The Where We Are Working section of this website has been updated with four new stories about our HRIS strengthening work. Read about how we are:
The Department of Planning and Policy at the Zanzibar Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) is taking a leadership role in coordinating donor and government efforts toward adoption of new systems. Following Capacity Project’s installation of the iHRIS Manage software application earlier this year, the Department of Planning and Policy has been working with DANIDA to coordinate a government-wide data collection activity. Work is scheduled to begin in the upcoming months and will collect data on health workers, training needs, and many other vital pieces of information for entry into the new iHRIS Manage system. Capacity Project will assist again following the data collection activity with data entry and I am certain we will find additional areas to compliment the good work of the Zanzibar MoHSW and DANIDA.
We are often challenged by multiple donors and government organizations all working to solve similar problems but not always collaborating on the solutions. It is very encouraging to see what the Department of Planning and Policy is accomplishing by marrying the donor activities of Capacity Project and DANIDA and by obtaining buy-in and participation committment from all government agencies.
Although we had been playing to release new versions of iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify in July, as well as Version 1.0 of iHRIS Plan, we had to delay those releases. Our new targeted release date is August 15 for all three systems.
Why the delay? We want to release all of the updated systems at the same time because they use a lot of common code that is also getting a major overhaul. We also want to thoroughly test each system and clean up as many bugs as possible before releasing them publicly. Finally, we want to make sure the user’s manuals and other documentation are up to date.
We are excited about these releases because they represent major steps forward in our software development. iHRIS Plan, workforce planning and modeling software, is the final component in the iHRIS suite. Version 1.0 will enable health workforce planners to project required and actual health workers as well as associated costs. We will pilot iHRIS Plan in Namibia in August and September and expect to release Version 2.0 in the following months with even more features.
As for Manage and Qualify, Version 3.1 includes the ability to build reports and customize report views. This will greatly enhance users’ ability to analyze and report on the HRIS data. In addition, we have developed a brand-new module for managing in-service training courses for employees. HR managers will be able to track and report on the trainings completed by employees, the continuing professional development credits earned and the competencies gained from those trainings. We are piloting the in-service training management module in Zanzibar right now, and will incorporate feedback from that pilot in the 3.1 release.
Look for all three of these new releases in August. We hope that you will be as excited by the upgrades as we are.
What is happening with HRIS Strengthening? Get news about our ongoing work in the field, find out when new features and releases of the software are available, learn more about human resource information systems, and join the conversation. Your comments and questions are welcome.