HR Services Research Articles

Adoption and Use of Electronic Human Resources Management Systems for Service Delivery in Tanzania: A Case to Tanzania Airports Authority

This articles explores the adoption and utilization of Electronic Human Resources Management Systems (e-HRMS) for service delivery at the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA). General objective was to assess the adoption and use of electronic human resource management systems for HR service delivery at Tanzania Airports Authority. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the practice of eHRMS adopted to support service delivery in the Tanzania Airports Authority, to examine the effort made by the government to enhance the usage and adoption eHRMS in service delivery at Tanzania Airports Authority and to identify the challenges in using e-HRMS in service delivery in Tanzania. The study utilized the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand user acceptance behaviour and the Diffusion of Innovations Theory to explore how e-HRMS spreads within the organization. Research adopted an explanatory research design and population of study was 60 staff. Data was collected through questionnaires from a purposively selected sample of 52 staff with qualitative data from interviews conducted with HR and IT officers. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive analysis, while thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data. Findings reveal that TAA has implemented various e-HRMS practices, including digital storage of employee data, automated payroll systems, and streamlined recruitment and onboarding processes. Government support has been instrumental in these efforts through policy implementation, financial support and infrastructure development. However, several challenges hinder the full potential of e-HRMS at TAA, such as limited access to technology, unreliable power supply, skills gaps, resistance to change, and cost considerations. The study concludes that e-HRMS has significantly improved HR service delivery at TAA. Nonetheless, continuous efforts are necessary to address existing challenges. Enhancing technological infrastructure, providing comprehensive training, and implementing effective change management strategies are crucial for optimizing the benefits of e-HRMS. The articles recommends that TAA invest in reliable internet connectivity and IT hardware, provide ongoing training for employees, and develop robust change management plans.

Pengaruh Bentuk Pelayanan SDM, Fasilitas dan Promosi terhadap Kepuasan Pelanggan PT. Asia Sakti Wahid Foods Manufacture Medan

This research aims to determine the influence of HR services, facilities and promotions on customer satisfaction at PT. Asia Sakti Wahid Foods Manufacture Medan. The population of this research includes all customers during the 2022 period. The sample was determined using accidental sampling technique, so that there were 100 respondents. The research results reveal that simultaneously and partially there is a positive and significant influence between the variables of HR services, facilities and promotions on customer satisfaction at PT. Asia Sakti Wahid Foods Manufacture Medan.

Impact of Human Resource Policy Implementation on Service Delivery at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Western Region, Kenya

Efficient implementation of policies has a crucial function in improving service delivery in the public and private domains. The success of policy execution directly impacts how much the policy contributes to enhancing service delivery. To achieve high-quality, efficient, and timely service delivery, the Directorate has adopted a strategy of revamping, retooling, and continuous learning. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) follows the Excellence Charter and adheres to the ODPP Strategic Commitments for the period 2020-2023. In this context, the researcher focused on examining the impact of human resource policy implementation on service delivery at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Western Region, Kenya. Implementation Theory and Organizational Culture Theory guided the study. Descriptive research design was utilized. The target population was 198 individuals working within the ODPP Western Region of Kenya. Individual respondents were selected randomly from Legal, Administration, and Support Staff in region. Data collection was done through questionnaires distributed to staff and document analysis was conducted in the resource centres available in the region. Face-to-face interviews with selected County Heads were carried out by the researcher. Descriptive statistics, such as means, percentages, and frequencies, was used in the research's quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze the data using SPSS. The findings indicated that human resource has a significant impact on service delivery at the ODPP, Western Region, Kenya. The results upon Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) established human resource policy implementation had an r of 0.265, β = 0.252, t= 3.786, p= 0.05. It was concluded that Policy Implementation had a statistically significant impact on service delivery in the ODPP. The study recommends that ODPP should enhance HR policy implementation and service delivery in the Western Region by improving communication, offering regular training, fostering open dialogue, establishing a robust monitoring framework, deploying dedicated HR Officers, and ensuring transparent and unbiased career progression and training opportunities. The study will be part of references materials for all ODPP Staff, stakeholders, policy makers and other institutions in Kenya as an insightful tool in advancement of efficacy and efficiency in policy implementation.

