This chapter outlines a strategic approach to unlocking the potential of the workforce in Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA). The chapter begins with an overview of the current situation at the NEA and the challenges it faces in terms of its human resources and organisation. It then presents three key pillars – staff allocation, staff development, and the creation of a high-performance human resource system – that are essential to building a high-performing, adaptable, and impact-driven workforce. Together, these pillars form a strategic framework aiming to unlock internal potential and enabling the NEA to deliver its mandate more effectively.
Optimising Processes and Services at Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency
Abstract
Reform of Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) operating model cannot be fully realised without addressing workforce and internal organisational issues, as these factors directly influence operational efficiency, alignment with strategic goals, and the agency’s capacity to adapt to evolving challenges. A strong, agile workforce and an effective internal structure are foundational to the successful implementation of any broader organisational change. This chapter is organised into four sections. The first section briefly discusses the current situation, outlining the strengths and challenges the NEA is currently facing in its workforce and organisational setup. These are also summarised in Table 2.1 below.
Source: Authors’ compilation.
The remaining sections focus on three key pillars of the NEA – staff allocation, staff development, and operational procedures. Section 2.3 explores how better workforce design can enhance efficiency and impact. It discusses workforce allocation related issues – ensuring that the right people are matched with roles based on their competencies, labour market needs and the agency’s strategic priorities. It also discusses task distribution and role specialisation, both of which are essential to reduce redundancy and enhance productivity. Section 2.4 focuses on capacity building, emphasising the need to equip the NEA workforce with the tools and skills to address the emerging needs. It covers targeted training and upskilling, especially in the areas of technology and data interpretation, as well as the importance of mentoring and coaching to strengthen institutional knowledge and professional growth. The final section 2.5 highlights the framework conditions required for sustained excellence. This includes fostering a change-ready culture, promoting intra- and inter-agency collaboration, and adopting flexible work modalities. It also underscores the need for performance management practices that prioritise measurable results, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Taken together, these three sections provide a comprehensive framework for building a more high-performing, adaptable, and impact-driven workforce within the NEA, able to focus on high-value tasks, for improved service delivery and capacity to support the agency’s strategic objectives. This framework, comprised of three core pillars, is illustrated in Figure Although each pillar is discussed independently, it is important to recognise their potential interdependence, as changes in one area may influence the other two areas. It is important to note though, that these efforts must be supported by adequate resources available to the NEA, including additional staff and particularly counsellors as well as sufficient funding for ALMPs, to ensure that staff capabilities can translate into meaningful and sustained outcomes.
Source: Authors’ compilation.
This section provides an overview of the current workforce-related processes at the NEA and the challenges it faces, with respect to its functions, offices distribution, workforce composition, specialisation and caseload management, staff training and performance assessments as well as internal communication and co‑ordination practices. The NEA has many foundational strengths – dedicated and qualified staff, strong communication practices, and broad regional reach, among others. However, regional caseload disparities, inconsistent specialisation, training shortcomings, and underdeveloped performance metrics limit the agency’s effectiveness.
2.2.1. The NEA serves its clients through diverse functions and an office network of broad coverage
The NEA, an executive agency under the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), is responsible for implementing Bulgaria’s national employment policy. Its core functions include job placement, employment mediation, development and implementation of employment and training measures, and engaging with employers. While the NEA does not process unemployment benefits – which fall under the responsibility of the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) – jobseekers can submit claims through the NEA, which simplifies administrative processes.
The NEA has extensive national coverage through 106 local labour offices, supported by branch offices and mobile units. The office distribution – ranging between one and six per region – reflects regional differences in population size, density, and economic conditions, aims to reach even the most remote populations, particularly in areas with high unemployment and limited access to transport or digital services. A 2024 restructuring of the agency has helped shift staff from dissolved regional offices to strengthen capacity of the local labour offices and reduce bureaucracy for the NEA’s clients.
In terms of communication, the NEA benefits from frequent, multi-channel communication between local and central offices – including virtual weekly meetings, regular phone calls and periodic in-person events. These exchanges are crucial for transmitting central guidance and implementing adjustments based on local feedback. However, the intensity of these interactions can be excessive and, at times, inefficient.
