Top Marks for Civil Servants!!!

They might be the focus of much public cynicism but Ireland’s civil servants have a pretty high estimation of their own value.

The results of the latest annual review of their own work performance shows almost 60% of staff across all Government departments and other State bodies achieved above-average ratings in 2014 with just under 7% being classified as “exceptional.”

A ranking of “fully achieved expectations” is the minimum required by all civil servants in order to receive annual increments to their salary – a target achieved by more than 99% of them last year.

Just 0.6 % were rated as either “unsatisfactory” or “needs to improve” – in other words “below-average” under the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS) overseen by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The figure in 2013 was 0.8%.

In normal distributions, up to 30% of all staff in any organisation could be expected to receive a below-average rating.

Despite promised reform of the system in 2013, the latest results reinforce the findings of a 2010 evaluation of the PMDS which concluded the civil service is out of line with normal distribution of results. It concluded that “the award of too many high ratings and too few low ratings is the established practice.”

Across the entire civil service, 59% of workers obtained an above-average rating – up from 56.2% in 2013, with the figure rising to almost 82% in the Department of Health.

The Department of Foreign Affairs reported that 22.2% of its staff – more than three times the civil service average – obtained an “exceptional performance” rating.

A total of 21% of employees in the Department of Health achieved the same classification, while almost 18% of staff at the Department of the Taoiseach scored the top mark.

The Department of the Environment, which has been widely criticised over its role in establishing Irish Water, gave an “exceptional performance” rating to over 13% of its staff.

No member of staff was recorded having a below-average performance last year in the Departments of  Children and Youth Affairs, Defence, Health and the Taoiseach.

Other State bodies to achieve the same high standards were Met Éireann, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the National Council for Special Education, the Public Appointments Service, the Law Reform Commisson, the State Laboratory, the National Share Services Office, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Office of Government Procurement and staff attached to the President, Michael D Higgins.

The highest proportion of staff to receive below-average ratings in the civil service last year was found in the Property Registration Authority where the work of 5.2% of civil servants was categorised as either unsatisfactory or needing to improve. The next highest was the Valuation Office (2.7%) and the National Library (2.5%)

The latest figures on the PMDS also show the number of civil servants completing the performance assessment fell last year with a compliance rate of 82.1% - down from 86.4% in 2013.

The PMDS applies to approximately 30,000 civil servants.

The Department of Finance was the only one out of 41 departments and State bodies to conduct a PMDS on all its staff last year. The lowest compliance rates were in the Departments of Health and Children and Youth Affairs where just less than half of civil servants had their performance assessed in 2014.

In July the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, said the current ratings scheme would be replaced in 2016 with a new model of performance assessment.

Mr Howlin said the new scheme would be focussed on “identifying excellent performance, leadership potential and underperformance and that encourages regular and constructive feedback.”

He said PMDS would also be integrated with learning and development through focused training for managers on the effective management of performance.

“PMDS places a strong emphasis on individual performance and accountability through the setting of goals and the monitoring of performance,” said Mr Howlin.

The Minister acknowledged that a key challenge across the civil service was the delivery of high performance and to fully engage staff and managers in the management and improvement of performance.