As part of the President’s Management Agenda, the transformation programme for the federal civil service is geared towards strategic management of the workforce. The Goal leaders are the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) and the Department of Defense and the aims are three-fold: heighten staff performance levels and engagement, align staff skills and reassign employees, and mainstream faster and more streamlined recruitment procedures.

A new decree-law allows Portuguese civil servants aged 55 or over to sign an individual early retirement agreement with their employer. The legislation provides that the monthly pension following retirement must be between 25% and 100% of their final basic salary and will be increased in the same proportions as salaries. A quarter of staff are eligible for this measure.

The aim of the “Skills 360” project is to come up with innovative solutions, based on an inclusive approach to skillsets and new work methods, to better address the requirements and challenges faced by public-sector employers. Sixteen proposals, which were put forward during a hackathon, are being examined by an inter-ministerial working group. They are slated to be modelled before being trialled in a number of government departments.