2.2.2. NEA staff are highly skilled, but high caseloads and limited specialisation pose challenges for some local labour offices
The NEA employs around 2 300 staff, predominantly women, highly educated, and within prime working age.1 Most NEA staff (62%) hold expert positions with analytical and/or control functions,2 23% hold support functions carrying out administrative tasks and assisting staff with expert positions, and 14% hold management positions. Local labour offices comprise two main types of jobs: NEA counsellors working directly with jobseekers and employers, and staff tasked with verifying the eligibility of employers and jobseekers wishing to participate in subsidised employment programmes and training measures. In addition to these two main functions, there are staff members responsible for back-office tasks (such as IT infrastructure and finance), although their numbers are much smaller.
More than 50% of the NEA’s staff serve as counsellors. While the caseload per counsellor has been relatively stable over the last years and the national average of 115 jobseekers per counsellor aligns with EU standards, some local labour offices continue to face disproportionately high and overwhelming workloads (European Commission, 2016[1]) . For instance, in November 2023, counsellors in the top 10% of local labour offices by caseload handled a median of 195 visits per month, compared to 113 visits in the median office and just 61 in the bottom 10% of offices (Figure 2.2.). These differences in visit volume do not necessarily reflect significant variations in client profiles across offices. Nevertheless, these imbalances point to the need for more standardised staff allocation and prioritisation of high-burden offices when filling vacancies.
Caseload per counsellor
Source: OECD calculations based on Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) microdata.
In addition to managing a high volume of clients – many of whom require tailored and comprehensive assistance, counsellors face heavy workloads due to multitasking, technical inefficiencies, and manual processes, all of which contribute to administrative overload and limit the time available for meaningful engagement with jobseekers and employers (Table 2.2).
Note: “Approximate time spent on a specific task (as a % of total working time)”: In the questionnaire, respondents could indicate the share of their working time spent on each of these tasks. For respondents for whom the total of the tasks was superior or inferior to 100%, the corresponding share was re-scaled so that the total matches 100%. “Share of NEA frontline staff for whom the task is among the tasks that take most of their time”: Share of respondents who did not attribute a higher share of working time to any other task.
Source: OECD staff survey among about 600 Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) frontline staff.
While the NEA allows for a certain degree of flexibility in staff organisation to support local adaptability, the lack of systematic specialisation may undermine the effectiveness of tailored services. Currently, half of the NEA’s counsellors are generalists, while the other half specialise in supporting vulnerable groups – particularly the long-term unemployed (34%), youth (28%), and individuals with disabilities (26%), with many counsellors specialising in more than one area. What is more, the distinction between general and specialised counsellors is not always strict, as NEA frontline staff including specialised counsellors do not exclusively work with vulnerable groups. For instance, youth experts and counsellors specialised on long-term unemployed people devote about one quarter of their meetings to clients belonging to these groups. This contrasts with the majority of EU countries, as the NEA is among the handful of PES in the European Union where counsellors are not specifically assigned to particular client groups (European Commission, 2024[2]).
In practice, meetings with jobseekers from vulnerable groups are often conducted by counsellors who specialise in supporting their specific needs; however, the matching of vulnerable clients with specialised counsellors is not systematic. For example, in 2023, only 43% of meetings with jobseekers under 30 were conducted by counsellors qualified as youth experts, and just 44% of meetings with the long-term unemployed involved specialised staff. The remaining meetings were handled by general counsellors. This gap is partly due to the flexible way counsellors in the local labour offices organise their work, often adjusting responsibilities based on workload. Another reason is the limited availability of specialised counsellors in some local offices. Indeed, there is significant variation across local labour offices, with some facing much higher ratios of vulnerable jobseekers to specialised staff than others (Figure 2.3).
Young jobseekers and long-term unemployed jobseekers in relation to the number of specialised counsellors, by local NEA office
Source: OECD calculations based on Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) microdata.
2.2.3. Irregular training and insufficient skills development strategies and performance metrics hinder staff effectiveness
Training is largely limited to more recently hired staff, as the NEA has recently started to increasingly invest in staff skills development. Nevertheless, access to training and skills development opportunities is not consistent.
Staff performance is assessed twice a year through mid-term and end-of-year reviews, primarily based on feedback from their direct supervisor. While performance indicators are calculated at the national and local labour office levels, there are no individual-level objective performance metrics limiting the ability of the NEA to track and reward employee effectiveness.
