Incentives Scheme for Government Employees
We in India say that the wheels of governance take a lot of greasing to move, even for the meanest of jobs. Have we ever given a passing thought about how insignificant salaries are handed out to government servants? I am not saying that this justifies corruption, but it indeed is one of the root causes of corruption. The biggest reason why corruption exists is that everyone knows that they can get away by bribing others in turn.
Why can’t the government revamp the pay structures in a big
Way? Why can’t the babus who decide the fate of their fellow servants in the 6th Pay Commission think Out-Of-the –Box ?
How about a Performance Based Salary Scheme……. How would it be if the government servants got their salary packets based on their performance during the month ?
Depending on the amount of files or cases they have disbursed during the month, various slabs of Incentives can be created. This will definitely increase the productivity levels of these otherwise ever sleepy babus. The GOI seems to be in no mood to increase productivity. But on the other hand, under the genuine need of salary revision it is more than happy to table the 6th Pay Commission for Government Servants (Except the Armed Forces), before the General Elections, which are likely to happen in April-May 2008. To the common critic it is not seen more that a pre-poll vote grabbing tactic, this government is hell bent on playing.
Instead of just increasing the salaries, why can’t the government get in more accountability & transparency in the methods of running the government? India is slated to become the next superpower. It is a now or never situation that we find ourselves in today. History will judge India by what actions we take to convert this inevitable dream into a functional reality. As they always say, it is the journey that is more important that the destination. Coming back to the Incentive scheme, our Civil Servants need to give it a serious thought as to what legacy they want to leave for this elite service that truly runs our country. Why a performance based scheme which runs too well in the private sector run well in a government sector?
Coming to the implementation of this method of salary, we need a detailed study that should be tabled not just on the floor of the Parliament, but be reviewed by an expert panel, comprising of retired government servants, serving babus & eminent public figures from the fields of social service, politics, business houses & top notch industrialists.
Each group should be assigned a weightage , based on which the procedures should be outlined as to how this method can be implemented, if it has the ability to deliver the desired results.
Now if someone is wondering as to how this system can be of any use to increase the productivity of government offices, we have an example. Let us assume that Babu X & Babu Y work in two separate government offices, say Office 1 & Office 2 respectively. Office 1 has Incentive based scheme wherein depending on the number of files cleared in a day, the babu gets a performance bonus every month .On the other hand Office 2, has a fixed income scheme. Now each day babu X tries to clear as many case as humanly possible, whereas babu Y plays it by the ear, not working more than a few hours a day & that too with extended chai breaks every 2-3 hours. Even a dumb fool can guess the final outcome. Babu X leads Babu Y my more than two times. Hence the winner all the way, who shall go laughing to his bank will be Babu X . Though Babu Y may have the mental satisfaction of working less for more pay, it will be Babu X, who shall be a better provider for his family.
Another point to keep in mind is that in each department the incentive slabs cannot be the same, as each & every government department has a distinct procedure of working. Hence each ministry needs to setup its own planning & implementation committee. This committee needs so set a limiter for the amount of good quality work that can be done by each & every level of employee in a single day, without rushing to increase his/her incentive slabs. This limiter is important otherwise, a lot of gross errors may be committed by employees to increase their salary, which may be difficult to detect without considerable damage to the productivity.
Another process the government should use more regularly & rigorously is HR Auditing. In layman terms HR Auditing help analyse the effective Human Resource Utilisation & its useful implementation in case it is not being used judiciously. Such Audits should take place at regular intervals, at no notice at all. This will keep all the employees on their toes, hence avoiding short cuttings.
All these above stated measures, which I am sure are incomplete or half measures to some of you, as some of you may be having better ideas for the implementation of the goals of good governance , there is one more important factor that needs to be considered. That factor or motivating factor to some is called WILL, to some HARDWORK, to some a PATH TO TREAD ON…….but for me and many like me it is called a CLEAR CONSIENCE TO MAKE INDIA BETTER EACH DAY.
JAI HIND!!!!!!!
Why can’t the government revamp the pay structures in a big
Way? Why can’t the babus who decide the fate of their fellow servants in the 6th Pay Commission think Out-Of-the –Box ?
How about a Performance Based Salary Scheme……. How would it be if the government servants got their salary packets based on their performance during the month ?
Depending on the amount of files or cases they have disbursed during the month, various slabs of Incentives can be created. This will definitely increase the productivity levels of these otherwise ever sleepy babus. The GOI seems to be in no mood to increase productivity. But on the other hand, under the genuine need of salary revision it is more than happy to table the 6th Pay Commission for Government Servants (Except the Armed Forces), before the General Elections, which are likely to happen in April-May 2008. To the common critic it is not seen more that a pre-poll vote grabbing tactic, this government is hell bent on playing.
Instead of just increasing the salaries, why can’t the government get in more accountability & transparency in the methods of running the government? India is slated to become the next superpower. It is a now or never situation that we find ourselves in today. History will judge India by what actions we take to convert this inevitable dream into a functional reality. As they always say, it is the journey that is more important that the destination. Coming back to the Incentive scheme, our Civil Servants need to give it a serious thought as to what legacy they want to leave for this elite service that truly runs our country. Why a performance based scheme which runs too well in the private sector run well in a government sector?
Coming to the implementation of this method of salary, we need a detailed study that should be tabled not just on the floor of the Parliament, but be reviewed by an expert panel, comprising of retired government servants, serving babus & eminent public figures from the fields of social service, politics, business houses & top notch industrialists.
Each group should be assigned a weightage , based on which the procedures should be outlined as to how this method can be implemented, if it has the ability to deliver the desired results.
Now if someone is wondering as to how this system can be of any use to increase the productivity of government offices, we have an example. Let us assume that Babu X & Babu Y work in two separate government offices, say Office 1 & Office 2 respectively. Office 1 has Incentive based scheme wherein depending on the number of files cleared in a day, the babu gets a performance bonus every month .On the other hand Office 2, has a fixed income scheme. Now each day babu X tries to clear as many case as humanly possible, whereas babu Y plays it by the ear, not working more than a few hours a day & that too with extended chai breaks every 2-3 hours. Even a dumb fool can guess the final outcome. Babu X leads Babu Y my more than two times. Hence the winner all the way, who shall go laughing to his bank will be Babu X . Though Babu Y may have the mental satisfaction of working less for more pay, it will be Babu X, who shall be a better provider for his family.
Another point to keep in mind is that in each department the incentive slabs cannot be the same, as each & every government department has a distinct procedure of working. Hence each ministry needs to setup its own planning & implementation committee. This committee needs so set a limiter for the amount of good quality work that can be done by each & every level of employee in a single day, without rushing to increase his/her incentive slabs. This limiter is important otherwise, a lot of gross errors may be committed by employees to increase their salary, which may be difficult to detect without considerable damage to the productivity.
Another process the government should use more regularly & rigorously is HR Auditing. In layman terms HR Auditing help analyse the effective Human Resource Utilisation & its useful implementation in case it is not being used judiciously. Such Audits should take place at regular intervals, at no notice at all. This will keep all the employees on their toes, hence avoiding short cuttings.
All these above stated measures, which I am sure are incomplete or half measures to some of you, as some of you may be having better ideas for the implementation of the goals of good governance , there is one more important factor that needs to be considered. That factor or motivating factor to some is called WILL, to some HARDWORK, to some a PATH TO TREAD ON…….but for me and many like me it is called a CLEAR CONSIENCE TO MAKE INDIA BETTER EACH DAY.
JAI HIND!!!!!!!
posted by Ace | 5:25 pm
1 Comments:
Interesting to know.
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