PICS captures officers' talents and contribution
Many Force members are playing vital roles in different secondary duties and voluntary services in the Force with their special talents or skills. A number of PICS functions are now available to capture these talents and skills, in addition to recording information on officers' primary duties. These PICS functions will not only assist the management in making decisions on human resources such as postings and job matching, but also reflect holistically officers' abilities and contributions to the Force. The functions are briefly introduced below.
Secondary Duty
Developed in 1998, the function for secondary duty enables cadres such as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Police Negotiation Cadre and Force Search Unit to input the appointment and deployment records of their members. Currently, records of 23 secondary duties are kept in PICS, including the Internal Security Company's duties. As the cadres maintain the records, individual officers are not required to make any entry into PICS. The active records of secondary duty appointments and deployments in the past 12 months will be shown in the PICS Officer Report (Report ID: RREG824) under Section Three (Part C).
Language & Special Skill
The function for language and special skill, as one of the SAP projects, aims at enhancing the PICS database as a human resources management tool by improving its capability and functionality to facilitate the identification of officers who possess the languages and special skills required for operational needs. This function allows the Personnel Wing and formation commanders to select officers to perform specific duties such as Mainland or overseas training attachment programmes and visits, receptions for Mainland or overseas law enforcement officials or operations requiring special skills.
The language function was launched in April 2006 for officers to record their competency in different languages and Chinese dialects, while the special skill function was rolled out last month for officers to record their Force-related skills, including navigation, information technology, sports, safety, communication, marine and professional skills.
If officers are competent in a job-related skill that has yet to be included in PICS, they are welcome to raise suggestions, through their Formation Commander, to the Manpower Planning Division for consideration.
Force-related Voluntary Service
The function for Force-related voluntary service is a new arrangement rolled out last month, allowing the recording of officers' voluntary services organised within the Force, such as those by the Peer Advisors and Carelinkers, to reflect their effort for such services. Unlike the secondary duty records, which are maintained by centralised authorities, officers can input their own Force-related voluntary service records into PICS directly.
For officers to input records, the registered authorities will issue an appointment letter to their appointees who can then input their service records into PICS, according to the information contained in the letter, such as the appointment period and file reference. Active service records will also be shown in the PICS Officer Report under Section Three (Part C). Individual officers should ensure that the records they have input are genuine and accurate. A list of the inputting officers will also be sent to the authorities concerned for verification.
The function for language and special skills, as well as that for Force-related voluntary service, have been designed as self-managed career development records. For inputting their skills and Force-related voluntary service records into PICS, officers should follow the steps shown below. They can also refer to the "What's New" column in the Manpower Planning Division homepage on POINT for details. For enquiries, contact PICS Helpdesk on 2860-5740 (PEN: pmo-helpdesk) or Mr Paul Chan, EO PICS on 2860-5747 (PEN: eo-pics-mp).