Digital transformation of the Centre for Advanced Professional Training of Kuzbass: approaches and solutions

Russian education system is currently undergoing a phase of advancement that is associated with distinctive features of post-industrial society, the main characteristic of which is informatization and digitalization of economy. The efficiency of business processes and the validity (legitimacy) of enterprises and organizations are directly correlated with their digital transformation. These global trends cannot be ignored by these educational organizations. The most untouched issue concerns the creation of digital services for facilitating interaction between educational institutions and the labor market. The purpose of research: development and implementation of the Digital Transformation Strategy of the Centre for Advanced Professional Training (CAPT) of Kuzbass. The leading methods of research include general scientific methods, methods of systematicity and analysis of scientific and methodological literature and regulatory and legal documentation, as well as empirical methods (in the collection, accumulation and recording of data), and rational method (in the interpretation of research data). The article presents the principles and mechanisms of the digital platform interaction with the external environment are described. The author examines the internal conditions for digital services transformation. The necessity of creating and utilizing a digital replica of the HR service of enterprise on the digital platform is substantiated. The presented approaches pertain to the implementation of the Strategy for the development of digital resources of the Centre for Advanced Professional Training of Kuzbass, along with the development of a digital platform with an enhanced version, which is focused on more effective interaction of labour market agents in the region, contribute to the resolution of the most pressing issues of socio-economic development of the region. These techniques can also be applied to employment assistance services and career centers of educational organizations for secondary vocational and higher education.

Chatbot as a Corporate Communication Tool: Best Practice of a Hungarian HR Services Company

The advent of cutting-edge technologies has changed the way humans communicate. Corporate communication also has to face the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities stemming from the evolution of infocommunication technologies. The paper aims to present the best practice of a Hungarian certified company providing full HR services regarding the use of a chatbot software application as a corporate communication tool. The company applies its award-winning chatbot to communicate with its temporary workforce in five different languages. The paper is a single-case study based on secondary and primary research. The empirical research is carried out by means of an in-depth interview with the examined company’s representative to get details about the successful application of the chatbot software. The results reveal that the company was able to successfully integrate a rule-based chatbot into its corporate communications. The use of the chatbot has brought a number of benefits, e.g. time- and cost-effectiveness, satisfaction from both the temporary workforce and the internal staff. The paper concludes that even the most basic type of chatbot software can be applied effectively if the users are informed and well-prepared in advance, meanwhile the knowledge base of the chatbot software is appropriately determined and constantly updated.

Искусственный интеллект в управлении персоналом: возможности и угрозы

Introduction. Digital economy has generated a completely new model of human-machine interaction based on the active use of digital technologies in almost all spheres of human activity. Most information systems used by organizations are integrated with big data analytics, which requires higher qualified staff. The job responsibilities of employees change according to industry and corporate needs. The requirements for staff qualification are increasing, urging the company HR service to find, attract and retain specialists of the required qualifications, and organize staff development in the organization. Innovations in decision-making algorithms make artificial intelligence the most useful tool for implementing a human resource management strategy in an organization.Materials and methods. The article uses general scientific research methods, such as qualitative analysis, observation method, synthesis, logical induction method and others. The information basis of the article consists of scientific research works, official documents, and information posted in the media. A secondary analysis of the research on the topic under study was carried out.Results. Despite the fact that the processes related to personnel management have always been a human cognitive ability, artificial intelligence technologies can currently provide technical solutions in the field of recruitment and further staff development. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in collecting candidate data from various sources, and is able to evaluate the required candidates based on a job description more effectively and objectively than a HR officer. Artificial intelligence can more accurately describe a job that corresponds to the business process in skills. Artificial intelligence technologies can play an important role in the process of organizing professional development and retraining of staff. The use of artificial intelligence provides for obtaining more personalized and understandable results excluding the "human factor". In this article, special attention is paid to artificial intelligence technologies, which can be effectively used in staff management. The opportunities to increase the HR employees’ productivity are considered, main risks of artificial intelligence introduction are highlighted and recommendations for its efficient application are given. The research novelty is in identification of the scope of the use of artificial intelligence in the organizational personnel policy, making it possible to realize the opportunities for revealing the creative potential of the organization’s employees and increase competitiveness.Discussion. It is absolutely clear that AI is becoming an integral part of business ecosystems, and necessary to maintain and increase the level of competitiveness of economic agents. Nevertheless, AI is constantly evolving, which allows companies to expand the functionality of its use. However, it is important to define the boundaries of AI use, including how human-machine interaction will be ensured, which functions can be given to AI, and which can be abandoned.