While the NEA has introduced a range of financial and non-financial measures to improve staff well-being, flexible workplace practices are currently missing.
As the NEA continues to evolve, it must ensure that workforce structures – including how staff are allocated, how tasks are distributed, and how roles are specialised – are strategically aligned with both organisational goals and the diverse needs of the NEA clients. Refining the structure of the workforce based on data – such as caseload levels, regional service demands, and staff skill profiles – can improve service efficiency and quality by enabling more balanced staff allocation, targeted training, and consistent delivery standards across all NEA’s local labour offices.
To support this, the NEA should aim to standardise workflows, service delivery methods, and operational tools across its local offices. Doing so would help reduce regional disparities in service quality and ensure that all jobseekers, employers and other NEA clients receive equitable and effective support, regardless of where they access services.
Rather than relying solely on current caseload figures, the NEA’s decisions should also take into account anticipated future needs, by monitoring labour market trends and assessing the complexity of client profiles. Allocations must be reviewed regularly and adjusted based on data, field experience, and staff feedback. Within this context, the NEA could consider establishing a dedicated Strategic Change team or department reporting directly to the Executive Director’s office, with a mandate to identify challenges across all operational areas and provide strategic recommendations for changes in the NEA’s development management model to ensure continuous organisational effectiveness and long-term adaptability.
2.3.1. Caseload variations and unequal staff distribution across local labour offices call for better staff allocation, including by pooling resources across local offices on a virtual basis
Efficient workforce allocation is the foundation of any high-performing organisation. At the NEA, ongoing efforts to assess workloads and adjust staff distribution mark a critical step towards ensuring that human capabilities are strategically aligned with service needs.
While the NEA’s approach to ensure accessible services nationwide is already a positive step, it is important that the NEA conducts periodic reviews of its local office distribution. These reviews should take into account the evolving demographic and economic landscape to ensure that the agency’s office network remains efficient, responsive, and aligned with current needs. The NEA should also ensure that staffing levels across local offices are closely aligned with regional labour market dynamics and seasonal fluctuations. This involves not only adjusting staff numbers based on client volume but also tailoring staff qualifications to local needs. Certain regions may require more specialised expertise due to the presence of specific industries, economic conditions, or the characteristics of the jobseeker population. For example, areas with high turnover or seasonal demand in sectors like services may need flexible staffing arrangements to respond effectively.
Before implementing any new measures or expanding services, it needs to be first assessed whether sufficient and qualified personnel are available to meet demand and take action to address any shortcomings that are identified. This would safeguard both the quality and quantity of services provided to NEA clients, avoid overburdening existing staff while ensuring a sustainable and responsive service model. Regularly gathering and integrating staff feedback into these decisions helps ensure that adjustments are responsive, data-informed, and rooted in on-the-ground realities.
While regular communication is essential for successful operations, the NEA should ensure that staff meetings across different levels are purpose-driven and scheduled at regular intervals, such as once a month, or as needed for special circumstances, to ensure efficiency without unnecessary frequency. The NEA could also consider leveraging digital tools to streamline routine communication and facilitate the exchange of experiences and good practices among staff. This would also free up time allowing staff to focus more on frontline services.
This caseload variation among offices calls for a reconsideration of the distribution of NEA staff and particularly counsellors across local offices to ensure equitable access to services nationwide. Local offices with high caseloads should be prioritised when funding for additional staff is allocated, to maintain uniform and high-quality service provision.
Furthermore, the NEA should address the issue of staff multitasking, as extensive administrative duties of frontline staff significantly limit the time available for client support. This can be done by streamlining processes, including through the use of digital tools for administrative tasks, delineating staff responsibilities and allocating roles. For example, the NEA could consider establishing employer counsellors as a distinct and separate job role focusing exclusively on understanding employer needs and supporting them as needed, as is the case in many other European PES (see also Chapter 4). Employing other specialised roles to handle challenging cases or certain jobseeker groups, such as specialist counsellors to serve people with disabilities or psychologists, can further enhance the effectiveness of client support (e.g., PES in Austria, Netherlands, Latvia, etc.). The adoption of digital tools can significantly ease the burden from PES staff by automating and streamlining many of their routine administrative tasks, allowing them to focus more on their primary responsibilities, particularly counselling (see Chapter 6 for a detailed discussion on this topic).
