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As government presses ahead with its job evaluation exercise to measure the worth of all jobs in the public sector, the consultant attached to the project is pleased with the level of enthusiasm being shown by public officers and public employees.

The Barbados Government Information Service recently caught up with Dr. Cathy Norville, one of the consultants from the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management working with government on the public sector job evaluation exercise, as she was facilitating a training session on the preparation and writing of job descriptions.

The session, at the Learning and Development Department, Warrens Tower II, Warrens, St. Michael, was held for human resources personnel, managers, supervisors, and other administrative staff in the public sector.

Noting the enthusiasm of the participants, which was evident by the level of interaction during the sessions last month, Dr. Norville said the Ministry of the Public Service was keen on using action learning.

 “One of the things that we wanted to do is to pass on some skills and competencies and we have had some engaging sessions with participants, and I would say that I was very pleased with the cooperation, and the willingness of persons to be involved with the exercise,” she stated.

She explained that since the last job evaluation exercise was conducted 22 years ago, this one was necessary, given the changing dynamics in the job environment.

“A lot of things have happened, and a lot of things have changed and what we want to do is to relook the job evaluation tool and to make sure that it is fit for purpose for this dispensation that we are living in. This is necessary, given the challenges we are facing, in terms of market scarcity and being able to attract and retain talent.

“So, this is not about downsizing; this is about ensuring that we have a tool that can evaluate and assess the jobs and fits the overall vision and mandate of what we want to achieve as a nation,” Dr. Norville emphasised.

Elaborating further, the consultant said: “We’re looking at: how can we attract and retain persons? We want to make sure that we have factors, not just what persons might have used 10 years ago, but what are the relevant factors and the components of jobs that we need to value in this dispensation?”

She continued: “We want to reassure persons that with the job evaluation exercise, we’re saying you are not going to be worse off, even if, let’s say your job was red circled. This means that when we apply this new methodology, and for whatever reason it says that that job has been scored lower than where it sits right now, we can’t take away your salary, so it would only be applied to the person coming in next.

“At the end of the day, we do not want persons to be fearful because when persons hear that we are collecting job data or information, persons keep thinking ‘I don’t want to share my information because I am going home’; it’s nothing like that.”

Regarding the upward mobility of officers throughout the service, Dr. Norville pointed out that the job evaluation exercise is not “going to cause them to move; it provides them with the information for them to be able to strategise for the future”.

julie.carrington@barbados.gov.bb

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