong with these questions! The point is, they focus purely on aesthetics. What a CV looks like is of course important, but it’s completely secondary to the content of the CV.

A nice looking CV full of waffle is going to be less effective than an average looking CV with great content. What makes your CV effective is providing compelling evidence that you have the skills and experience to do the job you’re applying for.

The CV must capture your ‘value proposition’ and ‘value-added’ skills that are aligned with the ‘hot’ skills in your market place. Too many job seekers are unaware of the ‘hot’ skills employers are searching for and resort to listing behavioural traits such as working in a team, working under pressure, and having good communications skills, etc.

When we write CVs we make a point of researching and defining the ‘hot’ skills that are in demand in each profession. We also spell out how these skills might benefit a future employer if they were to hire you. We make sure these skills are pushed in the CV and backed up with tangible evidence.

For example:

• If you work in marketing you may want to talk about your ability to create low-cost, recession-busting marketing strategies that deliver superior return on investment (ROI).
• If you are an operations manager, your skills might include being able to lead cost-rationalisation programmes to reduce cost and drive profit.
• If you are an HR manager you might highlight the fact that you can develop robust succession planning and performance management frameworks to drive superior workforce productivity.
• If you compare these with the behavioural traits we mentioned above, they are clearly better aligned to the market place and much more powerful. Understanding what the ‘hot’ skills are for your industry and ensuring they are included in the content of your CV is paramount to success.

Matt Craven is Managing Director of CV & Interview Advisors. Matt has seven years’ experience in the CV writing industry. For a free CV appraisal visit the CV & Interview Advisors website.

Photo by Laffy