CHAPTER ONE

1.0         INTRODUCTION

Employment system is a database of individuals which provides a list, usually in alphabetical order, of people’s names, contact address, telephone member and other personal information pertaining to a particular group of individuals known as applicants. This system in its entirety also contains the curriculum vitae (C.V) of individuals grouped under different sections such as job seekers, short listed candidates for an interview or qualified persons designated an employment status, as the case may be.

The system on its own enables an individual to conduct his/her search with little or no difficulty since the data he/she needs has already been formatted in such way the individual can access it with little or no skill at all. They usually stored under headings and are stored alphabetically.  Technology has evolved in recent times to a level where competition between existing systems and a new design are accessed and compared on the basis of reliability, compatibility, output design, speed and efficiency, not to mention sophistication. Globally, people are mostly interested in systems that can match any standard found in the international market. This project, however is designed to assist employment agencies in their bid to connect firms or organizations in need of some qualified individuals to fill up vacancies in their establishments and also to help the public to be well informed of such vacancies, hence the choice of the National Directorate of Employment as the suitable case study for this research project.

1.1      PROJECT BACKGROUND

This project is based on the gradual process of completely transferring the manual procedure of both managing and keeping track of information and data related to employment delivery. It is a project totally dedicated to the use of computes otherwise known as automation, to provide a faster, more reliable and accurate process of managing information that is greatly essential in the provision of employment by agencies working for the government or contracted by private bodies.

Computers these days are gradually being introduced into every sector of our daily lives and its use in managing database cannot be over emphasized computers have come a long way to replace human limitations such as the ability to perform series of repetitive activities without easily getting weary or entirely bored. It has saved human energy and performs its activities/functions much faster than the average man.

The few mention advantages and merits of automating (computerizing) certain activities over the usual manual way of carrying out similar activities, necessitated in making the researcher to propose and design a new system, which will entail the gradual change from the existing system of manually managing data to an automated system of the same procedure. This will culminate in the use of the computer to:

Ø  Input data

Ø  Process the data into information

Ø  Store the information and

Ø  Access the information at any given time and place whenever the need arises.

Although risks cannot be entirely ruled out when using an automated system, they are however minimal and highly reduced to the lowest level when qualified personnel are left to manage and administer the system.

1.2         STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The primary function of the National Directorate of Employment is to assist the government in providing jobs for the unemployed populace and also to help the unemployed to get gainful employment for their benefit. There are several problems hampering the link between qualified personnel (or applicants) to some potential employers. Most of such problems could be summarized into:

Ø  Staff attitude: The nonchalant attitude of some of the staff of certain employment agencies towards requests due to some difficulty they encounter while collecting data. Also, some departments working under the some establishment view themselves as independent entities, hence the flow of information suffers serious setbacks and access to central data becomes increasingly difficult.

Ø  Processing: Poor data and information flow within the organization due to job duplication and role redundancies and also errors due to incorrect entries from the public.  

Ø  Time wastage: Time wastages could be due to lack of well defined information retrieval system, insufficient number of employed personnel and delay caused by postal services. This affects the overall response time of the agency to requests.

1.3         OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

This research project, from its inception, has some targeted goals and objectives which serve as the motivating factor behind the system design. The new design is intended to be efficient in the sense that the database software would produce the required results satisfactorily without much time and valuable resources being wasted. The project would in turn be a reliable substitute in the sense that the usual process of manually storing, retrieving already collected data or information, which are at most times error prone due to human factors such as commission, are eliminated. In other words, the project is aimed at improving information and data flow within the agency (directorate). Usually, the research project is designed to eliminate problems/set backs which the commonly experienced due to physical management and processing of documents (files) of respective requests made to the agency. From the above mentioned points, its objectives could be summarized into:

Ø  Improving data and information flow (management) within the system  

Ø  Providing high quality information for the management to make relevant decision at the needed time.

Ø  Reduction of unnecessary time wastages incurred during data processing, storage and retrieval of information.

Ø  Making for a quicker response time.

Ø  Linking qualified personnel to vacancies and also providing organization s with suitable applicants for vacant posts in their establishment.

Ø  Reduction of clerical operations amongst other benefits.

1.4         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

The application of an automated employment system will make for an improved public awareness due to the fact that information processed or possessed by the agency (directorate using the this new system) would readily be linked to the internet or the ‘yellow pages’ as the case may be information generated can be readily passed unto the public at a faster rate as would have been the case using the existing system. In other words, rapid technological changes and improvement gave rise to a required standard for which this new has attained.

Furthermore, this new system will lead to a greater patronage from the public due to the efficiency and reliability associated with the system. This project signifies a design which serves as the best feasible alternative solution to the problem of data management and control. The new model and its software capabilities enable the new system to be implemented in any part of the world due to the portability nature of the software.

Finally, this study serves as a good reference material for researches in the field or those undertaking a similar research.

1.5         RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research method adopted in this research project is as follows:

i.             Investigation and analysis of the present system: Here, the researcher studied the existing system as regards to its set objectives, its functions and managerial capabilities.

ii.            Interview: Certain workers and employees at the personnel department of the National Directorate of Employment were interviewed; necessary information and raw data were both collected and noted. Such information played a great role in the development of the new system.

iii.           Observation: The processes and procedures involved in data and information flow in the agency were observed. Also, their relationship with the intended results were observed, compared and carefully noted.

iv.           System development: The new system was developed firstly by carefully analyzing the problems evident in the existing system, proffering solutions and therefore, the researcher went ahead to design a model for the new system. Subsequently, the developed system was tested accordingly with data for which required solution/results were previously achieved using the manual system of operation. Both results were compared and it was found that the solutions were similar but with the new solution, having me the target with a higher degree of accuracy, at a quicker response time, improved management control and also at a reduced cost.

1.6         SCOPE OF  STUDY

This research work is dedicated to bridging the gap between the unemployed (job applicants) and prospective employers. It is purely limited to the use of an employment directory to link applicants to various vacancies. This project will only cover the area of using the directory database to provide the necessary information required by an organization to employ qualified individuals into positions needed to be filled. After the analysis of the existing system, some areas were noted for improvement while some sensitive areas demanded conversion, which could best be handled by a computer method i.e. automation.

It must be noted however, that this project or model does create job opportunities by design but provides an easy and more efficient access to information needed for smooth employment delivery is therefore hoped that future researchers will carry out further work on this subject.

1.7         LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

There were certain constraints encountered while the research for this project was being carried out. Listed below are some of the prominent ones. They are:

Financial constraints: Limited source of funds as regards the high rate of transportation culminated in the choice of the National directorate of Employment as case study.

Time: The time needed to travel outside the school environment to other places (distant places in particular) in search for the required data was limited; this also led to the choice of N.D.E Uyo as case study.

Privacy of data: Due to the sensitive nature of certain information, the researcher was not able to get certain personal information about some individuals from the agency.

Staff attitude: Some members of staff of the agency were not readily helpful when approached for specific information. This was another source of hindrance to the completion of the project.

Nevertheless, as there were hindrances and limitations arising from different quarters, the researcher was able together all the necessary information required for the completion of this project.