How to attract and retain the best people in the Civil Service Albania perspective Fatmir Demneri Director Training Institute of Public Administration

Reasons Declining image of the public sector – With few exceptions, young people tend not to rate public employment highly. There is a belief that the public sector is bureaucratic, old fashioned and the prestige of the civil service is low. Compensation – Wages are low leading to a loss of public administration competitiveness. While salary is not the only factor for attracting high performers to public administration, it is important when competing for new graduates. Human resource management – Old-fashioned human resources management deters high-quality staff. Seniority is more important than merit and promotions are not clearly linked to performance. Career paths can be unclear and little emphasis is placed on staff development.

The objective set by the Albanian Government The Government of Albania has placed high priority on the issue of human capital. Not only the strict implementation of the procedures of the civil service legislation, but also the attraction into the Public Administration, of qualitative human capacities (those holding postgraduate qualifications (master, doctorate degrees or academic titles)).

Acceptance into the Civil Service For this purpose the Council of the Ministers approved, the Decision No. 838, date , through which the evaluation system for the candidates during the competition process has been changed. Thus, candidates that hold a masters degree, will automatically receive 12 points during the verbal test, plus the other points related to work experience and special skills, whereas candidates holding the title “Doctor of Sciences”, will automatically receive all the points allocated to verbal testing (30 points).

Salary System Meanwhile, during 2007, in the framework of approvals by the Council of Ministers of decisions related to salaries, in July 2007, civil servants holding postgraduate qualifications, academic grades and titles, were recognized the right to benefit a salary increase related to the respective qualification, in all cases, when this qualification corresponds to the job description of the public servant. In the meantime, in the year 2008, the application of this right has begun, after the determined procedure. After the recent data it results that the Department of Public Administration, on bases of proper practices, has approved the right to benefit a salary increase to the respective qualification, for 91 employees from central and other institutions

Promotion The essential advantage of the promotion procedures is that public competitiveness has promoted attraction of the competent candidates out of the administrate, thing that creates the possibility to bring new work knowledge and methods from those candidates that have studied abroad or from those that come from the private sector.

Brain Gain Programme The return of qualified migrants has been identified as a key policy in the government’s Strategy for Migration to achieve an effective engagement of the Albanian Diaspora in development processes. Following a request of the Government, UNDP facilitated the preparation of a programme for greater engagement of the Diaspora in Albania’s socio-economic development based partly on the lessons learned and experience of various organizations.

Objectives The "Brain Gain" action plan for 2008 to 2009 aims to fill twenty vacant positions in the public administration and 100 vacant positions at public universities with Brain Gain candidates. –These are individuals who have earned their post-university degrees, either at the Master or PhD level in reputable universities abroad, have demonstrated excellent academic performance and are highly qualified to compete for leading positions in public institutions. To help ensure that the positions are filled, the Government and the UNDP have set up a joint fund that will be disbursed to qualified candidates in the form of rewarding incentive packages. Each package consists of a bonus amount of money on top of the salary paid by the hiring institution in order to accommodate and facilitate the candidate's return and financially support the candidate's expenses in settling back to Albania. –The fund attributed to the incentive packages in support of Brain Gain positions incorporates large funds from partners, the government and the UNDP. The Government alone has committed 800,000 euros to the fund attributed to incentive packages. –In addition to financial support, the UNDP's Brain Gain team is offering assistance through identifying and recruiting potential candidates with a Brain Gain profile, by setting up a database that allows each potential candidate to register his/her records and CV and have access to information on relevant vacancies.

What can be done? Emphasize the advantages of public service over private employment. Key points are: working for the common good, interesting tasks, and clear promotion and training opportunities. Identify incentives other than salary if they want to be able to recruit and retain high quality employees. Other non-monetary incentives include: co-operative leadership, open communication; sufficient freedom to display initiative and make decisions; good working conditions; good opportunities for training and personal development; family-friendly personnel policies; job rotation; and opportunities for educational leave or leave for other personal reasons. Need for professionalism to be enhanced in the public sector. This requires that the public service develop a commitment to life-long learning as the key to motivate and retain staff.

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