Human Resources Management in Public Administration

1
Human Resources Management in Public
Administration

• Ustron, 2.09.2008

mgr Martyna Julia Wronka Department of
Entrepreneurship and Innovative Management
University of Economics in Katowice
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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

3

• When government has the right people, and the
  right system, and the right intentions, many good
  things are possible. The trick is knowing which
  ones they are.
• Alan Ehrenhalt

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A dynamic environment and key principles

• Managers today need to be mindful of several
  trends in the government and public
  administration environment. These trends are
  important because they provide the context in
  which decisions are made. The items listed below
  highlight significant developments for human
  resources management in predictable future.

5
Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

6
Trends in work environment (1)

• Changing workforce. The workforce is smaller,
  greyer and composed more of women then in
  previous years. Paradoxically, there is a need
  for workers with high-level skills, knowledge,
  and ability to meet the call for learning
  organizations.
• Declining confidence in government. Many opinion
  polls in different countries have shown a steady
  erosion in confidence and trust to government at
  all levels. Rebuilding trust is an important
  challenge facing the public sector.
• Declining budgets. A combination of tax
  limitations measures, budget cuts, and political
  pressures to curb the future expenditures has
  occurred at all levels of government.

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Trends in work environment (2)

• Downsizing/upsizing. The size of state civilian
  workforce is gradually decreasing although early
  retirements were the preferred approach rather
  than disruptive layoffs. By contrast, the size
  of local and regional government has increased.
• Emerging virtual workplace/virtual government.
  With the introduction of new information
  technologies, some tradition 9-5 (7-3) workplaces
  with fixed central office locations are being
  replaced by innovative organizations with more
  flexible arrangements.

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Trends in work environment (3)

• Reforming/reengineering activities. Alternative
  approaches to the delivery of goods and services
  are being proposed and implemented with
  increasing frequency.
• Centralization/decentralization of human
  resources activities. At state, regional and
  local level there occurs relocation of
  responsibilities from centralized staff agencies
  to line agencies and managers. Administrators at
  the operational level now have greater
  flexibility and discretion in the acquisition,
  development, motivation, and maintenance of human
  resources.

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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

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HRM principles (1)

• Many roles of public service. Stakeholders expect
  civil servants to do many different things
  (ensure effective government performance,
  implement controversial social policies, respond
  to political imperatives).
• Performance. Human resources management seeks
  optimal contribution to an organization by
  acquiring, developing, motivating and retaining
  people. This requires an understanding of human
  relations and what motivates workers.

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HRM principles (2)

• Understanding the basis for a personnel system.
  The public workforce is subject to different
  personnel systems. Each has its unique basis and
  operating limitations. Effective manager
  understand their systems basis and find ways to
  deal with its limitations.
• Alternatives to civil service. Public services
  have been delivered by civil service employees
  however, alternative mechanism have emerged
  (e.g., purchase of service agreements,
  privatization, subsidy arrangements and tax
  incentives).

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HRM principles (3)

• Rule of law. Personnel systems, processes and
  rules are often based on legal requirements.
• Public accountability/access. Another
  distinguishing feature of human resources
  management is that government decisions are
  subject to intense public visibility and
  inspection.
• Values matters. Neutral competence of the public
  service has been stressed since the beginning of
  the merit system in the late 1800s, but
  neutrality (noninvolvement of employees in
  political activities) should not suggest that
  values of the workers are unrelated.

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A Comparison of Traditional Public Sector Values
With Those Competing For Emphasis (1)
Macrolevel values

• Competition
• Market incentives (organization around mission)
• Continuous improvement
• Changing programs

• Monopoly
• Regulation (organization fort control)
• Reduction vs. Growth
• Adding programs

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A Comparison of Traditional Public Sector Values
With Those Competing For Emphasis (2)
Values about structure

• Centralized
• Supervisor as controller
• Nondemocratic
• Individual work
• Hierarchical organization
• Simple jobs
• Single service

• Decentralized
• Supervisor as helper
• Participative
• Teamwork
• Flat organization
• Multidimensional jobs
• Multiple versions of service

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A Comparison of Traditional Public Sector Values
With Those Competing For Emphasis (3)
Values about work

• Expert focus (internally driven)
• Focus on tradition (status quo)
• Problem analysis
• Mesaurement is feared
• Protective
• Performance
• Inspection and control

