Public Administration invests in the skills of its people
There is no doubt that educated people with excellent studies (hard skills) serve in the Public Administration. What is important, however, is that the potential of individual job characteristics and skills is now being recognized as an equally crucial contribution to organizational performance – something that coincides with what has been successfully and effectively applied in private sector businesses.
Civil servants are now required to take on more and more complex projects that are often linked to the development of new technologies. They are now required to to implement them in an intelligent way, to develop cooperation networks, to work horizontally and as a team, to bring concrete results in due course. It is a new reality that requires, among other things, flexibility in finding solutions, critical feedback, training and active learning, teamwork, creativity and result-oriented processes and actions. Skills that executives themselves, both in the public and private sectors, recognize as important ones.
A new Interior Ministry Act, the implementation of which is planned in early 2023, aims to improve the functioning of public sector services and bodies. It focuses on the ‘wealth’ of the Public Administration:the human capital, with emphasis on the acquisition, fostering and development of those skills that are required for the performance of their duties effectively as well as the rewarding of its performance. For it is only by being equipped with a qualitatively trained and qualified human factor, capable of responding to the challenges of the new era that the Public Administration will be efficient and effective. Strengthening the principle of merit in the civil service and the application of the principle ‘the right person in the right position’ are the key pillar to achieve this.
The Public Administration of tomorrow is the one that will focus on the abilities of its executives, their development, the fostering of their skills, their training and their reward. It is about establishing a new culture of a modern, functional, efficient and effective Public Administration being a key factor in the development of the country’s economy. We are all in this together and this endeavor will have all our support!
But this is formed not when something is strategically planned, but when this ‘something’ is strategically implemented… The identity of the Public Administration is defined by what it implements and not by what it simply plans.
John Anastasopoulos
Advisor to the ACEO Board
