#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use open qw/:std :utf8/;
use XML::LibXML;

my $data = { employee => [ {
		"************" => "M", age => { dob => "01-04-1993" },
		department => { departmentname => "Operations",
			title => "Manager" },
		location => { town => { county => "Somewhere",
			name => "Someplace" } },
		name => { forename => "John", surname => "Doe" },
	}, {
		"************" => "M", age => { dob => "12-12-1979" },
		department => { departmentname => "Internet",
			title => "Developer" },
		location => { town => { county => "Somewhere",
			name => "Othertown" } },
		name => { forename => "Jane", surname => "Doe" },
	} ] };

my $doc = XML::LibXML::Document->createDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
toxml($doc, 'data', $data);
print $doc->toString(1);

sub toxml {
	my ($parent, $name, $data) = @_;
	my @args = $name=~/\A\w+\z/ ? ($name) : ('value', name=>$name);
	if ( ref $data eq 'HASH' ) {
		my $el = newel($parent, @args);
		toxml($el, $_, $data->{$_}) for sort keys %$data;
	}
	elsif ( ref $data eq 'ARRAY' ) {
		toxml(ref eq 'ARRAY' ? newel($parent, @args) : $parent,
			$name, $_) for @$data;
	}
	elsif ( ref $data ) { die "Can't handle $data (yet)" }
	else { newel($parent, @args)->appendText($data) }
}

sub newel {
	my ($parent, $name, %attrs) = @_;
	my $el = $parent->ownerDocument->createElement($name);
	$el->setAttribute( $_ => $attrs{$_} ) for keys %attrs;
	if ( $parent->nodeType==XML_DOCUMENT_NODE )
		{ $parent->setDocumentElement($el) }
	else { $parent->appendChild($el) }
	return $el;
}

__END__

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<data>
  <employee>
    <value name="************">M</value>
    <age>
      <dob>01-04-1993</dob>
    </age>
    <department>
      <departmentname>Operations</departmentname>
      <title>Manager</title>
    </department>
    <location>
      <town>
        <county>Somewhere</county>
        <name>Someplace</name>
      </town>
    </location>
    <name>
      <forename>John</forename>
      <surname>Doe</surname>
    </name>
  </employee>
  <employee>
    <value name="************">M</value>
    <age>
      <dob>12-12-1979</dob>
    </age>
    <department>
      <departmentname>Internet</departmentname>
      <title>Developer</title>
    </department>
    <location>
      <town>
        <county>Somewhere</county>
        <name>Othertown</name>
      </town>
    </location>
    <name>
      <forename>Jane</forename>
      <surname>Doe</surname>
    </name>
  </employee>
</data>