West Demerara Secondary School

Year of Examination: 2017

Subject: Office Administration

Proficiency: General

Candidate’s Number: 090056

Candidate’s Name: Nirmala Somnath

Title of Project: Function and Importance of the Human

Resource Management Office at Gafsons
Industries Limited.

Name of Teacher: Miss Claudia Cole-Holder

SBA Score:
 West Demerara Secondary School

Year of Examination: 2017

Subject: Office Administration

Proficiency: General

Candidate’s Number: 090056

Candidate’s Name: Nirmala Somnath

Title of Project: Function and Importance of the Human

Resource Management Office at Gafsons
Industries Limited.

Name of Teacher: Miss Claudia Cole-Holder

SBA Score:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher would love to express her gratitude to those who assist her to
completed this School Based Assessment (S.B.A.). She would first love to thank
God for guiding her to completed this School Based Assessment (S.B.A.). She
would also love to acknowledge her parents for financial support, reassurance and
guidance. She would also like to show appreciativeness to her teacher Miss
Claudia Cole-Holder for supervision and encouragement.
 TABLE OF CONTENT
Content Page
Criteria One
Introduction 1
Title of the Project 2
Aims of the Project 3
Function of the Department 4
Correspondence 5-9
Methodology 10
Criteria Two
Questions Asked to Business Personnel 11
Schedule of Activities 12 - 13
Evidence of Regulation and Policies Governing the Firm 14
Criteria Three
Report 15-16
Impact of Office Equipment 17
Bibliography 18
Appendix 19-24
 INTRODUCTION

This School Based Assessment (S.B.A.) focused mainly on the Function and
Importance of the Human Resource Management Office of a firm called "Gafsons
Industries Limited". It engrossed mainly on the function of the Human Resource
Management Office as well as documents used by the Human Resource
Management Clerk of the business. In addition, equipment used in the Human
Resource Management Office was also mentioned with ways this department
benefits other department alongside actions taken when an employee become sick
or an accident has occurred on the job. Additional information needed for the
completion for the School Based Assessment was also obtained.

1
 TITLE OF A PROJECT

Function and Importance of the Human Resource Management Office at

Gafsons Industries Limited.

2
 AIMS OF THE PROJECT

1. To examine the function of the Human Resource Management Office at

Gafsons Industries Limited.

2. To au fait documents used in the Human Resource Management Clerk of the

business.

3
 FUNCTION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT CLERK AT GAFSONS
INDUSTRIES LIMITED

Two functions of the Human Resource Management Office Clerk are:

1. Recruitment-
The selection of a suitable qualified person whenever there is an available
vacancy in the business.

2. Training-
Ensuring employees are trained to make them fully qualified and skilled to a
desired standard.

4
 CORRESPONDENCE
LETTER OF PERMISSION TO GAFSONS INDUSTRIES
LIMITED

3rd May, 2016

West Demerara Secondary School

17 North Klien Pouderoyen
West Bank Demerara

The Manager
Gafsons Industries Limited
Lot 1 and 2 Area X
Plantation Houston
East Bank Demerara

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a student of West Demerara Secondary School who will be writing
Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (C.S.E.C.) Office
Administration in the year 2017. I am writing this letter requesting the firm’s
permission to conduct a research for my School Based Assessment (S.B.A.).
The topic for the SBA is “Function and Importance of the Human Resource
Management Clerk.” I would like to visit the firm to interview a clerical
staff and for he/she to answer a questionnaire.
I would be grateful for an early response. The firm can contact me by e-mail
which is aniesasomnath@outlook.com or by calling 611 2640. Thank you in
anticipation.

Yours truly
……………………………
Nirmala Somnath
Student

5
 QUESTIONNAIRE

1. To what gender do you belong?

Male Female

2. What is your age range?

17-20 years 21-24 years

25-30 years 31 years and older

3. How many years of working experience do you have?

Less than one year 2-7 years

8-13 years 14-years and older

4. What is your position in the Human Resource Management Office?

Manager Supervisors

Clerk
Other, please state ____________________________________

5. What are your duties and responsibility within the Human Resource
Management Office?
Maintain personnel records Attend to staff welfare

Prepare for interview

6
Other, please state ___________________________________________________

6. What function do you perform in the Human Resource Management Office?

Recruitment Staff Welfare

Deployment Training
Other, please state _________________________________________________

7. What are some equipment used in the Human Resource Management Office?
Computers Scanners

Photocopiers
Other (s), please state ______________________________________

8. What are some of the documents used by the Human Resource Management
Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

9. How the Human Resource Management Office does benefits another

department?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

10. Is it necessary to attend an interview when the Human Resource Management

Office is hiring workers?
Yes No

7
11. What are the basic requirements for the clerk position?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

12. How long employees trained before they are promoted?

1-3 weeks 4-6 weeks

1 years Not promoted

Other, please state __________________________________________________

13. If an employee has left the organization, do you keep their records?
Yes No

If your answer was yes above, for how long do you keep the records on an
employee who have left the organization?
1 years 2-5 years

