10.1 Records Management

Undertaking a recruitment and appointment process can result in a significant amount of paperwork and files at the end of the process. There are requirements in the Public Records Act 1973, the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Information Privacy Act 2001 that outline how these records should be created, maintained and disposed of.

To ensure that the Directors are carrying out their responsibilities under the Public Records Act, Public Record Office Standard (PROS) 97/001: Management of Public Records, the responsible governance officer(s) will need to implement a record management program which encompasses the creation and capture, maintenance and disposal of public records.

Creating and capturing public records involves making full and accurate records of the business of the office, and capturing records in record-keeping systems.

Records are created and captured into record-keeping systems that must be maintained in ways that ensure they are secure from tampering or inadvertent access while being easily identified, located and retrieved by those permitted to do so.

The destruction of records should be carefully managed. Approval is required from the Keeper of Public Records for the destruction of public records not worthy of preservation. It is important that these records are appropriately destroyed or permanently deleted.

Further information on the creation and capture, maintenance and disposal of public records can be found in Public Records Act Public Record Office Standard (PROS) 97/001: Management of Public Records.

The Freedom of Information Act outlines departments’ and entities responsibilities regarding accessibility to government records and information. The Act describes a number of Information Privacy Principles which must be observed by Victorian departments and public entities when collecting and handling a range of personal information.

The Information Privacy Act outlines privacy principles relating to areas such as the responsible collection, use and access to private information.

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office has put out a Records Management Checklist that is designed to assist government agencies to fulfill their obligations under the Public Records Act and to improve the management of their records.

10.2 Evaluation

A key feature of an effective recruitment process is regular evaluation of the effectiveness of the selection process. Systematically collecting data can help with the evaluation of a range of practices. This is turn can help to improve practices.

Table 39: Evaluation
Action
Collecting the following data can assist evaluation: 

  • time taken to fill the vacancy
  • selection ratio (the ratio of applicants to vacant positions)
  • number of positions refused
  • number of unfilled vacancies.