The Public Service bosses want the government to restrict public servants from job-hopping between departments to prevent high staff turnover from crippling the civil service.
This proposal is contained in a report tabled by the Public Service Commission in the National Assembly this week on the assessment of the state of human resource management in the public service.
The commission said a number of senior managers and professional staff had changed jobs within short periods, having a negative impact on a department's ability to deliver quality services.
"Job-hopping should be restricted by utilising regulatory measures where employees have to work a certain number of years on one level before they can apply for promotion to a different position within (the same) or in a different department," noted the report.
Evidence showed that lack of quality services in the public service was linked to high staff turnover and that "vacancy rates clearly show that the public service finds it difficult to attract and retain staff".
The report noted that departments lost time and money each time a public servant resigned to join another department. "The public service, as any employer, invests significantly in its staff by way of formal training that is provided, on-the-job training, and skills transfer from fellow colleagues and managers."
The commission believes public servants should be restricted from job-hopping because it took up to a year to fill a vacated post.
It found that 68 percent of public servants in managerial positions in national departments had changed jobs within the government, while provinces had a 13 percent turnover.
The report said provinces were particularly "severely" affected by high staff turnover at professional levels.
"Most of the staff turnover occurs as a result of the internal movement of staff through promotions and transfers within and to other departments.
"Provisional indications are that departments tend to compete with each other for the same scarce skills because of the flexibility they have in grading positions and setting salaries at higher levels."
While the government had identified shortcomings in its recruitment and staff retention policies, the report berated the public service for not doing enough to deal with skills shortages.
"As a result, skills shortages are continuing to constrain the government's delivery programmes."
The commission was concerned that 306 365 vacant posts had existed in the public service in October.
It said the high vacancy rate (21 percent) should raise concerns because "the government is dependent on the availability of the required capacity to deliver services".
The report blamed low government salaries as one of the main reasons the public service had a challenge to fill vacant posts.
Engineers, artisans, health professionals, social workers, vets, professionals in economic sciences and information technology were among the "scarce" skills urgently needed.
But despite numerous government interventions in recruitment guidelines and training of human resources practitioners, many departments were unable to effectively implement recruitment and selection processes.
The commission urged heads of departments and senior managers to improve human resource management and to introduce "credible" organisational structures and career paths for public servants.