1.

HR PLANNING IN THE SA PUBLIC SERVICE

CONTEXT

One of the original public service reforms involved the decentralisation of the
human resource framework as articulated in the White Paper on Human Resource
Management in the Public Service, 1997. This move was seen as a progressive
step away from the centralised control of the apartheid state and was intended to
empower managers to take the critical decisions that would lead to efficiency and
effectiveness by unlocking rule-bound bureaucratic culture inherited.

With the benefit of hindsight, it has been discovered that decentralisation results in
discrepancies in the application and co-ordination of human resource management
functions in the public service. The absence of proper norms and standards across
the public service has emerged due to the decentralisation of the human resource
function with fragmented co- ordination and inconsistent application.

Departments were required to develop their own human resource

management policies and strategies, whilst the national policy development role
was restored within the dpsa. This meant that the dpsa would develop human
resource management policies and then provide technical assistance and support on
the implementation thereof.

With these developments, the need for HR Planning in the public service emerged
with the intention to ensure that departments are appropriately resourced to
continuously enhance service delivery. Since HR Planning was a new concept in
the public service, the dpsa developed tools to assist departments with the
development and implementation of their own HR Plans. This culminated in the
Guidelines on Integrated Human Resource Planning in the Public Service
in 2002.
Even with the availability of these guidelines, departments still had
difficulties in applying them in practice. This was partly due to
lack of adequate capacity in terms of knowledge and skills to
embark on this process. From the time of their introduction in
2002, departments relied almost exclusively on service providers
with little or no skills transfer and capacity building.

In 2005, the dpsa conducted a feasibility study on the use of the

HR Planning Guidelines and challenges experienced by
departments. The findings from this survey revealed that
departments have problems with the implementation of these
guidelines and required additional and more user- friendly tools to
comply with this regulatory framework. Subsequently, the process
on interventions to improve the quality of HR Planning in the
public service was initiated by the dpsa.

This process involved the review of the previous guidelines,

development of activities to be carried in this process, and the
development of a standard reporting tool to be used throughout the
public service. It was also informed by the Cabinet decision that
HR Planning must be conducted at a macro level in the public
service where a National Human Resource Plan will be developed.
A standard reporting format was developed to assist the dpsa in
consolidating departmental HR Plans into the National Human
Resource Plan.

The South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI)

also came on board by designing a Human Resource Planning
Course. A course manual to this effect is available in SAMDI.
This training initiative was embarked upon by SAMDI to support
the implementation of the dpsa tools and to assist departments to
comply with the regulatory framework on HR Planning.