Analysis Of Strategies for Strengthening the Online Game Industry Using an Industrial Cluster Approach

Based on data, as one of the creative economy sectors, the game industry has much potential to boost the Indonesian economy. The total market value of the games industry in Indonesia is US$ 1.92 billion or 25 trillion rupiah. However, Foreign developers from Europe and the US dominate the games industry market in Indonesia, making Indonesia only able to contribute 0.49% of total revenue. This research aims to map Indonesia's game industry players, analyse its ecosystem's environmental determinants, and formulate effective industry development strategies. This qualitative research uses interview methods with key informants, observation, and literature study, with purposive sampling as a sampling technique. The results show that the core industry value chain of the game industry cluster consists of Game Developers and Game Publishers and is supported by Supply industries (hardware providers, HR, digital content, and financial services) and supporting industries (marketing, logistics, law, and networks). There are related institutions/institutions such as the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Indonesian Game Association. This industry is also related to animation, music, e-sports and tourism. This value chain ends with buyers. This research recommends concrete steps for relevant agencies to enhance the gaming industry ecosystem through human resource development, increasing access to financing, promotion and providing technological infrastructure. Collaboration across industries is expected to increase the global competitiveness and contribute significantly to the national creative economy.

New features of the HR service

New features of the HR service

ОЦЕНКА СОИСКАТЕЛЯ С ПОМОЩьЮ ПРОФАЙЛИНГА СТРАНИЦы В СОЦИАЛьНОЙ СЕТИ

At the moment, many companies are considering candidates without work experience. There is no objective information to evaluate the applicant, but at the same time almost everyone finds their first job. In the absence of basic characteristics when hiring, HR services need to approach the evaluation of the candidate from other sides. One of the ways to make a portrait of a candidate is to analyze his page on social networks. Social networks can serve as a good source of information about hobbies, interests, and past projects of the applicant. Profiling technology is used for qualitative assessment of social networks. The theoretical analysis presented in the study showed that there is a variety of methods of profiling people used in various fields, including personnel services. The most promising technology is the evaluation of the applicant using digital profiling. In the course of the study, the problem of compiling a complete portrait of a candidate was identified, provided that there are no basic characteristics for evaluation in the resume (such as work experience, seniority, acquired skills and achievements). The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the technology of social media profiling is not widely used among HR services. The practical significance of the use of social media profiling lies in the fact that it is on the basis of this technology that a recruiter can make a primary conclusion about an applicant who has no work experience.

Discharged from the emergency department following hospital-presented self-harm: referral patterns and risk of repeated self-harm

BackgroundPresentation to the emergency department (ED) with self-harm provides an important opportunity for intervention.AimsTo investigate characteristics and self-harm repetition risk of those discharged from the ED without a referral for mental health–related aftercare.MethodData on consecutive self-harm presentations to EDs for the years 2013–2019 (n = 55,770) were obtained from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland. Multilevel Poisson and Cox regression models were estimated.ResultsHalf of the self-harm presenters were discharged from the ED (49.8%) and almost half of them did not receive a mental health–related referral (46.8%). Receipt of a psychosocial assessment was associated with a 50% reduced risk of non-referral (IRR 0.54; 95% CI 0.51–0.57). Non-referral was also less likely for young people (< 18 years), presentations involving attempted hanging, persons with previous self-harm presentations, and in the latter half of the study period (2017–2019 vs. 2013–2016), but was more likely for those brought by ambulance, presenting outside 9 am–5 pm and admitted to an ED medical assessment unit. Of those not referred, 19.3% had a repeat presentation within 12 months, compared to 22.4% of those referred. No difference in repetition risk between these two groups was evident in adjusted analyses. Self-harm history had the strongest association with repetition, with highest risk among individuals with four or more previous presentations (HR 9.30, 95% CI 8.14–10.62).ConclusionsThe findings underline the importance of assessing all individuals who present with self-harm and highlight the need for comprehensively resourced 24hr services providing mental health care in the ED.

