How can municipal health units effectively select new employees and reassign
existing employees, provide learning and development opportunities, and
implement performance management and appraisal systems to ensure a skilled
and competent workforce that delivers quality healthcare services to patients?
Municipal health units can ensure skilled and competent medical professionals that
deliver quality healthcare services by applying structured recruitment and selection,
strategic employee reassignment, targeted learning and development, and effective
performance management systems that are aligned with regulatory requirements.
Effective Employee Selection and Reassignment
● Recruitment and Selection Based on Qualification Standards: Municipal health
units must adhere to qualification standards established by government agencies
and civil service laws. They also follow the steps of selection process with
resume, preliminary screening, interviews both initial and second, conditional job
offer and hiring.
● Localization and Prioritization: Many local government units prioritize hiring
residents in their community through volunteer, job order, and plantilla
(permanent) positions which supports community integration and retention. For
example in Taguig City Health Office, the hiring manager asks for the applicants
to have ID’s that have address in Taguig to have more chances to be hired.
Another one, the volunteers that help healthcare units were hired or promoted as
security force for the community center.
● Reassignment: For existing employees, reassignment should consider their
qualifications, experience, and organizational needs with clear processes that
update personnel files without redundant background checks.
Learning and Development Opportunities
● Municipal health units provide relevant training like leadership and core
competencies, and encourage certifications aligned with healthcare roles, such
as those required for health physicians or medical officers. For instance here in
Taguig City Health Office Dental Section, they provide a training program for
newly employed dentists and dental assistants that is called “Capacity
Enhancement Program: Basic Course on the Management of the Oral Health
Program for Public Health Dentist”. Healthcare units also give allowances or
reimburse the seminar fees for the continuous professional development of
medical professionals for their PRC licenses.
● Mentorship and On-the-Job Training: Managers pair less experienced medical
professionals with seasoned professionals to train skill transfer and engagement.
Like here in Taguig City Health Office Dental Section, the newly employed dentist
usually go rounds in every health centers and schools to learn from their senior
dentist on what will services and job will they be doing before having assigned to
their own designated health center or school.
Performance Management and Appraisal Systems
● Regular Performance Evaluations: Healthcare managers need to implement
systematic appraisal processes to assess competencies, job performance, and
adherence to healthcare standards. This supports areas the are in need for
improvement and recognizing excellence. Such as here in Taguig City Health
Office, managers give every healthcare centers and schools a performance
individual review of every staff and medical professionals to the head of the
healthcare facilities to be assessed and evaluated for their performance on how
they serve their service to their patients. It usually happens annually.
● Feedback and Communication: Managers allows constructive feedback
mechanisms to enhance employee engagement and clarify expectations. Take
for example, the social media is used to accept feedback on patients. However, it
can have bad effect on the medical health facilities that can lead to some
employees, staff and professionals having incident reports that are not always
right for the patients. Patients sometimes lie on their social media posts to get
more attention leading on the bad outlook for the medical professionals. That's
why the managers must thoroughly assess and examine the incident properly so
there will be no wrong accusations.
To summarize, hiring managers need to follow merit-based recruitment and selection
processes with clear qualification standards so municipal health units can select the
most qualified candidates. Reassignments should be managed efficiently to optimize
workforce deployment. Continuous learning and development are tailored for healthcare
roles to maintain competencies and motivation. Performance management systems
must be aligned with their career growth to foster engagement and accountability. All
these efforts must be embedded within a framework of legal compliance and non-
discrimination to sustain a skilled, motivated, and compliant healthcare workforce
delivering quality patient care.
