Zangrillo: “Merit and results for a more efficient Public Administration”, new rules introduced for a career in the PA

Il Cabinet approved the bill on performance evaluation and career developmentin the Public Administration, on the proposal of the Minister Paul ZangrilloThe measure introduces innovative criteria for measuring results, recognizing merit and career progression, with the aim of making the PA more efficient and modern.

The Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Minister for Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo, has given the green light to the bill on performance evaluation and career developmentThe text introduces important innovations aimed at making the organizational structures of public administrations more modern and efficient. This is an objective that can be achieved by introducing new tools to improve the measurement and evaluation of public employees' performance, to which career prospects capable of valorizing merit can be linked.

 «This measure represents an important step that recognizes the centrality of people. We are moving from a “bureaucratic” approach to performance evaluation and measurement to one based on “objectives” in which the results achieved count. This is a fundamental step to motivate people, grow organizations and, in this way, offer increasingly efficient services to our users, citizens and businesses.», comments Minister Zangrillo with satisfaction. 

The new system, in fact, aims to improve the effectiveness of existing evaluation by strictly regulating the methods and times for assigning objectives and measurability. The professional objectives are accompanied by the evaluation of organizational behaviors and that is, those skills, including leadership, that must complete the profile of people.

The bill thus opens the possibility of creating an “objective” structure that provides for a performance-related salary. This must be progressive and strictly correlated, in percentage terms, to the evaluation achieved. For this reason, top scores cannot be attributed to more than 30% of those evaluated.

This is accompanied by a path of merit-based career development which introduces an important new element: access to second-tier management can occur, for 30% of the available positions, for those who have accrued at least 5 years of service in the civil servants' area or 2 years in the highly qualified area. A new tool that adds to existing courses such as the SNA competition course (50% of places) and the competition announced by each administration (20% of places). A quota equal to 50% of places is allocated to access to first-level management.

Career development procedures are divided into two phases: the first, selective and comparative, aimed at identifying the subjects suitable for the temporary assignment of a managerial role, the second of observation and evaluation. The positive outcome of the two phases allows access to the roles. Each public administration publishes specific calls in which permanent staff or those in service at the same administration can participate.

La selection for the assignment of the managerial role is entrusted to an independent commission composed of 7 members of which: 4 general level managers belonging to the same administration that called the procedure; 2 professionals experienced in the evaluation of personnel coming from an administration other than the one concerned or from the private sector and is chaired by a general manager of role coming from another administrationThe director hierarchically superior to each candidate and a member of the independent evaluation body, with support functions, participate in the work, without the right to vote.

To ensure that the selection meets the criteria of impartiality, publicity and transparency the members of the Commission are drawn by lot, they cannot be part of it for two consecutive terms and the cases of incompatibility foreseen for participation in the competition commissions remain unchanged. In addition, a special Register at the Department of Civil Service for the identification of professionals, public or private, experts in personnel evaluation.

The selection begins with two steps. The first is related to the evaluation of individual performance and organizational behaviorThe second is based on the carrying out an individual experiential test. For the purposes of the first evaluation, the commission takes into account an experiential-attitudinal-motivational interview and a detailed report, signed by the candidate's superior manager, from which behavioral indicators regarding leadership skills must also emerge.

- The assignments conferred cannot have a duration exceeding 3 years and are renewable only once subject to the necessary favourable evaluation by the Commission on the activity carried outThe second phase consists of observation and evaluation.  After 4 years from the assignment of the first assignment, if the evaluation is positive, the insertion into the roles takes place.

«The innovations introduced will allow us to take advantage of increasingly qualified and motivated personnel. Employees will be encouraged to reach new goals and further develop their skills, with concrete benefits both for their professional growth and for the entire organization. This measure will allow us to build even more dynamic and stimulating work environments, in which our people will be able to express their potential to the fullest, contributing significantly to a modern and up-to-date Public Administration.», concluded the head of the Civil Service.