PERSONNEL CERTIFICATION AS A COMPANY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The purpose of this article is to explore how personnel certification serves as a strategic tool for organisational development. It examines the importance of certifying employees as a means of enhancing organisational capability and competitiveness. By examining the role of certification in improving employee skills and knowledge, the article sheds light on its impact on organisational performance and growth. It also discusses how certified personnel contribute to building a skilled workforce, fostering innovation and meeting industry standards. Overall, the article highlights the importance of personnel certification as a proactive approach to advancing organisational development goals. The object of the study is the process of personnel certification and its impact on the company's development. Methodology. The use of an integrated method helps to eliminate formalism and subjectivity in personnel certification, increase openness and objectivity in the assessment, and stabilise the social and psychological climate in the team. When applying this method, a prerequisite is the unconditional support of the first manager, who should lead the personnel certification and implement its results through the HR services. Without it, certification will be formal and will not yield positive results. The comprehensive method of personnel evaluation integrates various assessment techniques to provide a holistic understanding of an individual's skills, competencies and performance within an organisation. It takes into account multiple factors such as job performance, behavioural characteristics and growth potential, allowing for a thorough analysis of an employee's contribution to the organisation. The comprehensive method of personnel evaluation is based on the use of groups of methods: descriptive method (biographical method; method of oral and written assessments, method of group discussions, method of standards, matrix method and method of free and compulsory choice of assessment situations); combined methods are methods based on the descriptive principle, but formalised with the help of conventional quantitative indicators (sum of scores method, method of specified groupings, testing). Research results. Evaluating personnel performance helps to attract and retain highly skilled and motivated employees, while analysing the effectiveness of recruitment strategies and methods will help to attract talented employees. Practical implications. The use of personnel evaluation methods will allow to understand how personnel certification contributes to creating a positive working environment and increasing the level of employee satisfaction; to study the impact of personnel certification strategies on the company's reputation among employees; to formulate specific recommendations for practical managers and personnel specialists for the successful implementation of personnel certification strategy; to develop strategic solutions aimed at increasing the competitiveness and stability of the company. Value/Originality. Personnel certification helps to improve internal and external communication, which contributes to a more effective exchange of information and helps to maintain unity among employees; it allows companies to adapt to changes in the labour market, creating attractive conditions for employees in new conditions. In general, effective personnel certification is determined by the ability not only to attract but also to retain talented employees, thus contributing to the sustainable development of the company in a competitive business environment.

Economic prerequisites, development trends and features of the implementation of HR technologies through the prism of digital transfor-mations

Processes of accelerated digital transformations of all spheres of social life are currently the primary trend in the development of the global economy. The rate of penetration and effectiveness of the use of digital technologies in the economy at all levels is a determining factor of its competitiveness and a means of survival, especially in the conditions of modern challenges associated with active hostilities, pandemics, and forced adaptation to threats and obstacles related to it. It should be noted that digital transformation will be the driving force behind the post-war recovery of the national economy. The article aims to determine the economic prerequisites, development trends, and features of implementing HR technologies through the prism of digital transformations. It is emphasized that Digital transformation in personnel management, in most cases, is accompanied by the development of a digital platform that is maintained, a service integrator that ensures the interaction of employers with each other and with the working population, as well as with other digital platforms such as state ones: the "Actions" functionality, the digital platform interactions for business relocation assistance, the automated system "Unified State Electronic Database for Education (EDBO)", Electronic Health Record (EHR), and private: MASTER: Accounting, SMARTFIN.UA, Olyk SaaS, private 24, Liga Zakon, etc. It is substantiated that the competence approach is understood as a system of analytical assessment that allows identifying the correspondence of the potential of the personnel to the goals and priority directions of the organization's development and their results, which are evaluated by economic effects in the conditions of digital transformation. Areas of evaluation of the effects of digitized HR personnel management should cover the effectiveness of personnel work, the work of the HR service in general and its individual divisions, and the effectiveness and feasibility of the implementation of individual HR projects. Based on the calculation of these effects, it becomes possible to monitor the accurate picture of the organization's personnel management, identify the most vulnerable places, and promptly adopt the relevant managerial influences. The goals of the digital transformation of the personnel management system have been determined. The main prerequisites for implementing digital transformations in the personnel management system are outlined. It was determined that the transition of personnel management to the digital environment leads to transforming tasks, essential functions, and the management structure itself. At the same time, the framework of digital transformations, the effects of digital personnel management, and the vectors of their development, as a rule, differ about different industries and spheres of activity. Keywords: Digital technologies, HR technologies, digital transformations, HR processes.

