The Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners, Ghana (IHRMP) in collaboration with Public Services Commission (PSC), has organized a training workshop for CEOs and HR Directors drawn from the public sector.

Chairman of PSC, Mrs. Bridget Katsriku said the quality of human resources in the public service, just like any organisation, is critical to growth and sustainability.

“The quality of the human resource in public service contributes to the determination of the pace of development of any country. Examples of this abound in the world. Take Singapore, Korea and other countries of the East, they have few or no natural resources except the human resource.

“Their level of development today is owed to the investment they made in their people, who are the drivers behind the wheels of development. In Ghana we have all sorts of natural resources and yet because of the quality of   the drivers our wheels of development are not turning fast enough,” she said.

Bridget Katsriku

She adds that it was important for all categories of staff of the public service to orient themselves towards continuous learning, professional skills development and upgrading.

“It is for this reason and others that the Commission considers it imperative to organize series of training workshops to build a deeper understanding of current trends, enhance knowledge and skills on human resource management for improve service delivery,” she said.

The theme for the two-day workshop that started on July 26 was, “The role of Chief Executive Officers in Human Resource Management”, and was sponsored by the French Embassy, through the France-Ghana Cooperation.

In attendance were the Chairman and Commissioners of the PSC, CEOs, HR Directors in the Public Services.

Executive Director of IHRMP, Mr. Ebenezer Agbettor  commended the PSC for bringing together the CEOs for the workshop.

"It is no mean task bringing or getting CEOs to assemble at one point. I know a lot of effort would have gone into this, hence the Institute would want to acknowledge and appreciate this effort by PSC,” he said.

The Executive Director further stated that “IHRMP has played various roles at different times in Public Service Commission’s effort to bring professionalism in the entire operations of the Public Sector and in particular the HR Function that is perceived as playing a pivotal role in all these efforts”.  

He said such efforts by the PSC has now led to the commencement of the Institute running its Professional Certification Programme for the Ghana Civil Service. The one-day event was a knowledge-based programme, designed to deepen the understanding of CEOs of the human resource management function in public sector organizations. Thus, to enable top management understand how they can effectively partner HR to optimize the utilization of the Human Capital of their respective organizations.

The two Resource Persons who facilitated the workshop are well-seasoned HR professionals, Mr. John Wilson, the current President of the Institute and Mr. Kwadwo Asare-Bediako, a Past President and Executive Director of the Institute.

The two HR experts made presentations on current trends in HR management practice and the role of CEOs in Human Resource Management with interspersed brainstorming sessions to the satisfaction and admiration of the participants.