HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY
The City’s biggest single budget item is its staff costs. The City’s most
valuable asset, when optimally utilised, motivated and developed, is its
people. However, this asset becomes its greatest liability when not effectively
utilised.
The City needs a clear and simple strategy which will deliver the right people,
at the right place, at the right time, with the right skills. This strategy needs to
ensure that the City can afford its staff, so it is about ensuring that correct
alignment of people to needs will provide a value add result, which falls within
budget parameters.
In this way we will be matching the City’s needs, the City’s budget and the
individual needs into an outcome which will result in improved service
delivery.
The City currently employs 21 231 permanent staff. The current staff budget
is R3,685 billion, including provision for Parity, phase 1 of R139 million. The
current Training budget is R34.836 million. The current committed budget for
vacancies is R275 million. Staff budget to operating/total budget ratio for the
2006/7 year is 32%.
Over the past seven years, employees have faced multiple stressful and
disruptive restructuring exercises, which have had a negative impact on both
service delivery and staff morale.
A Corporate Staffing Strategy was developed early in the 2006 financial year
and was aimed at putting in place a comprehensive set of initiatives to
address the instability, misalignment of resources to needs and staff morale.
This strategy will be subject to an annual review process as part of the
Corporate IDP review
To date the project is on track. Its completion will form the foundation of the
five year IDP Human Resources Strategy. This strategy has been extended
to incorporate additional areas which are covered below.
1. Corporate Staffing Strategy
The key outcomes of the current Corporate Staffing Strategy include:
Stabilisation intervention
o This intervention has been completed
Parity Intervention
o Parity Phase 2 is scheduled to commence in January 2008. The
process will be phased in over a two to three year period,
starting in the 2008/9 financial year and subject to the collective
bargaining & TASK processes.
Integrated Remuneration & Performance Management
o Development & implementation of integrated Remuneration
systems, with the framework to be completed in 2007/8 financial
year and implementation to be rolled out from July 2008.
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o Implementation of TASK evaluations for all positions.
o Implementation of Corporate Wide Individual Performance
Management system to be developed in the 2007/8 financial
year, for implementation from 2008.
Increased investment in staff through implementation of an
Integrated Talent Management Program including
o Talent Management strategy,
o Leadership Development
o Learnership programmes and
o Graduate programmes
Implementation of Quality Management principles and processes, to
embed sound and innovative managerial practices at all levels of the
organisation.
Creation, over time, of benchmarked, customer/communitycentric organisation
o To create flexible policies and strategies which will support the
creation of a flexible organisational structure
o Identification and phasing in of Department level & Corporate
benchmarks to manage structure & business processes, over
the next five years
Management of the move to a Single Public Service.
o Implement strategies developed and approved at a political and
executive level
Fully implement SAP HR process, moving to Management Self
Service and Employee Self Service, based on SAP best practice.
To implement over the next 3 years a fully e HR programme to provide
a management and employee self service tool which includes the
following modules:
o Time and attendance which has been identified by EMT as one
requiring urgent intervention .
o Electronic leave
o Environmental Health Services
o Human capital, competencies and talent management
o HR business information
o Benefit administration
o Payroll (e Pay)
o Organizational structures
o Job evaluation
o Recruitment and selection (e Recruitment)
o Labour relations
o e Training
o Employment equity
o Performance Management
Management of the change process through:
o Identification of areas for productivity interventions to come out
of survey and be implemented over next 5 years
o Development of a Change Management, Communication and
Project Management Framework to support the overall staffing
strategy and the new way of working
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In order to ensure that the above strategies are achieved, the projects will be
driven from Corporate Services and EMT.
2. Directorate Level Staffing Strategies
Management of staff lies with line management.
The policies and
professional advice are provided by Corporate Services. The funding of staff
resources lies with line management and is managed within their normal
budget. Shifting of financial priorities lies with the City Manager, the CFO and
EMT. EDs are held responsible for effectively managing the allocation and
deployment of their resources.
To this effect, each Directorate should be required to prepare an annual
Staffing Strategy and Plan which encompasses the following aspects:
Projection of staffing needs based on projection of service delivery
menu & strategy into the future
Identification of critical vacancies and financial plan to address these
Identification of critical bottlenecks and underutilised resources and
plan for better utilisation of current resources
Management of staff remuneration in context of Remuneration Policy &
financial plan therefore.
Talent Management plan, including identification of scarce skills and
retentions and attraction strategies, development plans
Identification of Learnerships & other training priorities and the funding
thereof
Identification of areas which require special interventions such as BPR
and QM
HR strategy to meet requirements of Service Delivery Integration
Strategy
Benchmarking of staff to service provision per Department
Compliance with corporate benchmarks adopted by MAYCO
3. HR Budget
The City’s Restructuring Grant application included a targeted staff to
operating ratio of 28%. In order to achieve this target, the City originally
allowed reduction through attrition. This proved to be a blunt tool, which cut
services indiscriminately. Should the City still wish to achieve this target, it is
recommended that this be done through deciding in advance which services
to reduce and then to bring down the staff levels within the targeted services
only. Alternatively the City can renegotiate the targets with National Treasury.
The management of annual budget lies with Directorates. Any reallocation to
meet growth areas will be built into the annual budget process. Thereafter it
lies with CM, CFO and EMT.
On an annual basis, EMT needs to consider whether to reprioritise a % of the
staffing budget, in order to fund growth services and shrink other services.
This reprioritisation must be based on proper benchmarking of each
Department, input on IDP priorities and Departmental attrition. Directorates
will base their proposals on their Directorate level staffing strategies.
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