Executive Summary of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

FAHR’s main responsibility is to develop HR in Government Sector based on modern concepts and tools used in the field of HR Management. In order to do so, they get involved by proposing the most suitable Performance Management System (PMS) in line with regulations and obtains Cabinet’s consent on the same prior to implementation. By doing so, FAHR aims to support government entities to increase Human Capital’s capacity and to maximize their efficiencies and accordingly ensure that complying government entities are highly performing and achieving set targets.

Since this Authority is in charge of setting basis for PMS for all Federal Authorities, the group decided that it will be a great opportunity to view their followed system, the step by step process and look at all the inputs in a consultative way in order to recommend enhancements, if any.

The group decided to look into FAHR’s Performance related practices, evaluate and conclude associated suggestions.

Introduction of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

The group communicated with FAHR through its single point of contact, highlighted in the reference part. Then, the group reviewed FAHR’s practices related to Performance Management System (PMS) and based on the review they concluded with few suggestions that should increase the effectiveness of the Performance Management System.

The aim of this project is to review FAHR’s PMS from a consultative way. FAHR draw the best PMS and apply it on Federal Government Entities in UAE. This review is important because the group was curious about the PMS followed by government entities and this project was an opportunity to explore it and maybe conclude some suggestions that will enhance the welfare of the employees and improve their performance.

The report will start with a brief overview of the organization, its structure and the description of the current performance management and measurement system. Then, it will set few suggestions. The report read in conjunction with Performance Management System literatures and theories, which is listed in the reference part.

Organization Design of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

FAHR is a federal authority that aims to develop HR in Government sector by utilizing latest HR concepts and international standards. FAHR enjoys an independent corporate body to resume all works in order to achieve its objectives and its subordinate to UAE’s Cabinet. It is established as per federal decree law # 11 – 2018, issued by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of United Arab Emirates. (Fahr.gov.ae, 2018)

Following is the organizational chart of FAHR

Organizational Chart - Source (Fahr.gov.ae, 2018)

Based on reaching out FAHR it is noticed that they follow the Deming Cycle (PDCA) with more emphasis on Planning and Check parts in order to establish PMS. Following are the steps that are followed with each and every Government Entity.

Pre-requisites

Explore the Government Entity’s mission and align to departmental missions.

Analyze jobs within that entity in order to determine the key components & identify the needed knowledge, skills and abilities.

Performance Planning

Discuss the results by including the key accountabilities and employee responsibilities, specific objectives, goals to be reached and performance standards.

Also, discuss about the required competencies and finally areas of improvement.

Performance Execution

This is the responsibility of employees and managers.

FAHR encourages all individuals within the government entity to:

Be committed to the set goals and to openly & regularly communicate these goals with the supervisor.

Be prepared for the performance review/appraisal.

To observe and document performance of subordinates.

To update subordinates on goal changes (if any)

To provide needed resources and reinforcement (if needed).

Performance Assessment (Pre - Performance Appraisal)

FAHR encourages every employee to self-appraisal his/herself prior to being appraised by the supervisor.

FAHR emphasize on all individuals within the government entity to perform this step and maintain evidence/records (if needed) as it is an important input to the Performance Review (Performance Appraisal)

Performance Review (Performance Appraisal)

Supervisor and employee should agree on an “appraisal meeting” to set and discuss employee’s performance.

Such meeting should cover past, present and future performances. The future will cover expectations, goals and development plans.

FAHR mandates that such appraisal needs to be formally document as it is an important record and can be used while doing performance renewal and re-contracting.

Performance Renewal and Re-contracting

By using information that is collected during the previous steps and particularly during the Performance Review (the Performance Appraisal), FAHR supports the government entity to make modifications and enhancements to the Performance Management System that should take into consideration increasing productivity while maintaining a happy environment among the employees within that government entity.

Examples on the enhancements that can be made are adding new accountabilities and competencies and increasing or reducing the weight of some goals.

Reading literature, this PMS process is found to be the conventional and the most common used process. (AKELLA and WAQIF, 2017)

Being a responsible authority for HR in the Ministries and the Government Entities, FAHR cares for people and therefore, it works on giving proposal of HR policies and legislations at Government level, assisting the Entities to carry out correct execution of those legislations.

In the same context, and in line with PMS that is applied in all Government Entities, FAHR worked out a mechanism to link PMS, Performance Measures and Performance Appraisal with various rewards such as annual increments, bonuses (in some government entities) and ceremonial awards for best departments, best practices, best projects and so on. FAHR acknowledges that in order to have an effective PMS then reward should be an integral part of the overall system in order to encourage individuals and function to better perform.

Such a devotion to focus on employees’ motivation by rewarding and awarding individual, functions, teams and department is very much appreciated, this is concluded by many literatures such as (Gunputh, Gunnuck and Pudaruth, 2017).

From all the aforementioned practices and other deployments, FAHR’s ultimate goal is to enhance the competitiveness of the UAE government through achieving career harmony for the Federal Government Human Capital, and by supporting them in increasing their capacity and maximizing their efficiencies, in addition to optimizing the use of systems and to continuously develop innovative solutions to serve them.

Identification of areas for further improvement of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

The group was unable to visualize any shortcoming in PMS practice that is being followed and applied by FAHR. It is obvious that FAHR is continuously spotting and tackling the areas for improvement. For example, they have created a huge HR database “Bayanati”, which has managed 2.2 million transactions during year 2017. Moreover, they have introduced FAHR application that made it easier to have remote access on the said database. Also, they have introduced ePerformance Management System few years back with substantial modifications on the system during 2017. Finally, and during the same year, they launched an updated version of eTraining and Development system. (Fahr.gov.ae, 2018)

Conclusion & Recommendations of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

In Governments, it is very important to have one body that draws the Performance Management System framework and spread it amongst the organizations to follow and implement. It helps in unifying the practices, easily visualizing the efforts and successfully achieving the government’s goals, strategies and directives.

FAHR followed the process of PMS and is continuously working on improving and automating many parts of it; in order to have a readily accessible and a centralized database of all HR and Government Departments associated with all aspects of PMS.

We have the following suggestions for further improvement:

Workout a methodology to force the self-review & make it a part of the process.

Make it mandatory that both the employee and the supervisor to provide evidences that back their ratings.

Study the possibility of having a multi-rater process (for example from internal and external customers). This will be useful to have a better view on the performance of individuals as well as functions/units/teams.

Within the same process, introduce a succession plan scheme that will clarify the career path for every employee within the government entity.

References of PM Consultancy for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR)

AKELLA, S. and WAQIF, A. (2017). IMPLEMENTATION OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN INDIAN IT INDUSTRY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY. CLEAR International Journal of Research in Commerce & Management, [online] 8(1), pp.7-11. Available at: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018]

Fahr.gov.ae. (2018). Performance Management System for the employees of Federal Government | Federal Authority for Government Human Resources. [online] Available at: https://www.fahr.gov.ae [Accessed 1 Jul. 2018]

Gunputh, R., Gunnuck, S. and Pudaruth, S. (2017). The Relationship Between a Performance Management System and the Motivational Level of Employees: A Case Study at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Republic of Mauritius. Theory, Methodology, Practice, 13(2), pp.25-34.

Hessa Al Qaidi at 04-2319004 - EPMS-Support@fahr.gov.ae