One of the provisions of the federal government’s coalition agreement aims to mitigate use of fixed-term contracts in the civil service which has the most recourse to these instruments in Germany. The Land government has concluded that many fixed-term contracts are in fact used as “extended trial periods” and now wants to offer its staff prospects for the future and to bolster the appeal of the jobs on offer.

To give job mobility within the federal government fresh momentum, the Talent Cloud, which has been developed by an in-house project team, is a huge catalogue of qualified, high-quality, cross-sector and talented individuals. It allows for selection and hiring for specific projects within a maximum of 30 days, i.e. four to five times faster than with the current processes.

The government has rolled out a wide-reaching national training programme aimed at ensuring that all public sector employees avoid making decisions based on gender, class, race or other stereotypes which could amount to discrimination. All senior managers have received training in how to recognise and avoid any prior biases and prejudices that they, or their teams, may have in carrying out their duties.