Human Resources Group - Brussels - 16 September 2003

Minutes

Ms Simonetta Pasqua, Director of personnel recruitment Office - Department of public administration - welcomed the delegations participating in the 7th meeting of the Human Resources Group. She pointed out the participation, for the first time, of delegates from acceding Countries.

Ms Pasqua mentioned the origins of the Human Resources Group. It was constituted according to the resolutions of Director Generals adopted in Uppsala in 2001 with the specific aim of starting a cooperation among the European Union Countries in the wide field of human resources management. The Group’s activities take place within the informal cooperation between the Ministers and the Directors responsible for public administration in Member States. She reminded the participants that the first meeting of the Group was held in 2002, during the Spanish Presidency.

Ms Pasqua invited the participants to visit the CIRCA web site in order to find all the information and documents relating the activities of the Group.

Ms Pasqua briefly presented the issues in the agenda.

The first item concerns performance related pay systems.

Mr Marco Muser (Department of public administration – Italy) presented a survey concerning best practices in performance related pay systems in central administrations of the Member States. The survey carried out by IRS – Institute for Social Research (Istituto per la ricerca sociale) is a further development of a previous survey conducted during the Spanish Presidency. The study refers to legislative and regulatory framework for performance related pay systems; the

process of introducing performance related pay systems into the context of systems of management by objectives; the implementation of performance related pay systems; the impacts of performance related pay systems on the efficiency and the effectiveness of the administration and the

satisfaction levels of the different stakeholders in relation to the final objectives of the exercise. The survey considers in particular the pilot case of the Italian “Agenzia delle Entrate” created in accordance with the law of 1999.

The second item of the agenda concerns the impact of new technologies on human resources management in the public sector.

Professor Giancarlo Capitani (Net Consulting – Italy) presented a survey that would be conducted for the Italian Presidency by Net consulting, KPMG and Nolan Norton. The study would be produced by the analysis of existing recent documents about the topics concerned and it would be based also on a questionnaire that would be sent to competent administrations.

The contents of the survey will be the following:

  • civil service Organization in European public administration;
  • rules and regulation framework in the civil service system;
  • human resource management models currently adopted;
  • human resource management strategies and goals in e-government plans;
  • the use of new models and information technology tools in human resource management in the public administrations of the European Union;
  • impact of the use of new technologies on human resource management;
  • critical success factors implementing new models;
  • drivers and Inhibitors in the innovation process;
  • best practices.

Ms Pasqua invited the participants to give information about the current situation in their Countries.

Ms Thienel (Austria)made a brief presentation of a reform project (pm-sap) introduced in 2001 following a ministerial decree. This project is in the phase of implementation. It should cover the entire federal personnel level (about 170.000 employees and 80.000 pensioners). It is expected to be concluded by the end of 2004.

The reform concerns all common working procedures in the fields of Personal Administration and Personal Management being supported by a highly integrated Human Resource Management System and this means also training and educational programmes (e-learning). It involves the participation of the employees. Data that were previously submitted in paper form by the employees will be digitalised; employees can enter that data immediately in electronic form by computer.

This reform process will enable saving of about 10 million euros per year and a reduction of employees dealing with Personal Administration of about 10%. Another objective of the project is a more comprehensible standard of Human Resources Management all over the Austrian Federal Service. Following the introduction of the new systems, the legal framework and the legal provisions for civil servants are going to be streamlined, facilitated and also simplified. This is expected to take place this autumn. A standard software will be used. The results, in terms of speeding up administrative procedures, saving costs and economising, will be available once the project has been fully implemented.

Ms Krarup (Denmark) briefly mentioned a five-year project of e-government in Denmark (it started in 2002 and will end in 2006). The aim of the project is to use the potentials of digital society across both the State and the regional and local levels of government, in order to organize the public sector in a more flexible and efficient way and give high quality of services to citizens.

In order to give a concrete example of the wide use of digitalisation, Ms Krarup illustrated the results of the e-day (electronic day). Starting from the first of September 2003 all the authorities (regional and local, ministries, etc) have the right to communicate electronically with each other; this means that they don’t send letters in paper form anymore but they communicate only by electronic mail to each other and only some documents are specifically excluded for privacy or security reasons. The system is very recent therefore it is impossible to point out its effects at the moment.

Ms Krarup pointed out the connections between the activities of Human Resources Group and the e-government Group.

