PROGRAMA CORRECTIVO-PREVENTIVO

By institutional arrangements this implied the creation of permanent or temporary structures within the organisation which will manage, monitor and ensure the PMS is alive and well in the Department. The purpose of setting up these institutional structures and arrangements is to ensure that the department has enough capacity and resources directed at efficiently and effectively implementing the PMS in all its institutions.

This section of the handbook seeks to further pinpoint the specific roles and responsibilities of these structures and / or individuals. Some of the structures have been created specifically for PMS implementation while others are part of the permanent organisational structure of any department.

9.4.1 KEY STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

a) The Executing Authority:

♦ Ensures that there is a PM policy and approved system meeting the legal and DPSA good management guidelines

♦ Ensures that there is a valid and appropriate management plan for the department, developed between the departments’ HoD (and his/her senior managers) and the EA

♦ Holds the HOD accountable for overall departmental performance only on the basis of the HoD’s Performance agreement in terms of the agreed PMS, which will include delivery of an organisationally sustainable PMS.

b) HoD:

♦ Develops the PM policy in line with DPSA and provincial policies.

♦ Ensures that the PMS policy of the department is clear on issues of motivating and rewarding good performance, and dealing with unacceptable performance in the organisation on an annual basis.

♦ Reviews all policy issues associated with PMS at the time other strategic reviews are done before the start of every financial year.

♦ Delegates powers and authority to various line managers and structure that are linked to PMS implementation

♦ Leads by example in the implementation of the PMS

♦ Monitors and ensures the continued strategic linkage of the top management with his / her PA and the Dept strategic objectives

♦ Consciously builds an open culture of a performance driven Dept

♦ Insists and ensures that every SMS manager prioritises and contracts on implementing the PMS in his / her unit of control. This means implementation of PMS or people management will be one of every managers key deliverables.

♦ Timeously sets up a PMS oversight committee (PM Committee) clearly mandates and monitors their work regularly.

♦ Ensures there is a balance in the strategic objectives of the Department by using the chosen model of the province, in this case, the balanced score card model.

♦ Ensures that there are adequate resources directed at meeting the priority strategic objectives in any one year

♦ Monitors and reviews the attainment of departmental strategic objectives based on the PMS adopted.

♦ Reports progress in PMS implementation to the EA as required.

c) SMS MANAGERS

These are senior line managers in the department. Their main responsibilities include:

♦ Ensure they have agreed on and developed their own unit (directorate) management plans based on the departmental management plan

♦ Ensure that they workshop their unit’s management plan before they and their staff below them sign their PIs.

♦ Lead their units by example, through signing their own PIs and working in accordance to these PIs.

♦ Ensure they understand and champion the proper implementation of the department’s PM policies and systems within their own unit.

♦ Personally communicate, champion the PM system as part of their unit’s work systems not as an HR or other externally driven system which takes away from their own line work.

♦ Employ the PMS as the only tool and system for managing performance.

♦ Adhere to all time frames of the PMS.

♦ Monitor and review individual performance regularly and fairly.

♦ Reward good performance and support those who may be struggling as per prescriptions of the department’s PMS

♦ Allocate resources, including own staff and time assigned to champion and advance the PMS in the rest of the department.

♦ Document and utilise all processes and results of the individual Performance reviews.

♦ Motivate unit project teams to use the PMS and never undermine the PM system overtly or otherwise.

♦ Serve in the PM committee or PM project implementation team when assigned to do so.

d) ALL OTHER MANAGERS

This refers to any other supervisor at the rank of managers, deputy, assistant managers or first line manager. Their role and responsibilities are largely similar to those of their managers above but are more specifically focused at only those units below them.

Other roles and responsibilities include:

♦ Use PMS tools as designed and agreed.

♦ Communicate and champion PMS as an essential and good people management tool.

♦ Understand and remove any possible conflicts between the PMS and other collective agreements, policies in their work environment.

♦ Championing proper application of PMS and other systems must sit prominently as one of their own strategic objectives or key result areas so that they can be measured on how they must implement it.

e) Senior Manager: Human Resources / Corporate Services / Performance

Monitoring And Evaluation Manager (As Applicable In A Department

The arrangements are not always the same in all departments of government. In some cases different individuals as named above may be in charge of the PMS. Whoever the individual is, they must, inter alia:

♦ Immediately link the Department’s HR Planning processes and outcomes to the strategic objectives of the department through inter alia, the PMS.

♦ Understand and support the PMS.

♦ Manage the system through being a custodian of the policies, processes and practices of implementing a successful PMS.

♦ PMS implementation must be one of their main objectives in any one year.

