Recruitment training for health ministry
(CNS Local Life): Senior managers and human resources (HR) staff from the Ministry of Health recently attended a two-day training session to enhance their recruitment skills. Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Senior Certified Professional Susan White, a former executive at global financial services firm JP Morgan Chase, led the sessions for the 20 staff.
Key topics covered included job analysis and assessing competencies for various positions through behavioural interviewing. Ministry of Health Chief Officer Jennifer Ahearn explained in a press release that behavioural interviewing is the process of determining how an interviewee will act in specific employment-related situations to find the right recruitment candidates.
“Ms White is a specialist in the area of talent development,” she said. “This is a key goal for the deputy governor’s five-year plan, but also a necessity for any agency or organisation that wishes to achieve sustainable success.”
“Another focus for the five-year plan is leadership,” Ahearn added. “And we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to build capacity at the top of our organisations while at the same time empowering leaders and HR teams to shape their organisations going forward.”
The chief officer, deputy chief officer, heads and deputy heads of department and all HR staff from agencies within the ministry took part, comprising representatives from the departments of Health Regulatory Services, Environment, Environmental Health and Counselling Services, and the Mosquito Research and Control Unit.
The workshop used hands-on exercises to guide the participants in identifying competencies and writing behavioural interview questions, all while conducting effective and fair interviews.
Marcia Murray, an HR manager in the ministry who regularly attends SHRM conferences in the US, came up with the idea for the training as a cost-efficient way of sharing the same expert level of knowledge as widely as possible within the ministry, the press release said.
Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said he was pleased to see agencies like the Ministry of Health using the five-year plan as an impetus for staff development.
“Ultimately if we build the capacity of our leaders they will be able to better harness and keep the talent needed to create a better workplace and deliver world class services to our customer,” Manderson said.
Category: Civil Service, Education, Training
Health ministry has 20 people in senior management and its own HR? WOW! How much did they pay for this training? Money wasted.