Professionalizing State Rural Livelihoods Missions: Challenges and Solutions

1. Professionalizing State Rural Livelihoods Missions: Challenges and Solutions By Ved Arya, SRIJAN 15 February 2011 at Maharashtra NRLM Workshop, Pune

2. Poverty in Maharashtra and Paradigm Shifts in NRLM • Perceptions of Prosperity and Reality of Poverty in Maharashtra • Building Institutions of the Poor • Pro-Poor Financial Sector • Implications for Human Resources • Empowerment • Quality SHGs • Work Ground Up: Process Intensity

3. What does Professionalizing mean?Some Questions. • How should the leadership behave and what culture should s/he promote? • What kind of organisational structure and staffing would deliver results? • How to get the best talent possible to work in SRLM? Is salary the only weapon? • How to retain the best performers, when the job market is dynamic?

4. Some Answers Evident as they are from other Experiences

5. Professionalising … • Results Orientation in Leadership; • Competence of staff (subject matter related expertise and experience, leadership); • Scientific and Transparent Recruitment and Selection Methodology (eliminating bias); • Promotion and Salary are performance-linked, • Pro-staff and Coded HR policy leaving less scope for discretion; • Challenge: • Demonstrating it across the state as opposed to in a few districts through a SPV;

6. Autonomy of the State Structure • Financial autonomy to decide Human Resource related norms; • To decide on salary – higher salary may mean higher productivity; • To decide on recruitment and selection – open market, or deputation; • To decide on several other things such as performance linked salary, travel and leave rules; • Examples of several states – Gujarat

7. State Team State Project Managers Project Managers District Team District Project Coordinators Training/CB Coordinator Training/CB Officer (DTO) Functional Specialist Block Team Block Project Managers Area Coordinator Community Coordinator Bihar: Structure and Staffing Lessons in Human Resource Policy for States in NRLM

8. Organisational Structure…. • State level autonomous society • Usual Structure with a few innovations • State and district management units - specialists headed by full time long tenure CEOs – (i) state CEO an IAS officer, aided by a COO from the market; (ii) district CEO from the market; • Experience range of specialists – state (10-15), district (5 to 10); Block (3 to 5); what is relevant experience? • State specialists to have enough experience to command respect, to be mentors to their district and block level colleagues; • Structure to retreat as Community Institutions Take Over, and Community Resource Persons take on some of the roles

9. Leadership and Culture • Evident earlier in MP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and now at the national level in NRLM • Leader is accessible, approachable – listens - mobile and email address; • Creates a culture of openness – anyone can read the documents – googlegroup for NRLM; • Consultative rather than authoritarian – networks and dialogues with insiders and outsiders • Welcomes interaction with community and with its leaders

10. Dedicated Teams at the Block and Sub-block level: Was something missing in SGSY? • Commitment and Psychological Dimension of Dedication: • Commitment to the vision of empowerment of rural poor; • Building institutions of the poor, that will empower them; • Reaching out to genuine poor and working out solutions for the problems they face • ‘Professional teams’ at the cutting edge, • Work in a demarcated area - not larger than 30 or 35 village cluster, • Work with a single objective and clear strategy to ensure development outcomes; • Such dedicated professional teams must be allowed • large scope and freedom and given adequate resources to work intensively with community, and • Innovate and implement community demand based solutions rather than implement top down schemes;

11. Human Competency Set Knowledge Creative, Committed, People Oriented Leadership and Workforce Values Skills Attitude Lessons in Human Resource Policy for States in NRLM

12. Recruitment and Selection…. • Compensation Structure to be based on market survey • Bidding Process to Select an independent HR agency • Multiple tests to objectively assess “attitude” and “values” • Challenges: • Asking for the moon (everyone would want a SachinTendulkar) • Universe: Staff from Leading NGOs and Existing Externally Aided Projects – would need more than raise 20% plus • Work within parameters of “reservation” system – to find enough people from among SC/ST/EBC communities, women; • Branding SRLM and Attracting talent from campuses, private sector

13. Teaming Group Discussions Role play Personality/Attitude • Temperament • Motivational • Profile • Leadership Style Knowledge Development Awareness IQ Case Analysis Selection Tests Lessons in Human Resource Policy for States in NRLM

14. Retention …. • Challenge 1: How does the system work with “contract staff” especially when they are professionals in their own right? • Challenge 2: Leadership will see two phases • Phase I -- Inspiring, visioning, inducting, training freshly recruited staff • Phase II -- Staff tiring out, retiring, leaving, seeking new opportunities; • Solutions • Coded HR Policy • Performance management system (PMS) • Ongoing training and career growth

15. Performance Management System in Tamil Nadu: Salient Features • Weightage to self-assessment and verification of results in the field; • Encouraging team spirit; • Including community members in the assessment team; • Randomising selection of village panchayats enhancing objectivity; • Linking reward to performance

16. Linking Reward to Performance

17. Results of Performance Assessment

18. Summing Up • Organisational Culture of Openness and collegiality to create a learning organisation • Recruit people who would be empathetic to poor as well as capable • Retain those who perform

19. Thank you for Your Patience! www.srijanindia.org