Building the criteria of performance evaluation for public sector employees: The case of college of economics lecturers Can Tho university

The research presents the criteria for performance evaluation to public sector employees: the case of College of Economic (CE), at Can Tho University, Vietnam. This is an important basis to recognize, to consider rewards to qualified staff in an academic year according to Decree 56/2015/ND-CP dated 09/6/2015 of Government.

BUILDING THE CRITERIA OF PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FOR PUBLIC

SECTOR EMPLOYEES: THE CASE OF COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS LECTURERS

CAN THO UNIVERSITY

Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung1, Le Thi Thu Trang1

1 Can Tho University

Information:

Received: 16/07/2018

Accepted: 07/07/2018

Published: 11/2019

Keywords:

Performance evaluation,

public sector, lecturer

ABSTRACT

The research presents the criteria for performance evaluation to public sector employees: the case of College of Economic (CE), at Can Tho University, Vietnam This is an important basis to recognize, to consider rewards to qualified staff in an academic year according to Decree 56/2015/ND-CP dated 09/6/2015 of Government This study applied case study method The result of the research presents four sections: (1) Work performance according to the responsibilities in the contract; (2) Performance according to occupation ethic; (3) Spirit of responsibility to serve the country, to cooperate with colleagues and the awareness of officials’ behavior disciplines; and (4) Performance of officials’ other duties

Four sections are divided into 13 criteria Besides, the research results are not only crucial basis for salary, but also the references for organizations

1 INTRODUCTION

Performance evaluation is one of the topics that

the managers are interested in because it can help

to make decisions for retention, promotion, tenure

and salary increases The lack of fairness and

transparency in the evaluation process will impact

employees’ enthusiasm at work workers, which

results in low productivity Performance

evaluation scientifically is that all criteria must be

measured and determined by the critical figures of

key contents for each task Assessing the

performance of cadres, civil servants and officials

is an important step that has been paid attention

by the Government and has been repeatedly

revised in order to improve the efficiency of the

assessment process in public sector units Some of

the amendments in performance evaluation are in Decree No 39/2012/ND-CP supplementing Decree No 42/2010/ND-CP on the law of emulation and commendation; Decree No 65/2014/ND-CP amending the law on emulation and commendation in 2013; and most recently, Decree No 56/2015/ND-CP of the Government

on assessing and classifying cadres, civil servants and public employees and Circular No 35/2015/TT-BGDĐT guiding the education sector’s emulation Despite many amendments, the implementation and concretization of these decrees and circulars are still too qualitative for evaluation criteria in public sector

In the private sector, the performance evaluation

is measured based on the profit or target sales

which determine the basic salary, bonus, of an

individual However, in the public sector, this

activity has not been effectively implemented

because of respectable mindset This leads to the

liability for the work that was psychologically

affected, “foot in, foot out” alike This is the

reason why many officials become unwilling to

work or feel like lack of enthusiasm Therefore,

using KPIs to assess implementation process of

cadres, civil servants and public employees is a

suitable way for performance evaluation

Therefore, in the academic year 2015-2016, Can

Tho University in general and College of

Economics in particular changed the form and

proportion of evaluation criteria compared to the

previous periods However, the innovation was

not been effectively carried out because the

evaluation criteria were still very general for

example "Completing the assigned tasks,

achieving productivity and quality, etc." In

particular, it is essential that the managers access

their officials fairly by quantifying and

concretizing the indicators above Consequently,

the study on “Building the criteria of performance

evaluation for public sector employees: the case

of College of Economics Lecturers at Can Tho

University” is a need

METHOD

2.1 Objectives of the research

The main objective of this research is to build a

system of performance evaluation criteria for the

lecturers of CE at the Can Tho university Using

KPI- based evaluation aims to measure the

capacity of the individuals/ units in order to create

the basis for consideration of emulation and

commendation, salary distribution, additional

income, appointment, alternation, officials

work plan The qualitative analysis method was used specifically in-depth interviews with officials

in the College of Economics of Can Tho University Interviews at the College are conducted on people who are believed to be knowledgeable in the field of investigation The interviewees’ work position at CE are various such as Dean, Deputy Dean, Head of specialized departments, representatives of lecturers according to their seniority (young lecturers, lecturers working for 10 years and longer) In order to provide a complete set of criteria, in addition to questionnaires sent to the consulted subjects in the referendum, the research also held

a meeting to interview the college leaders In some cases, the study conducted a second and third interview with leaders to clarify the evaluation criteria because the successful application of KPI method must be approved by the leadership board For the rest of the study reference, supplements and responds to information directly related to the work performed

by the college staff and lectures The open questionnaire was built based on the form No 03

in the Decree No 56/2015 / NDCP on the content for assessing and classifying officials, public servants and officials After summarizing ideas, the researchers formulated a set of evaluation criteria The study also took 3 more simultaneous interviews with college leaders to build criteria consistent with the goals of the unit

