Ministry:
 DPSM (DEPT OF PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT)
Department Name:
 Not applicable.  The KSL applies to the whole Department
Discussion Points:
Needing to pay attention on the capacity for retention of staff
Graduate officers tending to leave on receiving experience and
adequate training
All officers in general regardless of education to appreciate what leads
someone to leave the public sector
We are powerless in grooming and retaining our staff.  The private and
other sectors are waiting to poach from us!  They could do so, because
they have the 'power' to give a higher salary.  We are powerless in
being able to do so, as quickly as the private sector is able to do so.
Note by Facilitator: In none of the discussions does the perspective that
the officer has a mind of his or her own to make decisions to stay or
leave and his or her attention to what may keep him in the sector
beyond the reason, 'making the money'.
Insights from
KSLs:
 Frame: The more one pays attention to HR practices (HR assumes it is them
who hold a primary responsibility for and), the less other parts of the
organization assumes a shared responsibility for the same and therefore the
less the likelihood that the organization can together create a quality
workforce.

  • Not to ignore the effects and experiences at childhood in schools and in
    the families have an impact of quality of work and the workforce at the
    workplace later in their lives.
  • The price for not paying attention to the above would mean needing to
    invest in increasingly more HR practices over time.
  • Playing down on HR practices also helps us find the time to pay more
    attention to the above.  The time is best used by paying attention to  
    quality of conversations, aspirations and clarity of understanding
    complexities at the workplace would help shift the responsibility of
    creating quality work/force to the officers themselves.
  • Using HR practices shifts the burden of the responsibility of  productive
    workforce to “the parent” (the supervisor / management).  Easy way out
    leads the problem right back in!  Consider developing stewardship in
    leadership that naturally engenders individuals to turn to each other
    rather than only with the leader in building quality collective thinking and
    actions and therefore learn to become a productive workforce.
  • Relying on HR practices short-circuits this process.