Social Security Corporation launches 5-year training strategy for employees

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) on Monday launched a five-year training strategy for its employees, aiming to develop performance and enhance its competitiveness.

Under the 2016-2020 training strategy, all of the corporation’s 1,340 employees, who are classified into three professional categories, will undergo a set of professional and technical training sessions based on their job requirements, said SSC Media Director Musa Sbeihi.

Speaking to the press, he said the corporation’s previous training plans were annual but unsystematic, noting that the expansion in the number of subscribers, retirees and beneficiaries entails  further development of the capacities of SSC employees to rise up to the demand.

The new “talent-based” training strategy is in harmony with best international practices in human resources management.

The strategy will include developing an online portal that employees can log on to take online courses, Sbeihi said, and annual training evaluations will take place to gauge the efficiency of the strategy and its impact on performance. 

The courses include strategic planning, quality management, corporate performance evaluation, information technology, communication skills, report writing and professional safety measures, in addition to a wide array of topics related to insurance and social security.

In 2014, the corporation’s training budget was limited to 0.1 per cent of the sum of salaries and incentives, while international rates are between 1 and 5 per cent, according to Sbeihi. 

In the same year, the average spending on training for each SSC employee reached JD81, while the international average is between $800 and $1,300 (almost JD570 to JD920), he added.

SSC Planning Consultant Samir Mifleh, who supervised the planning of the strategy, said the corporation’s training unit has provided two training courses for each SSC employee in 2014, noting that the SSC budget allocated around JD199,000 for training, only JD109,000 of which was used for this purpose.

He noted that the new strategy will consider the performance of employees in the courses in their annual evaluation, adding that staff members will have a training card that includes the courses they need to take over the upcoming 10 years, as means to ensure continuous learning and development.

For his part, Abed Rabbo Habashneh, HR manager, at the SSC, said the corporation’s employees will deliver technical courses, while managerial and administrative courses will be delivered by experts from external training centres that the SSC has partnered with.

He added that implementation of the strategy started earlier this year, including the processes of programme and employee, as well as pre- and post-training evaluations.