There is no best European practice to organizing the grading system in the civil service which could be applied to other countries. The experience of private businesses does not provide the best practice because they are of limited value to public administration. According to experts from SIGMA and EUPAR during a roundtable discussion in Sarajevo regarding the topic of “How to improve performance management in the structure of the civil service in BiH?” each country is responsible for improving this system in the best way it deems fit.
The organizer of the roundtable, in cooperation with the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, is Djikic Conslating Services, a contractor of the project, “The development of systems for performance management in the structure of the BiH civil service.”
Aleksandar Kariska, senior adviser for Human Resources Management at the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, states that good practices of human resource management in the civil service include transparency, connections with the organizational objectives, and personal development. He voiced that open human resources management, among other things includes an organizational culture and the creation of high-quality policy in this field.
Aleksandar Rabrenovic, Project Team Leader said that the question of how to improve performance management in the civil service is possible not only for BiH, but also for countries in the region and other transitional countries.
According to Francisco Cardona, a SIGMA expert performance appraisal can be a useful tool used to support the personal development of civil servants if they seriously engage in Human Resources Management. Speaking about the obstacles to evaluating effectiveness, Cardona said, among other things, that the lack of administrative culture which is directed to performance can reduce appraisal to a mere formality assessment, and that there is a tendency that all employees are rated as excellent as well as a lack of culture of confidence and representing.
For Dr. Hans-Achim Rolla, an expert EUPAR, "systems of evaluation are important instruments that should ensure the development of a professional and accountable civil service based on the principle of merit." According to him, the system of evaluation should be monitored and changed when there is a need.
Performance management, according to EUPAR’s expert Gregor Virant, does not solely imply the evaluation. It consists of a selection of employees based on competence, the development of competence of employees, the definition of individual roles, the definition of expectations toward coworkers, the organization of jobs, motivation, improving satisfaction at work, evaluation, and assessment.
The aim of the roundtable was to get familiar with modern trends in performance management in European countries, in order to enhance the existing performance management systems in the structures of the civil service in BiH and improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the bodies of state administration. There are predicted trends and challenges in performance management in the EU countries, with special emphasis on the experience of Slovenia, as well as the experience of transition countries. This was an opportunity to present a draft analysis of the performance management of civil service structures in BiH.
The roundtable was attended by representatives of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Civil Service Agency, Council of Ministers BiH, federal ministries and ministries and agencies of Public Administration of Republic of Serbia and Brcko District, and representatives of international organizations (European Commission, UNDP, SIGMA, DFID). The project, financed from the Fund for Public Administration Reform in BiH, is 760,383.00 KM.