Recruitment of the staff dilemma

Hello,

It has been couple of weeks that I could not write anything on my blog. It has been very hectic and I was super busy with various small assignments. I feel I can share some learning experiences at this stage.

Life is so different than what we study at the university and so is working. Rules, regulations, procedures and processes are differently explained in academic environments and they have different meanings in real world organizations. According to academia, processes are made to efficiently run the organization. However, processes exist in real world organization in order to be followed. They are the means that protect the staff from tomorrow’s audit. The processes are not only for the efficiency but the staff is also bound to it. The staff has to follow them whether they produce results efficiently or do not produce results efficiently.

The project that I mentioned about in my earlier posts, IAIDS Project, is in its preparation phase. The preparation phase is planned for nine months. During this time, the project should gather data regarding five directorates of the ministry and do their capacity assessment. Moreover, some legal documents have to be developed. Finally, three national surveys have to be performed. I will discuss the first big challenge in this blog and the others in my later blogs.

I have been trying to recruit the staff for the project since the first day that I joined the project. I pushed everyone hard and closely followed the procedures to hire people as soon as possible. However, soon I realized that with all my efforts, I cannot expedite the process as much as I want. It would normally take 2.5 months for a position to fill. We have to send the job description for NoL. It will take almost a week. They you have to announce the position at least for two weeks. Later, HR needs a week till they collect the CVs and make the shortlist. After that, the projects have to wait until it is their turn for the interviews scheduled by HR Department. This normally takes two weeks. After the interview is conducted, the project has to make the Evaluation report and sign it on the panel. This will take a week as well. We have to send the Report for NoL again and it will normally need a week. Finally after getting NoL, the project can prepare the contract and send it to the head of the organization for signature.

The question is if the project needs almost two and half months to fill one position, then how the activities of the preparation phase (need assessment, legal documents, surveys, etc) can be done in nine months.

Talk to you all soon,

Javid    

First experience

Hello again,

My first days in my internship have mostly gone on studying documents. I have been given certain documents e.g. concept notes, project proposals, budgets, rules and regulations and etc to read. These seem like bunch of text books.

I have finished reading the concept note for a project called Improving Agriculture Input Delivery Systems for Afghanistan. The idea is to establish a project that can deal with all the inputs related to seed production and build the capacity of all the directorates and stakeholders that are involved in the input supply. The project has been presented to the World Bank and WB has agreed to fund it. It seems a very important but very complicated project.

It is important because if the project is properly implemented, Afghanistan will have a boost in its seed, especially wheat seed, production. The problem of hunger and basic food would be almost solved. However, it is really complicated as there are enormous numbers of stakeholders involved. The benefits of the stakeholders are quite diverse as some of them are government entities and some are private firms. In addition, there are many government policies that could create problems for private sector. Meanwhile, there are shortages of government policies and laws (e.g. pesticide law) where those are really necessary.

With all the above, the project is initiated and is in its preparation phase. I will keep you posted as it goes on.

Thanks,

Javid 

Welcome

Hello All,

Welcome to my Blog!

This is my first blog and I have created it for a short term academic purpose- to share my experience at the Ministry of Agriculture in Afghanistan with my classmates. However, it seems very interesting, learning and fun at the same time and I would like to keep it updated after this short-term goal is achieved.

I have been working in the organizations before but this experience is unique. It is unique because it is project management and I never had that before in my career. Secondly, I am joining an organization after studying public administration for a year and half. Now I understand many theories, practices and the rationale behind them. I believe I will be a better and efficient employee. Moreover, I want to apply in practice what I learned in my classes. This will be challenging but very interesting.

Finally, I think it is worth mentioning what I am doing. I am assigned in the Programs General Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock. I will be assisting the General Director. More specifically, I will be focal point for a newly established project with the World Bank and would be following up its activities. The project is in its preparation phase and my job would be to make sure a smooth progress and transition to implementation phase. It is interesting, isn't it?

Wish you all good luck,

Javid 

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