This document discusses the skills needed for a high-performing civil service. It notes that civil services now face increasingly complex, interdependent problems in pluralistic societies, requiring new tools and skills. Civil servants need professional expertise, strategic skills like foresight and evidence-based problem-solving, and innovation skills to redesign governance tools. Key skills areas for public sector innovation include iteration, data literacy, user-centered design, curiosity, storytelling, and challenging the status quo. The document outlines developing, attracting, and utilizing talent and concludes that civil services need professionals, strategic thinkers, and innovators guided by transformational leadership.

1. SKILLS FOR A HIGH
PERFORMING CIVIL
SERVICE
Daniel Gerson, Project Manager, Public Employment
and Management

2. The problems that
civil services are
trying to address are
increasingly
interdependent and
multi-dimensional,
within societies
which are
increasingly
pluralistic in views
and expectations.
Complex multi-dimensional
challenges…
High
Technical
Complexity
Low
Technical
Complexity
Low Value
Conflict
High Value
Conflict

3. The systems
and tools of
governance are
increasingly
digital, open and
networked
… technological change and networks
citizens…
Outsourced
Government
Networked
Government
Hierarchical
Government
Joined Up
Government
Network management capacity
Opennesstonon-governmentalactors
low high
high

4. … are changing the skills needed in the
civil service.
What is needed are
civil servants with
skills to address
increasingly
complex problems
in increasingly
pluralistic
societies using new
tools available to
governments.
System-wide
capacity
Organisational
Capabilities
Individual
Skills

5. Skills for a high performing
civil service

6. Professional, strategic and innovative
Policy Development
Working with
Citizens
Commissioning and
Contracting
Managing through
Networks
Professional
basic building blocks of civil service professions
e.g. economists, lawyers, statisticians, political scientists, policy experts, and
communications specialists.
Strategic
skills that enable professionals to create impact and improve public value for their
citizens and clients
e.g. future-oriented and evidence-based problem solving; risk management, foresight
and resilience
Innovation
skills to redesign the tools of governance
to develop novel solutions to persistent and emergent policy challenges

7. SIX CORE SKILLS AREAS FOR
PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION
7
Iteration
Data literacy
User centred
Curiosity
Storytelling
Insurgency
 Rapid and incremental development
 Developing and refining prototypes
 Experimentation and testing
 Basing decisions on data and evidence
 Building systems that collect the right
data
 Communicating data effectively
 Identifying new ideas, ways of working
 Adapting approaches used elsewhere
 Reframing problems and perspectives
 Using narratives to explain 'the journey'
 Including 'user stories' to outline benefits
 Progressing the story as situations change
 Challenging the usual way of doing things
 Working with unusual/ different partners
 Building alliances for change
 Policies and services solve user needs
 Considering users at every stage
 Users that say: "I would do that again"

8. Policy skills
Professional
Expertise
Law and regulation, economics, political
science, public administration, statistics, etc.
Strategic
Orientation
Multiple perspectives to a problem, foresight
techniques to test different scenarios,
building resilience into policy design
Innovation
Capabilities
Experimental policy design, (big) data-driven
policy development, open policy making
(including the use of ICT for crowdsourcing),
design/systems thinking, and behavioural
insights.

9. Citizen engagement and
service delivery
Professional
Expertise
Public relations, communications,
marketing, consultation, facilitation,
service delivery, conflict resolution,
community development, outreach etc.
Strategic
Orientation
Using engagement skills to achieve specific
outcomes, for example, better targeted
interventions, or nudging.
Innovation
Capabilities
Co-creation, social media, crowdsourcing,
challenge prizes, ethnography, opinion
research, user data analytics, etc.

