A think-tank for staff problems

Title

Language

English

Source

The Republic I (6) 1-31 December 1975

Year

1975

Subject

Civil service -- Personnel management

Philippines. Civil Service Commission

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

16 1-31 December 1975 A think-tank (or staff problems TO HELP improve personnel policies throughout the government, a new oitice will start cropping up in govern ment agencies during the coming year. It will be known as “Civil Service Staff’ and it aims to help personnel to give their best performance and to assist the government agency, at the same time, to get the best performance out of them. The name “Civil Service Staff” was chosen because some government agen cies already have various types of Civil Service Offices or Civil Service Units. Thus a new name was needed. Planners at the CS Commission note, however, that the word “'-.taff ’ also has the happy connotation of being something you can lean on, or get help from, on a journey. At the start, many of them will be manned by existing personnel and ad ministrative officers of the agency con cerned, but the Civil Service Commission will hire and train its own permanent specialists. It is hoped these units will have their own private offices with easy and confidential access within the agen cies. Presidential Decree 807, which ear lier this year redefined the powers and functions of the Civil Service Commis sion, specifically called for the organi zation of a Civil Service Staff in every department, bureau, agency, office, cor poration, and in provincial and city gov ernments. The terms of reference are specific: It shall provide technical assistance in all aspects of personnel management; Monitor and periodically audit the personnel practices and performance of the department or agency concerned as well as those of its officers and em-pioyees; Determine agency compliance with Civil Service laws and rules; and Welcome and receive any sugges tions, observations or complaints from the public pertaining to the conduct of public officers and employees. These functions may not appear to differ much from what the Civil Service Commission, as the government’s cen tral personnel agency, has already been doing. But there is a big difference: Instead of acting from afar, the Civil Service Staff will be within the main stream of agency operations. Therefore it can determine more effectively the type and form of assistance to be ren dered. The rationale behind this stems from the Commission’s desire to be right where the action is. Personnel manage ment is so inherent a function, and so permeates every single activity in an organization, that assistance must be on a timely and continuing basis. In the past, personnel management has often been overlooked and regarded as a peripheral activity. One important thing about the Civil Service Staff: It is not intended to do any “police” function. The Commis sion, in fact, is trying to get away from its old image of “policeman”. The new chairman of the Civil Ser vice Commission, Secretary Jacobo C. Clave, says: “We want to capture the imagination of the department and agen cy heads and of their personnel so that they will be more wholeheartedly com mitted to the cause of good personnel administration. It is not our intention to use this device to catch violators of Civil Service laws and rules.” To back up the contention that the CSC Staff is not intended as a covert policing operation, the Commission hopes each unit will be prominently accomrtiodated and signposted in its own room with easy accessibility. The Commission contends that if the aim were to catch wrongdoers, this probably could be more effectively done if the Commission were to conduct sur prise raids. ' j/ HE sheer bulk of work is one of the reasons why the Civil Service Staffs have become necessary. The Commission, which oversees a total government work force of 650,000, has 613 personnel. This means it has been unable to exer cise its assistance function to the fullest. In local governments, for example, there is great need to launch more in formation campaigns on the policies of the Commission, more training seminars, position clarification programs, and other personnel matters. Under LOI 319, the head of the Civil Service Staff in each agency shall be appointed by the Civil Service Com mission. But additional personnel and other logistical support is to be provided by the agency concerned. The Commis sion will have to recruit people, and put them through training courses, to fill the positions. But at the same time the Commission has the opportunity to avail of manpower support from the agencies. By so doing, the Commission has a better means of multiplying its efforts. As a transitional measure while ob taining the personnel who will head the CSC Staffs, the Commission has depu tized the existing personnel officers or, in some cases, administrative officers to head them. As the system started getting underway during the past month, around 50 agencies had already res ponded. Not only have they designated officers for deputization, but they have also allocated' other personnel to the Staff. Some personnel officers, however, express apprehension that their dual roles might be incompatible. But the Civil Service Commission asserts: Since the two roles are each concerned with the effective implementation of person nel programs and of the merit system, how can conflict arise? Personnel officers of various agen cies have already held meetings at the