HRMO of city Government of Davao BEST HR PRACTICES

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.(1)

We, the students of IT was given a task to find a company and conduct an interview to some of their employee about their HR. Finding a company or organization that can accommodate us in interview is quite difficult to find. It takes us two disregarded proposals and non-reply letters before we are finally approved and land to the HR department of city government of Davao.
Thinking of a organization that will suits to our needs of information for this post assignment has really challenge me to find an organization with a well-established HR Department. One of the best examples of it is the HRMO of city government of Davao.

The HR Department of city government of Davao has started their operation as a department starting 1996. But before 1996, HRMO of city government of Davao work as a division under the trust of the office of city mayor. The HRMO of city government of Davao are subdivided into four operating divisions: Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Personal Benefits and Welfare, Training, and the Poor Operating Division. The main goal of the HRMO of City government of Davao is to pursue Recruitment and selection, placement and promotion system with the help of their Enhanced Automated Program that leads to the creation of equal opportunities for employment.

As we started our interview, with the Acting-Head of the Training Division of HRMO – Mrs. Olegario, she has welcomed us with big smile and accommodated us well. As the interview keeps going, Mrs.Olegario identifies some of their best Practices in HR.

BEST HR PRACTICES:

1. The Department values teamwork. They work as a team. They help each other in motivating each other to be productive in their work.

2. They offer such great rewards or compensation for deserving employees for job well-done. They treat them with extrinsic rewards like travel package in any tourist spot within the Philippines. For extrinsic rewards, like promotion (this is dealt under due process.)

3. Through the use of several personal Mechanisms, the HRMO Department uses it as motivators for their employees. Praises, Recognitions, incentives, and appreciation of Exemplary Performance are some of their recognition for outstanding employees.

4. Systematic Evaluation System. The HRMO of city government of Davao has created different kinds of system that helps develop functions of the Department Offices for Personnel Actions. Such of these are, Automated Performance Evaluation System and Human Resource Information System.

5. The HRMO resolve conflicts depending on situations. Conflicts or clash of attitudes in a department is unavoidable according to Mrs. Olegario. In an organization, there I is always conflicts. That is why, when conflicts arise, Mrs. Olegario enumerated some situation that may happen to both opposing parties:

a. Lose – Lose situation – in this situation, both two opposing parties are not okay with each other and the conflict is not resolve.

b. Lose – win situation – one party is okay with the situation, while the other one still don’t want to resolve problem or conflict.

c. Win – win situation – according to Mrs. Olegario, they always find ways to talk it over when conflicts arise. They want fair and unbias situation whenever they weigh which of the opposing parties have done wrong. In this situation, this is the best situation that they wanted to happen. They want the two opposing parties to be okay. Nobody’s fault. Peaceful negotiation is much better than any other methods of resolving conflicts.

6. Warm-welcome. One of the best thing I like the most in HR of city government of Davao is there warm-welcome to their guest and visitors. They welcomed us whole-heartedly from the time we send letter for interview till the interview date. The office is conducive for productive employee. The office is well-ventilated and each member is close with each other.

As the interview ended, we were lucky to witness the meeting of their staff in the office. The agenda was about their trip to Samal as their recreational activity for the Month of July.

The meeting was well-organized and does impose participation from the group.

As an evidence to the department’s greatness towards work, the Philippine Information Agency
has posted to their website (www.PIA.gov.ph ) an headline with a title “Davao City hailed for “best” HR practices” written by Arvin Yana. It was stated in the headline that the city government of Davao, has employed more than 9,000 Davaoeños, which is considered as one of the biggest local government units (LGUs) in the country. An event held at Grand Regal Hotel dated back Jan 6-7, 2005, shows that Around 30 HR managers from selected local and national government units nationwide were unanimous in praising Davao City’s personnel acquisition, development and maintenance practices as presented by its HRMO chief Marcelino Escalada Jr. at the Human Resource Development Symposium/Workshop .

“Davao City shows that HR offices can also be given equal importance with other departments, unlike most LGUs in the country,” said Eddie Maslog, chief of the Human Resource Management and Development Office (HRMDO) of the Provincial Government of Bohol. This has shows that Davao City’s HR department is considered best examples of how the city addresses the needs of the Davaoeños.

Other initiatives of the city government that the participants wanted to replicate were the setting up of a child-minding facility at City Hall which offers free custodial services to employees who need to take their children to work; the microcomputer-based Human Resource Information System (HRIS) which updates records of all plantilla and coterminous personnel; the character advocacy program which identifies good character traits to be exhibited by employees on a monthly basis; the 5-S program which promotes good housekeeping and systematic approach to work, and the attachment of the Public Employment Service Office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which focuses on job generation, facilitation, enhancement, job preservation. This statement was according to the report of Mr. Arvin Yana.
The HRMO of city government of Davao as the working body of the city for employment and employee’s welfare will ensure to work towards productivity for the better living of the citizen of Davao City. With their best practices in HR, the department will stand firm and strong for the Davaoeños.

We would like to extend our warmest gratitude to the HRMO of City Government of Davao for giving us an opportunity to conduct an interview about this topic. God bless and More Power.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resource_management

http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p050113.htm&no=6&date=01/13/2005

http://www.davaocity.gov.ph/localgovernment/index.htm