Public Servants as Partners for Growth
Toward a Stronger, Leaner and More Equitable Workforce
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Fostering diversity in the public service
Workforce diversity makes for a stronger, fairer public service, one that better understands and meets people’s expectations. By improving representation in government of the different social groups, diversity in policy making can play a part in maintaining core public values, increasing managerial efficiency, improving policy effectiveness, raising the quality of public services, and enhancing social mobility. Governments do, however, need to see diversity as an asset, and unfortunately real evidence of the benefits has been weak. Other obstacles to introducing diversity include the lag between political and managerial timing (this is a long-term process), regulatory barriers, budgetary constraints, rigid HRM frameworks, lack of flexibility, and HRM arrangements already in place. Diversity requires a common vision, coherence, a strong link to strategic workforce planning, firm leadership, managerial flexibility, a good balance of responsibility between central government co-ordination and delegated implementation, addressing discriminatory practices already in place, and regular programme evaluation.
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