The Sunday Mail
Public Service Engagement Forum
What is the new personnel performance system? As the Second Republic pushes ahead with public sector reforms, which are needed for the attainment of “a prosperous and empowered upper middle-income society by 2030”, focus is not only on the performance of ministries but on civil servants themselves.
This is with the understanding that the real work that would determine performance of Government ministries, departments and agencies is actually carried out by employees.
In this regard, there ought to be a new work culture where civil servants demonstrate high levels of performance, professionalism, accountability and a consistent focus on achievement of results that would positively affect the lives and livelihoods of citizens of Zimbabwe. In order to ensure that each employee accounts for results so required for enhanced public service delivery, Government has developed a new personnel performance system that will be used by all members below the Permanent Secretary.
This follows the launch of new performance contracts for Permanent Secretaries that was presided over by His Excellency the President, Dr E.D Mnangagwa, in December 2020, wherein the Permanent Secretaries will also account for their work. The new personnel performance appraisal system, among other things, seeks to ensure that Government delivers for the people in tangible, concrete terms.
The new appraisal system seeks to enforce accountability and foster a results-based approach, which can be captured in a more user-friendly way. Following the review of the old personnel performance appraisal form, which was found to be too long, difficult to complete and not focusing enough on tangible results at every level of service, the new form is more direct on planned targets, is easy to complete and has fewer pages.
The new performance appraisal system is based on many aspects. Some of them include making sure that what an individual employee achieves is in line with the broader development agenda of the nation.
Individual efforts are looked at in a manner that shows how such efforts will contribute to higher level results. There is also an aspect of making sure that an individual’s contribution is combined with those of others for bigger and better results in order to bring about changes and improvements that citizens wish to see in their lives.
In order to prepare civil servants on the new personnel performance appraisal system, training of trainers from all ministries and provinces on the completion of the form and linking this to each ministry priorities and targets was initiated and a significant number has been trained.
Premise of performance appraisal system
The system is based on the Integrated Results-Based Management (IRBM), which is an approach that seeks to ensure the attainment of development results, focusing specifically on short-term, medium-term and long-term results. A major advantage deriving from the IRBM is that it puts more emphasis on that which is at the end of a work activity or work process rather than the actual process and also focus on how this will benefit the public in concrete terms.
IRBM focuses on achievement of results at all levels (from the lowest to the highest employees across the civil service) and has a strong foundation on strategic planning, systematic implementation, resource usage, performance monitoring, measurement and reporting, as well as appropriate management information and decision support systems to engender public sector’s effectiveness and efficiency in responding to needs and problems of citizens.
Benefits of new appraisal form
The new form tackles cross-cutting challenges across all Government sectors. An outline of some of the improvements brought about by the new appraisal form includes:
- An emphasis on meeting agreed upon targets, hence reducing the impetus for data gaming that aimed to present an ‘outstanding performance’ picture that was not backed by results on the ground.
- Clear definition of performance indicators, which makes it easy to communicate with clients, stakeholders and among parties to the performance agreement.
iii. Fostering continuous communication between appraiser and appraisee through a mechanism for pointed feedback on performance and on areas for improvement. The appraiser’s role in continuous development of the appraisee is strengthened.
- The appraisal system is more simplified and is less voluminous, which reduces frustration among users who are to implement it. This in itself provides scope for improved efficacy of the form.
- The appraisal form is set to be availed and used online, which will bring more convenience to users in line with the Digital Economy as enunciated in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1:2021-2025)
- The appraisal system will help entrench a high-performing culture through a rewards and sanction framework that will help in motivating civil servants to conform with the desired work culture.
The new performance appraisal form is an organic instrument, meaning it has been customised to the Zimbabwe-specific context and born out of a needs-based review.
It enhances performance measurement and impartiality in the assessment of the performance. Because all line ministries are expected to draw up and work from targeted plans and strategies that are realistic and make Vision 2030 achievable, a form that fosters transparency in the work of Government is a necessity.
The new system is part of the broad reforms towards an accountable, transparent and high-performing public service. It is no longer a game where supervisors award unrealistic performance appraisal marks that are inconsistent with service delivery.
The outcomes of all the assessments would be implemented as appropriate.
This article is part of a series of articles by the Public Service Commission aimed at engaging with and updating the public on matters of public interest that fall within its mandate.
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