Gladys Thembisile Khumalo, Chief Nursing
Officer of the MOHSW in Swaziland,
works at one of the computers provided by the
Capacity Project to strengthen HRIS activities.
The Ministry of Health and Social Work (MOHSW) in Swaziland realized it needed better human resources for health (HRH) data. No one in the country had a complete picture of where health workers were deployed or what jobs they were doing. The Ministry did not exactly who was working for them. Some employees were not taken off the payroll after leaving the Ministry's employment and became "ghost workers" in the system, receiving a paycheck even though they no longer worked for the government. At the same time, current employees and retirees were suing the Ministry because they were not getting paid.
A thorough HRIS assessment revealed the sources of these problems. HRH data were stored in separate systems, which were not linked, so there was no way to gain a complete understanding of the health workforce in Swaziland. Information flowed slowly between systems and didn't reach everyone who needed it, so that systems were not updated or errors were introduced.
A quick solution to these problems was required. The Capacity Project assisted with rapidly implementing an interim step solution consisting of a data collection form distributed to health facilities and a simple Microsoft Access database. The Project also assisted with instituting data quality procedures to immediately improve the accuracy and timeliness of the data put into the step solution, and hired specialists to enter and clean up the data.
The Ministry used the new, accurate data to develop a Health Workforce Strategic Plan, as well as to analyze vacancies and manage the redeployment of health workers to fill gaps. The Ministry also integrated the step solution with other HR data systems and developed additional reports to provide answers to other HR management and policy questions developed by the Stakeholder Leadership Group. Because the Ministry was leading the process, it was able to utilize additional resources by coordinating efforts with other donor organizations working in the country.
HRIS strengthening work transitioned to a Capacity Project Associate Award, the South African Human Capacity Development (SA-HCD) Coalition in October 2006. SA-HCD continues to strengthen HRH information and analyze the country's HRH situation. In 2008, it conducted a data-driven decision-making workshop for the MOHSW to help public health managers understand the information available from their HRIS. In a Capacity Project HRIS evaluation in November 2009, the MOHSW and regional HR managers noted the system dramatically strengthened their ability to advocate for HRH issues and address workforce planning, deployment, recruitment, payroll, vacancies, retirement, promotions, ghost workers, referrals, scheduling and budgeting. Next steps in Swaziland include developing a training database and conducting addtional data-driven decision-making training for the senior MOHSW staff.