Ms Pasqua added that there is a link between the two groups activities, since they often deal with the same subjects, but they are considering different aspects of these subjects at the moment: the HRG is in particular in charge of human resources matter and within the survey in progress its research and discussions focus on two main points. First of all, the use of new technologies for human resources management: computerised systems, integrated technological systems that can be used to manage human resources (such as systems for calculating absences, payment accounting systems, systems for staff selection and for organizing training courses). Furthermore the use of technology will necessarily have an impact on human resources management. In order to use new computer systems that become more and more sophisticated, administrations will modify the procedures and this will inevitably have an impact on human resources management.

At the moment, the HRG is analysing the use of these systems and discuss about the possible changes in the human resources management while the e-government group looks specifically at digitalisation and computerization.

Mr Capitani (Net-Consulting – Italy) pointed out that ICT is a big support for all the public sectors. He took the example of e-learning, which can help to improve the performance and the knowledge of public employees.

Mr Vollmuth (Germany) made some comments on two of the topics raised: performance related pay systems and the introduction of ICT. He argued that studies and research on performance related pay systems don’t pay enough attention to consequential problems arising once the administrations has put the systems in practise. He encouraged the Group to go into this point thoroughly, also during the meetings of the Director generals, in order to exchange practical experiences and identify problems and progress made.

He stated that new technologies have greatly altered ordinary working days, they have changed working procedures also within ministries, therefore it is certainly an aspect the HRG has to pay attention to. The group should focus on training aspects considering the consequences that ICT would have on qualification and competences and on the recruitment process.

Mr Vollmuth then pointed out a discrepancy in the use of language in the questionnaire: while the questionnaire is available in English, French, Italian and German, it seems that the results would be available only in English, French and Italian.

Mr Muser argued that the result evaluation systems and performance related pay systems are new and they are not easy to implement. These issues have been included in HRG in order to be discussed and studied in detail, also taking into consideration the practical experiences of all the Members States. The aim is to make some progress on the basis of the comments done and information given by the Group.

Ms Pasqua told that it would be considered the possibility to provide the final report of the survey in German language too.

Mr Demmke (EIPA) remarked that studies on performance related pay systems always focus on high performance often overlooking poor performance of public employees. This is an important aspect of the issue and should be analysed in detail in order to find a solution.

Ms Zuffova (Slovakia) stated their interest in being involved in the discussion of performance related pay systems, because in Slovakia they have just started to apply performance evaluation systems and it would be helpful to discuss the guidelines.

Mr van der Gaast (The Netherlands) pointed out that some parts of the survey in progress seem to deal issues already treated within the group, while questions should concentrate on the introduction of new technologies issue.

Ms Pasqua answered it is important to consider that the impact of introducing new technologies in human resources management involves a knowledge of the human resources management systems under specific aspects and it is necessary to get homogenous data for each administration. In particular, the questionnaire is aimed at identifying the critical factors and, if by chance there are some elements, which have already been considered within the Group, it is because some points need to be focused on. Besides, she told that if any delegates feel that some information is contained in previous researches, they can give brief answers and make specific reference to other documents concerning the issue.

Ms Ganhão (Portugal) informed the Group that in 2000 the Informatics Institute launched a questionnaire concerning the use of ICT in central public organizations, which has made possible access to correct data on the use of new technologies in these sectors. The data has been updated during 2003 and the results will be available in December.

She illustrated the public employment portal set up by Portugal, in order to facilitate access to public employment jobs. It provides direct access in real time to job opportunities in public administration. The portal is an example of geographic, interdepartmental and professional mobility of public administration human resources promoted by new technologies. Besides, in 2003 Portugal set up another information system concerning a human resources management database. This database is loaded on line by the service enabling one to collect data on human resources.

Ms Martinez Garcia (Spain) briefly presented some Spanish experiences in the field of human resources management systems. Firstly, the Central Register for personnel, under the Ministry for Public Administration, that contains all the relevant events in the administrative life of the people working in central administration. The register therefore provides very useful information to the units that are responsible for human resources management. Afterwards, she briefly referred to the system for the management of the pay roll (NEDAES) and the system for the management of personnel (BADARAL), which provides information on positions and public employees. Some interesting experiences also exist within some Ministerial Departments and an integrated information system in the Autonomous Community of Andalucia.

Finally, she informed the Group that currently, under the Ministry for Public Administration, work is being done on the implementation of the implementation of an integrated information system for all the central administration with the aim of rationalising and unifying the human resources management processes and to promote the development of e-government.

