The Cagayan de Oro city government has been recognized by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for the way it manages its workforce. The CSC conferred a Bronze Award on the city on September 30 under its Program to Institutionalize Meritocracy and Excellence in Human Resource Management, better known as PRIME-HRM.
The award recognizes the city’s efforts to improve how employees are recruited, trained, evaluated and supported. It was received on behalf of the city by Xsyclyn Faith “Kanzai” B. Lumbatan, acting head and department manager of the City Human Resource Management Office (CHRMO), during ceremonies at a hotel in Cagayan de Oro.
The recognition did not come easily. Before the award, the CHRMO went through a two-day onsite assessment by CSC Region X on April 15 and 16. The office scored a perfect 100 percent across the four core HR systems the commission reviewed: recruitment, selection and placement; learning and development; performance management; and rewards and recognition.
That result gave the city a Level 2 maturity rating, which under the PRIME-HRM framework means an agency has defined and documented its HR processes and has reached the intermediate level of HR maturity. On the strength of the assessment, CSC Region X recommended the city government for the national Bronze Award. The evaluation covered both the executive and legislative branches of City Hall.
Under Lumbatan’s leadership, the CHRMO has introduced reforms meant to make personnel services easier to access. One of them is the Request for (Re)Employment Monitoring System, a digital platform launched in July that lets City Hall job order workers check their reemployment status online. Instead of lining up at the HR office, workers can now look up their status from wherever they are, saving time and needless trips to City Hall.
An HR award may sound like an internal government matter, but it can touch the lives of ordinary residents. City employees process permits, keep records, answer inquiries and deliver social services that Kagay-anons rely on every day. Systems that hire the right people, train them well and reward good performance can translate into faster and more consistent service at the front desk.
As local reporting on the award pointed out, the real measure of the recognition will be whether these systems are applied consistently in City Hall’s day-to-day operations. Sustaining the reforms, and turning them into fairer personnel processes and better public service, is the next challenge for the city.
For now, the Bronze Award places Cagayan de Oro among local governments that the CSC considers to have solid, well-documented HR systems. It is a meaningful milestone for the city’s workforce and a foundation the city can build on as it works toward higher levels of PRIME-HRM recognition in the years ahead.
Source: Mindanao Gold Star Daily; Cagayan de Oro City Information Office
