The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) has recently launched the Government Skills Bank Portal (GSBP), a project aimed at identifying Federal Government employees with special experience and skills, and electronically documenting the findings through the Federal Government’s Human Resource Management Information System (BAYANATI) and the project’s website: skillsbank.fahr.gov.ae.
In this regard, HE Laila Al-Suwaidi, Executive Director of Programs & HR Planning, explained that the purpose behind creating the Government Skills Bank is to assist and empower federal entities to benefit from the professional knowledge and expertise of specialists in various fields and disciplines related to the Authority’s function, exploit their experience in developing the institutional work system in the Federal Government and establish a knowledge management culture.
“The Government Skills Bank Project is an incubator for specialized experts in the ministries and federal bodies, and employees of these federal bodies can join the Bank’s network through the new portal established to facilitate transactions for members of Government Skills Bank,” she said.
She added: “Government Skills Bank Portal: (https://skillsbank.fahr.gov.ae) allows search for experts in various fields and disciplines, asking them to answer questions and inquiries about the Bank, as well as providing opportunity for knowledge transfer, training and advise in different fields. The GSBP’s link is available on our website: www.fahr.gov.ae.
“The new portal is available exclusively to ministries, and other federal entities and employees. It displays data for all members of Government Skills Bank network, together with a summary of their biography, technical skills and experience, as well as a special corner to showcase the latest articles, studies and specialized researches in many fields and disciplines.”
She added that the Authority has made necessary arrangement to facilitate the assessment of competencies for all members of Government Skills Bank members’ possible to assess the capabilities and capabilities of the members of the Government Skills Network and satisfaction with the support provided by the members network.
Criteria for selecting members of Government Skills Bank Network
HE Laila Al-Suwaidi stressed that selection of members of the Federal Government’s Skills Bank Network is subject to a set of criteria, including: the relevance of their competencies to needs of FAHR and the Federal Government; practical experience in similar setting, achievements and recognition in the field of competence, dissemination and application of best practices, communication skills, guidance, knowledge transfer and professional volunteering.
She added: "A member of the Government Skills Bank Network, according to the guidelines set for the Government Skills Bank, launched by the Authority last year, is a person with high skills and knowledge and who continuously acquires new experiences through practice and available education opportunities."
She pointed out that the Government Skills Bank project has a number of benefits for individuals: it encourages generation of new knowledge and skills; strengthens institutional loyalty; and increases job satisfaction and workplace harmony.
Benefits of Government Skills Bank
Al-Suwaidi said that careful selection of Government Skills Bank members within the ministries and federal bodies contributes to creating a work environment that encourages acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, improves institutional memory, provides a clearer picture of employees’ knowledge and skills. Other benefits, she added, include saving time used to identify the best experts and customer needs, as well as rationalizing expenses and resources, and stepping up activities related to integration of talents within succession planning of the entity.
Nomination of Government Skills Bank Network members
Nomination of Skills Bank members in the ministries and federal bodies is done, according to HE Laila Al-Suwaidi, through three methods: self-nomination, where the employee nominates himself after consultation with his direct supervisor, nomination by colleagues and nomination by the employee’s direct supervisor.
Criteria for evaluating the Skills Bank Network members
With regard to criteria for evaluating members of Skills Bank network, Laila Al-Suwaidi explained that the Authority has adopted a set of criteria for the purpose, namely years of experience, number of training or guidance hours attended previously, relevant professional certificates, and number of conferences and seminars attended as a speaker in the field of specialization.
Motivating members of the Government Skills Network
She stressed the Authority's keenness to motivate members of Government Skills Bank Network by adopting three types of incentives within the project (personal, material and moral motivation). Regarding personal motivation, the ministry or the federal authority can grant its employees who are members of the Government Skills Bank Network, the opportunity to attend local and international conferences, specialized workshops, participate in visits for comparison purposes, and participate in periodicals, magazines or specialized electronic libraries.
The material motivation, she explained, is to nominate members of the Government Skills Bank network under the system of rewards and incentives for federal government employees, while the moral incentive involves presentation of the member’s biography on the entity’s intranet, putting the words ‘Golden Expert’ alongside his name, and publishing his work or articles on the Authority website and on Government Skills Bank Portal.