Access to employment and in-house promotion in the Italian public sector

The Italian government continues to reform its civil service. After implementation of the Madia Act, one of the flagship measures to combat absenteeism (team managers are now held accountable as much as employees in cases of misconduct, which, if repeated, becomes grounds for dismissal), new provisions came into force at the beginning of the year. They concern recruitment, evaluation and internal promotion.

While the civil service entry exam remains the means to gain access to public employment (as guaranteed to the professional organisations during reform of the status of civil servants), the government wanted to streamline and overhaul the entry exam:

• All exams for an equivalent level of recruitment and combining the same skills will be pooled (the “single exam” rule)

• Departments will have to assess the number of potential candidates, and when there is a large number of candidates in relation to the number of posts offered, organise online pre-selection tests to reduce the costs incurred by the testing centres

• Tests for assessing candidates’ adaptability to employment (psycho-technical tests during the written exam portion, and group role playing during the oral exam portion) must be included in every civil service entry exam. These tests will be weighted the same as academic knowledge in the final score.

• Members of selection boards will be chosen by drawing lots from a list of individuals (both inside and outside the administration) who have responded to a call for applications and met the conditions laid out.

With regard to internal promotions, individual assessment (which, since the beginning of 2018, now has to be carried out on the same criteria as the evaluation of the department's collective performance) opens up new possibilities: professional examinations will be reserved for those employees “with the best results” over the previous three years.

A national web portal dedicated to recruitment and civil service exams will be launched soon. All government departments will be required — in accordance with the principles of transparency — to publish notices for upcoming exams, the composition of selection boards, and the lists of candidates admitted. Each candidate will have access to a personal account to track his or her progress.