Africa-Press – Botswana. Supervisors have been encouraged to promote hard working employees as a way of motivating them to be more productive.
Addressing Serowe District Council employees on Friday, Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa said managers should be healing leaders to their teams, create a safe space for honest feedback and give credit where it was due. The minister therefore said transparency and fairness was appropriate for managers to work harmoniously with juniors.
He said a cordial working relationship was key to productivity, adding that great leaders offered their employees direct and thorough guidance.
Mr Motshegwa who is also MP for Mmadinare told the meeting that government had adopted decentralisation policy hence migrated primary health care to local government, and that being so, he encouraged managers to work closely with supervisees to expedite service delivery.
In addition, he said leaders should motivate the work force and know their personalities and ability, arguing that such a move would translate into productivity.
The minister further stated that a supervisor’s role is to oversee and guide a team to optimise production or out-put.
“To transform the civil service into a high performing organisation, supervisors have to carry out performance management and appraisal properly,” he said.
Mr Motshegwa decried that performance management was among the problematic issues in the civil service.
He noted that PEMANDU Associates, a private consultancy company focused on public sector transformation, business turnaround and communications was engaged by the government to assess the civil service and what came to the fore was that some supervisors still had a habit of giving underserved grades to low performers during appraisals and vice-versa.
He however said action was being taken to broaden the band for civil servant’s salary structure.
Mr Motshegwa said the civil service had a key role to play in attaining high-income status aspirations as well as transforming the economy into a knowledge-based one.
Officers decried lack of tools of trade to efficiently and effectively discharge their daily duties, thus negatively impacting on performance.
Mr Johannes Senamolelo of council buildings department shared his frustrations in that schools were dilapidated and needed money for renovations but they were always told there were no funds, arguing such a move impeded service delivery.
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