6-8 years 9 years and older

14. What actions do you take when an employee is sick or has an accident on the
job?
Take them to hospital Send them home

Provide medication Nothing is done

Other, please state __________________________________________________

8
15. What are two staff rule that must be observed in the Human Resource
Management Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

16. What are two legislation government the Human Resource Management
Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

9
 METHODOLOGY

The researcher in her attempt to make this School Based Assessment successful
will be using a questionnaire and conducting an interview.
Some advantages of using a questionnaire are:
 Practical
 Large amount of information can be collected
 Can be analyzed more ‘scientifically’
The questionnaire will be given to a clerical staff so that they can answer the
questions appropriately within 20 minutes.
Some advantages of conducting an interview are:
 they allow more detailed questions to be asked
 they usually achieve a high response rate
 respondent’s own words are recorded
the interview will be conducted with the clerical staff immediately after for 20
minutes for additional information.

10
 QUESTIONS ASKED TO BUSINESS
PERSONNEL

1. What are your duties and responsibilities within the Human Resource
Management Office?
2. What are some equipment used in the Human Resource Management
Office?
3. What are some of the documents used by the Human Resource Management
Office?
4. How does the Human Resource Management Office benefits other
department?
5. What actions do you take when an employee is sick or has an accident on the
job?

11
 SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Date Activities
2016-04-13th The researcher started the School
Based Assessment by stating the
title of the project.
2016-04-14th The researcher continued the project
stating two aims of the project and
two functions of the Human
Resource Department of the
company she has chosen.
th
2016-05-03 The researcher prepared the
correspondence that would be used
to request for permission to conduct
the project.
2016-05-09th The researcher has visited the firm
she chosen.
2016-05-31st The researcher described the
methodology used for the project.
2016-06-05th The researcher listed five questions
she asked the business personnel.
2016-06-13th The researcher started the schedule
of activities for conducting this
project.
2016-06-7th The researcher stated evidence of
regulation and policies governing
the firm selected for the project.
2016-08-01st The researcher has written the
report.
2016-08-10th The researcher completed the table
based on the impact of office
equipment used in the business.
Comments
As this is the starting of the project,
the researcher found it
straightforward and simple.
The researcher experienced no
difficulty when completing this task.
This aspect of the project the
researcher found challenging but soon
become effortless.
This part of the project was quite
challenging.
The researcher found this quite
simple.
This was straightforward and simple.
The researcher did not experience any
difficulty when completing this task.
The researcher found this quite
challenging at first but soon it became
effortless.
The researcher had trouble when
writing the report.
The researcher did not experience any
difficulty when doing this task.
12
2016-08-20th The researcher completed her This was straightforward and simple.
bibliography acknowledging all her
sources of information in
alphabetical order.
2016-08-30th The researcher completed the This was simple and easy.
schedule of activities.

13
 EVIDENCE OF REGULATION AND POLICIES
GOVERNING THE FIRM

Legislation
One legislation governing the workplace is National Insurance Scheme (N.I.S.)
which is required to be paid by every employee. The candidate became aware of
this when she was conducting the interview.

Health and Safety Practices

One of the health and safety practices observed was that fire safety provisions were
available for maximum protection against fire. Equipment such as fire
extinguishers and fire alarms were placed on the walls inside the building.

Staff Rule
One staff rule the researcher had to comply with is “No eating or drinking in the
office.” These signs were placed on the walls.

14
 REPORT





 









The researcher chose Gafsons Industries Limited to conduct her research because they
featured qualified staff that were trained to administer different task assigned. The researcher
observed that the business lacks proper communication via technology. It was observed that
employees would have to leave their work station to go to other employees or department
whenever needed to interact with other employees concerning confidential matters in the
business. This causes time to be wasted as well as productivity to decrease.
The researcher has benefited greatly from the interview along with questionnaire. The
investigation conducted show that major functions of the Human Resource Management Office

