Attracting and employing talented people: Emphasizing dedication

(Baonghean) - Nghe An province has implemented a policy to attract high-quality human resources since 1999. The target candidates are experts, excellent graduates, masters, doctors, athletes with high achievements who have won national and international awards, doctors with specialist level 1 and specialist level 2; mainly excellent graduates who are in need of jobs... Reality shows that good and talented people always have bright ideas and initiatives. And good ideas will be highly promoted if managers know how to evaluate and appreciate them.

Director of the Environmental Monitoring Center, Department of Natural Resources and Environment Le Van Hung (middle) in the laboratory.

"Use people like using wood"

From 1999 to 2014, our province attracted a total of 523 high-quality human resources (of which 70 people were recruited in 2014). The expectation of this team to contribute to the province is very high. Attracting talent is not only a "hunt" for localities but also for businesses. After graduating from the Faculty of Chemical and Technology Equipment, University of Science and Technology, young engineer Nguyen Hoang worked at Song Con Sugar Factory. Through practical experience, he realized the shortcomings in the sugar production line of the factory, from which he built a project on innovation and won the first prize in the Science and Technology Award of Nghe An province in 2012 (in 2011, engineer Hoang also won the second prize in Science and Technology of the province). Nguyen Hoang's two initiatives were applied at Song Con Sugar Factory, helping to recover more sugar, increase sugarcane pressing capacity by 3 times compared to the original design capacity, and minimize costs, shorten pressing time, which is beneficial for farmers to turn around production. But the value of Hoang's initiative was "taken wing" when the factory's Board of Directors fully utilized it and invested funds to renovate the production line worth hundreds of millions of VND, benefiting the factory by 320 million VND per year.

Learn more, some people who were attracted by Nghe An province (in the early period) have now also promoted their roles and positions at work such as Bui Van Hung - Chief of Office of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Hoang Thi Thu Trang (born in 1981), formerly Chief of Office of the Department of Justice, now Deputy Director of the Provincial Enforcement Agency. Le Van Hung (attracted in 2001), graduated with honors from the Faculty of Environment, School of Natural Sciences, Hanoi National University, returned to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, now Director of the Department's Environmental Monitoring Center... Most of these people are cared for, respected and given favorable working conditions by their workplace leaders.

Mr. Le Van Hung recalls, “When I returned to work in my hometown, the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment at that time, Mr. Dinh Viet Hong (now Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee), was very supportive of our new initiatives and solutions, which made us confident and excited to work. Mr. Hong agreed with most of my solutions. For example, when the incident occurred at Nghi Yen landfill, I advised on a wastewater treatment plan using physical-chemical technology, sedimentation and catalysts to promptly handle the overflowing wastewater into the environment, which was immediately approved by Mr. Hong. Or when the dam of Thanh Chuong Cassava Factory broke, I advised on solutions to fix and reinforce the leak, reduce the factory's production capacity, and speed up the construction of the wastewater treatment plant, which was also accepted by him.

Since becoming the Director of the Environmental Monitoring Center, I have improved the center's analytical capacity to meet the international quality management system standard ISO 17025: 2005, and have been able to analyze many complex substances. It is known that engineer Le Van Hung also participated in a number of provincial-level scientific projects related to the environment. Hoang Thi Thu Trang, Deputy Director of the Civil Judgment Enforcement Department, said: "When I first started working, I was assigned by the Director of the Department of Justice Nguyen Huu Thuan to work in the Construction Department, checking legal documents. This is the "backbone" professional department of the department. Here, I am always updated with the Party's policies and guidelines, the State's laws, and local management and administration work; the job requires critical thinking. People working in the appraisal and inspection of legal documents have access to other fields of work: economics, internal affairs, finance, land, etc. This first job is an important foundation to help me approach the expertise in other fields of work well". When accumulating experience and specializing in law, Hoang Thi Thu Trang was assigned the task of Chief of Office of the Department - a comprehensive job, synthesizing all the work of the agency and the industry. And now, when taking on a new position, she is assigned to be in charge of the inspection and settlement of petitions in the field of civil judgment enforcement, which helps her understand and share the difficulties of her colleagues. In addition to being assigned to the right person, the right job, the trust in the young generation of the leaders of the Ministry, the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement, provincial leaders, the Department of Justice and the Civil Judgment Enforcement Department is the motivation for her to strive and improve herself. The working environment is very important for young people to promote their talents and responsibilities...

Thus, “using people is like using wood”, truly talented people will be able to develop their talents if they are placed in the right place, in the right position, cared for and noticed. Talented people “do not wait for age” to be successful. They are young and talented, ambitious, conquer the desire for innovation, take difficulties as challenges, are always creative, make efforts and spread will be the keys to the success of the unit, the enterprise. They are the ones who inspire the machine, especially when they have a worthy position, their capacity is further promoted.

Policy Adjustment

Currently, Nghe An has not been able to attract a team of leading experts including professors, doctors, and doctors with specializations I and II because the working environment is not favorable and the facilities for scientific research are not adequate. According to Mr. Dinh Xuan Lam - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Home Affairs, the team is mainly students. Most of them have promoted and completed their tasks excellently according to the assessment of recruiting agencies and units, thereby creating conditions to improve the quality of the province's staff, civil servants and public employees. The number of students from Nghe An graduating from universities and colleges every year is very large, about 16,000 - 17,000 people.

