The achievements of the Human Resources Information System department at Ministry of Civil Services.
Interviewer: Wahab AL-Jadidi
The biggest challenge is managing the change in government entities; change acceptance and the change from using papers in Human Resources data to using e-services. We have to deal with different mindsets to confess them of the importance of this change at the national level and for the operations enhancement in these government entities says Dr. Fatma AL-Balushi Manager of Human Resources Information System department for a special interview about the importance of technology in enhancing operations.
1. What are your professional experiences and initiatives if any?
· A written action plan for the operating system that we use in the Ministry; a Human Resources Information System which is used in more than 40 government entities.
· The change management action plan has meetings with the high managements to present the system to all concerned employees in the Ministries and answer their questions besides social media coverage to publicize the change.
· Publicize the launch of the operating system in the official newspapers and social media to encourage all concerned employees and ministries work on e-government
· Develop an account in Mawarid on Twitter to guide the users of the system and publicize the working team effort.
· Arrange annual gathering with the entities using the system to showcase the achievements, discuss the challenges and provide the required solutions.
· There is an approval for the Ministry employees to do voluntary work during the Holy month of Ramadan which will raise the society awareness of the importance of the voluntary work and builds good social relationships between the employees and the society.
2. What are the roles and responsibilities of the Human Resources information system in the Ministry?
· Provide the technical support for the concerned users of the system from inside or outside the Ministry.
· Follow up the system workflow and ensure that the ministries enter HR data in the system.
· Maintain the sustainability of the system, do the necessary enhancements and updates of the system.
· Arrange and manage any contracts related to the operations of the system.
· Develop the required programs and prepare manuals for using and operating the system.
· Provide all necessary security for the system.
· Keep spare updated copies of the applications and data for emergency cases.
· Make annual plan with action plan for the department and prepare reports of achievement and challenges
· Any other related business.
3. What are the criteria for selecting candidates?
The recruitment is central so the candidates who pass the exam gets recruited. The exam has technical and general skills questions.
4. Is it possible to make a decision based on what is in the CV and why?
It isn’t always possible to decide as the CVs sometimes written with exaggeration and it doesn’t tell the reality of the candidate’s experiences which might be the opposite of what is written, thus, the interview is very important to ensure that the candidate is competent enough to do the job and fits the organization
5. How do you discover the potential capabilities of the candidates?
There are many ways to check that like technical and skills tests in addition to the synchrometeoric tests and interviews.
6. Are you a member of any government or no government bodies related to HR? If yes, How useful are they to you?
Oman Society of Human Resources Management is the only specialized society and I am planning to meet their supervisors soon. This interview is the start and Mawarid book and the social media is very informative as well.
7. Do you agree with those who say the labor market in Oman lacks qualified people who can take leading positions?
I totally don’t agree with that because there are many Omani CEOs who transferred from government to private sector which is an indicator of availability of qualified and productive Omanis in all sectors.
8. What is the personal and professional thing you learned from the Human Resources Information management system ?
I learned to go ahead despite critics and let the results speak