♦ Should head the PMS project implementation team.

♦ Ensures all PIs are correct, collected, and their results documented into an HR system to inform other related HR processes and systems.

♦ May also be a custodian of all other HR systems linked to PMS e.g. remuneration and Reward Policy, LRA, recruitment and selection etc. If not the custodian of other systems, at least will ensure that the PMS is properly aligned to these other related systems.

♦ Coach other senior line managers.

♦ Member of the PM committee.

♦ Provide regular reports to all management at regular intervals.

♦ Progressively move towards automating the PM system in order to increase efficiency and reduce administrative burden.

f) PM COMMITTEES

These should be selected and tasked this responsibility by the HOD in person, who should hold them individually and severally responsible for the success of the PMS in the whole department at all times. This team must be given power to review, change systems and enforce policy at all times relating to PMS. In each department there will only be one such committee. These are not the same committees that used to assess employees for merit awards by employment categories in the past.

♦ Collectively and individually sponsor and support all departmental efforts to institutionalise the PMS.

♦ Prioritise and contract on the PMS as one of their key individual deliverables in their own PIs.

♦ Lead by example by being the first ones in the department to complete their PIs.

♦ Regularly advise the HOD on what steps to take to motivate, enforce compliance with PMS policy and milestones.

♦ Understand and coach other top managers, on the PMS in general and their own individual roles in particular.

♦ Consistently monitor the whole process and application, and ensure all role players play their part timeously.

♦ Monitor and report on, top management leadership behaviour that supports and that which diminishes the effective implementation of the PMS in the department.

♦ Use the mid-term review as a key PMS milestone to look at the overall performance of the organisation and modify any objectives, PIs of senior managers that may need to.

♦ Sponsor and champion as a change process, all new aspects of the PMS

♦ Ensure the implementation of the PMS is benchmarked on provincial, national and international best practices, all informed and complying with DPSA and other national regulations.

♦ Strategically monitor all directorate objectives and their implementation against the department’s strategic objectives at regular top management meetings.

♦ Sponsor and champion to create space, time and resources for champions in particular

♦ Moderate the PM outcomes (not actual scores or evaluation results of individual PIs)

♦ Strategically support the HR or Corporate Services manager(s) in securing resources to install and run efficient IT based management systems to enhance the usability of the PMS.

g) PM CHAMPIONS

These individuals have already been chosen or should be chosen to communicate, push and persuade all units in their overall understanding and implementation of the PMS in the department. Their selection should preferably be made from senior or influential managers in the department. All training and development personnel should be brought in as champions, possibly together with HR practitioners to ensure an HR team approach to PMS capacity building. Those selected must be sanctioned and given their task orders by the HOD. Their roles and responsibilities will have been discussed elsewhere in this Information Handbook. In particular, their roles need to include:

♦ Understand and support the implementation of the whole PMS

♦ Training all other staff in their units and other units too.

♦ Negotiate and manage training, coaching and support of other staff on all matters of PMS as assigned to them.

♦ Develop a training plan or schedule to manage the PMS training process and get HoD sign-off of the plan

♦ Communicate all events and changes in the implementation process of the PMS within their assigned units.

♦ Serve in the PMS project implementation team, as well as PM Committee as required.

♦ Give reports on PMS implementation to the PM committee and line managers, including HOD if requested.

♦ Ensure all notices and support materials reach, are understood and used by their assigned units within the department.

h) PMS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION TEAM

These will be individuals chosen by the PM committee, endorsed by the HOD, whose main role is to ensure that the implementation of the PMS is projectised.

To achieve this, the team will need to distil and agree with their principals, viz, the PM committee and the HOD on:

♦ Understand and present PMS as a change management strategy in the department, thereby preparing the ground for change before implementing the change.

♦ Project statement of work, specifications, milestones

♦ Work break down structure, costs, time and quality dimensions needed

♦ Ways in which the plan will be implemented, monitored and controlled, and

♦ The closing out phase of the whole project.

♦ Implement the above project plan themselves or support such implementation.

♦ Draft and do all documentation of policies, procedures, guidelines, and lessons from interactions relating to the PMS.

♦ Lead by example in all this work by ensuring that own behaviour, own PIs are exemplary and done on time to specification.

♦ Work with any specialists on PM engaged by the department on PMS process and document all the inputs there from.

i) ALL INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES

♦ Understand and implement the PMS as prescribed in their unit

♦ Sign appropriate PIs that link their daily actions to their unit’s objectives.

♦ Actively participate in feedback and other data gathering processes used in the PMS.

9.5 Enabling Conditions: PM Culture and Associated Leadership