60 Public Sector Workers Certified as Change Managers

Sixty public sector workers from various entities have been trained and certified as change managers, who will be charged with assisting the transformation process in the public service.

The training was conducted by the Transformation and Implementation Unit (TIU) in the Ministry of Finance and Public Service.

Executive Director of the TIU, Maria Thompson Walters, told JIS News that the Ministry is “conscious of change management as part of the efforts to transform how the public sector delivers service and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector.”

“A lot of what we are doing in public sector transformation requires changes, so we decided to train a group of public officers to impact the breadth of the public service,” she noted.

She said that the role of the change manager is to help the Government roll out new plans concerning the transformation of the public sector, by helping civil servants to adopt new programmes and policies.

Providing details about the training, Ms. Thompson Walters told JIS News that the course was launched in April and all applicants were assessed in order to ensure that they had the right attitude towards change and were passionate about the transformation of the public service.

“We received a good mix of male and female as well as young professionals and seasoned professionals,” she shared.

She said that the Prosci methodology was employed during training “which follows the normal pattern of human response to change. The training, therefore, required trainees to first understand how they, as individuals, respond to changes in their environment.”

Ms. Thompson Walters said that resistance management was also a component of the three-day course.

“At the end of the course, all trainees were required to sit and pass an examination in order to become certified change managers,” she shared, noting that there was a 100 per cent pass rate.

Mrs. Thompson Walters said that another training session is scheduled for July.

“The response has been positive. Our first training was oversubscribed, however in July, we are hoping to also train managers and heads of organisations as they have to lead persons throughout the process of change,” she noted.

Ms. Thompson Walters said that persons, who wish to be a part of the upcoming training, should have their agency or human resource department head submit an application letter to the TIU by emailing executivedirector@transformation.gov.jm.

“We expect transformation to be evolutionary, so, as the world we live in changes, we too will have to change to keep up with our global competitors and be able to serve clients and citizens better,” she said.