3 THE EVALUATION CRITERIA

Lecturer evaluation criteria is one of the most important criteria to assess the quality of university’s education and training However, it is necessary to propose the evaluation criteria which must be based on the regulations and guidelines in the field of education Besides, the selection of

but also in their performance of employees in both

private and public sector

According to Decree 56/2015 / ND-CP on

assessing and distributing officials, lecture

evaluation is conducted according to 04 criteria

including (1) results of work performance or

duties under the contract work; (2) the compliance

of lecturers' ethics; (3) the responsibility, attitude,

cooperating with colleagues and implement codes

of behaviors; (4) the performance of lecturers’

other duties Besides, Can Tho university operates

its resources to be the leading national institution

for education, research and technology

distribution in order to make significantly

contribute to high-quality human resource

development According to the mission of Can

Tho university, the lecturers will be evaluated

based on their performance in teaching, scientific

research and social activities according to 04

criteria of Decree 56

The results of the work performance based on the

four criteria are the basis for reward, salary

increase According to the experience of public

universities, the criteria of the work performance

or duties under the contract accounts a larger

proportion than the other criteria

Next, the study illustrated four criteria that were

used to evaluate lecturers of CE at Can Tho

University

3.1 Results of work performance or duties

under the work contract

3.1.1 Assessing Teaching

One of the most important functions of a

university is to convey knowledge This function

cannot be assessed separately with the scientific

research A good lecturer should be the one to

stimulate student’s curiosity in learning by

guiding students to the newest research findings and debates in their field of study Teaching must

be combined with scientific research activities There cannot be a good lecturer who does not participate in scientific research

One of the important functions of a lecturer is teaching In particular, the criteria for professional titles of teaching staff are presented in Joint Circular No 36/2014/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV Therefore, in order to fully assess the teaching capabilities of lecturers there should be evaluation criteria covering all teaching activities Those criteria are:

Criterion 1: Regarding the norm of teaching hours (according to Regulation No 4412 / QD-CTU 25/11/2015 on promulgation of working regulations for lecturers at Can Tho University) Standard of lecture’s working time norm is established by the titles, qualifications and salary ratio

Criterion 2: The feedback from students Lecturers and their teaching must also be evaluated through the feedback of students At the end of each semester, students will be interviewed

to evaluate each module of each lecturer Based

on the faculty board’s collections, the university has the right solution for the future

Criterion 3: Based on the work plan and assignment of the Head of the Departments, lecturers are responsible for preparing the plan and the expected volume of their work The declaration of lecturers' workload, in addition to teaching in class, also includes activities such as preparing subject outlines, preparing new subjects, updating lectures, proposing, test designing, exam monitoring, grading, publishing scores

Table 1 Criteria for evaluating lecturer's teaching - Criterion Item 1

1

Complete from 110% of standard working hours directly in class (excluding

professional activities converted into standard hours)

Complete from 90% to less than 110% of standard working hours directly in class

(excluding the professional activities converted into standard hours)

Complete from 50% to less than 90% of standard working hours directly in class

excluding professional activities converted into standard hours)

2

Score from student's feedback is from 3.6 and higher

Score from student's feedback is from 3.2 up to 3.6

Score from student's feedback is below 3.2

3

Developing, revising course syllabus

Developing satisfactory new lesson content

Updating satisfactory content of lectures

Completing the scoring plan on the system on time

Completing the scoring plan on the system on time

Submitting general scores, instructions on schedule, without being reminded

(Source: Processing of survey results, 2018)

3.1.2 Assessing Scientific research

Besides teaching function, the evaluation also

involves evaluating lecturers’ scientific research

duty Effective teaching needs to combining with

scientific research activities

Criterion 4: Scientific research works In order to

encourage lecturers to participate in scientific

research, especially in this field where there are

not many staff involved in, the College of

Economics and the university has incentive

policies such as adding teaching hours, building

criteria for rewarding and adding time for female

lecturers (Regulations 4412 and 2015)

Therefore, this criterion is based on the approved

scientific research proposals from institutional

levels and international scales The criterion covers the whole personnel body including the heads and members; Chairman / member whose articles are published in the domestic scientific journals according to the State Council of Professor Title recognized in 2016; whose English articles are published in domestic and foreign magazines; whose scientific seminars are published by domestic or international organizations

Criterion 5: Supervising students to conduct scientific research topics This is the criterion for evaluating lecturers regarding scientific research

A good lecturer not only imparts knowledge but also helps students develop problem-solving and analytical skills

Table 2 KPI for research activities

4

Writing research proposals

Leading and managing the units, getting certificates of merit at university level or higher Members to implement the project at the university; local / ministry; province / domestic; international level

