vacancy rates in the public service: a critical analysis standing committee on public accounts 24...
DESCRIPTION
3 Public Service Act and Regulations Public Service has a decentralised regulatory framework Responsibility for – –The management of human resources; –Personnel administration; –Organisational structures; etc vests with departments (specifically Executing Authorities and their delegates)TRANSCRIPT
Vacancy rates in the Public Service:a critical analysis
Standing Committee on Public Accounts24 October 2007
2
Presentation outline
• Decentralised regulatory framework• Vacancy rates according to PERSAL• Analysis of the data• Key contributing factors
– Information on PERSAL– Organisational structures– HR management capacity in departments– Skills attraction and retention
• Corrective measures• Concluding remarks
3
Public Service Act and Regulations
• Public Service has a decentralised regulatory framework
• Responsibility for –
– The management of human resources; – Personnel administration;– Organisational structures; etc
• vests with departments (specifically Executing Authorities and their delegates)
4
Vacancy rate in the Public ServiceVacancies by Salary level
Salary level Unknown Filled Vacant Grand Total Vacancy rate 0 2 1,253 119 1,374 9% 1 795 30,896 18,412 50,103 37% 2 876 108,490 45,319 154,685 29% 3 1,207 101,729 33,325 136,261 24% 4 1,039 66,313 25,690 93,042 28% 5 808 82,224 22,948 105,980 22% 6 2,410 157,395 46,152 205,957 22% 7 4,160 221,514 44,858 270,532 17% 8 2,147 181,677 43,749 227,573 19% 9 620 60,735 25,621 86,976 29%
10 269 26,955 19,597 46,821 42% 11 131 16,191 3,537 19,859 18% 12 87 10,326 2,443 12,856 19% 13 11 5,267 2,478 7,756 32% 14 2 1,654 792 2,448 32% 15 663 958 1,621 59% 16 1 121 26 148 18%
Grand Total 14,565 1,073,403 336,024 1,423,992 24%
5
Vacancy trends: national departments
6
Vacancy trends: occupationsVacancies per Occupational Classifications.
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
ADMIN
OFF
ICEWO
RKER
S
CRAF
T REL
ATED
WORK
ER
CS ED
UCATO
RS
DRIVE
R OP
ERAT
SHIPS
ELEM
ENTAR
YOC
CUPA
T
I T P
ERSO
NNEL
NAT
SECU
R+CU
STODIA
N
OTHE
ROC
CUPA
TIONS
PROF
ESS
AND
MANA
GERS
SERV
ICE W
ORKE
RS
SOC
NAT T
ECH
MED
SCI
TECHN
IC+AS
SPR
OFES
S
NATIONAL DEPARTMENTS
Mar 02Mar 03Mar 04Mar 05Mar 06Mar 07
7
Vacancy rates in selected departments
Expenditure
DEPARTMENT Prof & Managers Vacancy Rate
Vacancy Rate Rest
Average period in months of post vacant
Total Spent
Budget
(Over) /Under Exp
%
1. SPORT & RECREATION SA 50.9% 55.4% 15.18 30086
39126
9040
30
2. JUSTICE & CONST DEVELOP 29.3% 20.4% 9.99 2632818
2830444
197626
8
3. NATIONAL TREASURY 27.3% 27.3% 17.40
4. NATIONAL TREASURY (PENSIONS-ADMINISTRATI 63.3% 34.2%
29.61
1453359
1564213
110854
8
5. COMMUNICATIONS 34.3% 45.5% 13.22 99180
99597
41697
0
6. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 20.4% 16.2% 2.54 83743
84277
534
1
Total RSA 30.1% 13.0% 15.41 49509012
50546321
1037310
2
8
Putative and actual vacancy rates
• Departments spent on average 98% of their personnel budgets in 2006/07
• The turnover rate is 11,5% (managers and professionals) and 7,7% (rest)
• Benchmark proposed by the PSC: a vacancy should be filled within 9 months
• Vacancy rate should be approx. 12%• Nominal vacancy rate is 24% (336,024 vacant
and 1,073,403 filled)
9
Time taken to fill a post
Average period of vacant posts in months
15.13
14.90 14.89
17.31
16.25
16.68
13.50
14.00
14.50
15.00
15.50
16.00
16.50
17.00
17.50
Dec 05 Mrt 06 Jun 06 Dec 06 Mrt 07 June 07
Series1
10
Management of organisational structures
• 17 month average must be seen in context – often there is no intention of filling a post once is becomes vacant
• Departments often restructure and create new posts but do not abolish posts which will no longer be used
• These ‘vacant’ posts are therefore unfunded as funds have been diverted to other posts
• In practice these posts are dormant, existing only on PERSAL
• Most departments rely on systems (Excel) outside PERSAL for management information
11
HR management capacity in departments
• Capacity to administer PERSAL– Administrators are not able to keep up with the
continuous changes in the organisational structures
– Conflict between administration function required by PERSAL and the management value-added function required by the Regulations
– PERSAL managers are very junior• Recruitment capacity
– Open competition resulted in a huge administrative burden to process the filling of vacancies
12
Skills attraction and retention• Vacancy rates do not only reflect systems and HR
personnel challenges:– Capacity assessments conducted 2005-2007 to determine
“whether government has the all-round capacity, the proper organisational structures and the resources, successfully to implement our developmental programmes”
• Finding that there were public servants in sufficient numbers but many lacked the necessary skills
• National skills shortages also existed including IT, engineering, technical and medical professionals
• Public Service experiencing difficulty attracting retaining managers and professionals (owing to remuneration and working environment, amongst other factors)
13
Reasons for terminations
EMPLOYEE REASONS FOR TERMINATION TOTAL % OF TOTAL
Financial considerations/Promotion 1 975 43.8%
Reason/s not given 1 271 28.2%
Personal aspirations 474 10.5%
Career development 431 9.6%
Relocation 155 3.5%
Leadership and management style of senior management
120 2.7%
Working environment 81 1.8%
TOTAL 4507 100%
14
Working environment• Human resource matters
• Lack of career pathing following abolition of rank and leg• Application of the performance management system• Perception that job evaluation not consistently applied• Doubts expressed about the quality of the selection process• Market related salaries required for scarce skills
– Management and leadership • Lack of management skills consistently been identified• Lack of communication and clarity on roles
• Red tape• Time consumed to obtain decisions have been consistently
been identified. The red tape is in areas of procurement as well as HR related matters.
