More than half of the central government's current staff are expected to leave employment by the end of the decade. To ensure efficient performance of tasks and the provision of high-quality services, the central government will have to base its recruitment and competence development in the coming years on good staff planning.
The NAOF has examined the central government’s recruitment and competence development in two audits: one of them focused on central government steering, while the other one examined the issue from the perspective of the practices applied by government agencies.
According to the audits, the targets set for competence development both in government agencies and in the central government overall have been general in nature. It is impossible to get a reliable overall picture of staff needs when competence needs are not foreseen in agencies, and the loss of competence is not taken sufficiently into consideration in the planning.
In addition to the number of staff, loss of personnel, and replacement recruitment, the agencies’ staff planning should systematically foresee the competence needed to achieve the objectives.
The Ministry of Finance should support the agencies’ staff planning by developing HR targets to be taken into account in the agencies’ performance management as well as operating models promoting the anticipation of competence needs. More attention should also be paid at central government level to the use of mobility as a method of competence development.
Based on the audits conducted, the NAOF also recommends longer-term staff planning for the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for the central government’s HR management, especially in the case of duties for which the central government itself trains the workforce.
Further information
Tuula Näätänen
Principal Performance Auditor, D.Sc. (Admin.).
Audit
