Ministry of Finance staff plan for 2009 and beyond

~~Adz:Left~~ Roadtown, Tortola - The Ministry of Finance today completed a series of planning days designed to enhance its overall planning process and map the way forward.

The series began in October with a leadership retreat, attended by unit and department heads and designed to outline the strategic objectives of the ministry.

At today’s planning day, attended by close to 30 employees from the six units within the ministry, participants reviewed the ministry’s work plan which forms part of the overall strategic plan.

Outlining the details of that work plan, the ministry’s Human Resources Manager Mr. Jeremy Hodge said it will include workforce planning, the objective of which is to “improve efficiency and reduce waste, motivate and develop staff.”

Mr. Hodge, who is also a member of the ministry’s strategic planning team, added “while we have developed a strategic plan and are developing a work plan to move forward, we must plan for the workforce to ensure that all the mechanisms and resources are in place to allow the available human capital to achieve our objectives.”

The Human Resource Manager identified succession planning as an integral part of the work force plan. “A succession planning matrix which entails the planning that is required, the training and the competencies for critical posts, will help us determine who will be ready, their competencies, their knowledge, what do they require, what is gap between their competencies and what is required of the position they will fill.”

Mr. Hodge stressed the fact that the work plan reviewed at today’s planning day is merely a draft that requires the input of all employees within the ministry, to allow them to take ownership of the plan and establish cohesion in bringing it to fruition.

Another member of the ministry’s strategic planning team, Ms. Shaina Smith said “we have already laid out the strategic plan; the main objectives of what we are trying to achieve as a ministry, things like financial accountability, cost effective delivery of services and sustainable growth. The planning sessions allow employees to get a sense of how they are connected to the overall strategic objectives of the ministry.”

Ms. Smith who is also the Manager, Project Support Services Unit explained the next step in the process. “The unit heads will take the input that we got from the employees and finalise their plan and in January, we will have another leadership retreat where we will present again to the leadership the entire plan for the ministry and move forward from there with all the initiatives and plans that we have outlined.”

Today’s planning session was co-facilitated by Dr. Haldene Davies and Dr. Malcolm Kerwin of the Orion Group of Companies, who emphasised the importance of a positive work environment.

Dr. Davies outlined the different generations in the workplace ranging from the traditionalists who have set notions of what is right and wrong to the more youthful group, termed ‘Generation Y’ for whom technology rules and everything is fast-paced.

Given these differences among employees and their different perspectives on work and how it should be done, Dr. Davies noted the potential for conflict and outlined wasted time, reduced productivity and lost investment in skilled workers among the possible repercussions, all of which have a significant financial impact.

In his presentation, Dr. Kerwin identified some of the attributes of an effective department including employee participation in the department building process, highly motivated, well-trained employees and a state of the art integrated information system which enables quality services and facilitates the exchange of information.

The Ministry of Finance is primarily responsible for developing and implementing Government’s overall economic and fiscal strategy.