Government is putting another system in place to ensure public service excellence on a consistent basis.
The Ministry of the Public Service will be introducing Employee Onboarding and Orientation from tomorrow, Tuesday, October 1, to help persons transition seamlessly into the public service and undertake their various roles.
Employee Onboarding is the process of integrating employees into their new work environment and getting them up to speed on their role in the organization.
They learn everything, from functional questions such as how to use internal systems and accessing benefits, to matters such as organizational values, standards of performance, and what defines success.
Director of the Learning and Development Directorate, Fay-Marie Browne, underscored the importance of Employee Onboarding in the public service, saying it was the first opportunity a ministry/department had to build foundational knowledge with their new employees.
“The Public Service of Barbados is committed to attracting and keeping the best candidates by being an employer of choice. It is important, therefore, to ensure new entrants are introduced to the service and public officers are transitioned in a positive and organized way, making each feel welcomed and valued during and after the recruitment, selection and placement processes.
“Consistency is the key to cultivating great workplace cultures and developing the employee skills needed to help an organization achieve its own greatness. There must be consistency in communicating values, providing training, setting expectations and managing performance in order to achieve excellence consistently,” Mrs. Browne stated.
The Director explained that within the public service, the onboarding processes would be shared among the Ministry of the Public Service, the respective ministry/department and the new public officer.
Onboarding in the public service, she added, would begin as soon as the candidate was identified and or selected.
According to her, the process would occur when individuals are successful in gaining temporary or first appointments, appointed, appointed to act in new positions or assigned to new job roles.
“It is equally the responsibility of the employee to enquire about their onboarding process as it is the organization’s responsibility to provide all employees with this experience,” she pointed out.
Mrs. Browne encouraged new entrants to the public service and officers to become familiar with Government’s Vision and Mission, as well as the strategic mandates of their ministries/departments.
Meanwhile, the Learning and Development Directorate recently conducted a seminar for senior managers in the public service to equip them with the knowledge and tools to discharge the onboarding and orientation processes in ministries/departments.
For additional information on Employee Onboarding, persons may visit http://training.gov.bb.