France is taking part in the OECD working group that was set up last year on engaging public employees. The goal is to create a standard questionnaire to measure civil servants' commitment. Most OECD member states – Canada, Germany, England and the Netherlands, among others – regularly distribute such questionnaires to their public employees.

Nearly three years after its enactment, the Italian authorities have drawn up an initial assessment of the Madia Act, which introduced reforms of the country's public administration. In addition to ongoing reduction of the public wage bill due to streamlining efforts (7% of staff not replaced in ten years), one major finding is the marked decline in abusive absenteeism (40 dismissal procedures in this area are under way).

Since 2010, in the wake of the financial crisis, the salaries of all newly-recruited public sector staff have been reduced by 10%. Today, these staff represent 19% of the workforce. Now that growth has returned, the government plans to eliminate this inequality – which has had an impact on recruitment – and return to the old pay scales in return for freezing part of the planned increases.