Civil Service Commission to discuss details. One thing to emerge so far is that standards may well vary from agen cy to agency and even for the same type of job within an agency. For example, some typing positions may require speed rather than an artistically laid-out re sult, while others may require the op posite. The CSC Staffs will take this in to account when setting out standards. An important factor is that each agency will play a leading role in setting its standards, monitoring them, and giv ing timely assistance to any employee who does not meet them. The Civil Service Commission em phasizes that the main task of the new unitsis to give assistance to staff and not to act as a fifth column in their midst. □ Guidelines for the Civil Service Stuff units HERE are the guidelines which the Civil Service Commission distrib uted to government agencies for setting up internal “Civil Service Staff’ units to evaluate personnel performance: Objectives: 1. To further improve the perfor mance of government officials and em ployees and enhance the contribution of the civil service to national develop ment; 2! To establish measures or indi cators of performance of government personnel.; 3. To recognize deserving personnel through honorary or monetary awards and to provide opportunities for the im provement of the performance of the least satisfactory or unsatisfactory per sonnel; 4. To promote a closer working re lationship between the Civil Service Commission and other agencies of the government in the common pursuit of providing effective _ public services through better personnel performance; and 5. To assure the effective utiliza tion of government personnel. Responsibility for the Program: Responsibility for the successful achievement of these program objectives rests upon the Civil Service Commission, the department/agency concerned, and the Civil Service Staff. Methodology: 1. The Civil Service, Commission shall be responsible for: (a) Formulation of policies, stand ards and guidelines relative to the estab lishment of the Performance Appraisal System. (b) Training of instructors on how to develop effective raters, with partic ular emphasis on the performance standards/requirements. (c) Institution of an effective re porting system for the monitoring and evaluation of overall personnel perfor mance in the government. (d) Preparation of integrated reports to higher authorities with emphasis upon the recognition of those with exemplary performance and the institu tion of remedial measures for the least deserving. 2. The Department/Agency shall take charge of: (a) Implementation of the Perform ance Appraisal System. This means that the agency supervisors at every level of the hierarchy shall determine, jointly with their employees, performance standards for particular jobs. They shall accordingly use these standards as bases for rating employee performance and shall provide feedback to the employees regarding their respective strengths and weaknesses. (b) Preparation of semi-annual re ports on the performance of the agency employees which shall be submitted to the Personnel Officer for evaluation and reference. A copy of such reports shall be given to the Civil Service Staff. 3. For its part, the Civil Service Staff shall: (a) Extend assistance in the proper implementation of- the Performance Ap praisal System. To carry this out, he may act as resource person in training pro grams to be held by the agency for the purpose and shall at all times be avail able for consultation. (b) Initiate the establishment of performance standards for each organi zational unit in the agency and give active asssitance when these are being established. (c) Receive copies of semi-annual reports of employee performance ratings and prepare a consolidated report on the same every year for submission to the Office of Personnel Planning and Program Evaluation, Civil Service Com mission, in August each year. Such re port shall call attention to the outstand ing employees and to the least satisfac tory or unsatisfactory. The following documents shall be attached to the report: —Performance rating forms reflect ing the ratings of the employees for the last two rating periods; —Performance standards established for the positions occupied by the em ployees concerned; —Records of performance of the employees concerned which would show that they have exceeded/met/not met such standards; —Justification for outstanding per formance by some employees, if any. (d) When an employee has been rated as “Unsatisfactory”, the Civil Ser vice Staff shall determine whether or not such employee has received prior no tice of unsatisfactory performance and has been given the opportunity to im prove such performance. If this has not been done, the Civil Service Staff shall: —Consider giving the employee op portunity to improve himself, with the assistance and encouragement of his supervisor, and the official report on his performance shall be held in abeyance for a period not exceeding two months or 60 days; and —Take steps to emphasize this as pect of the rating system in training programs on Performance Appraisal of the agency. The head of the agency and other officials concerned shall be furnished copies of such reports. (e) Any recommendations made by the Commission affecting both outstand ing and least satisfactory employees shall be communicated by the Civil Service Staff to the agency head who shall take appropriate steps to implement them.

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