• Customer focus (externally driven)
• Focus on innovation (change)
• Seeing possibilities
• Measurement is an opportunity
• Productive
• Ability
• Prevention

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A Comparison of Traditional Public Sector Values
With Those Competing For Emphasis (4)
Values about employees

• System indifference
• Employee as expense
• Manager focus
• Appraisal sanction ranking

• Employee needs
• Employee as asset
• Employee focus
• Development learning recognition

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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

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Tides of reforms (1)

• Scientific Management
• Here the focus is on hierarchy, microdivision of
  labour, specialization and well-defined chains of
  command.
• This philosophy, usually associated with Frederic
  Taylor, is manifest in the bureaucratic
  organizational form with its emphasis on
  structure, rules and search for the one best
  way.
• Scientific management has implications for human
  resources. In emphasizes conformity and
  predictability of employees contributions to the
  organization (machine model) and it sees human
  relationships as subject to management control.

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Tides of reforms (2)

• War on Waste
• The second tide emphasizes role of auditors,
  investigators and inspectors.
• The implications of the war on waste for HRM are
  plentiful. It can result in increase of detailed
  rules, processes, procedures and multiple reviews
  that are so characteristic of government
  bureaucracy.
• Management concerned with controlling waste try
  to minimize idle time, avoid bottlenecks, install
  time clocks, audit travel vouchers and monitor
  attendance and punctuality.

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Tides of reforms (3)

• Watchful Eye
• The third reform emphasizes fairness and
  openness. Whistleblowers, the media, interest
  groups and the public need access to information
  to ensure that rights and the general interests
  are protected.
• Human resources implications from this philosophy
  can be identified as well. Concern about ethical
  conduct of employees leads to greater scrutiny in
  the hiring process to ensure integrity, as well
  as job-related competence of new recruits. It
  also minimizes the unlawful use of hiring
  criteria such as sex, race, age and handicap
  status.
• Creating an organizational culture of openness,
  transparency, careful record keeping is
  consistence with watchful eye philosophy.

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Tides of reforms (4)

• Liberation Management
• The goal of the final tide is higher performance
  in government. Buzzwords like evaluation,
  outcomes and results are associated with this
  tide.
• Liberation management also holds implications for
  managing people in public administration.
• Employee empowerment, reengineering, work teams,
  continuous improvement, customer service,
  flattened hierarchies reflect breakdown of the
  bureaucratic machine model and the move towards
  liberation.
• Belief in harmonious relation between employees
  and management increases the prospects for
  productive partnership.

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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

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NPM

• The beginning of the reforms in public sector was
  the eight-decade of the XX century. When the
  quality improvement in the private sector was
  compared with the unchanging public sector the
  claims for the public sector occurred at that
  time and the total discontent with the state
  management increased.

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NPM

• New public management (NPM), management
  techniques and practices are drawn mainly from
  the private sector, is increasingly seen as a
  global phenomenon.
• NPM reforms shift the emphasis from traditional
  public administration to public management.
• Seeking for the effectiveness of public
  institutions activity the importance of human
  resources becomes especially evident, because it
  is not only the most important resource of public
  organizations, but also the most sensitive field.
  Therefore when managing it, it is necessary to
  bring into play modern prime methods.

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Shifting from a Traditional Public Sector System
to a System for 21st Century
Traditional Public Sector System
Public Service for 21st Century

• Expert focus (internally driven)
• Focus on tradition (status quo)
• Problem analysis
• Mesaurement is feared
• Protective
• Performance
• Inspection and control

• Customer focus (externally driven)
• Focus on innovation (change)
• Seeing possibilities
• Measurement is an opportunity
• Productive
• Ability
• Prevention

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Principal characteristics of NPM
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HRM dilemmas (1)

• The aging of the local civil service, posing the
  immediate threat of high turnover and a lack of
  qualified replacements
• A growing vacuum among the leadership bench
  the next generation of policymakers and top civil
  servants who will assume critical roles in
  directing their governments efforts to negotiate
  the troubled waters of the 21st Century
• The changing definition of career, which means
  that employee loyalty to the organization is weak
  at best, and which discourages workers from
  joining government service for the long time

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HRM dilemmas (2)