Mr Pat Casey (Ireland) illustrated in particular a human resources management system which gives managers access to information on pensions, attendance, qualifications and so on, even if, at present, this system is not available for all the offices because of technical reasons. Other information about ICT system in Ireland (public jobs in public administration, recruitment and application for posts in the public service) can be found on the Irish website. The portal is conveniently used to apply for jobs electronically.

Ms Titon (France) briefly presented the French experience in the field of ICT: the current implementation of electronic formularies, an information portal about public administration services. She continued illustrating an information system that has been set specifically for human resources management with the objective of improving efficiency and effectiveness in this area. This system will facilitate communication and is also supposed to allow a better coordination.

Ms Petersone (Latvia) said that in the Latvian Government nearly all the administrative documents are sent and received in electronic form. The Government website contains important documents easily accessible by everyone.

They have some problems of coordination of all the projects that are in implementation phase: even though there is already a Department in the Ministry of communication and transport responsible for the coordination of these projects they are thinking of establishing a specific coordination unit.

Ms Betzen-Robinet (Luxembourg) presented a human resources management system in its implementation phase, which will be fully operational within two years. In its first phase it has focused on training. The second phase of the system is focusing on recruitment. The recruitment system is expected to be in use in early 2004. She explained also a plan for an integrated system for documentation which aim is to improve communication between civil servants.

Ms Kotronia (Greece) stated that in 2002 Greece developed an information technology system that involves all the Greek regions. It includes data about the existing number of public servants, level of education, evaluation procedures, evaluation for every public service, promotion data, salaries and other allowances and the implementation of the management by objectives. Since it is a pilot phase the results of the project are not yet available. The system will be extended to the whole public sector.

Ms Laura Ciattaglia (Italy) presented the situation in Italy where statistical data concerning the information and communication technology systems in the public administration are provided by the National Centre for the introduction of ICT in the public administration. This Centre gives technical and economical advices for the introduction of ICT in the public administration and it also produces an annual report concerning the degree of innovation of information technology used in the public administration.

The report for 2002 confirms that there is a lack of systems supporting the management of human resources and directional activities. Human resources evaluation systems are partially diffused and similarly systems for training management in terms of training courses attended. The report shows also that there is a general lack of employees with competences in the ICT fields so often the public administration uses the solution of outsourcing. As far as training is concerned, the percentage of training on ICT in the central administration increased in 2002 but the number of training days for employees seems to be sufficient just to maintain the knowledge required and not to create new competences.

Within the Italian context there are two interesting cases of ICT in human resources management. The first one is the National Institute for the insurance against accidents at work, where personal data of employees can be updated by each employee through a system of communication via internet. The second one is the Ministry of economy and finances, where statistical data of personnel of all public administrations are included in a report that is available on the website of the Ministry.

At the end of the discussion, Ms Pasqua called upon Mr Dicorrado (European Commission) to speak about the scheme of exchanges of public officials between the European Commission and the Member States.

Mr Dicorrado (EU Commission) gave updated information about the current situation of the scheme of exchanges of public officials between the European Commission and the Member States.

On the one hand, just nine countries provided the Commission with the names of officials requesting participation in the exchange scheme, on the other hand there are twenty candidates from the different General Directions.

He referred to a letter sent to all the Member States at the end of July containing the general guidelines concerning the exchange system. In an annex to the letter, there were models of European CV. These examples can help to prepare a uniform presentation to facilitate the evaluation of the candidates.

Mr Dicorrado encouraged the Member State to give an answer and show their interest in the exchange scheme. He invited them to make some suggestions and also express their needs.

Ms Krarup stated that Denmark is really interested in the exchange scheme. She remarked that they sent a letter to the Commission with several question about that issue and they are still waiting for the answer. She asked to receive a copy of the letter sent in July by Mr. Dicorrado.

Mr Dicorrado informed the Group that a copy of the letter with the guidelines concerning the exchange scheme would be given to the Presidency in order to circulate.

Ms Pasqua agreed that useful information by Commission about the exchange scheme is diffused.

Mr Vollmuth commented that in Germany there are two national contact points: the foreign Office is responsible for coordinating this kind of issues, whilst his specific Unit is responsible for cooperation with the Ministries. Even if his colleagues of the foreign Office received the letter sent by the Commission it would be useful for them to receive a copy of that letter too. He asked Mr Dicorrado if he had received enough candidatures from Member States to meet the requests of exchange of the 20 civil servants from the several DG. He suggested starting to run the project.