To effectively provide the goods and services that will improve citizens' lives, a Ministry, Department, or Organisation (MDO) needs to strengthen the management of its people so that they are equipped with the skills and tools to perform well. The focus on improving the performance of people is important because:

• The MDO's ability to deliver on its promises rests on its people, whether it is an ANM immunizing children or the Secretary of a Health Department drafting a cabinet note to articulate the need for a new health policy framework.

• For most citizens, the people they meet when interacting with the MDO represent the MDO. Therefore, citizens’ perspectives on the MDO are shaped by their interactions with its employees. 

• MDOs spend substantial financial resources on wages and capacity building, and improving the effectiveness of these expenditures will help ensure the optimal use of scarce fiscal resources.

The MMO framework argues that when individuals have the means, motivation and opportunity to perform their role, they will excel at achieving their goals. When individuals achieve their goals, the MDO achieves its goals.

The interventions under GO-HRM seek to address all aspects of this framework. By utilizing competencies as a core construct, GOHRM assists an MDO in answering the following question: Given our broad goals, what attitudes, skills, and knowledge should our employees possess to achieve their objectives and, in turn, fulfill the department’s goals? 

• • Acquiring means: A competency-driven approach leads to clearer role descriptions and assessments of skill requirements, facilitates targeted capacity-building initiatives, and ensures that employees have the required means.

  • Providing opportunity: By integrating performance management processes and technological tools—such as dashboards—to streamline performance assessments, feedback, and recognition mechanisms, GO-HRM seeks to foster an environment of transparency that allows employees to apply their skills. 

  • Ensuring motivation: By recognizing achievements and addressing competency gaps through targeted training, GO-HRM strives to align individual aspirations with organisational objectives, thereby improving motivation.  

We believe that service delivery is dependent on three critical aspects of an MDO's execution capacity: people, processes, and finance. GO-HRM focuses on aligning the management of the MDO's human resources (or people) with the MDO's service delivery goals. However, improving the MDO's execution capacity goes beyond people. Thus, while GO-HRM is pivotal to addressing people-focused capacity issues, it may not be sufficient for improving service delivery if other constraints are not addressed over time.

GOHRM does not address:

LAKSHYAM – A GOHRM-aligned performance management system in action

⁉️ What is it? 

In 2023, the UP Revenue Department's district administration implemented LAKSHYAM in Varanasi (Lekhpals’ Actionable KPI System for Holistic Assessment and Management), a holistic performance management system for Lekhpals—frontline functionaries in Uttar Pradesh’s Revenue Department. Grounded in GOHRM principles, LAKSHYAM introduced:

⭕ Defining service-specific KPIs for each Lekhpal (e.g., for services like SDM Court, IGRS, and Tehsil Diwas)

⭕ Digital trackers, tools, and dashboards to monitor individual performance in real-time

⭕ Creating citizen feedback loops through citizen surveys

⭕ Structured supervisor reviews and feedback anchored in data

🔍 IDinsight conducted a mixed-methods study, drawing on administrative data and stakeholder interviews, to assess how LAKSHYAM influenced Lekhpal's performance and the department’s capability to deliver services.

🎯 What changed on the ground?

LAKSHYAM use-case suggests that GO-HRM-driven HR reforms can be employed at modest cost to deliver efficiency gains and build lasting momentum for change:

1. Insights from the rollout of LAKSHYAM – an integrated performance management system 🔗 

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