It is the dawn of a new day as the public service is set to benefit from a series of changes as a part of the 10-Point New Day plan being spearheaded by Minister of State for the Public Service, Pia Glover-Rolle.

This was the message delivered by Minister Glover-Rolle at the first Strategic Planning Committee Meeting for several newly launched Units formed with the sole purpose of driving holistic changes to the core of the public service.

The Units present included the Accommodations Unit, tasked with making better use of the government’s office spaces and improving working conditions; the Labour Relations Unit, assigned the job of improving local labour relations; and the Career Path Development and Training Unit, which is the unit responsible for clearing the promotions backlog, developing clear career paths throughout the public service, and better integrating existing training opportunities into the government internship and hiring processes.

Other Units present included the Contributory Pension Plan Unit charged with reforming and expanding access to the public sector pension plan, the Special Project HR Unit, which is responsible for solving longstanding HR matters, and the New Day Delivery Unit, mandated with assisting in various HR and communications-related areas to drive the overall agenda.

Minister Glover-Rolle noted that the ambitious agenda of the Ministry of Public Service necessitated a full team comprised of some of the nation’s best and brightest to deliver within the Davis administration’s 5year term:

“Many of the members of these units have already begun their work while others will launch their efforts over the course of the next two months. I want to make it clear that the goal here is not simply an assessment or report, although there will be a lot of that work too, but these units are also empowered to do the actual execution of the plans and deliver change in a substantive way. We are all about delivering real, tangible changes that will benefit the public sector.”

During her presentation, Minister Glover-Rolle outlined the ten major areas that will be addressed by her New Day plan. In addition to the deliverables tied to specific units, other key initiatives being launched include the complete digital transformation of public service human resource management and document management processes, the launch of the Public Service Virtual Call Centre to assist all public servants and applicants with their queries, expansion of the existing infrastructure to facilitate projected growth, and public service succession planning.

Minister Glover-Rolle also spoke to the reality of working in the public sector, recognizing that there was much work to be done to make the public service more competitive and aligned with HR best practices:

“Cries for reform in the public service are becoming deafening from both our internal and external stakeholders. We are at a critical point with the future of the service hanging in the balance, and there’s no more time for talk. Focused, deliberate, aggressive action is the only solution. But that action will take lots of work, lots of strategizing, and lots of change management.”

“So, the Ministry of Public Service, under this New Day Administration, as noted in our Blueprint for Change and expanded in the “New Day” Agenda for the Public Service, speaks to a reimagining of how we run the Public Service in every aspect and function - bringing us into a 21st Century model for efficiency and productivity.”

Over the course of 2022, the Ministry of Public Service is expected to launch a number of these initiatives with regular updates given internally to all public servants, as well as to the general public.