Assessing ICTS used in human resource department for records management at Uganda Communications Commission

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to assess ICTs used in the Human Resource department for records management at UCC. The objectives of the study were to identify the common categories of records kept in the human resource department at UCC, to find out the common ICTs used for records management I the human resource department at UCC, to identify the benefits of using ICTs for records management in the human resource department at UCC, to identify challenges involved in the use of ICTs for records management in the human resource department at UCC and to devise strategies for the challenges involved in the use of ICTs for records management in the human resource department at UCC. Qualitative research design was applied in conducting the study. This involved the use of various data collection methods such as Interview, observation and literature survey. The findings of the study revealed that the human resource department at UCC highly adopted the use of ICT in the day to day operations of the organization particularly in records management. Mainly the human resource department at UCC handles personnel records and the common categories of records kept include payroll records, personal bio data records, employee medical records, salary or wage records, post training records, performance appraisal records and job requirement and specification records. The study revealed that UCC majorly uses ICT to create and maintain the records using the common categories of ICTs for example computers, data based, internet, telephones, websites, scanners, photo copiers, VPN. The study findings identified the benefits of using ICTs for records management in the human resource department at UCC and these involved easy retrieval of records, enable sharing of records regardless of geographical location for example via internet and reduction of records storage costs. However, the study revealed that the use of ICTs for records management is also involved with challenges and the major problem is technological obsolescence of the JCT devices and the study further revealed the devised strategies to deal with the challenges involved in the use of ICTs for records management and they included recruitment of IT personnel to help in choosing software and hardware that is compatible with the available system to guard against technological obsolescence.