Assessment of the Efficiency of HR Services in Kazakhstan

Assessment of the Efficiency of HR Services in Kazakhstan

Lessons Learned from Institutionalization of ML (Machine Learning) Supported HR Services in the Existence of Multiple Institutional Logics

Lessons Learned from Institutionalization of ML (Machine Learning) Supported HR Services in the Existence of Multiple Institutional Logics

АКТУАЛЬНОСТЬ ЛИДЕРСТВА HR-СПЕЦИАЛИСТА В РОССИЙСКИХ КОМПАНИЯХ

The article presents an analysis of the approaches of domestic and foreign authors to the problems of leadership in the organization and their relation to the request for the leadership of an HR specialist. Leadership is considered as a mandatory element of management that determines both the management style in the company as a whole and the specifics of the work of an HR specialist in particular. The study reveals the specificity of the influence of an HR specialist on the corporate culture and staff loyalty in connection with the request for a leadership from the management. It has been established that the most popular leadership style of an HR specialist is an advisory style, in which goals and methods to achieve them are discussed, but the final decision on both goals and methods is made by the head. The authors analyzed the relationship between the leadership of an HR specialist and the relevance of the tools used in the activities of HR services. Based on the results obtained, recommendations were formed to identify the need for HR leadership and to build efficient interaction between managers and HR specialists.

Overtime employment in enterprises

The topic of overtime employment is very relevant for modern Russian realities. For many companies and their employees, this is a rather painful issue, since the rules for overtime compensation are not always marked in advance. Very often there are situations where the main problem lies in the field of interpersonal communications. In the article, the author examines the identified problems on the part of the HR service of the enterprise.

Forced distance learning at a Russian technical university: A comparative analysis of key challenges assessment

Introduction. On the example of a technical university, the article presents a comparative analysis of assessments of key difficulties identified among the faculty during the transition to distance learning in the spring of 2020 and 2022 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors identified trigger challenges, which do not lose relevance in the context of the recurrence of a pandemic (and not only) and a person’s ability to adapt to the situation. Generalised recommendations are proposed to compensate for the influence of socio-psychological and communicative barriers to improve the quality of teaching activities of the faculty mediated by information and communication technologies.Aim. The presents paper aims at conducting a comparative analysis to assess key challenges, which are determined by the human factor and affect the implementation of the educational process by the lecturers during distant work with students.Methodology and research methods. The analysis was carried out during spring semesters 2020 and 2022 amid the realisation of forced distance learning. The authors used the methods of scientific and theoretical analysis, synthesis; empirical collection of a dataset of 2 cross-sectional studies using a questionnaire, the C. Rogers &amp; R. Diamond SPA test, and the social stratification level test. Two respondent pools included 307 lecturers from Tomsk Polytechnic University. The results were processed by comparative analysis and using the SPSS 26.0 statistical package program for social sciences.Results. The comparative analysis of the results in two pools showed that the key challenges were: 1) socio-psychological challenges associated with frustration, the challenge for adapting to the remote implementation of the educational process due to the certain disorientation and unprepared teachers; 2) communicative barriers related to the complexity of keeping students’ attention and reducing the quality of materials, the necessity for lecturers to have special communicative skills that meet the conditions of remote work (linguistic, subject, discursive, pragmatic, socio-cultural, technical), and supraprofessional competencies necessary when working in conditions different from traditional methods of teaching. It is concluded that the prerequisites for successful distance learning are determined by the presence of digital educational platforms and hardware resources for their implementation, and by the socio-psychological training of the faculty. In this regard, the authors made the recommendations on the organisation of consistent systematic work by the university personnel service in terms of organising teacher training in the specifics to work in a remote format from the point of view of not only technological (acquisition of skills to develop electronic courses, introduce types of tasks focused on interactive, group collaboration, gamification elements, fractional materials and their visualisation, etc.), but also the psychological acceptance of the situation, the development of emotional competence, adaptability, socio-psychological stability, as well as the improvement of communicative competence that meets today’s challenges.Scientific novelty and practical significance. The comparative analysis in dynamics revealed that the socio-psychological and communication barriers do not lose significance and influence on the lecturers, despite the repeatability of situations associated with a sharp transition in the implementation of the educational process from the traditional to the remote format. There is, therefore, a need for comprehensive work of the university HR service to compensate for the identified difficulties and build a trajectory for the consistent preparation of the faculty for the likely repetition of the situation with the forced distance learning, since the risk of its repetition due to a pandemic, a change in geopolitical or other conditions, is high enough. The implementation of the proposed recommendations for building a vector of readiness for remote work will reduce the negative socio-psychological impact of stressors and improve the quality of the educational process.