Authors / Co-authors whose articles are published in national scientific journal by Council of State; the title of professor is recognized

Author / Co-Authors whose English articles are published in national / international journals are not in the list

Author / Co-Authors whose English articles are published in international journals in Scopus Articles in scientific conference published nationally / internationally

5

Guiding students to register research topics

Guiding students to complete scientific research topics at accepted levels

(Source: Processing of survey results, 2018)

3.2 Assessing the compliance of lecturers'

ethics

The regulation of lecturers' ethics is a necessary

standard for lecturers who not only make efforts

to train themselves but also deserve social respect

It is one of the basis for evaluating, categorizing

and supervising lecturers to build a qualified

workforce as well as to improve teaching skills

and methods, with a positive lifestyle and

standard behavior that really is an example for

students to follow This criterion is based on Decree No No 16/2008/QD-BGDDT dated April,

16, 2008 - Ethics regulations of the Minister of Education and Training, and Decree No 79-QD/

ĐU 31/5/2012 - Standard regulations of lecturers’s ethics of Can Tho University following

Ho Chi Minh's moral example

The 6th criterion is built on professional ethics consist of qualities, ethics, lifestyles, preservation and protection of lecturers' ethics

Table 3 Assessing of the compliance of lecturers' ethics

6

No complaints, disciplinary actions recorded by council from reprimand upwards

No slandering, distorting, over-level complaints, causing disunity

No complaints from the family that impact the unit

No violating traffic laws

No violating laws or regulations not to impact the overall achievement of the unit,

disciplinary actions from reprimand upwards

Criterion Item

Attending short-term training courses, conferences, seminars, to improve the

qualification with a certificate

Attending all meetings for Resolution, politics, professional skills (seminar) organized by Faculty, University

Finding scholarships themselves to study Master, PhD successfully

Finishing Master/Doctor programs on schedule

Appointed as PGS/GS; awarded certificates by the Minister (Outstanding Educator/ People’s Educators)

Being upgraded lecturers at all levels of the year

(Source: Processing of survey results, 2018)

3.3 Assessing of the responsibility, attitude,

cooperating with colleagues and implement

codes of conduct

Based on Decree No 1501/QD-TTg, 2015 -

Approving the project on strengthening

revolutionary, ethical and lifestyle ideal education

for young and teenagers, in the period

2015-2020.The sense of responsibility, the attitude of

serving is related to enhancing revolutionary

ideals, ethics, and student life in order to change

in morality and comprehensive development

Besides, it is also based on Decree No

16/2008/QD-BGDDT April 16, 2008 and Decree

No 79-QD/ĐU 31/5/2012 – to give evaluation criteria for this item

Criterion 7: There is a sense of responsibility in the job and serious practice with internal rules and regulations

Criterion 8: Having a polite attitude, proper gentleness, attentive to service, listen to opinions, and do not make difficulties for students

Criterion 9: Spirit of cooperation with colleagues

to solve the job in the organization and cooperation with other units

Table 4 Assessing the responsibility, attitude, cooperating with colleagues and implement codes of conduct

7

Having a sense of responsibility in the teaching of the modules

Not missing teaching hours without complaints from students

Teaching on time and full time without complaints from students

Not having outside lecturers for backup teaching

8 Appropriate words and behaviors to students

Assisting students to look for scholarship opportunities recognized by the Faculty

Criterion Item

Effective cooperation with colleagues, being honest with supervisors

Not being indifferent or late, which affects the work schedule criticized by leadership board

Introducing Master / PhD scholarships to colleagues recognized by the Faculty

Taking responsibility for/Engaging in organizing scientific conferences, seminars, jobs, training events, etc

(Source: Processing of survey results, 2018)

3.4 Assessing the performance of lecturers’

other duties

Other duties are activities which lecturers attend

in the unions and social works in the College and

University According to Decree No 4412/2015, if

lecturers are holding leadership, managerial or

unions positions, the proportions of standard

working hours are different Therefore, it is not

the mandatory task of the lecturers Not all

lecturers are in charge of such activities It is just

a criterion for evaluating, classify lecturers and

considering lecturers' rewards

Criterion 10: Besides Teaching and research

duties, lecturers also attend in extra-curricular

activities depending on annual plans such as

curriculum development, organizing seminar, and professional improvement activities

Criterion 11: Faculty tasks: these jobs are related

to the faculties' activities including organizing activities, attending seminars, conferences, and others recognized by the Faculty

Criterion 12: Union task: these activities are related to organizing and attending in students' and staff’s games organized by Youth Union Criterion 13: Social service: attending in different levels in the university/society to sharing scientific knowledge to the community such as advice for community /social/ business education programs

Table 5 Assessing the performance of lecturers’ other duties

10

Author/Co-author in published books Author/Co-author in reprinted books Scholarships Awardee for Master, PhD study Presenter at Faculty-level Seminar

