A Competency Framework for Senior Executives of the Public Service has been approved by the Public Service Commission.
The framework embodies the Public Service Values and serves to improve and develop its services and staff through leadership of the highest quality, people management and setting high performance standards within an environment of change.
Public Service Commission permanent secretary, Parmesh Chand says the framework focuses on attitudinal and behavioral competencies, rather than technical skills.
“Traditionally, we have been addressing technical gaps in knowledge through established training and development activities but Behavioral and Attitudinal development has not had the same intensity of attention and the framework hopes to address this as it is a crucial aspect of continuing improvement in service delivery,” Mr Chand said.
Comprising of directors, deputy secretaries and permanent secretaries, the Senior Executive Services (SES) plays a crucial role through the provision of sound policy advice to Government; implementing programmes including delivering services to the community and are accountable for the delivery of outputs that contribute to the achievement of outcomes determined by Government.
“SES must be able to focus on the outputs specific to their agency, and the links between these outputs and broader government goals. This requires them to create a shared vision and sense of purpose for their organizations. They should motivate their staff to achieve high performance.”
The Competency Framework will be used simultaneously to compliment Strategic Workforce Plans that have been developed by the respective ministries and departments.
Mr Chand said information on workforce capabilities can assist agencies to determine whether the current workforce has the desired skill and capabilities to build organizational capacity and enable the agency to meet its objectives at the expected performance levels in the medium to longer-term.
“Assessing the skills and capabilities of existing staff members is important for an agency to determine its future capability and competency needs,” Mr Chand said.
Permanent secretaries have a responsibility to evaluate the performance of officers within the cadre under his/her jurisdiction in order to identify performance gaps.
This would be submitted to the Public Service Commission through its Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and relevant courses to be undertaken in addressing the gaps identified.
The Public Service Commission will coordinate relevant training programs either with external stakeholders or with relevant training institutions.