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The Government will hold extensive consultations and communicate with the staff sides in a thorough, open and transparent manner before any new measures are introduced.
The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Joseph W P Wong said this today (October 16) when briefing the Legislative Council's Public Service Panel on the new initiatives and major tasks of the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) in the coming year.
Mr Wong stressed that the Bureau's main duty was to build up mutual trust and unity among the staff sides , departmental management and civil servants at all levels through strengthening communications.
Explaining the progress of the Voluntary Retirement (VR) Scheme, Mr Wong said CSB and Heads of Departments/Grades would process about 11,000 applications in the coming three months, and due regard would be given to operational exigency in approving applications and deciding the release date of VR-takers.
"Applications will be approved only if the provision and quality of public services will not be unduly affected by the retirement of VR-takers, who will leave in an orderly manner within a year or a longer period of time," he noted.
"Training programmes will be organised to enable staff facing redeployment and job-transition to acquire requisite skills to perform effectively and efficiently in their new job and for further career development in the Civil Service," he added.
On the proposed introduction of a performance-based rewards system as part of the Civil Service Reform, Mr Wong said the CSB planned to start a pilot scheme on team-based performance rewards in selected departments next year.
"Participation in the pilot scheme will be on a voluntary basis and participating departments must secure the cooperation of the staff concerned.
"We will allow the management and staff of participating departments to design their own scheme, select the units to participate in the scheme, formulate their own targets, and decide on the detailed assessment criteria for bonus allocation. We will employ outside consultants to help departments in devising details and implementation of the schemes.
"Our initial idea is that staff in the top performing teams in participating departments should receive a reward set at about half of the officer's substantive monthly salary, to be financed with departmental savings arising from the Enhanced Productivity Programme," he added.
Mr Wong also highlighted a three-year training and development programme to be launched from 2001/02 to 2003/04 to improve the quality of the civil service through training, for which $50 million will be sought from the Finance Committee.
The three-year programme will focus on the provision of training to facilitate staff of VR grades in redeployment, job transition and development; promotion of continuous learning in the civil service and enhancing training in support of Civil Service Reform initiatives.
The initial thoughts on the scope of training include:
* vocational and general skill training to junior staff;
* setting aside funds to encourage civil servants to take up courses offered by external bodies;
* production of more self-learning packages and expanding and promoting the usage of the Cyber Learning Centre; and
* providing training related to the Civil Service Reform.
"We will work closely with departments and staff sides in
the next two months to obtain input for drawing up detailed training programmes and the implementation plan," said Mr Wong.
To enable the public to have a better understanding of the work of civil servants and to enhance their public image, Mr Wong said funds had been reserved to produce in the next financial year a 13-part TV series.
"Our initial thoughts are that the TV series should feature the work and contributions of outstanding work teams in some selected grades/departments."
Mr Wong also noted that a Quality Service Enhancement Award has been launched this year to further promote the concept of customer service in the civil service.
"Teams showing significant improvement in customer service in the past three years will be awarded. There will be 20 awards with the champion receiving an award of $80,000," he said.
End/Monday, October 16, 2000
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