Training employees for better governance

Oinam Nabakishore Singh *

Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet in his communication to Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest King in 1943(during World War-II), when the U.S. Navy was woefully underprepared after attack of Pearl Harbour wrote: Training, TRAINING and M-O-R-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.

The situation was after heavy losses of American ships and soldiers by attack from well-coordinatedand superior Japanese Navy Air Force on Hawaii. Japanese military was much more superior in many respects and U.S. soldiers were found wanting in terms of skills. The suggested solution was training, training and more training.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Here sharpening of axe refers to training and upgradation of skills.In his new book, “The Excellence Dividend”, Tom Peters greatly emphasized on training for any organization and he wrote: Training=Investment#1. The same principle applies to the Government-local or state or national.

In the National Training Policy, 2012 of the Government of India, it is written as, “For transforming the civil service, it is imperative to move to a strategic human resource management system, which would look at the individual as a vital resource to be valued, motivated, developed and enabled to achieve the Ministry/Department/Organizations’ mission and objectives. Within this transformational process, it is essential to match individuals’ competencies with the jobs they have to do and bridge competency gaps for current and future roles through training.”

In the context of Manipur, there is a need for analysis of strength and weakness of employees at all levels of local and state governments. The All India Service officers belonging to IAS, IPS and IFS have had two years’ professional training at their respective academies and districts before they starttaking up responsible positions in the state.

IAS and IFS probationers are given training for one month at the State Academy of Training, Takyelpat on topicscovering State’s history, culture, customary laws, infrastructure, industries, trade and commerce, Act East Policy, etc. so as to make them understand the people, their culture, traditions, etc. In business, the first and foremost motto is to understand the customer and his/her needs.

The same motto applies to public administration. Civil servants are required to understand people they are to serve. In Government of India, there exists a fairly good institutional mechanism to upgrade the knowledge of IAS officers after they start working in the states. During the first two years, IAS probationers attend Phase-I and Phase-II training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration(LBSNAA), Mussorie.

It is also compulsory for IAS officers to attend mid-career phase-III, phase-IV and phase-V training at LBSNAA, which includes training abroad for some days to expose them to some of the best practices and lectures by imminent persons. Besides, Department of Personnel and Training(DoPT), Government of India organizes training for IAS officers for one week or three weeks at the best Institutes in the country, which are compulsory for every officer.

Under domestic funding of foreign training(DFFT), DoPT sponsors long term(maximum of one year duration) and short term(less than six months) foreign training for IAS and other services in well-known Universities and Institutes in USA, UK, Australia, Europe, the Philippines, etc. to study subjects like public administration, business management, public policy, etc.

For instance, I attended 11 months’ course at Asian Institute of Management, Manila to study development management, four months’ course on Public Administration at Syracuse University, New York, USA and 15 days on Leadership at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, USA. All expenses for tuition, travel and stay running into lakhs of rupees are paid by Government of India besides treating the period of training as on duty. Recently, another local IAS officer, R.K. Dinesh has done one year’s course, Masters of International Development Policy from Duke University, USA, fully sponsored by DoPT.

The training of Manipur Civil Service Officers is inadequate. Last year, State Academy of Training conducted two months’ foundation course for MCS, MPS, MSS,MFS and MCS(Jr) probationers on topics relevant to their jobs, managing public and private challenges. MCS officers were further trained for two weeks at National Centre for Good Governance at Mussorie.

However, there is no further planned training for them except some sporadic training in a few foreign countries. For lower level staff and officers, State Academy Training conducts six months Accounts Training, other short duration training on Office Procedure, Information Technology and its application to governance.

But, the question remains if the employees working in Government departments and local bodies like Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats, ZillaParishads, Panchayats, District Councils have necessary knowledge, skill, attitude and commitment to perform the duties expected of them. The answer will vary from person to person, department to department, local body to local body.

The newly recruited employees, by and large, do not have any previous knowledge about the subjects they are going to handle after posting. For instance, a school teacher without B.Ed. or Primary Teachers Training starts teaching students with little understanding of the content and process of teaching or learning-pedagogy.

It is necessary for every department to give an induction training to make the newly recruited employee know his works well as well as to prepare him/her in aspects covering attitude and behaviour towards the public,customers/clients, self-development, various rules and procedures to be observed, etc.

Recently, State Academy of Training under sponsorship from the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India has commenced a 12 days Induction Training Programme for government employees belonging to Group B(non-gazetted) and Group C, at cutting-edge level, recruited in the last 2-3 years for five districts. Even though the approved programme has a target of training 350 employees, we will try to cover as many as 700 employees.

The programme covers a wide range of topics – motivation, personnel effectiveness, organizational and personnel values, conflict management, time management, emotional intelligence, stress management, change management, goal setting, citizen centric behavior, rules and procedures used in government works. We feel that we are able to transform the trainees to a great extent on completion of the course. We also try to discipline the employees on punctuality and empathy.

Another effort is training the employees, young and old, on use of computer and information technology for office works. This training has been going on almost continuously at the State Academy. We are also conducting about ten training courses, sponsored by DoPT on topics like IT, GST, Budget and Audit, Disaster Management, Women and Child, Tally, etc.

Sometimes, we do not get adequate nomination from Heads of Departments and State Government Undertakings. The role and responsibilities of government employees are becoming more challenging with increasing expectation of people in the wake of better awareness and application of technology to social and public-private communication.

The scope of services to be delivered is expanding with introduction of new schemes and application of technology. For instance, Direct Benefit Transfer, Public Finance Management System, e-tendering, e-procurement, etc., require knowledge of IT, linking of mobile phone number with PAN Cards and Aadhar, electronic verification by using High Security Password, etc. The knowledge obtained in Universities and colleges, unless updated with knowledge and practices followed by best performing states, will not be adequate to perform.

Every department should have a Human Resource Cell to be responsible not only for looking at establishment matters like recruitment rules, payment of salaries and allowances, but also to identify the training needs of the employees. Each Department or organization may identify trainers within it so as to continuously inform and impart knowledge and skills to employees at all categories.

Workshops and seminars to share learning and experience also help in improving performance. Private sector too has training Institutes and Centres to train their employees or employees of their dealers/distributors. To share the organization’s vision, mission, culture and ethical values, constant communication through workshops/seminars is essential.

What is the way forward? Recognition of training needs of the employees is the first step. Second step is putting in place a suitable training delivery mechanism by allocating fund and manpower. Without training of its employees, it will be a distant dream to achieve the goal of good governance, which is the mantra of every government.


Views expressed are personal.