CCSR discusses workforce challenges

ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday chaired a committee meeting on civil service reforms and gave directions to incorporate actionable insights to enhance recruitment, training, and performance management, ensuring a more competitive and effective public sector workforce.

The meeting of the Committee on Civil Service Reforms (CCSR) was attended by the minister for petroleum, secretary cabinet, additional secretary of ministry of planning, and representatives from key ministries including Economic Affairs Division (EAD).

The minister highlighted the challenges in the public sector related to retaining skilled professionals. “The skills of many public sector professionals do not align with the demands of their roles,” he noted, emphasizing the need to learn lessons from the corporate sector to bridge this gap.

The HR managers from Engro Corporation, Unilever, and Wafi Energy Pakistan Limited (formerly Shell Pakistan Limited) participated online. They briefed the committee on recruitment and HR training models employed by their organizations, underscoring their commitment to meritocracy and rewarding employees fairly. “Our people are as important as anything else,” they emphasized, adding that character-based leadership served as the cornerstone of their HR strategies.

The meeting also explored the advantages the private companies enjoy, such as access to diverse talent pools and fewer regulatory constraints which enable more flexible and efficient systems. Acknowledging the limitations of the public sector due to existing rules and regulations, the minister stressed the importance of identifying corporate practices that could be adapted within available public resources. The committee was directed to incorporate actionable insights from these discussions to enhance civil service recruitment, training, and performance management, ensuring a more competitive and effective public sector workforce.