The Public Service Commission is currently working on a Scarce Skills Retention Policy for Civil Service. Public Service Commission permanent secretary Mr Parmesh Chand said over the past years government has lost considerable qualified and skilled personnel to private and regional organization’s, adding that the absence of qualified staff in Ministries affects Government’s ability to deliver the required services to the public.
Work classifications that Government considers as scarce skills are in the areas of Doctors, Engineers, Meteorologists, Veterinary Officers, Town Planners, Marine Scientists, Agricultural Scientists, Geologists etc.
“The recruiting and retaining of skilled staff is one of the important processes of Human Resource Management. The intention is to ensure that the organization has the right number of staff, right kind of staff, at the right time and place with the right skills and competencies doing what are economically important for the organization,” he said.
Mr Chand says the policy being developed will be ‘tailor made’ to suit the skilled areas mentioned and addresses the issues to hand where we lose staff with scarce skills and expertise on an ongoing basis.
He added that for staff retention to be successful, it has to be linked positively to the processes and practices of recruitment, selection, placement, training and development, remuneration and performance appraisal. There is a draft policy already formulated and this is currently being subjected to wide ranging consultations within the civil service. It will then be submitted to the Commission for consideration with timing for implementation envisaged for this year. -- No:1238/PSC
4 comments:
We surely are not surprised that we have a shortage of skills in the public sector? Retiring people with experience and with sound qualifications at 55 years of age (presumably because the now questionably challenged FNPF would support them then?) was a skewed idea and it reeked of ideological nonsense. No one should leave any employment at age 55 whether in the Civil Service or in the private sector if they are suitably qualified and have measurably performed. Applying ideology to the real world of business and service provision is a recipe for where we are now: a skills deficit which will not easily be made good because we have trashed inward investment and now are growing at a risible and unacceptable rate of under 2% per annum (if that?). Inflation is rampant and not under control. It will remain so due to global economic factors including the Greece Debacle (look at their Public Sector situation) and the US jobs deficit (increasing again). This is not an exercise in "DISMAL SCIENCE" this is the reality of 'Things as They Are'. Wise Up! Before it is too late to rescue anything much. Retain skilled and able people and let them know they count. They count so much that the Ideologues Run Rampant are those who should be now laid off and the economy rapidly and robustly re-started (just like your laptop/iPad) and set on a track to universal service delivery. This is not accomplished through co-ercive displays of pique. China and Russia have both suffered at various times 'Skills deficits'. That is because they sent people off to the rural areas to do things they were overly equipped to do: brain surgeons washing windows and sorely needed doctors and other professionals working in the Chinese hinterland in a Great Leap Forward (eventually true at huge human cost) thus producing covert famines and untold misery and suffering. As many have died of famine in China as in North Korea and Russia under Stalin put together. Are we 'up' with this? We need to be. Great Leaps Forward make human capital expendable. Yet in the USA and other countries with Constitutions which are libertarian, people freely work until their mid 70s and many are happy to do so. There is a major disconnect in economic understanding here. At the end of the day, the "Economy is All" and the economy will dictate (sic) the next step. If the FNPF does not beat it to the tape!
By the way: is there a connection between treating people as 'objects' and imposing ideological and theoretical solutions upon them? Hitler had a "Final Solution" - remember? Some of us do, we spent the first ten years of our existence suffering for it: no butter, no bananas, little meat mostly whale meat, no shoe leather, no hosiery (just skin dye) the list goes on and on. Historically, A March of Folly has been proven to lead always towards a dearth of rights for humanity and as Aung San Suu Kyi had just told us in the BBC's Annual Reith Lectures (recorded under cover in Burma), the suppression of the RIGHT TO THINK and to express one's thoughts is the deadliest imposition of all. No one anywhere in any part of the globe has this right. Neither do they have any right to label people 'grass roots'. A demeaning identifier which suggests that even the grass itself is of a lower order. Hitler lost World War Two. People from Fiji fought to ensure that he did.
Remember?
The Public Service Commission slept on the job and is probably still sleeping on the job by not only allowing students on Governemnt scholarships to migrate to other countries too soon but also to leave without paying what they owe. Why not require them to work in the country for up to 10 years or more.After all their basic education in Fiji,subsidized by the Government,is for life. 55years is also too soon for those who have proven record of good work performance to be retired. Many of these good performers are capable of being productive for up to another ten years. All we need are leaders who use their common sense instead of those making decisions that make no sense, if we are to keep the number of skilled people we need.
@ Hitler lost WW2
We do remmber this, don't we? One or two notable Fijians left to fight in the Battle of Britain to save not only the British Isles but also, eventually, most of the now Free World. Adolf Hitler was initially an Austrian sergeant in World War 1. He rose to pre-eminence and prominence in Germany (not his natal country) because there a number of minority groups were the perfect targets for him: Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and other non-Aryans. He manipulated them and used them as scapegoats for the ills of society and turned suspicions into hatred. Many German aristocrats were relatives of English aristocrats: first cousins in fact. But that did not deter Prime Minister Winston Churchill (himself of English aristocratic and American parentage) to "take them all on". Those of us who have had close family members who fought in World War Two (and WW1) know, instinctively, that tyranny never works. And former sergeants who become tyrants will succumb eventually no matter how entrenched they may appear. They tend to make silly mistakes and misjudgements which prove their undoing: taking on the might of Russia under Stalin?
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