This document discusses building skills in civil servants to address complex policy problems. It summarizes that civil servants need strategic skills like evidence-based problem solving and innovation skills to develop new solutions. Six core innovation skills are identified: iteration, data literacy, user-centered design, curiosity, storytelling, and insurgency. Performance assessments and performance-related pay can be used to encourage citizen-centric behaviors. Data on the workforce is necessary for human resources planning. An upcoming report will benchmark these topics across ASEAN and OECD countries.

1. SMART CIVIL SERVANTS
IMPROVE PUBLIC SERVICES
Dr. Zsuzsanna Lonti, OECD, Public Governance Directorate

2. SEA citizens are satisfied with public services
79%
83%
69%
78% 0
20
40
60
80
100
Health care
Education system
Judicial system
Local police
SEA
SEA Maximum
SEA Minimum
OECD
Reported(ci+zen(sa+sfac+on(with(health,(educa+on,(jus+ce(and(local(police(services,(2017((
Source: Gallup World Poll
Preliminary data - not for citation

3. …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

4. Building civil servants’ capabilities

5. 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
Professional, strategic and innovative

6. Six core skills areas for public sector innovation
6
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"

7. 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.

8. Building a highly-skilled civil service…
8
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?

9. Performance assessments can encourage
more citizen-centric behaviour
Extent(to(which(performance(assessments(are(used(in(central(government,(2018(
Sources: For SEA countries, OECD (2018) Strategic Human Resources Management Survey. For OECD countries, OECD (2016) Strategic Human Resources
Management Survey.
Preliminary data - not for citation

10. Performance-related pay is a common monetary
incentive to promote desired behaviours
Extent(to(which(performanceArelated(pay(is(used(in(central(government,(2018(
Sources: For SEA countries, OECD (2018) Strategic Human Resources Management Survey. For OECD countries, OECD (2016) Strategic Human Resources
Management Survey.
Preliminary data - not for citation
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
SGP THA PHL BRN MYS VNM IDN LAO KHM KOR AUS JPN
SEA OECDHigh use
Low use

11. Data on the workforce is the basis for HR
planning
Collec+on(and(availability(of(administra+ve(human(resources((HR)(data(in(central(government,(2018(
Sources: For SEA countries, OECD (2018) Strategic Human Resources Management Survey. For OECD countries, OECD (2016) Strategic Human Resources
Management Survey.
Preliminary data - not for citation
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
MYS LAO BRN IDN PHL SGP KHM THA VNM KOR AUS NZL JPN
SEA OECDHigh level
Low level

12. • Covers all 10 ASEAN countries + 4 OECD countries close to region
• Possibility to compare these countries to each other, to the SEA and
OECD average
• Content:
– Public finances
– Public employment
– SHRM
– Budget practices and procedures
– Digital government
– Open government/data
– Serving Citizens
Upcoming SEA Government at a Glance