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Manpower System
Ministry of Manpower
Oman

The Problem

Before the implementation of the Manpower System, the work permit and application process for the hiring of foreign talent was tedious, time consuming and labour intensive. The Sultanate of Oman has a total of 1,051,252 (2009 November statistics) foreign workers to complement the current workforce.

To apply for work permits for the expatriate workers, the companies or sponsors would require completing the application form and submitting the completed form manually at the Ministry of Manpower office. The forms were then manually processed and approval sought. The normal time to obtain approval for the work permit could be between 1-3 months under the manual system. In addition, the companies’ Public Relations Officers would have to queue at the Ministry’s office to submit the application, seek clarifications, and update expatriates information, check status and cancellation of work permits. Such manual processes were not only time consuming but labour intensive and took a long time to obtain such approval.

With the manpower in the country increasing daily, the ministry counters were getting too crowded. People were required to stand in queues for long times to process their application forms.

Retrieval of data and information was also time consuming as the records were all stored manually. Clearly, the Ministry of Manpower strived to improve the quality of their services to the companies and other government organizations. Checking status of an application was a tedious job. People were required to wait 2-3 days to know the exact status of an application.

Getting statistics about the manpower was very difficult. Making different statistics for better helping the national manpower was required, which was very difficult with the existing system.

There was no unified Occupational Code in the GCC countries. Payments to the services were made manually. Which itself took long time to settle the amounts.

With the electronic Manpower Registration System, the Ministry of Manpower managed to improve customer service to the companies and other ministries organizations. Today, it takes only 1 week to obtain a work permit for a foreign worker and through the system the companies can easily update the foreign workers information regularly.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
By implementing the Manpower System, Ministry of Manpower was able to process huge number of applications daily. As the number of working population in the country is increasing day by day at a rapid rate it was critically important for Ministry of Manpower to move ahead with better utilization of technology.

One of the key benefits of the system is, Ministry of Manpower has made the services easily accessible to the public. They can check the status of all the applications online through the ministry portal, and are provided with SMS confirmation of acceptance of applications.

Manpower system has automated the process thus improving the efficiency of operation. By making lots of status checking services available online, ministry is able to save on huge operational costs on paper and better utilization of its staff. Ministry was able to gather the much needed trust in its services from the citizens and residents by better utilization of technology and making the transactions secure.

Ministry of Manpower was able to provide opportunity for young Omanis to be entrepreneurs by starting SANAD Service Centers. SANAD Service Centers provided large number of job opportunities to Omani job seekers.

Other governmental organizations were hugely benefitted from the system. Other governmental organizations are able to reduce on their operational costs by having a database link with Ministry of Manpower in getting the national manpower details when ever required. Before the initiative, all these organizations were required to go through all the paper documents manually and verify the same to be accepted. This initiative being highly sustainable was able to integrate with other government organizations easily.

The system provided up to date statistics on national manpower. It was used in the national strategy to provide better opportunities of Omani job seekers. The data mined from the system allows the Ministry to analyze the current trend and predicts the future trend of manpower requirement in the Sultanate. With this information, the Ministry can then look into the various initiatives to train local manpower via the Ministry’s and private Vocational institution aim at filling up position in the private sectors. There is an Omanisation of work force initiative by the Government, with the data hand, the target for Omanisation can be decided upon based on statistical data.

Partnership with private companies specialized in specific fields in implementation of this project helped the Ministry of Manpower provide best possible exposure to its employees in real time implementation of large national projects. The experience gained during the project has helped ministry of Manpower in implementing lots of other initiatives with its own staff.

During the implementation of the project it was noted that there were lots of confusion going on in the GCC market regarding Occupational Codes used in various countries. It helped in developing a unified Occupational Code database for GCC countries, which is being followed till date.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Manpower System initiative was proposed by the Information Systems Department of Ministry of Manpower. After the proposal was agreed upon, Ministry of Manpower sat with consultants to formulate and design a feasible program for the same. During the design phase, Ministry of Manpower was determined to make the program useful to Omani nationals by providing maximum opportunities in the private sector.

As per the guidelines of His Majesty the Sultan, Ministry of Manpower started the concept of SANAD Programs which included providing financial and technical aid to Omanis in starting new business and lots of other opportunities such as SANAD Service Centers. Total of more than 29,000 nationals have benefited from the SANAD program. A SANAD Service Center is a major initiative by MOMP for providing Omani nationals the chance to become an entrepreneur as well as providing many job opportunities for nationals. SANAD Service Centers were made to play big role in the implementation of this project. At those times, when internet penetration was less in the Sultanate of Oman, SANAD Service Centers were able to communicate with Ministry’s Central Database.

