How civil servants will be evaluated

By Dimitris Katsaganis

Radical changes in the “status” of the evaluation of 200,000 civil servants (ie not of education, health, judiciary, police, military, etc.) are provided by the bill of the Minister of Interior, Mr. Makis Voridis, which was put to a public consultation on May 10 and was presented last week.

The bill is expected to be passed next month, but will enter into force on January 1, 2023.

A key change is that the rating for employees is abolished. The rating will be entered only by the bosses. The only thing that will be required is the development of the skills of the employees.

At the same time, as Mr. Voridis himself stated, the basic idea (of the new evaluation) is “the disconnection of the failure from the punishment and the continuous improvement of the employees”.

However, achieving predetermined goals is now a key part of evaluation.

Note, however, that the high-performance bonus provided by the bill does not concern all employees, but a small portion of them in targeted areas (recovery fund, budget targets, Ministry action plans).

The institutional framework for the public-wide bonus will expire at the end of the year.

The key points of evaluation

In more detail with the new “regime”, the evaluation for each year will be carried out in the same year. Thus, the evaluation for 2023 will take place within 2023 and not retrospectively.

As Mr. Voridis stated with the previous “regimes”, the evaluation was even completed two years after the year he was referring to.

In addition to the abolition of employee scores, a skills development plan is introduced for each employee.

For this reason, focused training actions and specialized administrative tools will be used in the direction of improving the individual and, consequently, the organizational performance of the employee and the efficiency of the team.

However, bosses will get points. 50% of their score will depend on the achievement of the goals, 40% on the recording of his skills and 10% on the “pulse of the team”. By “team tightening”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs means that the immediate subordinates of the evaluated supervisor complete and submit the team pulse form for the reference year with the aim of capturing the climate and the way the team operates.

Also, the role of the managers is strengthened with the appropriate administrative tools for managing and mobilizing their team and they are accountable for the achievement of the goals that have been “charged” in the organizational unit of which they are in charge.

There will be a goal achievement form in the same context (for superiors only). There will be an overview of implementation progress and the degree of achievement of the set objectives.

Through this process it will be seen which employees are highly efficient and capable. And this through the recording of a specific and thorough reasoning with the registration of specific facts, which substantiate the specific judgment of the Assessor and control – approval by the Evaluation Supervisory Committee

At the same time, a new operational transparent targeting framework is being introduced, as targets are set at the organizational unit-team level rather than the employee level. Targeting is an integral part of evaluation as the latter starts from setting goals.

There will be a record of the level of skills and selection of possible skills, but also those that are to be developed.

Mandatory checks-ins are also required.

In January of each year, work will be scheduled. In May there will be a review of progress and possible revision of the development plan, while in December there will be an evaluation of the performance of the whole year, but also the formulation of the development plan for next year.

At the same time, the bill provides for the supervision of the evaluation process. That is why special Committees will be set up in order to ensure its quality. These committees will consider the objections of the evaluated but will control the process, where there are attempts to “manipulate” the system in the sense of selecting objectives and evaluation points that move in the “safe” area.

The same bill provides for the full utilization and mandatory integration of Ministry Action Plans in the targeting of organic units, mandatory minimum number of targets in specific categories critical to the operation of the unit, but also the disengagement of the targeting process from mandatory approval of all targets by political leader.

The objectives will be prototyped and grouped and will serve as a reference guide for all actors.

After all, there will be transparency and accountability. It is also planned to post the goals on a special electronic platform (stoxothesia.gov.gr), in order for the responsible managers to select them, to quantify them and to update them based on focused indicators for measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative services.

Human Resources Development Consultant

Auxiliary role in the evaluation will be played by, among others, the Human Resources Development Consultant, who will be placed in each Ministry and public body.

This consultant will support, guide, advise, assist the relevant human resources unit not only for the implementation of the evaluation system, but also for the development plans of the employees and supervisors, the planning of staff development actions, but also the learning and career paths of employees.