15
were attending to staff welfare, deploying as well as recruiting workers, administer training to
staff and conducting interviews. The Human Resource Management Office attends to staff
welfare by engaging in activities that helps to produce an environment that protects, promote and
support the health and wellbeing of employees in an organization. They are also involved in
‘Deployment’ where workers are deployed so that they perform business activities that they were
skilled to administer. Furthermore, recruiting workers is done with the intention of selecting
qualified persons from interviews to fill vacancies. Once these workers are selected, training will
be administered by seminars, online training or self-study. This ensure workers are up to data
with changes in technology. Employees are trained for three weeks before promotion. This
responsibility for setting up interviews are with done by the Human Resource Manager. Once
applications were sent to the company, he/she would be arranged a shortlist of qualified
applicants suitable for the position while those who are not qualified would be discarded. A date
would be chosen for the interview and qualified applicants will be sent a letter stating the date,
time, and location of the interview. In this department, confidential documents such as contract
of employment records are kept in a lockable cabinet labelled “Confidential”. If an employee
leaves an organization, their records will be kept for ten years. The researcher learnt that some of
the duties and responsibilities of the Human Resource Management Office were maintaining
personal records, preparing for interviews, attending to staff welfare as well as preparing,
organizing and interpreting human resource records. A clerk must be able to interact well with
others. He/ She must be professional and have high ethical standards. They must be familiarized
with computer technology and have detail oriented skills. The researcher learnt that the
department must liaise with other department in the organization to recruit new staff and sort
problems with current staff to ensure workforce is motivated. Computers are one of the main
office equipment used in this department to complete daily tasks. It allows businesses to operate
in a more efficient manner to manage affairs rather than to use traditional paper and manila
folders. The actions taken by the employer when an employee becomes ill or may have suffered
an injury on the job is the employee must seek medical attention immediately and sent home.
One legislation governing the Human Resource Management Office is National Insurance
Scheme (N.I.S.) i.e. required to be paid by every employee. The researcher became aware of two
staff rule that must be observed in the Human Resource Management Office which were “No
eating or drinking in the office” and “No smoking.”
As stated before, the business lacks proper communication via technology within the
business, one recommendation to resolve the problem would be employer taking a financial risk
to purchase intercom as it would impact a business positively. The job performance will increase
by reducing time spent on decision making because no provision of communication devices to
use. This also increases the productivity of a business.

16
 IMPACT OF OFFICE EQUIPMENT
Date Equipment Used Purpose of Equipment
2016-05-09th Computer The purpose of a computer is
to increase work production
and help the businessman save
time. It stores information in
an organize manner saving
space, allow easy retrieval of
data and process information
whenever necessary.
2016-05-09th Printer The purpose of a printer is to
take computer data and
generate a hard copy of that.
2016-05-09th Shredder This is used to shred paper into
narrow strips to make it
unreadable.
2016-05-09th Scanner A scanner is a computer
hardware that uses reflected to
capture images and translate
them into files a computer can
read or display.
Suitability for tasks
A computer is suitable to be used
in a business because it helps a
business keep track of their files,
documents schedules and
deadlines inexpensively.
Furthermore, it allows the business
to keep their information in a very
organize manner that save space
which leads to a better time
management and production as
retrieval of data is simple.
It enables us to print documents,
such as, permanent records that are
relevant to the business.
This is used to destroy private,
confidential or other sensitive
document no longer needed.
Scanners are suitable to use as
companies have large amount of
paper records that takes up a
considerable amount of space and
finding the right document can be
slow, so by using a scanner, the
business can avoid long hours
taken to find documents.
17
 BIBLIOGRAPY

1. 2016-06-11th. Gafsons Industries Limited. Clerical Staff.

2. Dr. Alan Whitcome et al. Heinemann Office Procedures for C.X.C.
Heinemann Education Publishers. 2000.
3. http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20
and%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_51.htm
4. http://www.evalued.bcu.ac.uk/tutorial/4c.htm
5. Sylan Finisterre et al. Longman Office Administration for C.X.C. Pearson
Education Limited. 2004.

18
 APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE

1. To what gender do you belong?

Male Female

2. What is your age range?

17-20 years 21-24 years

25-30 years 31 years and older

3. How many years of working experience do you have?

Less than one year 2-7 years

8-13 years 14-years and older

4. What is your position in the Human Resource Management Office?

Manager Supervisors

Clerk
Other, please state ____________________________________

5. What are your duties and responsibility within the Human Resource
Management Office?
Maintain personnel records Attend to staff welfare

19
 Prepare for interview
Other, please state ___________________________________________________
6. What function do you perform in the Human Resource Management Office?
Recruitment Staff Welfare

Deployment Training
Other, please state _________________________________________________

7. What are some equipment used in the Human Resource Management Office?
Computers Scanners

Photocopiers
Other (s), please state ______________________________________

8. What are some of the documents used by the Human Resource Management
Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

9. How the Human Resource Management Office does benefits another

department?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

10. Is it necessary to attend an interview when the Human Resource Management

Office is hiring workers?
Yes No

20
11. What are the basic requirements for the clerk position?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
12. How long employees trained before they are promoted?
1-3 weeks 4-6 weeks

1 years Not promoted

Other, please state __________________________________________________

13. If an employee has left the organization, do you keep their records?
Yes No

If your answer was yes above, for how long do you keep the records on an
employee who have left the organization?
1 years 2-5 years

6-8 years 9 years and older

14. What actions do you take when an employee is sick or has an accident on the
job?
Take them to hospital Send them home

Provide medication Nothing is done

Other, please state __________________________________________________

21
15. What are two staff rule that must be observed in the Human Resource
Management Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

16. What are two legislation government the Human Resource Management
Office?
a._________________________________________________________________
b._________________________________________________________________

22
 OFFICE EQUIPMENT
Computer

Printer

23
Shredder

Scanner

24