This report was prepared by the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV), under the direction of Rolf Alter, It is based upon a 2014 Survey conducted by the OECD Public Employment and Management Working Party (PEM) and its related work on employee engagement.

Civil services operate during very challenging times. civil servants face complex policy problems, as they are faced with higher citizen expectations, yet, they have fewer resources.

This chapter presents some of the concepts and links the findings from the in-depth analysis of the next two chapters. It describes how most OECD public administrations have been approaching civil service reform to respond to complex policy challenges and to budgetary pressures. It presents two types of HRM measures: cost control measures which look at the workforce in terms of numbers and costs, and reforms primarily intended to maintain the commitment and motivation of employees in the face of difficult retrenchment programmes. It argues that a balance of each is required to manage costs while maintaining longer-term capacity, and introduces the concept of employee engagement as one way of measuring and managing civil service reform.

This chapter looks at recent OECD research that suggests changes to human resource management (HRM) between 2008 and 2013 have been driven first and foremost by a reactive need to cut workforce costs, rather than building longer-term workforce capacity and innovation. It explores the survey results from the Survey on Managing Budgeting Constraints: Implications for HRM and Employment in Central Public Administration, which indicate that employee engagement across OECD countries may have been threatened as a result of the cost-cutting measures implemented in most OECD countries. Chapter 2 looks at these measures with a view to their potential longer-term impact on employees, organisations and the fiscal bottom line.

This chapter looks at how a number of OECD countries are using the concept of employee engagement to drive a better, evidence-based approach to management. Definitions and evidence of engagement are discussed, followed by a description of how the United States, the United Kingdom and the German Employment Agency (Bundesagentur fur Arbeit, BA) measure engagement and use it to drive performance. This is followed by a discussion of how the tools of leadership and management can promote engagement, as well as a modern and individualised HRM. Chapter 3 concludes with suggestions on how engagement can be improved in OECD civil services.