Young Professionals Network calls for performance appraisal of public workers

As part of efforts to mark the May Day celebrations across the country today May 1, 2018, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) has called on government to introduce an evaluation curriculum in the public sector to assess the performance of civil servants.

In a statement signed by the President of YPN, Mr. Stephen Asiedu who described this year as an exceptionally busy one said the introduction of the module will go a long way to address an array of national issues including the elimination of redundancies in the public sector.

“We are pleading with government to embark on a massive external job appraisal of public sector workers, as a matter of urgency, to fish out redundancies, reduce tardiness and promote responsibility amongst public sector workers in Ghana.

Government in doing so will according to YPN, increase punctuality to work as well as safeguard and ensure a productive workforce in the sector which will reflect in economic growth.

"To ensure that such negative tendencies as mentioned above are eliminated from the public services, government should initiate steps to pay appropriate and competitive compensation that would attract the top-notch into the public sector. In this way, so many of the holdups are likely to be removed, the statement added.

The Young Professionals Network also urged for this year’s May Day commemoration not only to count as one of the numerous occasions witnessed over the years but instead, deepened to reflect the “enormous talents and contribution of public sector workers to the development” of the country.

Read the full statement below

Issued in Accra

30 April, 2018

Press Statement

On this special day, YPN wants to congratulate all Ghanaian workers on their undeviating purpose to see Ghana succeed. This year has been exceptionally busy for all and therefore has been a productive year so far, and we want to thank the president for setting the tone and pace for progress.

To us at YPN, we see this day as a day not of celebration but reflection for harnessing the enormous talents and their contribution to the development of Ghana.

We ask you to allow us introduce a double range of national issues that require deep reflection as we prepare to mark Labour Day, including cheating and dishonesty in the workplace, performance appraisal of public sector workers - safeguards for ensuring productive workforce in Ghana. These significant development issues touch on critical national interests – from national security to economic prosperity. They affect each and every one of us.

Cheating, Dishonesty and Selection into Public Service

It is commonplace to disregard due diligence during recruitment into public service due to nepotistic factors, professional negligence and poor screening. First, we entreat government to explore deliberate and practical efforts to measure cheating and attitudinal measures of corruption that negatively impact public sector systems. We find that differential selection into public service may contribute, in part, to corruption. We also find that screening features other than ability may be useful in reducing corruption. We recommend a more rigorous selection process just as is adopted in the private sector. We ask the question, “Who is to blame for dishonesty in the workplace in Ghana today?” It is important to spark a national debate around this theme in a bid to securing some long-term solution.

Public Sector Worker Performance – A Baseline Diagnostics needed NOW!

Beginning of this year, we asked almost 1,000 teachers who have served in GES between 1-5 years across the country, about the last time they were formally appraised/evaluated on their job descriptions and we had a frightening response. Apart from promotion interviews, no primary through senior high school teacher was formally appraised in the last 5 years, at least. This feeds into the perception that ‘government jobs are more secure because worst case, you will be transferred.

The HR department of the Ghana Education Service seem to be busy with recruitment – and it appears that has been its preoccupation for a long time. It fails to appreciate that it is supposed to be the bastion of good behaviour in the workplace – after all, the human resources department of GES created but fails to implement the codes of conduct that fight dishonesty and lackluster behaviour in the workplace.

Which is why it was such a shock when our recent 1-question survey about public sector appraisals found that the human resources within public works is acting quite dishonestly as a profession .

We want to take this opportunity to commend the government on its effort to eliminate tardiness within the public sector with the assurance of an hourly pay policy. We believe this is a huge preliminary step in introducing professionalism within the public sector. What gives?!

We are pleading with government to embark on a massive external job appraisal of public sector workers, as a matter of urgency, to fish out redundancies, reduce tardiness and promote responsibility amongst public sector workers in Ghana.

To ensure that such negative tendencies as mentioned above are eliminated from the public services, government should initiate steps to pay appropriate and competitive compensation that would attract the top-notch into the public sector. In this way, so many of the holdups are likely to be removed.

Long Live Ghana

Long Live the workforce of Ghana

Ayekoo!

Signed

Stephen Asiedu President 0243440900