• Rapid change (e.g., in technology and economic
  conditions) that requires a highly fluid skill
  mix in the workforce
• Strong competition from the private sector for
  the best and the brightest
• Budget limitations that reduce compensation and
  financial incentives, thereby placing government
  at a disadvantage vis-à-vis business and
  industry and
• A negative public image (government bashing),
  which translates into the widespread perception
  that government is no longer the employer of
  choice (if it ever was)

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• The aim of HR in the new economy is to enable the
  organisation to create value through people,
  practices and processes, bearing in mind that
  people are the competitive edge of any
  organisation.
• Within this context the defined role of HR must
  be seen as providing Human Resources products,
  services and solutions that will enable the
  organisation to achieve its set strategic
  objectives.
• Human Resources practitioners must operate as
  people Champions and prove their value to the
  organisation.

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• The application of HRM principles within the
  public sector displaced the traditional model of
  personnel administration.
• The adoption of New Public Management (NPM) then
  may have opened the possibility of managers
  acquiring or developing sophisticated HRM
  techniques. Thus, NPM principles allow a more
  flexible and responsive approach to questions of
  recruitment, selection, retention, training and
  development of public sector employees.

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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

32
HRM Reform Trends
33
HRM Reform Trends
34
HRM Reform Trends
35
HRM Reform Trends
36
HRM Reform Trends
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NPM

• Of course some experts believe that New Public
  Management (NPM) has done as much harm as good,
  because
• It converts citizens into customers
• It shifts the focus from the collective interest
  to user satisfaction
• It borrows from private sector management
  practices without adapting them to public sector
  values and principles

38
Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

39
Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(1)

• Procedural Changes
• Both simple and more complex procedural
  adjustments can improve and expedite recruitment
  of public servants.
• Most procedural innovations are intended to
  simplify and demystify the application process to
  prospective workers. In other words, governments
  are attempting to make their entry procedures
  more user-friendly and transparent.
• Other procedural changes are designed to enhance
  governments attractiveness to applicants and its
  appeal to current employees.
• Another restrictive practice is a residency
  requirement that obligates workers to live in the
  jurisdiction where they are employed.

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Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(2)

• Adopting flexible and appealing hiring procedures
• Government has not always extended a welcoming
  and helpful hand to job applicants. Progressive
  governments have eliminated procedural barriers
  by making the application process more inviting
  (i.e., training interviewers to not only evaluate
  candidates, but also to market jobs) providing
  more hospitable physical settings and offering
  flexibility in the dates, times, and locations of
  tests and interviews.

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Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(3)

• Screening applicants quickly
• Too often, governments has a well-earned
  reputation for asking applicants to carry on long
  and tortuous examination procedures.
• Validating entry requirements and examinations
• One of the biggest problems in HRM is validating
  testing instruments and other pre-entry
  requirements.
• Job interview
• Group interview
• Assessment centers

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Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(4)

• Instituting worker-friendly personnel policies
• These include the wide use of flexible work
  hours flat hierarchies that offer workers more
  opportunities to participate in decision-making
  telecommuting family-friendly procedures and
  good working conditions
• Creating more flexible job descriptions
• Narrow job descriptions and restrictive career
  ladders discourage potential employees.
• Job rotations
• Clear and progressive career ladder

43
Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(5)

• Improvements to the Recruitment and Selection
  Process
• public sector recruitment has a notorious
  reputation for being slow, unresponsive,
  bureaucratic, and passive
• giving operating agencies and managers the
  flexibility to handle most HR decision making
  accelerates the speed, flexibility, and
  responsiveness of recruitment
• Job descriptions
• Public announcement of openings
• Terms of appointment

44
Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(6)

• Aggressive outreach efforts
• Increasingly, public agencies are using
  strategies that have long been exploited by
  business and industry.
• outreach strategies at job fairs, on college
  campuses, in local communities
• aggressive advertising in print and electronic
  media distribution of marketing and recruitment
  material (e.g., brochures) that promote public
  service careers
• other aggressive efforts to stay in touch with
  job applicants during the screening process
• using outside search agencies (headhunters) to
  recruit high-profile applicants for important
  vacancies

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Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(7)

• Current employees as recruiters
• Due to concerns about propriety and the supposed
  neutrality of the civil service, public agencies
  have only recently involved their own employees
  in the search for new talent. The tactic proven
  to be most effective is employee referrals in
  which current workers are asked to recommend
  qualified candidates.
• temporary workers
• internships
• mentors

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Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
(8)