15
Years of service trendsChanges in the years of service distribution from 2005 till 2007
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
>5 6 - 10 11 - 15 16 - 20 21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 40 41+
Mar-05Mar-06Mar-07
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Personnel Expenditure Review– In 2006 the dpsa conducted a Personnel Expenditure
Review (PER) to form the basis of a new remuneration policy for the public service
– The PER found that remuneration has some flexibility but not enough to be competitive
– High turnover and vacancies in some occupations supported this
– Supply of skills in certain occupations limited – The PER developed the concept of the occupation-
specific dispensation: a remuneration structure, grading, career pathing and pay progression that would be specific to a profession
– Professional remuneration dispensations were developed initially for medical and legal professions educators, and dispensations for engineers and veterinarians underway
17
Dispensations for professionalsAll categories of nurses July 2007
Legal profession within the Justice Cluster July 2007
All school-based educators January 2008
Office-based educators April 2008
Educator specialists April 2008
Medical officer, medical specialist, pharmacologist, pharmacist and emergency care practitioners
July 2008
Correctional officials July 2008
Medical and therapeutic support services July 2009
Engineers, architects, environmentalists and other identified professionals
July 2009
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Corrective measures (1)• Developing capacity
– SAMDI to become Public Service Academy• “Massified” training for public servants
– Competency assessments for SMS for recruitment and development purposes
– Accelerated Development Programme– Implementation of the draft Human Resource
Development Strategy once finalised• Turnover
– Assessment of the current job evaluation process and system
– Introduction of government agencies in the Public Service Amendment Bill
– Considering imposing restrictions on movement prior to completion of probation
19
Corrective measures (2)• Quality of information on PERSAL
– Circulars to departments requiring them to ‘clean up’ their PERSAL information
– Developing strategy to enhance data• Integrated Financial Management System
(IFMS) – will consolidate and renew government’s back
office applications – Will cover Financial Management, Human
Resource Management, Supply Chain Management, Asset Management and Business Intelligence
20
Corrective measures (3)• Quality of organisational structures
– Regulations amended to require departments to consult the Minister regarding amendments to the top three levels of their organisational structures
– Guide on the development of organisational structures developed
• PSCBC resolution to fill all funded positions within 6 months
• Project to strengthen the role of Human Resource Management practitioners within departments (“Repositioning the HR function in government”)
• Departments’ HR management scrutinised– Public Management Watch – set of key HR and financial
management indicators run quarterly
21
Public Management Watch11
.9%
8.8%
35.3
%
21.7
%
11.7
%
11.1
%
8.0%
35.1
%
18.8
%
11.7
%
11.3
%
7.8%
35.4
%
18.9
%
14.4
%
11.0
%
7.6%
37.3
%
20.2
%
13.4
%
11.0
%
8.5%
37.9
%
20.3
%
11.6
%
11.5
%
7.7%
37.9
%
20.4
%
12.4
%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
Turnover Rate Prof andManagers
Turnover Rate Rest Prof & Managers VacancyRate
Vacancy Rate Rest % Termi- nations back-dated
Dec 05Mar 06Jun06Setp 06Dec 06Mar 07
22
Concluding remarks (1)• Various contributing factors to high “vacancy
rates”:– Administration:
• Outdated information on PERSAL• Intentionally not filling posts after they have been vacated• Delays in HR administration in recruitment and selection
processes– Skills shortages and gaps:
• Skills gaps within the Public Service• Skills shortages nationally
– Public Service as employer:• Working conditions• Remuneration• Red tape
23
Concluding remarks (2)
• Public Service has undertaken corrective measures to address these factors
• Quality of organisational structures improving • Remuneration imbalances largely addressed with
occupation-specific dispensations• A critical success factor will be the extent to which
the Public Service is able to develop the capacity and skills of serving public servants
• Capacity and skills of HR professionals in the Public Service is an urgent focus to improve both HR management and personnel administration
Siyabonga