ZESCO’S PHYSICAL EMPLOYEE VERIFICATION EXERCISE UNUSUAL
After looking at the memo shared by ZESCO’s Director – Human Resources to his Human Resource Managers. It leaves many questions in limbo. Also, for an internal memo to be shared out by your own internal management team, then there is something going on. I believe this memo is addressed to your own management team only.
Firstly, what sort of verification exercise requires respective divisions to manually follow employees in their respective stations to verify their physical presence/absence according to your records (Sounds like a register being called in a Grade 1 classroom). When would this exercise be completed considering ZESCO employs a huge number of people?
What sort of verification exercise requires employees to sign for their presence? How do you verify everyone in these designated divisions has signed?
And they say there is nothing unusual!
How often do you get employees to sign for this audit, and how long ago did they conduct one in this manner (If at all they have)?
This is the worst audit being done coming from a respective institution like ZESCO.
The memo states the URGENCY for this exercise is to ensure the integrity of their employee data in PHRIS and the databases in different divisions.
Now to get everyone on the same page. I will start by defining HRIS.
A HRIS (human resources information system) is an integrated system used to gather, store and analyze information about an organization’s human resources. A HRIS can be a powerful tool for workforce management; it can help companies streamline many business processes.
Now we know what that is.
When you conduct a HR audit one key area that should never be missed is compliance. Any human resource leadership team will want to know that they are compliant. A HR compliance audit focuses on how well your business is complying with current local, state, and federal employment laws and regulations. This is a risk-mitigation audit. The goal is to ensure you aren’t violating any laws or leaving yourself open to liability lawsuits.
Now coming back to their internal system used to manage their human resource. Do your HRIS records and finance team responsible for PAYROLL confirm compliance based on consolidated data. This exercise ZESCO is doing can be done at a higher level compared to having employees physically audited and have them confirm this with signatures.
Honestly, ZESCO’s PAYROLL and HRIS has all the information the Director needs. Can anyone work without being on Payroll?
The only reason for such an audit is when these records are not matching, and this mess can not be swept under the bus. The only solution left is trying to play it with integrity.
If anyone reading this has friends or family that work for ZESCO. Ask them if this exercise has ever been done before? If so, how long ago exactly? We need to understand the urgency this time around.
We recommend having an independent auditing firm come in and audit this company that is in a mess!
By: An ordinary citizen of Zambia