The province's attraction policy is being adjusted to suit the new situation. Previously, the provincial budget initially supported excellent graduates, but recruitment was through civil service exams. In 2014, the province implemented direct recruitment of "talents". The provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 57/2013/QD-UBND stipulating the subjects: "Those who graduated from university with excellent or higher degrees from public universities, regular system in the country (except for the joint training system) with the following university entrance exam scores: 23 points or higher for the following exam groups: A, A1, B, K, T, V; 22 points or higher for the exam groups: D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, M; 20 points or higher for the exam groups: C, N, H, R, S". Before the civil service recruitment exam, the units that need to recruit will apply the form of priority direct recruitment for those with high university entrance exam scores and excellent university graduates who meet the requirements of specialized degrees and other requirements set forth by the units in the province that need to recruit.

Then, the remaining candidates will be recruited. “After the Department of Home Affairs announced 150 recruitment targets in 2014, the Provincial People's Committee's approval decision accepted 412 applications from 196 people (some people submitted 2-3 applications). The Department of Home Affairs recruited 70 positions. In which, the Finance, Law, and Economics sectors were mainly attracted. The current problem is that the positions in the technical, medical, agricultural, and forestry sectors have not been attracted, while the other sectors have not been fully attracted, supply exceeds demand. Through this attraction, the Department of Home Affairs will propose the Provincial People's Committee to consider lowering the university entrance score for the agricultural and forestry sector (good students rarely take the exam for this sector). The management of the recruited civil servant team is currently assigned to the recruiting sectors and districts. The Department of Home Affairs requires agencies and units to arrange suitable jobs in the right positions," Mr. Dinh Xuan Lam added.

It is time to be transparent in personnel work like financial transparency on the stock market in order to truly integrate. The Ministry of Transport has recently implemented the slogan "More innovation, more determination, more quality, more efficiency, more acceleration, more development" and has organized recruitment exams for many important positions such as Director of the Traffic Safety Department, Director General of the General Department of Roads... Recently, Mr. Nguyen Van Thach, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation with 87.92 points, was elected Director of the Traffic Safety Department. In the first recruitment exam, public opinion may not believe the results, thinking that it may be a formality, a formality... But the second, third, fourth times... combined with tightening the law, being strict in many areas, disciplining many incumbent officials for breaking the law... have really created a spreading effect, building trust among the people. Believing that there is innovation, fairness and breakthroughs in the province's policies in the coming time, opportunities will come to more and more people, especially talented and young people.

Ms. Hoang Thu Trang - Deputy Director of the Provincial Civil Judgment Enforcement Department, formerly a student under the attraction program.

Emphasize dedication

Dr. Vu Minh Khuong (National University of Singapore) recently had an interview on “Tuanvietnam” on the topic of talent selection that received many positive comments. According to Dr. Khuong, to select talent, we can rely on 3 Ps: Passion – the desire to stay (to contribute), Productivity (must be productive, make real contributions) and Preparation (prioritize young people because they have the ability to contribute to the future).

Indeed, if we consider the 3 Ps standard of Dr. Khuong, we can see that young people today have many opportunities to reveal their talents, to express themselves, to bring their knowledge and intelligence that they have been trained to make breakthrough contributions to the collective, to the unit where they work, and more broadly, to their homeland and country. The position of young people in a country is not only measured by where they stand, which agency, but should be measured by what they can do for the country with their youth. Or look at reality: serious environmental pollution, traffic accidents are increasing rapidly, there are more deaths every year than epidemics, traffic jams, unsafe food hygiene threatens human life... If a young person has real intelligence, real talent... surely no one will refuse to accept their proposals, solutions, and feasible projects, if that solution, that project is truly molded from the maturity of reality, has a basis, is feasible and the proposed solution convinces the manager.

The “devotion” factor is also highly appreciated by most managers, because talented people work with their hearts, work selflessly, and sublimate their emotions to achieve the unit’s goals. A useful talented person must first have a desire to contribute, work continuously and work more effectively than many others, think of things that others cannot think of, advise on strategies and tactics for the unit’s long-term development; must travel a lot, know a lot, and have a vision to compare with partners. The broader the vision, the more strategies and advice there will be to survive and compete. Moreover, talented people must be people who understand the emotions of managers, understand when they need to lean on each other, and more broadly, know what the country needs to know what they have to do. They are always proactive so that even when they fail, they can find optimistic things to move forward, and when facing difficulties, they are the ones who always find ways to overcome them.

The policy of attracting talented people to work locally is necessary, but there are too few positions; the purification of the apparatus still has many shortcomings; the management and promotion of this team so that they are truly talented people in reality still has much to discuss.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of talented people and talented people are not necessarily talented people. To make talented people become talented, it requires the role and capacity of the leader and the management work. The desire to change, to have a strong and fighting apparatus full of fighting and winning will be the motivation for managers to always look for talented people and train them to become talented people. A good manager will use human resources in the right position, in the right strength so that talented people can take advantage of all resources, thereby promoting their strength and spreading to many people around them. In short, how to arouse the spirit and enthusiasm to contribute to the common cause of talented people is the "core" of implementing the policy of attracting talented people.

Chau Lan