10. Commissioning and
contracting
Professional
Expertise
Contract design and management, procurement,
business management, commercial law and
economics, finance and investment, audit and
control, project and risk management etc.
Strategic
Orientation
Working with the market to develop innovations;
secondary policy objectives, such as building a
greener economy; and supporting SMEs and social
enterprises, etc.
Innovation
Capabilities
Agile development, data-driven key performance
indicators (KPIs), early market engagement and
partnerships, instrument selection, social finance,
impact investing, social impact bonds, vouchers, etc.

11. Managing through networks
Professional
Expertise
Stakeholder relations, partnership development,
knowledge management and sharing, project
management and co-ordination.
Strategic
Orientation
Using partnerships and networks to establish
common objectives, align responsibility and
resources, and effect positive change.
Innovation
Capabilities
social innovation, government as a platform, open
government data, systems thinking and analysis,
identifying and engaging new actors, change
narrative, alternative regulation (e.g. behavioural
insights), etc.

12. Building a highly-skilled civil service…
12
1. Determine
•What are the needed skill sets and where are the gaps? How can they be
identified?
2. Attract and Select
•How can the right people with sought-after skill sets be attracted to jobs in
the public sector?
3. Develop and nurture
•How can public organisations create a culture of learning for a dynamic and
fast-changing world?
4. Use
•What kind of organisation and leadership to motivate employees
and provide opportunities to put skills to use?

13. Determining skills needs
Competencies
highlighted in
competency profiles
(OECD 35, 2016)

14. Identifying needed skills and skills gaps
Iteration
Data literacy
User centricity
Curiosity
Storytelling
Insurgency
Perception of self Perception of manager Perception of organisation
Assessing Innovation skills in Chile

15. Attracting and recruiting the right skills
Elements highlighted in civil service recruitment material, 2016

16. Attracting and selecting the talent needed in
the civil service
UK fast stream’s 15 schemes
https://www.faststream.gov.uk/

17. Developing skills
Training priorities of OECD central public administrations, 2016

18. Developing skills and building learning
cultures
Self Service, Co-Lab, Academy: from initiation to expert support at
Belgium’s TIFA

19. Using skills
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Other
Inclusion
Harassment
Skills match
Effectiveness of HRM systems
Impacts on employees of workplace change / transformation
Integrity at the workplace
Discrimination
Perceived employer image
Stress levels
Work intensity
Employee Engagement
Effectiveness of management
Organizational commitment
Employee motivation
Work / life balance
Job satisfaction
Number of responding countries
Employee surveys: areas of focus, 2016

20. Using the skills employees have in the
most effective ways
Denmark’s national
innovation internship
Australia’s Talent
Management Guide

21. Professional Strategic Innovative
• Qualified,
• Independent,
• Values-driven,
• Ethical
• Outcomes-driven
• Evidence-based,
• Future-oriented,
• Proactive,
• Networked
• Iterative,
• Data literate,
• Citizen centred,
• Curious,
• Storytellers,
• Insurgent
• Merit-based
• Capable of integrating soft skills,
ethics, talent management
(future potential vs past
performance),
• Able to structure the right
balance of generalist and
specialist professions and career
paths
• Agile
• Attractive to skilled job seekers
• Planned and managed with to
ensure the right skills and
competencies are effectively
allocated to areas of current and
emerging need.
• Future-oriented and responsive.
• Open and collaborative cultures,
leadership and management;
• Engaged,
• Autonomous (e.g. work design,)
• Mobile,
• Diverse,
• Learning oriented
• Trusted policy advisors and
effective transactional managers
• Transformational leaders,
change managers
• Collaborative leaders, and
adaptive managers
Responding to wicked problems in a
transforming world…
Needs Civil
Servants
who are:
In a civil
service
which is:
Led by SCS
who are:

22. • Developing principles to guide the development of
professional, strategic and innovative civil services in
OECD countries and beyond
• Opportunities to test and apply the skills framework in
member countries
• Building an international movement to design civil
service that are fit-for-purpose in the 21st Century
Where to next?

23. THANK YOU
@danieljgerson
Daniel Gerson
oe.cd/pem
daniel.gerson@oecd.org