The European Public Administration Network,EUPAN, brings together the directors general responsible for public administration in EU Member States. This network endeavours to foster cooperation between public administrations by sharing viewpoints, experiences and best practices on topics and fields of joint interest.

During the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council (second half of 2016), EUPAN and the Slovak Presidency sponsored a report on performance appraisal of civil servants in Europe.

Based on a sizeable body of research published over the decade (on the impact of the social context, civil servants’ motivation, Generation Y’s approach to work, the notion of equity, and the use of information related to appraising performance), the report’s author studied the impact of these various factors.

A survey was carried out in the EU-28 Member States, as well as the European Commission, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland. Apart from Austria, all countries have made individual performance appraisals mandatory for civil servants. However, these mandatory appraisals are fairly recent in four countries: Greece, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain. Twenty-four countries have established penalties for not participating in performance appraisals (mainly disciplinary measures, as well as financial penalties in two countries).

Data analysis yielded a comprehensive overview of the performance appraisal process and highlighted the major changes to the system. Among the findings:

• one-third of countries now use a system that includes a self-appraisal component

• for three-quarters of countries, the line manager is no longer the sole evaluator (with a clear increase in the involvement of HR departments)

• new kinds of evaluation are emerging (such as 180/360° and peer evaluations)

• nine countries report that they analyse collective performance, but only three connect collective performance and individual evaluations

• two-thirds of countries have introduced measures to increase the involvement of the civil servant being evaluated (in setting goals or making suggestions for improvement)

• the number of countries that have a performance-related pay system has doubled since the previous survey in 2007

Top managers are generally appraised using a different system. However, in two countries, top managers are the only category of civil servants to be evaluated, and in three other countries, they are not evaluated at all.

According to the report’s author, substantial efforts still need to be made in training for evaluators, which is mandatory in only 11 countries.

For more information: eupan.eu