Workforce Planning in the Belgian Federal Government

1. Workforce Planning in the Belgian Federal Government EUPAN HRWG / IPSG EUPAN meeting 4-5 April 2013

2. 1. Workforce planning issue in the BelgianFederalGovernment • Context : • Since 2009 : Economic and budget crisis => Government's priorities : • control of public finance • better management of public services : “Selective Replacement Policy” • Purpose of workforce planning in Belgium : • to achieve an optimal combination between • Available personnel budget • and appropriate number of human resources endowed with useful skills • Workforce planning relies on 2 mechanisms: • Personnel Envelope • Personnel Plan

3. 2. Personnel Envelope • Financial resources allocated for each federal public service to pay his workforce • Yearly defined • Interest : • Transparency • Autonomy • Accountability • Stakeholders : • Government : « How much money» to spend for civil servants in order to achieve his policy • Heads of Departments: «How totake advantage » of their envelope to achieve their missions

4. Since 2009, Personnel Envelope = tool to reduce the federal personnel budget 3. Personnel Envelope

5. 3. Personnel Plan • Goal : to give to the services the opportunity to assess and to plan the suitable Human Resources to carry out their objectives • Annual process, described in FTE and cost • One Personnel Plan for one personnel envelope • Personnel Plan gives a double limit : • Maximum FTE • Maximum cost (personnel envelope)

6. 3. Personnel plan

7. 4. Personnel Plan • In the economic and budget crisis context, some points in the issue of workforce planning are placed in front of the Federal agenda: • Critical point=> To develop the personnel plan as a management tool • that gives flexibility to the service to manage his desired HR policy Avoid simplistic recipe as « 1 civil servant out of 2 won’tbereplaced » • that integrates a method to estimate the cost of HR policy with a high degree of accuracy • that uses a standard method which gives the possibility to make a transversal assessment of all services

8. 5. SEPP Project • The P&O FPS has to give support to this decisional pattern which is based on a balanced partnership between government and public services. In order to make that possible we have lead the SEPP project • Integration of a standard method in the Personnel Plan that supports : • The Head of administration to produce accurate estimation of his desired HR policy • FPS Management support with SEPP • The government to assess the risk taken by all services with the same rules • Political level support with SEPPFED

10. 5. SEPP Project • SEPP & SEPPFED constraints : • A common methodology applied to all FPS • To count the public servants in FTE with public classification : • distinction between management, statutory and contractual staff • distinction following 4 educational levels (A, B, C, D) • To define and catch the personnel cost • To estimate the personnel cost in the future • A reliable and flexible system that gives the information at the right moment • Normalized basic data sets

11. 5. SEPP Project • Strict definition of a period of time • To avoid the problem of constant flux of the workforce due to in and out flows of employment • Accurate estimation of the employee’s cost • Estimation of the existing personnel based on the real latest paid salary • Estimation of the existing personnel on individual level => high level of accuracy for more than 85% of the plan’s costs accuracy • Standardized definition of the heading costs => guarantee of fair treatment between the services

12. 5. SEPP Project • Standard rules to estimate the impact of the flow : • in, • out • and promotion of the civil servants within a service

13. 6. SEPP within the workforce planning process • SEPP is used • By the Head of administration • Each year to make the final step of his workforce planning process when he gives an estimation of his HR vision • “To Plan” (yearly activity) • Every month to • follow the state of progress of his plan • Evaluate management policies • take decisionto realize the goals • Manage risk • « To manage » (monthlyactivity)

14. 6. SEPP within the workforce planning process • By the Government • Each year to analyze the risk level taken by all services in their workforce planning and to avoid bankruptcy • Personnel Plan assessment • Every monthto analyze the evolution of civil servants • Federal Monitoring • As often as needed • to evaluate new HR policies • to focus on services that have difficulties reaching the HR or budget goals

15. 6. SEPP within the workforce planning process • Personnel Plan assessment • The government makes sure that every service respects in its workforce planning the financial resources allocated by the envelope

16. 6. SEPP within the workforce planning process • Federal Monitoring • The government follows the monthly evolution of FTE’s and their cost to prevent public deficits and to check government decision implementations. • 2012 : • Selective Replacement Policy : better with less • Evolution of the paid FTE’s and of the recurrent payrol– Envelope of (nov. 2009 – nov. 2011)

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