Although new hiring methods have been rolled out in recent years in France (access path to civil service careers (PACTE), apprenticeships), recruitment is essentially by competitive examination, regardless of grade. But what happens in other countries?

Whether countries have a career-based or position-based civil service, a centralised state or federation system, government departments’ recruitment methods are highly contrasted, with employers having varying degrees of autonomy. 

Spain and Italy mostly recruit civil servants by competitive examination. In Italy, maintaining this procedure was the flipside of major statutory reforms (85% of staff are now on private law contracts).

Germany (and, similarly, Austria and the Netherlands) and the UK (together with Demark and Finland) hire almost solely by selecting applications and personal interviews, even for mass recruitment scenarios. In these countries, the process is highly decentralised and the departments, according to the resources at their disposal, determine their own methods or delegate to shared services centres such as Bundesverwaltungsamt in Germany and Palkeet in Finland, or to external service providers as is the case in the Netherlands and the UK.

A “combined” system is in place in a number of countries. Belgium recruits by competitive examination at local level and by application and interview at federal level. This is also the case in Sweden where competitive examinations are arranged for supervisory positions with applications and interviews for the other posts.

Candidates for civil service jobs in Ireland sit a selection test organised by the Public Appointments Service (PAS). In Malta, the process has two stages: selection from an application file followed by a competitive examination. Recruitment in Greece may use one of the two methods, or be carried out via a peer panel of incumbent civil servants.

Whilst involvement in the recruitment process is still largely dictated by qualifications, there is a tangible trend towards making selection tests more profession-based (already in Portugal and imminent in Italy), and for factoring in personal skillsets (Success Profiles in the UK) or private sector experience whereby seniority is earned for grading (Quereinsteiger in Germany).

This is the thinking behind Luxembourg’s administrative reform with the new “exam-competition” having been presented on 1 July 2018. The first part, which is overseen by the civil service, involves tests of academic knowledge and the second, under the ministry’s supervision, is focused on professional skills.

Although all the countries guarantee citizens equal access to employment in the public sector, recruitment methods outside France are changing to take account of new requirements and fiscal constraints. This is why the recruitment process is increasingly unrelated to the status or type of job held by the employee when he/she joins the civil service.

France, represented by the Directorate General for Administration and the Civil Service (DGAFP) and the École nationale d'administration (ENA), and Belgium, represented by the Policy and Support Federal Public Service, have been chosen to help the Tunisian government modernise its civil service following a European invitation to tender. The support will cover governance, strategic jobs and skills planning, mobility and compensation. Experts from both countries will be involved in the three-year project.

The government has tabled the new version of the Civil Servants (Normalisation of Legal Status) Act (WNRA) which will take effect on 1 January 2020. The flagship change is that newly-recruited civil servants will no longer be appointed but will have an open-ended employment contract. Collective labour agreements will stipulate promotion methods, work organisation and compensation. The only exceptions will be for employees of the police force and the defence organisation, judges and public prosecutors.

An initial survey conducted in 14 European countries, including France, identifies changes to HR practices that are being brought about by the digital transformation. Where does France stand on the importance of initial training, skills acquisition and cultural resistance to change? The authors have made five recommendations to help HR departments improve their culture of innovation.

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.

The draft Recommendation on Public Service Leadership and Capability contains 14 principles under three main pillars: identify a values-driven culture of leadership and policy and services design, invest in management skills and competencies, develop systems fostering responsiveness and the ability to adapt. The draft Recommendation, including contributions from the consultation, will be presented to the Council for adoption.

The Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Central Government Administrations, which is comprised of 16 countries including France (Directorate General for Administration and the Civil Service, DGAFP), is launching a new project relating to work-life balance and digitalisation in central government administrations. Headed up by Italy, the starting point is a comparative study (field study) based on good or interesting policies, practices and national regulations concerning changes to work organisation. 

A reform presented by the federal government is set to allow contract staff to be appointed to management positions in the civil service. Professional organisations are resolutely against this measure as “although compensation systems have been harmonised, only (established) civil servants are legally bound to a sufficient degree of loyalty to ensure the proper performance of these duties”.

Three executive orders which were signed in late May will alter relations between the federal government and labour organisations. The two main measures concern an end to union activity during duty hours and to the free use of government property (premises/equipment). The government argues that the public purse should not be used to fund the defence of employees’ rights.

After an initial review of a pilot project offering the Grand Duchy’s civil servants the option of teleworking one day a week, the Ministry of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform has acknowledged that staff have shown little interest and need to be encouraged, in particular, owing to an ever-widening gap with the private sector. The Ministry’s departments have stated that 2/3 of staff are eligible and that incentive training courses will be rolled out in an attempt to improve results.

Against a backdrop of changing occupations, organisational structures, performance levels and productivity, and job streamlining, burnout  is affecting more and more employees.

Although many firms have introduced a psychosocial risk prevention plan, caring for employees is difficult as 40% of them are unaware that they are at risk according to a recent study.

Under the joint impetus of its Head of Industrial Relations (and former President of the French Association of Human Resources Managers, ANDRH) and the coordinating medical officer, the Franco-Belgian Group has set up the first “international burnout monitoring” scheme.

A survey has shown that there were twice as many cases, 33 in 2016 out of 6,500 employees in both countries, which led to much longer sick leave than for physical accidents. As a result, these cases should be considered in the same light as the latter.

At the annual meeting in Brussels, the sixty most senior executives were made aware of the issue with an address by a renowned expert. This spurred the launch of a training programme for managers at all levels.

On the back of these positive initial outcomes, the Group has just approved rollout of the scheme to all its establishments worldwide.

In May 2018, the Swiss Confederation received the United Nations Public Service Award in category 3 “Promoting gender responsive public services to achieve the SDGs”.

The award represents an international accolade for the work carried out by the federal and cantonal governments in recent years.

Gender equality is enshrined in the Swiss Constitution (Art. 8) and an act promulgated in 1995 goes so far as to outlaw any direct or indirect gender-based discrimination.

The Federal Office for Gender Equality (FOGE), which reports to the Federal Council, is tasked with drawing up and monitoring this public policy, through which the government has chosen to make its civil service exemplary.

The FOGE has designed and rolled out a number of instruments to both incentivise and help all public sector employers to ensure strict enforcement of the legislation:

· A “Charter for equal pay in the public sector” in September 2016, which has now been signed by the confederation, 14 cantons and 47 municipalities.

· The “Logib” self-test tool, which allows entities with more than 50 employees to rapidly and reliably find out whether they have an equal pay policy for men and women. It is also available to the private sector and the tool has been downloaded 4,900 times to date.

The FOGE also monitors measures introduced by cantons and cities with over 10,000 inhabitants. It highlights the measures planned or already implemented and provides yearly data on equal pay.

In the canton of Jura, for instance, the difference in wages between men and women is 0.5%. This situation is closely correlated with the reassessment of responsibilities. Professions that count more than 50% of women have been accorded more value by the improved recognition of psychosocial skillsets. New scales are eliminating the major pay gaps that have existed for many decades.

In Switzerland, where the status of federal civil servant was phased out in November 2000 (it only still exists in the two French-speaking cantons of Geneva and Vaud), bonuses have increased and these also need to be “monitored”.