1. 1 ROLE OF OFFICE OF THE PREMIER IN IMPROVING HRM EFFICIENCY IN A PROVINCE PRESENTED AT THE NATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE FORUM BY MADIKOLO RACHEL MODIPA THE RANCH-24 FEBRUARY 2009

2. 2 PURPOSE The purpose of this presentation is to outline the role of Office of the Premier(OtP) in a Province and to further clarify the role in terms of improving HRM efficiencies. Practical examples of the role played by the OtP in the Limpopo Province have also been included in this presentation

3. 3 INTRODUCTION The ability of a Provincial Administration to deliver on its social and economic objectives depends largely on the capacity of its Human Resources. The management of human resource should be regarded as a significant task for those who have been charged with that responsibility and should be conducted in a professional manner The fundamental change that H.R has undergone requires a service delivery oriented, multi skilled and multi cultural workforce Office of the Premier should provide innovative and strategic leadership and management in order to support departments and enable them to achieve on their mandates

4. 4 ROLE OF OFFICE OF THE PREMIER The Executive Authority of a Province is vested with the Premier in terms of section 125(1) of the Constitution OtP exists to support The Premier (and other MECs) to: –Implement provincial legislation –Implement mandated national legislation –Develop and implement provincial policy –Coordinate functions of the Provincial Administration and Departments –Prepare and initiate provincial legislation [Chapter 6 of the Constitution of the RSA] As a public organisation the office has to: –Manage people, assets, finances, information in line with legislation and policy

5. 5 ROLE OF OFFICE OF THE PREMIER All Provinces have developed Provincial Growth and Development Strategies The strategies provides strategic direction of a Province and all strategies have strategic objectives that should be achieved by a Province. All Provincial Departments develop their strategic plans in line with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and the core mandates of a department

6. 6 ROLE OF OtP 1.Strategic plans and Organisational structures The objectives of a strategic plan of Provinces and of departments can be achieved if organisational structures designed support the strategies developed Human Resource Management sections should participate when strategic plans are crafted Participation in strategic plans enable the HRM sections to design meaningful organisational structures that support the strategies

7. 7 ROLE OF OtP CON... 1.1.Practical Situation HRM sections are part of processes of development of strategic plans but in most cases do not play a meaningful role in terms of providing advise in line with the strategic direction taken by a department Review of organisational structures are often not done in line with the strategy In some cases support functions are given more priorities than the core function

8. 8 Role of OtP cont... 1.2. Practical interventions-OtP HRM sections can be taken seriously if they provide meaningful advice Office of the Premier can improve HRM efficiency in a Province if meaningful advice and support is given to departments on HRM issues OtP should analyse strategic plans and organisational structures of departments and assess whether the structure support the strategy. This can be done through task teams or sub-committee of the HR forum

9. 9 Role of OtP cont... In the OtP of the Limpompo Province task teams have been established The task team assess whether organisational structures support the strategic plans The teams assist departments to review their structures in line with the core mandates and strategic plans

10. 10 Role of OtP cont... 2.Human Resource plan/strategy One of the critical functions of HRM is the ability to develop an HR plan/strategy that will enable the organisation to employ the right people with the right skills If an organisation does not have the required human resource capacity it will definitely have difficulty in achieving its strategic objectives and deliver on its mandate

11. 11 Role of OtP cont... 2.1.Practical situation-OtP Most departments do not develop meaningful HR plans that can assist in achieving strategic objectives This is often caused by lack of meaningful participation of HRM in the strategic planning process In some cases there is lack of skills in human resource planning and forecasting

12. 12 Role of OtP cont... 2.2.Practical solutions-OtP The Provincial task teams/sub-committees focusing on HR planning should collate HR plans of departments,analyse them and assess whether the plans comply with the national strategic framework and also assess whether the plans assist departments to achieve their strategic objectives Recommendations should be given to departments on areas where they should improve In the OtP analysis of HR plans is done by the Transversal section of the OtP and the analysis is discussed in the HR forum Departments are given feedback on arears where they should improve

13. 13 Role of OtP cont... 3.Policies and procedures One of the critical function of Human Resources is the ability to develop policies and procedures that will enable a department to deliver on its mandates Lack of policies and procedures often cause unnecessary delays that have impact on service delivery

14. 14 Role of OtP cont... 3.1.Practical situation In some departments policies and procedures developed do not assist departments to deliver on its mandate as they cause unnecessary delays in service delivery In some cases the policies and procedures are developed but are not implemented and this usually cause unnecessary audit queries Some departments do not have the required relevant policies and procedures

15. 15 Role of OtP cont... 3.2.Practical solutions- OtP A catalogue of policies to be developed by each department in terms of the core and the support function should be compiled The HR sub-committee on policies and procedures should take audit of all policies developed in a department and use the catalogue compiled to assess the level of compliance in relation to policy development Recommendations made should assist departments to develop qualitative policies and where transversal policies can be developed policy guidelines can be developed and used by all departments In the OtP of this Province the process outlined above assisted the Province to develop Provincial HR Manual that has been approved by EXCO.The Provincial finance policy guidelines has also been produced through the same process

16. 16 Role of OtP cont... 4.Systems and Processes Systems and processes are critical in fastracking delivery of services Organisational reengineering process assist departments to identify areas where there are bottlenecks hampering service delivery Systems including the IT systems improve HRM efficiency in organistations and capacity to develop the systems and cut down process is critical in any organisation

17. 17 Role of OtP cont... 4.1. Practical situation In some departments processes and systems that can assist in fast tracking service delivery are not in place and in most cases this is caused by lack of capacity to develop the systems and processes. In most departments management of HRM is done manually because of lack of IT systems In some departments IT systems have been developed but implementation of the system is a problem again because of lack of capacity In most departments HRM sections are not able to trace HR processes that cause service delivery bottlenecks and therefore are not able to advise on how those processes can be reduced to speed up service delivery

18. 18 Role of OtP cont... 4.2.Practical solutions-OtP The OtP should take audit of all systems that should be developed including human resource systems, identify those which are transversal and those which are specific to a department and advice accordingly Transversal systems can be developed and be used by all departments in order to minimise costs Processes that hampers service delivery should also be traced and standadised processes that can be used by all departments can be developed. Standadised forms can also be developed and be used by all departments.This will assist in in addressing issues of inconsistencies The OtP in this Prvince has developed the standadised forms and the forms are being used by all the departments

19. 19 CONCLUSION The OtP has a critical role to play in improving HRM efficiency in a Province This can be achieved if the OtP has the necessary capacity to research, analyse and provide meaningful recommendations that can assist to improve the situation The Office should also have the capacity to provide innovative and strategic leadership that will enable it to manage the HR forum and all the sub-committees

20. 20 THANK YOU