The Digital Transformation of the HR Function: A New Chapter in the Era of Covid-19:

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies have had to urgently adapt to this unexpected crisis. The major changes brought about by the pandemic forced companies to accelerate the transition to digital processes. At the heart of these transformations, the HR function was at the front line, managing an unprecedented reorganization of work to ensure business continuity. In this context of uncertainty, where an increasingly alarming atmosphere prevails due to an unstable future, companies are still trying to survive in order to ensure their sustainability. The Covid-19 pandemic compelled HR services to swiftly transform their processes in record time, giving an unprecedented boost to the digital transformation of the HR function and raising awareness of the benefits of digital solutions.

Empowering People to Accomplish Amazing Things Together: Nine HR services to dramatically boost team performance

Operating in a post-pandemic world, progressive HR functions play a strategic role in driving collaboration, adaptability, and innovation across organisations. The shift to more fluid operating models will inescapably lead to adaptive work structures and self-organising teams. How might HR empower project teams to collaborate and perform dramatically better than today?

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS FOR FORMING PROJECT TEAMS IN SAFETY-ORIENTED SYSTEMS

Human security project teams are formed in higher education institutions that train qualified civil protection specialists. One of the tasks is to increase the efficiency of forming SOS project teams by HR services, as well as to improve the recruitment and selection procedure using modern information technologies. Developing human resources, improving the quality of higher education for its applicants. Information systems provide high speed data processing, information search, recruitment optimization and candidate analysis. Automation of HR processes helps to reduce the labor intensity and resource costs of tasks. New models, methods, and technologies for processing materials and information about applicants for the purpose of evaluating them for further involvement in the SOS project will contribute to the sustainable development of the organization. The subject of the study is models for automating the selection of personnel in safety-oriented systems with their subsequent formation into project teams of the civil protection service and law enforcement agencies. One of the components of human resource management is the implementation of a subsystem for the assessment and selection of human resources, the initial elements of which are the basis for making personnel decisions on the formation of project teams. The purpose of the study is to formalize the criteria for selecting candidates to reduce the subjectivity of the assessment; optimize and automate the selection process, design expert decision support systems for HR. The article sets the following tasks: to design an information system for the formation of project teams in safety-oriented systems, taking into account the parameters of personal human qualities and professional skills of candidates using information expert systems. To improve the quantitative assessment and qualitative indicators of applicants, it is advisable to formalize the criteria and their weighting coefficients using the theory of qualimetrics and personnel assessment methods. The following research methods were used: system analysis, empirical methods, and project management methodology. The following results have been obtained: a model-scheme of an iterative approach to the development of an information system for human resource management for higher education institutions, taking into account specific learning conditions, has been developed. Conclusions. The methods of evaluation and selection of human resources, as well as the criteria for their selection in complex socio-technical systems are analyzed. The possibilities of automating HR processes and integrating an information system to support the formation of project teams in a safety-oriented system are considered. description of the life cycle of complex systems of a safety-oriented system, namely, the life cycle of such complex socio-technical systems is described, taking into account their characteristics and environment.