Developing Human Resources Policy and Management Questions

Human resources policy and management questions are, very simply, questions about the health workforce that you need to answer. Think of questions that are often asked but cannot be answered because the needed information is not available, current or complete. Once data are input into a human resources information system (HRIS), they can be aggregated, reported and analyzed to provide answers to most HR policy and management questions.

Policy and Management Question Development

Why develop questions before the data are collected? The process of defining the questions determines what data need to be collected and what reports need to be run on that data to produce the answers. When the HRIS is designed to address the most pressing HR questions, it is better able to address specific country needs and staff members spend less time collecting unnecessary information.

One of the first activities of the Stakeholder Leadership Group (SLG) is to agree on a prioritized list of policy and management questions. (Refer to "Establishing the Stakeholder Leadership Group" in this Toolkit for more information.) We recommend the following process for developing the list of questions:

  1. Brainstorm policy and management questions using the examples below as a guide. Brainstorming can happen in the larger group or in small groups that then compile questions with the larger group.
  2. Combine duplicate questions and identify categories for drilling down into more detail or disaggregating the data. For example, "How does the health workforce break down by cadre?" and "What is the gender distribution of health workers?" are the same question disaggregated, or displayed, in two different ways. These two questions can be combined as: "How many health workers do we have? By gender? By cadre?"
  3. Evaluate whether current data and systems can answer these questions. (This task may be completed by the HRIS development team or a consultant as part of the HRIS assessment process.) Assess:
    • Which questions can be answered now with the existing HRIS
    • Which questions require additional data collection
    • Which questions require linking with data in other systems.
  4. Based on this feedback, prioritize the questions as follows:
    • Immediate need
    • Expected of the next round of system development
    • Save for a future version.
    These prioritized features are the driving force behind what your HRIS needs to be. You may also want to periodically revisit the list of questions to determine whether new questions should be included or old questions are no longer a priority. The HRIS should adapt to user needs—not the other way around.
  5. Share the final list of questions with the full SLG. The features identified as the highest priority should be used to select an appropriate HRIS solution and determine what customizations need to be made to the system.

Question Examples

Use the following examples of policy and management questions as a starting point for brainstorming. These are examples only and should not limit you in the scope or number of questions you identify. All questions should be considered during the initial brainstorming, although some may prove to be outside the bounds of an HRIS. The final list of questions should represent the HR policy and management issues that are most important to you.

  • Training
    • What are primary in-service training needs?
    • Are health professionals meeting their continuing education requirements?
  • Incoming workforce
    • How long are positions posted before suitable candidates are hired?
    • How many trained students pass their certification/accreditation exams?
  • Deployment and planning
    • How many health workers are working in each region and where are they deployed?
    • How many staff are working in the public sector, private sector (including nongovernmental organizations and faith-based organizations) or both?
  • Staff management
    • How many posts exist, and how many are filled or vacant?
    • What staff movements have taken place, including promotion, transfer, salary increase, etc.?
  • Attrition
    • How many health workers are nearing retirement age?
    • What are the causes of attrition for health workers?

Disaggregation Category Examples

Depending on how you want to view and use the data, you may choose to display or disaggregate, the answers to these questions by:

  • Cadre
  • Job classification
  • Position
  • Qualification(s)
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Marital status
  • Region/district
  • Rural vs. urban
  • Training institution (including out-of-country institutions)
  • Level of education achieved
  • Certifications/accreditations
  • Time/length of service
  • Sector (i.e., public or private)
  • National vs. foreign national.

You May Also Want to Know

In addition to determining the key policy and management questions, the SLG may find it helpful to collect additional information on each question. These questions will help refine the system specifications and write use cases (see the Use Case Development Tool in Section IV). For each question, try to identify:

  • Who requires this information
  • What goal will be accomplished with the information
  • How often is the information required (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly or annually)
  • How the information should be presented (as a chart, graph, tabular report, spreadsheet, etc.).