An institution is just as strong or weak as is its human resource.

this can’t be truer anywhere than in the public sector bureaucracy. How men and women land in bureaucracy, how they are trained and retained, and when and how they are sent away is critically important.

What is the state of affairs of human resource management in Pakistan’s civil services like - from recruitment to retirement, from pay to performance and from training to capacity development? With this question in mind, let us undertake an overview of the elite Central Superior Services (CSS).

A successful HR policy creates a civil service which is dynamic, motivated and competent. It produces the right quality and quantity of public good.

While some of the past glory and glamour have worn away, the civil services remain a magnet for the best and the brightest. This is a great plus. But the way it is being capitalised upon, is even more important. Thanks to the policies of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), one can see a large number of advertising boards of ‘CSS academies’ in all major cities of Pakistan.

A whole ‘industry’ is thriving upon the recruitment model of the FPSC. This is because the design and administration of CSS examination and related assessments are very similar to traditional degree programmes in Pakistan. They are fundamentally outdated and devoid of reliability, validity and authenticity.

By and large, the nature of non-standardised paper-and-pencil examinations appears to be incompatible with the international best practices in psychometric testing for civil service appointments. In the developed world, the initial recruitment in civil service is test-oriented, not exam-based.

In the UK, for example, there are 15 different schemes for Civil Service Fast Stream. These are online tests consisting of standardised work style questionnaires, situational judgment questionnaires, and work-based scenarios. The applicants who pass the online tests are required to attend a half-day ‘assessment centre’ which comprises leadership, group, and written analysis exercises.

Those successful at the assessment centre are invited to take part in a final selection process. The complete cycle is organic, fluid and analytic in nature and geared towards assessing the critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making skills of the candidates. Is this happening in our civil service selection system?

A vast majority of critics strongly believe that the CSS assessments focus on lower-order thinking skills, thus rewarding rote memorisation. The interview process is regarded as considerably discretionary and subjective.

The best practices in the economically developed nations favour a dependable and cohesive recruitment and selection system that promotes merit, fairness, objectivity, and equality of opportunity. These are also the foremost considerations in a reform effort.

Once the candidates have been selected, the merit list prepared and occupational groups allocated, the next stage is induction training. Apparently, one of the best features of these protracted training programmes is creating a strong bond in the civil service fraternity. However, there is a need to closely monitor and evaluate these trainings in terms of their success in generating the required output. Are they resulting in the acquisition of the necessary knowledge, skills and personality?

Since a substantial amount of taxpayers’ money is spent on these training programmes, they should be open to scrutiny and public accountability.

The postings follow the completion of these training programmes. The officers assume positions in their respective departments. ‘Who will work where’ is the most contentious part of the HR infrastructure of the civil service regime. From here, begins an unhealthy competition for ‘lucrative postings’.

Political influence, networking and nepotism often come into play. In the absence of clearly laid out and fairly implemented policy, most of the officers end up watching their own interests rather than catering for public good. Inevitably, this results in a lack of value creation in resource utilisation.

A remedy for these ills is not very elusive. Clearly articulated and well-defined job descriptions should be prepared and made available to the officials. The potential candidates should be thoroughly assessed against these job descriptions.

Next comes the performance management system, which again appears to be brimming with defunct procedures. The only performance management system in place is the annual Performance Evaluation Report (PER), which is stereotyped in nature, and more or less a formality. The best practice is for the reviewer to share the report with the reviewed, thus making it possible for the boss and the subordinate to agree on the performance levels achieved in the preceding year as well as concurrence on the targets for the succeeding year. Is this being followed in our civil service?

The answer to this is ‘no’. Hence, if the performance of the civil servants is really to be uplifted, a stringent performance evaluation system needs to be designed and implemented. Moreover, those at the supervisory tier may need training in evaluating the performance of their subordinates.

The pay and compensation structure of civil servants is embedded in the orthodox classification of Basic Pay Scales (BPS). There is a very strong feeling among civil servants that the pay system is not at par with the international standards or with the corporate sector.

The perks and privileges, however, do not necessarily depend on the BPS but also on the position that the incumbent is occupying. This can potentially lead to demotivation, opportunism, malpractices, pilferage and corruption. This can also breed a culture of leg pulling. The promotion system, too, appears to be ritualistic and impulsive in nature. Like other domains, reward management in civil service needs to be rationalised along modern lines.

One of the most significant features of civil service is capacity-building. This consists of a bundle of sporadic and disjointed trainings, such as departmental trainings, need-based and promotion-linked trainings, etc. Inevitably, these training programmes do result in a certain degree of value addition.

The real issue, however, is the effective utilisation of these capacity-building interventions towards service delivery. The value for time and money spent and efforts made appear to be extremely questionable. What is the solution? The need of the hour is to introduce training programmes that have a strong focus on the day-to-day operations of the civil servants’ jobs.

The trainings should be linked to the performance expectations and correspond to the civil servants’ actual capacity requirements. Moreover, there should be a proper mechanism in place to monitor and evaluate the design and delivery of the training programmes and their impact on the performance of the trainees.

The most common method to leave civil service is retirement, also called superannuation on attaining the age-limit. The other methods are resignation, removal, dismissal, compulsory retirement, early retirement and death. The retirement and resignation are quite simple and straightforward, and death beyond human control. However, other instruments - triggered by disciplinary proceedings - are, more or less, fraught with red tape and error of judgment.

Although the Federal Service Tribunal (FST) is an established institution for addressing the issues of the aggrieved, sometimes, it adds fuel to fire by giving relief to officials charged with misconduct, thus inadvertently rewarding crime and discouraging punishment. To address these issues, the departmental proceedings should be adequate and legally sound so that the decisions taken can withstand the rigors of a judicial review.

Over the last few decades, the world has witnessed remarkable innovations in the civil service regime. We, too, are long overdue for breaking the silos and coming out of the comfort zone.

The writer, a Chevening scholar and an LSE alumnus, is a senior institutional reforms and capacity building professional. He can be contacted at alitariqjatala@hotmail.com