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How are senior civil servants trained in other countries? The French model, in which statutory and vocational training equally share 8% of the payroll, is also distinguished by its extensive Network of Public Service Schools (RESP) which are leading players.

There are a number of training scenarios for future senior executives and managers of national government departments which often mirror civil service systems, on one hand, as well as recruitment methods, or even internal promotion and functional mobility arrangements, on the other.  

A study conducted by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations for the EUPAN (European Union Public Administration Network) revealed that only eight European countries¹ have compulsory introductory training for top public managers. This figure is fairly stable but there has been an increase in the number of countries in which there is mandatory regular training for incumbent managers.

Most countries have a training organisation (school or institute) for senior civil service positions. Whether they provide introductory and/or in-service training, there are two distinct categories:

• In Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal) with a strong career-based tradition, and also in Austria, Finland, Ireland, Poland and Slovenia, the organisational structure is fairly similar to France

• In Northern Europe and English-speaking countries, training schools work closely with special universities which share their research work. This is the case in Germany (Speyer), Belgium (Louvain), Canada (York), the Netherlands (Leiden), the United Kingdom (Oxford) and in Australia and New Zealand where there is a joint School of Government

In Estonia, Hungary and Switzerland, which are three countries with a position-based civil service, in-service training for top managers is still steered by the government but is delegated to the universities.

The conditions and content of training are changing to adjust to the ongoing reforms. National agencies are diversifying their training programmes to include mentoring (Austria, the Netherlands), peer consulting (Belgium, Malta, Scandinavian countries) and, especially, distance learning (a third of European countries) in order to mitigate concerns about being absent when holding a position of responsibility.

Work on leadership (with, for instance, modules focusing on team building in Finland and personal development in the United Kingdom), interpersonal skills and negotiating are the three fields which have progressed the most in training programmes for top managers. These are followed by digital technology and innovation, and then international relations.

In Germany, where many government departments are “employment and family” certified, all senior executives are fully aware of work-life balance arrangements.


¹ Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia.

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.

The German Civil Service Federation (DBB) is spearheading a widespread campaign to spark interest in the public sector. On the die-unverzichtbaren.de (the essentials) website, a module allows professions to be identified with applicants stating their priorities and a number of civil servants outlining their duties and describing their motivation. Posters are on display and brochures are being handed out in the country’s secondary schools and higher education institutions.

Syllabus is a self-assessment test developed by experts in training and digital skills. It contains five categories (including one for managers) and can be used by all civil servants. Its goal is to speed up the transformation process by focusing on the cross-disciplinary digital skills required for carrying out assignments and by providing all users with a customised training programme.

The Public Service Commission has conducted an initial audit of appointments to senior positions in the federal government. It looked at the extent of compliance of processes with five legislative, regulatory and policy requirements and concluded that two of them have scope for improvement: official languages obligations and, especially, the order of preference for applications. 

On the basis that 80% of the company’s staff are always on the move, management has replaced its aging intranet with a new “social media” type solution. Consultation statistics point to the fact that employees find the new app useful and that it has very quickly become part of their daily routines. They mainly use it to communicate, react and put forward ideas as part of discussion groups.

The santetravail-fp.fr website was designed by the ANACT (National Agency for Improving Working Conditions) and the MGEN mutual insurance company for the three French civil services:  central government, local and hospital. If provides HR directorates, prevention stakeholders and the social partners with methods, tools, resources and testimonials to help understand prevention-related issues in the civil service. The website is centred on the prevention of psycho-social risks and content for government-funded institutions is scheduled to be added in 2020. 

At the initiative of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, a Task Force has been set up to promote and foster the mainstreaming of flexible working in the civil service. A logo enables employers having introduced flexible working to be identified and better known. The goal is to give potential job applicants the confidence to ask about different working patterns.

The sustainable employability project has been rolled out across all ministries with the aim of enabling every employee to actively concentrate on his/her career and professional mobility, at all ages. Officials, executives and HR departments collaborate during workshops to come up with tangible solutions both to help adjust work organisation and to alter mindsets. A summary of all the work will be produced.

Since 1 March, the decree on the equal pay index has applied to all companies with more than 1,000 employees.

The targets focus on five criteria assessed out of a total of 100 points: pay gaps for comparable ages and positions (40), women/men breakdown of individual salary increases (20), breakdown of promotions (15), salary increases after maternity leave (15) and the number of women amongst the ten top earners (10).

With almost 4,000 permanent employees, 81% of whom are women, Manpower scored 99 out of 100.

The first three-year agreement on professional gender equality took effect in this company in 2013 and it has just been renewed for the second time.

The agreement covers four areas (training, career development, pay, work-life balance) in which tangible measures are rolled out and the outcomes assessed.

Advances include, for instance, fewer travel and organisational constraints for training sessions, more women eligible for promotions and the mandatory setting of objectives which are consistent with holding a part-time position so as not to affect compensation.

Although they bear some resemblance to the French civil service’s special absence authorisations, the Spanish “moscosos” – due to their origins and the manner in which they are allocated – are unique in labour law applying to government departments.

These days off for “special reasons”, which emerged from talks with the unions and were introduced by Javier Moscoso,¹ former Minister of the Presidency, to “offset the financial loss brought about by the difference between pay raises and increases in the consumer price index”, are subject to highly specific conditions:

• They are limited to six per year, then eight for employees with between 18 and 24 years’ service, plus one day for each additional three-year period

 • They may not be combined with annual leave. Civil servants can use them as they see fit, with prior authorisation from their line mangers, which takes account of departmental imperatives and which must be forwarded to the HR department.

 • They cannot be taken for family events (births, marriages, deaths), moving house or taking part in competitive or professional exams

In 2012, when Spain was faced with serious economic problems, the government chose to cut the annual entitlement from six to three days. The number of days was progressively restored in 2013 and 2014.

In early 2019, the “moscosos” again made headlines. Last December, the Ministry for Regional Policy and the Civil Service  tabled a new circular on working days and hours for general government administration employees. It introduced a proportionality requirement related to the hours worked (part-time) or to taking up/leaving a position (retirement).

CSIF, the main union, filed an application for judicial review.

In early March, with an eye to clarifying a highly sensitive topic, the Ministry published a new version of the legislation which specifies that the annual pro-rata basis only applies to new recruits.


¹ This word has been added to the official Spanish language dictionary.