Both the effectiveness of organisational structures and a healthier working environment can be achieved by providing civil servants with a high standard of support to boost their personal well-being and productivity.

As they are increasingly confronted with issues regarding appeal and change, national governments frequently conduct satisfaction surveys¹ with a number also rolling out country-wide strategies.

Malta has elected to make the quality of working life policy part of its overall standard of service approach. The government’s HR staff now belong to a new People and Standards Division, with one of its four directorates  (People Support & Wellbeing) being tasked with this cohesion work. The directorate provides top level psychological support and confidential counselling for staff with work-life balance concerns. The entire management team is also trained by a group of psychologists and social workers.

In the long term, cutting red tape and streamlining procedures for users will only have true impact if the onus is also placed on the overriding need to change employees’ working conditions. This is the fresh strategy introduced in Denmark which is the world’s top “quality of life” nation. In parallel with the expansion of digital technologies, the Danish government’s Agency for Modernisation focuses on protecting human capital. This takes the form of huge investments in both training and infrastructure to make everyday life easier which were negotiated during the most-recent round of collective bargaining (OK18 collective agreements).

Prevention measures are bolstered by dispensing advice on health in the workplace using didactic self-assessment resources and by providing customised support services, if needed. The Austrian government offers its employees an online training module called “Ich - in Arbeit” (Me – work in progress) and access to counselling and support under the “fit2work” programme from professionals who have been specially trained to make diagnoses and help staff. The programme also offers problem-resolution mediation services.

Stability, which is crucial for both personal balance and inter-generational knowledge transfer, needs to be safeguarded against a backdrop of longer working lives and career paths which may change by choice or otherwise. All Dutch civil servants have access to the government’s “sustainable employability” programme. Employees, management and HR cooperate through workshops to come up with tangible solutions for changing work organisation and altering mindsets.

The matter of funding is obviously a recurrent theme. In 2018, an inaugural project to improve occupational well-being financed by Social Impact Bonds was initiated in Finland and the goal of reducing sick leave days has been achieved.

Why not make the civil service the best place to work in the country? The UK set itself this bold goal when it unveiled one of the pillars of the vision of a Brilliant Civil Service under the strapline “A great place to work” two years ago. By comparison with other employment sectors, government departments are being directed to improve performance levels and there have already been positive outcomes.

Although nine out of ten managers acknowledge that “companies must take action to protect employees’ health”, a number of recent studies2 have revealed continued divergences in France in establishing what is actually being done to boost occupational well-being.


¹ The Federal governments of Canada and Switzerland poll all their employees on an annual basis.