The Manpower Database holds one of the most important Data in the country. So, it is used by Royal Oman Police (ROP) for issuance of Resident Cards, Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASI) to track national manpower for calculating pension, Ministry of Civil Status (MOCS) and Royal Court Affairs use the database to help recruit Omani nationals, Tender Board and Ministry of Defense are benefitted for calculating Omanisation percentage for companies.

For the payment module, Banking Solutions were provided by Oman Arab Bank.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The strategy used in implementing Manpower System, mainly focused on delivering better service channel to the public by making services easy to access from any of the SANAD Service Center spread all over the Sultanate of Oman.

With the use of Manpower System, Ministry of Manpower reduces the traffic at the ministry counters, which in turns resulted in quicker processing time for all applications. Ministry of Manpower then started introducing various branches of Labour Office in different regions. In addition to introduction of new branches in regions, Ministry of Manpower started introducing counters at strategic points such as Airport and major shopping centers to make the services easily available to the public.

Another important consideration while designing the project was to promote SANAD Service Centers. SANAD Service Centers are a Ministry of Manpower initiated concept for providing Omani nationals the chance to become an entrepreneur as well as providing many job opportunities for nationals. SANAD Service Centers were made to play big role in the implementation of this project. At those times, when internet penetration was less in the Sultanate of Oman, SANAD Service Centers were able to communicate with Ministry’s Central Database.

With the implementation of the project it was easy to gather statistics. These statistics were used as the stepping stone in improving the job opportunities and exposing them to Omani job seekers. These statistics determined the vocational areas were focus is to be given, and accordingly courses were introduced at various Vocational Training Centers under the Ministry of Manpower umbrella. Ministry of Manpower operates Technical Colleges at various regions providing Bachelors programs in various fields to complement the job market with qualified Omani candidates. There are a total of 21,500 students in these Technical Colleges. Ministry of Manpower is teaming with private sector in providing on-job training to Omanis. During 2007-09 ministry have provided on-job training to 10,998 job seekers.

After formulating the program, the program was developed by in-house software developers at Ministry of Manpower with support from various private sector companies. Strategy behind developing in-house was to improve the quality of workmanship at Ministry of Manpower by sending employees to different universities around the world to gather much needed exposure to implement a project of this magnitude.

The other strategy is to also involve other stakeholders who has a need to tap into the database of the Manpower System. The database is now serving many government entities in the country in their daily operations. As an example, Royal Oman Police (ROP) is using this information in the issuance of Resident cards (previously ROP and Ministry of Manpower was issuing separate cards namely Resident Card and Labour Card respectively.)

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Till 1986, Ministry of Manpower was using completely manual paper work for processing all its applications.

In 1986 computerization was started at the ministry. In line with computerization, application processing was gradually made computerized.

In the nineties, Ministry of Manpower started operating branch office in different regions for easy access to the public from interior regions.

In 2002, SANAD Service Centers were introduced by the Ministry of Manpower. In the same year, smart forms were introduced. Smart forms are application forms provided at SANAD Service Centers, which carry all the information typed in the form in a barcode. At Ministry office, counter staff were able to just scan the barcode instead of typing in all the details again. By 2003, SANAD Service Centers and Smart forms matured to a well accepted mode of processing applications in the country.

In 2008, Ministry of Manpower introduced Online Smart forms. Online Smart forms help residents to renew their work permit from any SANAD Service Centers without visiting any labour offices. This was introduced in 6 SANAD Service Centers as a pilot project.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
In every culture, people always have their reservations towards a change. When Ministry of Manpower was transforming its application processing systems from manual to a fully integrated automated service it too had its own share of this reservation. But ministry was able to pass the much needed confidence and trust to the public by providing error free secure service.

Another hindrance, in the implementation of the project was the lack of knowledge in implementing projects of such magnitude before. This drawback was tackled by sharing the project with private sector companies who had already experienced these kinds of projects. And at the same time Ministry of Manpower took all the efforts to improve the technical and educational standards of its employees by sending them to universities around the globe to complete their education and by sending delegates to all the regional and global conferences.

There were lack of counters where applications where collected at the Ministry. These counters were increased and branch offices were opened at various regions to reduce the crowd in the capital city. SANAD Service Centers were started, and with smart forms in operation the time taken by each applicant at the counter was reduced.

