the University of the Philippines
FORUM Volume 13 Number 3
M ay - J u n e 2012
WAGES AND COST OF LIVING
Reviewing the UP human resources plantilla By Maragtas S.V. Amante
B
ased on the key points on operational excellence as explained by President Alfredo Pascual in his investiture speech in September 2011, administrative efficiency could be achieved through effective human resources management. The latter requires matching skills to tasks, reasonable working hours, compensation of work beyond the call of duty, rewarding excellent performance, providing a suitable work environment and granting equitable employee benefits. Becoming the country’s leader in achieving a just and equitable employment relations system, according to President Pascual, is another way of
realizing goals toward administrative efficiency. This means addressing housing and health care concerns of faculty and staff and establishing a more effective way of resolving grievances and implementing social contracts. These are the guideposts of the university’s efforts to achieve operational excellence through adequate pay and benefits or compensation for the faculty and staff. Operational excellence and its key pillar, administrative efficiency, could be achieved through seemingly simple technical operations: (a) improvements in the quality, quantity and value
of output; (b) improvements in the quality or reduction of the value or quantity of inputs; or (c) a programmed, targeted synergy of improvements in both output and input. These operations must be translated into what the university stakeholders could implement. The UP’s Personnel Services (PS) or payroll budget in the 2011 General Appropriations Act (GAA) stood at P5.296 billion. The payroll budget is 86 percent of the total GAA budget of P6.176 billion. With a total headcount of 12,355 personnel, the average monthly payroll is P35,721 per faculty REVIEWING, p. 2