A special directorate at the European Commission – Directorate General for Structural Reform – works to make public administrations in the EU a more attractive and modern employer. These efforts are guided by a Human Resource Strategy that aims to respond to the evolving expectations of the workforce and the intense competition for people with certain skills.
What does the strategy contain?
- Faster, more flexible and active recruitment and reducing the bureaucratic delays
- Equal hiring conditions for all
- Strict adherence to official ethics – respecting the common European values like democracy, equality and human rights, transparency and mutual respect
- One of the means of attracting candidates are the large-scale, meaningful projects with direct impact on people’s lives that the employees are implementing.
On today’s highly competitive labour market public organisations compete to attract talented professionals who can contribute to achieving the effectiveness, stability and continuity goals of the administration. In this competition they have solid advantages but at the same time they experience serious difficulties.
Let’s start with the perception of bureaucracy: public administration is traditionally perceived as bureaucratic and cumbersome, which more often than not repels people possessing skills and looking for a dynamic and innovative working environment. This perception cannot be easily overcome, and the recruitment process does not help because it is long, clumsy and strongly regulated and often leads to delays and disappointment for the potential candidates.
Although in the recent years remuneration in the public sector in Bulgaria has largely caught up with and some even overtook those in the private sector, many public organisations experience a shortage of financial resources and opportunities for competitive workforce remuneration. For certain types of expertise most administrations face the strong competition of other sectors such as technologies, finance and healthcare that are able to offer more attractive benefits, higher salaries and better career opportunities.
And yet, the most important factor are the changing expectations and preferences of the workforce and, according to the surveys for the younger generations the work-life balance, flexible working hours and the feeling of purpose in their career are often a priority.
So, what makes our public administration attractive as an employer? In addition to the remuneration for certain positions, at least three other factors:
- Full legal predictability – unlike some private sector spheres, here the working hours (usually 9:00–17:00 ч.), the days off around national holidays and the regulated paid leave are guaranteed.
- Actual social security – public employees enjoy social security payments corresponding to the real amount of their gross salary, which means security with regard to sick leaves, maternity leave and the future pension.
- The so-called additional material incentives – many ministries and agencies pay their employees quarterly bonuses based on an individual performance appraisal.
Let’s have a look at what deprives the public administration from its attractiveness now.
- Clumsy procedures and lack of flexibility – the home office or flexible working hours opportunities remain limited compared with the offers of modern private sector companies.
- Bureaucracy and slow career development – the career advancement is tied to accumulation of experience and fixed annual appraisals, which can be demotivating for younger and more ambitious employees.
- Reforms and insecurity – the administration is periodically subject to political pressure for cost optimization and that infiltrates a sense of insecurity.
If we have to answer the question whether the Bulgarian public administration is turning into an attractive employer, we have to first specify “for whom”. For people searching predictability, a stable income and moderate workload, it is an attractive choice. This is not however what the European Commission is aiming with its human resource strategy. For people who are searching for a dynamic environment, modern technologies, pursuit of a goal, a clear direction and a meaningful impact on society the public administration is not the preferred alternative. And that is the kind of attractiveness that all the member states are pursuing in order for Europe to become more competitive globally.