11

Guiding lecturers to complete the probationary Engaging in the AUN standard test of the Faculty Engaging in adjusting training programs

Engaging in improving training programs Presiding / joining the training program quality evaluation team Presiding / joining project proposals of all levels recognized by the Faculty

Criteria Contents

Self-finding and winning domestic/international projects recognized by the Faculty Participating in students’ employment survey after graduation

Other activities in addition to teaching

12

Presiding / engaging in organizing sports events and arts festival Presiding / engaging in organizing arts activities for students Presiding/ engaging in consulting to organize contests, academic classes for students Executive Committee members of Youth Union Faculty / University

Participating in the Sports Festival, organized by Faculty

An enthusiastic supporter in movements organized by the University/Faculty (01 time) Participating in launching the movements of University/Faculty

13

Engaging in counseling for organizations large / medium / small scale Engaging in teaching short-training courses of the Faculty

Finding enterprises attend in supporting teaching activities

(Source: Processing of survey results, 2018)

4 CONCLUSION

As the quality of education is increasingly

concerned by the society, it is required the

university improve the quality of training and

make adjustments to achieve those goals more

effectively Particularly, competency of the

teaching staff is the key factor Therefore, the

quality of lecturers is paid much attention by the

university and many policies are proposed to

promote working motivation and opportunities for

lecturers Even though these efforts brought

successful changes in evaluating the performance

of the public sector agencies, they still face

unprecedented pressure to improve their quality

This research proposes a set of criteria for

evaluating staff of the College of Economics at

Can Tho University based on the work

concrete evidence that helps lecturers know how their work contributes to the university’s development goals Although the indicators are quantified and easy to measure, leaders need to specify the score for each indicator and determine key to adapt to organizations’ development goal

REFERENCES

Decree No 42/2010/ND-CP.2010 Decree detailing a number of law emulation and reward, law adjusting, supplementing a

rewardhttp://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/po rtal/ chinhphu/hethongvanban?class_id

=1&mode=detail&document_id=94226 Decree No 39/2012/ND-CP 2012 Decree adjusting, supplementing a number of content decision 42/2010/ND-CP of April 15, 2010,

CP-sua-doi-Nghi-dinh-42-2010-ND-CP-huong-dan-Luat-thi-dua-138773.aspx

Decree No 65/2014/NĐ-CP 2014 Decree

detailing a number of law emulation and

reward, law adjusting, supplementing a

number of law emulation and reward in 2013

https://thuvienphapluat.vn/

van-ban/Bo-may-

hanh-chinh/Nghi-dinh-65-2014-ND-CP-

huong-dan-Luat-Thi-dua-khen-thuong-nam-sua-doi-2013-238029.aspx

Decree No 56/2015/NĐ-CP 2015 Decree on

assessment and classification of officer, public

staff in public sector https://

thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/Bo-may-hanh-

chinh/Nghi-dinh-56-2015-ND-CP-danh-gia-

va-phan-loai-can-bo-cong-chuc-vien-chuc-277514.aspx

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết 2008 Lecturer evaluation

criteria Journal of Science Hanoi National

University Social Sciences and Humanities

Vol 24, pp 131- 135

Decree No 1501/QD-TTg 2015 Decree

Approving the project on strengthening

revolutionary, ethical and lifestyle ideal

education for young people, teenagers and

children in the period 2015-2020

https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/Giao-

duc/Quyet-dinh-1501-QD-TTg-Giao-duc-ly- tuong-cach-mang-dao-duc-loi-song-thanh-thieu-nien-nhi-dong-288584.aspx

Decree No 79-QD/ĐU/DHCT 2012 Decree issued regulations on ethical standards of straff

of Can Tho University following Ho Chi

https://www.google.com.vn/search?q=

Quy%E1%BA%BFt+%C4%91%E1%BB%8B nh+79Q%C4%90%2F%C4%90U%2F%C4%9 0HCT&rlz=1C1CHZL_viVN733VN733&oq= Quy%E1%BA%BFt+%C4%91%E1%BB%8B

nh+79-Q%C4%90%2F%C4%90U%2F%C4%90HCT

&aqs=chrome 69i57.1081j0j9&sourceid=chro me&ie=UTF-8

Decree No 4412/QD-DHCT 2015 Decree on issuing working regulations for lecturer of Can Tho University Can Tho University pp 3-9, https://www.ctu.edu.vn/images/upload

/vbdh/vbct/20154412 _QD_DHCT.pdf Decree No 1425/QD-DHKT-TCHC 2017 Decree

on issuing standards for evaluating work performance - Version 2017 Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics pp.3-7

Performance evaluation system - KPIs applied

at Ho Chi Minh Technical Education University, pp.6-10