Then, there were financial constraints. The magnitude of the project required its own investment in infrastructure as well as human resource. It was accomplished by spanning the project in to different stages and following the project plan strictly. Human resource at the ministry was gradually increased and private sector partnership was sought whenever necessary.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Manpower System was implemented in a step by step approach in stages spanning years. All the financial, technical and human resources were met at the required stages by the Ministry. Ministry fixed a budget yearly for the initiative, and was made best use of.

In the initial stages, Ministry of Manpower had a very limited number of IT staff with very little exposure to huge projects such as this to work with. Ministry of Manpower relied on experienced private companies to start the project as well as in improving the standards of its employees by providing necessary technical training as and when required. The number of employees was gradually increased at the Ministry to have an in-house team to tackle any problem that arises after the implementation of the system. Some of the staffs were sent to universities around the world to gather much required knowledge about various practice followed in different parts of the world.

Now, the Information Systems Department has a good team of 31 Omani employees backed up by some experts in different technologies.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The Manpower System is a highly sustainable one.
As the number of expatriates coming to work in Oman and number of Omani nationals working in the private sector grows year by year, the system is highly feasible. As the penetration of internet in the Omani community grows all the government organizations will be forced to introduce more and more eservices.

The Manpower System today is fully integrated to other Ministry database to provide an integrated service to support G2G e-Government initiatives. The following are the governments agencies that are linked to the Ministry database:

Royal Court Affair allowed viewing of a work history for any jobseeker from the National Manpower System. This link helps the Royal Court Affair to accept or reject any job application by checking the current job status, qualification, education, occupation and work experience.

Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASSI), the Ministry uses PASSI data to check national labor manpower employee’s information if it is insured by the company. The resignations data of employee manpower from PASSI is automatically update to the Ministry of Manpower database (resignations status).

Ministry of Civil Services retrieved the national manpower information from the ministry of manpower to ensure that their information matches the job application. The Ministry of Manpower benefits from the Ministry of Civil Services in updating the manpower job status.

Ministry of Social Development, benefits from the Ministry of manpower database to checks if the social benefit status applicant has any business income or employed. In Addition the Ministry of Social Development benefits the number of manpower statistic reports from the ministry database.
Muscat Municipality verified the national manpower information from the ministry of manpower to ensure that their information matches the job application.

Muscat Immigration (ROP) checked the number of work permits for foreign manpower for specific permit application before giving immigration permit.

NRS renewed labour cards information are send automatically through BIZTALK to ensure that the civil card will not be printed unless the information are renewed by the Ministry.

Taxation Muscat, checked companies’ information, total number of manpower and their salaries to calculate the taxation and to create taxation certificate.

Tender Board checked if a company dissent ministry regulations before giving the tender approval

As it is the system has evolved to one that serves more than Ministry of Manpower.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Impact of the initiative is evident from the number of applications Ministry of Manpower is able to process daily, in a time when the number of working population in the country is increasing day by day at a rapid rate.

By making lots of status checking services available online, ministry is able to save on huge operational costs on paper and better utilization of its staff. Ministry was able to gather the much needed trust in its services from the citizens and residents by better utilization of technology and making the transactions secure.

Ministry of Manpower was able to provide opportunity for young Omanis to be entrepreneurs by starting SANAD Service Centers. SANAD Service Centers provided large number of job opportunities to Omani job seekers.

Another major impact of the Manpower System is the benefits it provides to other governmental organizations. Other governmental organizations are able to reduce on their operational costs by having a database link with Ministry of Manpower in getting the national manpower details when ever required. This initiative being highly sustainable was able to integrate with other government organizations easily.

Important manpower policies can be supported by the data mined from the system. The main aim of the Government is to create jobs for the populations. With the information, analysis can be made on the areas in which local manpower can be channelled to. Manpower training initiatives can be formulated through analysis of this data. This will ensure that the manpower joining the work force, serves the need of the market.

This has helped in giving more job openings for Omanis in the private sector. Number of Omanis working in private sector has increased from 87,064 in the year 2004 to 180,590 in 2009.

Partnership with private companies specialized in specific fields in implementation of this project helped the Ministry of Manpower provide best possible exposure to its employees in real time implementation of large national projects. The experience gained during the project has helped ministry of Manpower in implementing lots of other initiatives with its own staff.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Manpower
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Mubarak Al Suwty
Title:   Director  
Telephone/ Fax:  
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   mubarak_q@manpower.gov.om  
Address:  
Postal Code:  
City:  
State/Province:  
Country:   Oman

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