Bataan embrace technology to ensure employees’ goal alignment

CITY of BALANGA, Bataan – With the end in view of achieving its vision that by the year 2020, Bataan will be the preferred location for eco-industrial investments leading to the highest human development index in the Philippines, the provincial government of Bataan led by incumbent Governor Albert S. Garcia has embarked on a journey via a vehicle known as the Performance Governance System (PGS) in coordination with the Institute for Solidarity in Asia way back in 2013.

A participatory process in line with the principles and best practices of good governance and responsible citizenship, the PGS calls for effective, sustained, and systematic contributions from individuals and institutions for the common good of their institution or community and of the Philippines as well as the long term development of the Filipino.

Its vision is to come up with a strategic and performance management tool that would allow government agencies to be assessed objectively and therefore foster transparency and accountability in the different tiers of the organization.

Aimed at achieving the same results, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) through the Human Resource Department, has recently issued a directive among the different government agencies nationwide regarding the adoption of the Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS).

The SPMS is a mechanism that links employee performance with organizational performance to enhance the performance orientation of the compensation system.

At first glance, an ordinary rank and file employee of the provincial government would think that these PGS and SPMS stuff are additional chores to his daily cumbersome tasks, not to mention the flagship projects and priority projects that each of the departments have.

Inspired by the PGS and the SPMS, the Provincial Management Information Systems (MIS) Office headed by Mr. Geoffrey C. Loyola, has come up with a system that would not only simplify and ensure the alignment of the province’s resources and employees’ activities to the province’s goal but also rationalize, facilitate, and efficiently cascade initiatives, projects, activities from the top down to the employees.

Under this Automated Performance Management System (APMS), generation of all reports, documents will not only be efficient but more importantly will be aligned to the PGS and the SPMS. It is like shooting three birds with one stone.

Once APMS becomes operational, it will ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. The effective implementation of programs and fast delivery of services vis-a-vis strategic and operational goals are likewise ensured. Performance managers can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, an employee, or even the processes to build a program or service, as well as in other related areas.

Furthermore, through this system, each and every employee of the Provincial Government of Bataan will now clearly see how his daily tasks are related or contribute to the attainment of the Vision-Mission of the province.

This system is a major breakthrough, for among LGUs in the entire country, Bataan is the first to implement it.