As mentioned, the NEA's strict educational requirements translate into highly qualified staff. However, a shortage of qualified candidates for positions such as IT and data experts persists, partly due to the NEA's limited ability to offer salaries competitive with the private sector. This recruitment challenge is likely to continue unless there is a broader shift in public sector recruitment practices.
2.3.2. Optimising distribution of tasks can enhance efficiency of NEA’s workforce
Beyond staffing levels, the way tasks are organised and allocated plays a key role in overall efficiency and service quality. Efficient task distribution reduces duplication, clarifies roles, and ensures no critical function is overlooked. This is particularly important in the NEA context, where local labour offices vary widely in size, capacity, and workload. By redesigning task flows – so that administrative burdens, client-facing responsibilities, and specialised functions are clearly allocated – teams can function more cohesively, reduce stress, and improve job satisfaction, as staff understand how their efforts contribute to broader organisational goals.
A key starting point is the clear separation between administrative and client-facing responsibilities. Many counsellors are currently burdened with routine administrative tasks such as data entry (which is often manual and, in many cases, must be repeated multiple times), appointment scheduling, filling out referral letters, receiving employer receipts and other administrative duties. This reduces the time available for meaningful client-facing activities. Delegating some of these duties to administrative support staff would allow counsellors to focus more fully on guidance and counselling work, where their expertise is most needed.
Introducing multi-tiered team structures could further increase efficiency. For example, junior staff might manage initial screenings or standardised follow-ups, freeing up more experienced counsellors to concentrate on complex or high-priority cases. This approach not only improves task flow but also builds a pipeline for staff development and succession planning.
Standardising task allocation across offices can also reduce inconsistencies and promote equity in workloads. While local flexibility should be preserved, a common task allocation framework – with clear guidelines on who handles what – would help ensuring a more uniform approach while still allowing for regional adaptation.
Digital workflow tools offer another avenue for improvement. Simple dashboards or task management systems can support real-time co-ordination, help prioritise caseloads and prevent key steps from being missed in the service process. Such tools are especially valuable in high-volume or understaffed offices.
While specialisation and clarity are essential, maintaining some level of flexibility through cross-training and occasional staff rotation can help offices respond more effectively to peak demand periods or staff absences. This also fosters a more holistic understanding of the employment service system among staff.
Finally, to maintain alignment between responsibilities and actual service demands, the NEA should conduct regular reviews of task assignments. For example, quarterly reviews at the local level, informed by staff feedback and performance data, could help identify imbalances and enable timely adjustments.
2.3.3. Strengthening role specialisation of NEA counsellors to improve support for vulnerable, high-need groups
As the complexity of jobseeker profiles and needs continue to evolve, role specialisation becomes increasingly important. The NEA’s general counsellors often face constraints in both time and expertise, especially when working with harder-to-place clients such as individuals with low education levels, disabilities or long-term unemployment histories. These groups often require more tailored, intensive, and expert support than general counsellors can realistically provide.
To address this, the NEA should ensure that dedicated specialised counsellors are available within its network of local labour offices. In larger offices, where the volume of clients justifies it, counsellors could be assigned to specific vulnerable groups – such as youth, persons with disabilities, or individuals facing long-term unemployment. These dedicated roles would allow for deeper expertise, more consistent support, and improved service outcomes. It would also enable counsellors to maintain more personalised contact with each jobseeker – an essential element in building trust and engagement, particularly for the most vulnerable clients. Indeed, a staff survey conducted among NEA frontline staff as part of this project, indicated strong support for greater specialisation, with many respondents suggesting that dedicated teams - working solely with employers or focused on certain jobseeker groups - would enhance efficiency and streamline operations.
In regions with offices where full-time specialisation is not feasible, the NEA could consider establishing regional specialist hubs. These hubs would serve smaller and remote offices and could include mobile teams or remote-access counsellors. This model would ensure that specialised support is still accessible even in areas with limited resources or lower client volumes.
Digital solutions can also play a key role in extending the reach of specialist services. Virtual labour offices, online counselling sessions, and group-based digital interventions – such as webinars or targeted training content – can offer tailored support regardless of physical location. This would be particularly useful for jobseekers with mobility challenges or those in underserved regions.
