Theme: The innovation of personnel management system in public sector

Innovating HRM in the local government: the Northern Samar experience

Florencio “Fawa” A. Batula, DPA, Ph. D.

Senior Board Member, Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Northern Samar

Abstract

The quality of public service delivery by local government units (LGUs) depends largely
on the ability of its employees to respond to manifold challenges. Provincial LGUs play a crucial
role in achieving national socioeconomic development plans because they represent a solid
platform to develop human expertise not just for their own ends but also for those of the country
in general. The Program to Institutionalize Meritocracy and Excellence in Human Resource
Management (PRIME-HRM), an initiative of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), is a call to
action—it demands that government agencies, including LGUs, rise to the challenge to improve
the Philippine human resource base. Accreditation to the PRIME-HRM is based on four core areas:
(1) Recruitment, Selection and Placement; (2) Learning and Development; (3) Performance
Management; and (4) Rewards and Recognition. Interviews and secondary sources revealed that
the Provincial Government of Northern Samar (PGNS), with over a thousand employees and
workers, took the challenge and has since improved and innovated its HRM system. Collaborative
efforts among the various departments and offices in the PGNS resulted in the following:
customized Recruitment, Selection, and Placement Plan, conduct of written exams, face-to-face
interview, and behavioral event interview, conduct of on-boarding to newly-hired employees,
customized Learning and Development Manual, established training pool which conducts
trainings tailored to its employees’ needs, and implementation of a Strategic Performance
Management System, a customized rewards and recognition system, and a quarterly interactive
program called “Lunch with the Governor,” aimed at uplifting the morale of employees by
honoring birthday celebrators. Through these innovations, the PGNS has since been awarded by
the CSC a Certificate of Recognition for complying with PRIME-HRM Maturity Level 2
indicators, which translated to the conferment of authority by the CSC to the Governor to approve
appointments of PGNS employees and a Bronze Award for managing and implementing its HRM
according to documented processes, thus achieving a process-defined HRM system.