The Chief Personnel Officer (CPO), Commander Dr Daryl Dindial, has advised that the Civil Service Job Evaluation Exercise that started on the 1st of July, 2020, is well on track.
The exercise is part of an agreement signed between the Personnel Department (PD) in the Office of the CPO and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Limited to provide Consultancy Services for the conduct of a Job Evaluation and Compensation Exercise for offices in the Civil Service.
The project, which includes the Tobago House of Assembly and Statutory Authorities is expected to be completed within two (2) years.
In a release the CPO noted that his office has already received five (5) status reports and indicated that “over the last six months, the Consultant PwC has been heavily engaged in delivering the required planning documents and has been assisting with the necessary roll out to key project stakeholders with the scheduled Orientations Sessions and initial Consultations.”
In a recent interview with Guardian Media, the PwC partner leading this project—Zia Paton said it would provide the basis to ease the burden on the civil service and propel it into greater capacity and strength.
Paton expressed that the civil service is “under great strain.” She added that as the job evaluation is completed it would be “the impetus to relieving that strain, because this exercise is truly foundational to a modern and properly functioning civil service.”
In the statement by the office of the CPO, it noted that between the 16th to the 18th of December 2020, the Personnel Department collaborated with the PwC team to facilitate the required job analysis training sessions.
This involved training an initial twenty-seven (27) job analysts to prepare job descriptions that would assist in the analysis of the 1653 positions to be reviewed during the job evaluation exercise.
The cost of engagement of the consultancy services to be provided for the project is $24.9 million.
According to the release: “This is in keeping with Government’s Vision 2030 Developmental Theme of ‘Promoting Good Governance and Service excellence’, where the central objective of this project is the installation of a modern Job Evaluation and Compensation System, which is critical to effectively supporting public service transformation and strengthening the Civil Service to become more competitive and delivering a higher level of service to our citizens along with the country’s visitors and investors.”
It is envisaged that, at the end of the project, the Civil Service will have a new Job Evaluation and Compensation System that would assist in attracting and retaining the best qualified employees and contribute to producing higher levels of employee motivation, job satisfaction and productivity.