Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 20, 2015 (SKNIS): Senator, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, Minister of State with responsibility for the Ministries of Health, Social Services and Community Development has a vision to maximise productivity in the Civil Service. Speaking on this week’s edition of the Government’s weekly radio and television programme “Working for You”, Senator Phipps indicated that she has extensive experience working in the private sector.
Senator Phipps said that “after having run a private sector development agency for sixteen and a half years and then immediately thereafter started my own business as a business advocacy and support services consultant, it was a bit of a culture shock to come back into the public sector because the work ethic is different.”
Further explaining her experiences in the past, Senator Phipps said, “I would have had a situation where the clients with whom I would have interacted and the membership base that I would have been advocating on behalf of, would have been approaching issues to do with work place performance, productivity and so forth, from the stand point of results and within the public sector there is a departure from that.”
Describing the general attitude of the public sector as one of entitlement, Senator Phipps stated that many persons are of the view that they deserve a promotion on the sole basis that they have been employed for a period of time as opposed to merit. This is the notion that Senator Phipps and the Government of National Unity want to change.
Explaining the need for a paradigm shift, Senator Phipps said, “what we would really like to see, and this is where the culture shift has begun to become evident, is that we want to run a public sector that recognises that because we are small, because we are challenged, because we have a relatively smaller labour force than most, we have to make sure that at the same time that the national competitiveness of St. Kitts and Nevis is largely characterized by the quality of the workforce.”
Senator Phipps is of the view that “the best way for us to do that, is to set targets and productivity.” She explained that this means that a person is employed by the Government based on specific skills, talents and services and in exchange that person will be paid.
The senator further explained that, “It is not about showing up between eight and four and it doesn’t matter if you perform or not, or if you watch the clock from eight to four. It is about performance. It is about going the extra step. At the end of the day when persons are promoted, they are promoted with the confidence that they have earned it.”
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