• Use of Technology
• a movement from traditional HRM to virtual HRM
• on-line job posting
• paperless application systems
• résumé database

47
Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

48

• People are assets whose value can be enhanced
  through investment
• David Walker

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Ten Human Resources Essentials

• Pay attention to employee morale
• Establish and communicate clear ethics standards
  and hold managers and employees accountable
• Implement a recruitment process that will ensure
  hiring the right person
• Establish and communicate a solid process for
  managing employee performance
• Before hiring a new manager, assess their skills
  and abilities for the job. Follow up with
  orientation and training

50
Ten Human Resources Essentials

• Ensure that every new employee has been
  sufficiently assimilated and trained
• Develop and implement diversity and multicultural
  organizational development
• Continue employee retention programs
• Ensure that the departments structure is aligned
  with overall organizations goals and strategies
• Stay ready to manage change

51

• Excellence is an act won by training and habit
• Aristotele

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What skills are needed to improve quality of
public service?

• Observe, promote and maintain high standards of
  professional ethics
• Promote efficient, economic and effective use of
  resources
• Development orientation
• Provide impartial, fair, equitable service
  without bias
• Respond in time to the needs of the public and
  encourage community participation in policy
  making

53
What skills are needed to improve quality of
public service?

• Be accountable
• Foster transparency by providing timely, and
  accurate information
• Practice good human resource management and
  career development to maximise human potential
• Ensure that employment practices are based on the
  principles of ability, objectivity, fairness,
  equity and are representative of all people

54
To sum up

• What the public sector needs more than ever is
  its fair share of the best talent in any given
  country to respond effectively to evolving
  traditional functions of the State, as well as
  the challenges of globalization and other social
  changes.
• Moreover, it is important to underline that
  improving human capacity in the public sector
  also requires sound public institutions and good
  governance.

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To sum up

• In other words, strengthening public sector
  capacity requires a holistic approach, which
  should begin by rebuilding trust in the public
  sector and promoting high-quality leadership.
• There are key issues that need to be addressed in
  order to promote adequate capacities among public
  servants, including

56

• Reinforcing human resources planning and
  management systems and units
• Reinforcing core public service values, such as
• Revaluation of learning, integrity and competence
• Low tolerance for corruption and crime
• Stress on meritocracy
• Growing sensitivity towards and respect for
  citizens needs
• Fostering a political culture that places
  emphasis on the respect for institutions and
  norms over personal interest
• Promoting professionalism in the public service
• Creating a culture of learning organization

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• Introducing incentive structures, such as
• Fair remuneration system and
• Increasing recognition of the need to acknowledge
  and to reward industry, loyalty, accomplishment
  and merit
• Increasing recognition of the value of
  cross-cultural and international links as means
  towards the improvement of the professional image
  and performance of the public service
• Tapping the best talent from underrepresented
  groups, including women
• Promoting the knowledge and use of ICT tools

58
Meeting Agenda

• Introduction
• Trends in work environment
• HRM principles
• Tides of reforms
• New Public Management
• HRM Reform Trends
• Emerging Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
• Summary
• Example from Polish Ground

59
Research

• Research was conducted by specialist from Agency
  for Economic Development of Municipalities from
  UK, NI-CO organisation from Belfast, Wielkopolska
  Szkola Biznesu from Poznan and Dolnoslaskie
  Centrum Szkolenia Szamorzadowego from Wroclaw

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Research

• 2000 the end of the biggest public
  administration project in Poland
• part of Proffesional development of Public
  Administration Employees
• 3 years in partnership with British Fund
  Know-How aiming at indentifying key positions
  in public sector

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Key positions

• Mayor (burmistrz)
• Organizational Unit Manager (kierownik jednostki
  organizacyjnej)
• Head of Department (naczelnik/dyrektor wydzialu)
• Inspector/Civil Servant (inspektor/urzednik)
• Department Manager/Administrative Official
  (referent/pracownik administracyjny)
• Treasurer (skarbnik)
• Secretary (sekretarz)

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Post description

• Tasks
• Responsibilities
• Position in organizational structure
• Functions
• Main job effectiveness indicators

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Personal requirements

• Qualifications
• Skills
• Exeperience
• Knowledge

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Terms of agreement

• Detailed information concerning labour contract
• Comparison to labour contracts in other EU
  countries

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Thank you for your attention