Regular performance reviews – used to motivate rather than police – are crucial for an effective public sector

THE PUBLIC service employs some of the best-educated and best-trained people in the country yet it seems to lag behind well-managed international companies when it comes to enhancing employee engagement.

The Organisational Review Programme report on the Department of Health and Children – published by The Irish Timessix weeks ago – found some of the 500 civil service staff has "little or nothing to do" while colleagues were overwhelmed with work. However, management appeared reluctant to deal with the problem, according to the report.

The report described a department frequently “under siege”, that spends much time fighting fires ignited by repeated controversies. Staff morale is low and senior management and the rest of staff are “out of step” despite have a budget of €500 million.

Similar reports on three other departments a year earlier found problems with internal communication and its effectiveness depended greatly on the personal style of individual principals or middle to senior management.

One of the most effective means of individual and two-way communication is through the use of performance management reviews, which were introduced in the public sector over the past six years. Unfortunately their application has been patchy and in the health sector the powerful unions managed to have them diluted with “team based” reviews rather than individual performance assessments and supports.

In the Department of Transport, the review noted, “there are significant shortcomings in the management of people” with management focused upwards and outwards on the political system. Overall in the civil service, staff surveys indicated employees seemed satisfied with their immediate managers but were remote from those at more senior levels.

This may reflect the high levels of “status barriers” between grades with assistant secretaries looking down on mere assistant principals who in turn may feel very important compared to a junior clerical officer. These tensions are also evident in the different trade union stances over the cuts in public service pay scales, with those representing lower grades angry that the assistant secretaries were able to claw back much of the cuts on the basis they had lost bonus payments which were more like payments in lieu of overtime than real performance-based bonuses.

In large bureaucracies there is a danger that performance management becomes a form of policing people and concentrating on perceived “underperformance” rather than using effective engagement to enhance performance and provide clear strategies and skills development to undertake tasks effectively and efficiently.

Instead when there is a blame culture groups, usually backed by their union representatives, adopt a bunker mentality and try to distance themselves from any responsibilities. This emerged in the recent problems at Tallaght Hospital over the apparent failure to read X-ray films or alleged failures to open referral letters from general medical practitioners.

Within days the hospital consultants’ union was saying it was not their members’ fault and they were under-staffed while the representative for clerical and administrative staff was adamant his members had all done a great job. An alternative would be for these interests to focus on resolving problems and concentrate on quality patient care even with reduced HSE budgets.

The spotlight is on working practices in response to crises, rather than regular performance reviews, though that is changing somewhat with external validation by bodies such as the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Medical Council. But external review is no substitute for internal management procedures with clear and open communication.

This will become even more necessary if or when the unions finally agree to the “transformation” or flexible working practices in areas such as health, education and local government. There is a great danger that such reforms may be agreed at national level but local managers and union activists will fail or resist implementation.

The record of improved working practices and flexible rosters has been poor in many parts of the public service despite calls for a Scandinavian-style “flexicurity”. There is a lot of security available with so-called “jobs for life” but not nearly as much “flexibility” when it comes to opening hours, mobility and changing job roles.

Yet senior managers report that a large proportion of public service staff want to provide quality services and are conscious of budgetary pressures and the growing rift between the public and private sector in the current depression. The problem is getting different groups to work together and show respect for one another through regular communication and co-operation.

One worrying aspect of the Organisational Review Programme reports is a heavy reliance on internet “staffnets” and e-mail rather than direct face-to-face communication to save time and expense. This is a regular management failure highlighted in the national workplace survey undertaken by the ESRI for the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP). It found well over two-thirds of managers felt they communicated effectively on work-related issues but less than one-third of employees felt they were well-informed of issues facing the organisation.

This is one reason why regular staff surveys and forums are beneficial as they can pick up some of the gaps in perception. In fact they can be so powerful that in 2008 the executive board of one financial institution suggested the HR department cease these internal surveys as they felt employees were poorly motivated and did not share the senior management’s strategy for sustained growth.

In fact, the management was trying to ignore timely alarm bells from frontline employees who were aware of incentivised inappropriate lending practices and could see the problems associated with 110 per cent mortgages spread over 35 years and soaring credit-card lending.

Effective employee engagement and communication is not easy and the results can challenge managers to be prepared to hear unpalatable feedback and take action, where possible, to address employees’ concerns or proposals.i

Gerald Flynn is an employment specialist with Align Management Solutions in Dublin; gflynn@alignmanagement.net

Breaking with tradition HSE HR director Seán McGrath

IT TOOK over four years to appoint a human resources director for the Health Service Executive (HSE) mainly because it was regarded as the most challenging HR job in the state and central to the national ambition to boost efficiencies and service provision in the public sector.

In June 2008 the job went to a former army captain who had experience of both hard-edged American management and the more stakeholder-focused Scandinavian approach.

It was a long way from the traditional route of serving time in rates and  motor tax offices or community  welfare centres before being selected, through internal health board competitions, to be appointed a personnel manager.

That difference in experience may help explain why HSE human resources director Seán McGrath was willing to call a spade a spade last month when he said the prime interest of trade unions is serving their paying members rather than providing quality public services.

Instead of adopting a leadership position which could have challenged the Government to change its  approach, "they put their subscriptions first and patient interests second", he claimed .

His view is that had the unions not only identified the need for greater flexibility but embraced it, they would have both significantly improved services and greatly reduce the growing tensions between public and private sector workers.

It is the sort of observation rarely heard in the polite partnership parlours over the past decade, where union leaders liked to speak of their commitment to "social solidarity" and assert a right to determine policies in key sectors such as education, health and public transport.

It is part of innovative HR in the health service which saw a dramatic fall in absence levels last year and the first steps towards employee engagement initiatives to enhance the public service ethos.

McGrath told the annual Industrial Relations Newsthat unions should not confuse their priorities with those of public service senior management. Where disagreements arise, he has proposed that speedy proposals from the Labour Relations Commissions or Labour Court recommendations should be mandatory.