Human Resources Management
Human Resources (HR) is an important asset of any organization. An organization may have good visions however it is the human workforce that drives the organization toward its strategic vision.
To ensure plan and program success, one of our objectives would be to;
- ensure qualified and experienced officers are given due consideration to fill senior and middle-level management positions and
- assist/facilitate in changing the mindset of the workforce through workshops and trainings. Through this process, the entire workforce would become passionate about the collective need and duty in achieving the provinces broad organizational objectives of improving service delivery.
- Planning, coordinating, and supervising the employment of new employees. Liaison between management and staff, they advise business executives on strategic planning.
- Serve as a vital link between EPG staff members and upper management by mediating problems at work, ensuring compliance with employment rules and regulations, and collaborating with executives on long-term strategic planning.
Discipline is also important as part of the “carrot stick” strategy used by EPG to manage its employees. When an officer commits an offence, the immediate supervisor reports the matter to the HRM branch. The branch advises the Provincial Administrator’s office on the nature of the office for his information. The HR branch writes to the officer and requests for a report on the offence and notices are issued. After the provincial disciplinary committee deliberates on the matter, a resolution is made as the decision on that matter and charge papers are issued forthwith. The officer then responds to the charges through the Provincial Staff Disciplinary Committee which is deliberates upon. The final resolutions of the matter is tabled and results are issued to the officer and files are updated by the HRM branch.
Major programs and projects
There are 24 officers who have been retired already in the first batch in which 21 have been paid out and 3 have rejected to sign the deed of return. The second batch had 34 retirees. All calculations for these 34 retirees have been done. Two DPM officers flew over and did compliance check on the calculations with the personal files. The summary sheets of the calculations were taken to DPM and the vetting team is working on it. As soon as vetting is finalized the calculations will be sent to Treasury so that the Did of Returns can be process. It is quite a lengthy process so HRM branch is giving them ample time to exhaust the process. The retirees are still on payroll and are continuing to perform their duties..
The decentralization of the payroll system will minimize all pay related issues that are affecting our officers. The first phase of this project was the setting up of the hardware and cabling which has already been done at the salary section in 2020. Last November we flew in two officers to install the Ascender payroll software. The software has been successfully installed in consultation with our IT manager. The second phase is the training of our data entry operators before they operate the payroll system. The HRM branch is in close contact with the coordinator training. They will sort out some administrative issues in the training section and inform us to commence the training. We are also mindful of the officers who will be selected on the positions as the restructure is on foot.
The 2017 structure has been approved by the PEC and so we have further sought the approval from the Department of Personnel Management to do external advertisement of the 433 position within the structure. The advertisement was done on the 2 daily newspapers from the 06th of February to the 20th of February 2023. There was more than 5000 applications received for the 433 positions advertised. The registration of the application were done right after the closing date of the application. Two weeks from there, the profiling and summarizing of the applicants commenced. The summary and profiling took two months as individual applications were precisely entered into the respective forms. The information entered is very important as this summary is used to make selection decision.
We have a total of 124 casuals on the PGAS payroll which are paid through the HRM vote. This excludes the 20 Assembly members and the 7 SRC staff. After the notice to terminate all casuals has been issued, the supervisors have recommended to retain 78 officers. Which means the remaining 46 officers will be terminated from the payroll. Their entitlements have been prepared. All other branches and district administration’s recommendation to include new officers have been on hold until the current review is finalized. The casuals are paid above the 2023 minimum wages and include their POSF saving deductions.
The HRM branch is planning to install a modernized system in the Administration to execute the carrot stick policy but for the start, the manual attendance register is placed in all Divisions to sign in and out. This is monitored by the Public Service inspector and appropriate charges will be laid on officers who do not turn up for work. This is in accordance with the DPM secretary’s circular instruction No. 14 of 2021 to enforce special general order Number 11 of 2019 and lawful instructions from the NEC.
The Division is ambitious of registering a deduction code with the finance so that it can be installed in our ascender payroll system which can systematically do pay deduction on officers who do not turn up for work. Such will ensure there is efficiency and punctuality at the work place. More so, this exercise will generate revenue for the Administration when the salary deductions are done.
Twenty-five years of stable leadership and consistent administrative machinery have resulted in EPG attracting more foreign government and NGO donor agencies to invest in all sectors in the province. ’This has been our strength and a Key strategy for addressing our development agendas.