Where full specialisation is not possible within a local labour office, improving internal referral systems would be needed to allow for more efficient service delivery. Complex or high-need cases could be referred to trained specialists within the same office for additional support, ensuring that clients receive the right level of attention without overwhelming general counsellors. This approach promotes partial specialisation while maintaining accessibility.
Finally, monitoring and evaluating outcomes by client segment could provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of specialisation. Comparing results between counselling services provided by general or specialised counsellors would help the NEA identifying where targeted support adds the most value and inform future investments in staff roles and training.
Staffing decisions can be supported using a structured staffing matrix that captures more than just headcount, but also caseload complexity, workforce specialisation, regional and seasonal variations, and capacity gaps. An illustrative example of such a matrix is shown in Table 2.3 with sample data. To enhance its utility, the matrix can be enriched with local labour market intelligence, such as: regional unemployment rates, disaggregated by key groups (e.g. youth, women, long-term unemployed), the vacancy-to-jobseeker ratio as a measure of labour market tightness, top hiring or growing sectors (e.g. tourism, IT, agriculture), and emerging skill gaps and employer feedback, along with insights from engagement with local businesses and other stakeholders. Incorporating a risk indicator (e.g. Red/Yellow/Green) can help flag local offices under pressure or at risk of declining service quality. Tracking trends over time, such as changes in average caseloads over six months, can also provide early signals of rising demand.
Creating a dashboard layout to visualise the staffing matrix alongside labour market data can make it easier for decision-makers to interpret key insights. This includes:
Staffing Adjustments: Identifying regions or/and offices with gaps for targeted recruitments or reallocations.
Training Needs: Highlighting offices needing targeted staff development and training.
Resource Allocation: Guiding resource distribution to high-demand regions or/and offices.
Long-Term Strategic Goals: Informing planning for areas like youth-focused services in high-unemployment regions.
Source: Authors’ compilation.
Skills development is key for the NEA’s transformation. As labour market conditions and therefore the needs of the workforce evolve rapidly and technological advancements continue to reshape industries, it is essential to prioritise continuous learning and job-specific skill development to ensure the NEA staff can keep pace with changing needs and with the latest practices and trends. Capacity building, in conjunction with mentoring and professional development opportunities, would also contribute to job satisfaction and reducing staff turnover.
2.4.1. While the NEA has begun investing in staff training, continuous training for all should remain a top priority to ensure up-to-date skills
The NEA should adopt a proactive approach to identifying current skill gaps and forecasting future demands. It should then provide staff training that is tailored to specific job roles and aligned with the agency’s mission and long-term objectives. The high formal qualifications of NEA staff already provide a strong foundation for delivering high-quality services to clients and this already signals that staff may find it easier to adapt and learn new skills. Even though the NEA has recently increased its investment in staff training, staff consistently cite the need for additional training as a top priority for improving the agency’s operating model. Indeed, most of the increase has been oriented towards new staff, and it is key to develop also the skills of long-term staff – especially in light of the digital transformation (see Chapter 6). NEA staff also expressed a preference for short, focused sessions – i.e. half day – delivered throughout the year, as compared to one-off lengthy trainings.
Training should be flexible, with both some horizonal training and more tailored technical training depending on the roles and needs (e.g., leadership development, etc.). Part of the staff training should also focus to address challenges arising from new developments, such as the digital and green transitions (as has been done, for example, by the PES in Sweden, Lithuania, Austria, France and Slovenia). Regional training needs also vary and therefore training should also reflect local priorities and challenges. To support the development of specialisation, the NEA could introduce formal training pathways for counsellors. These could include certifications or modules focused on supporting specific client groups, such as persons with disabilities, NEET youth, or refugees. Additionally, given the NEA counsellor numbers and caseloads, it would be useful to provide tailored training to general counsellors too, to ensure they are equipped to effectively support a diverse range of clients, including those with more complex or specialised requirements. This could include in-depth training on key topics such as inclusion, disability, and other critical areas.
A comprehensive training programme for all new staff would ensure that staff are better equipped to meet the challenges of their roles, especially if designed and delivered in collaboration with a higher education institution such as a university or business school (as done, for example, by the PES in Sweden – see Box 2.2 – as well as in Greece and Norway).3 To develop a comprehensive training programme, it would be important to gather feedback and insights from staff regarding the topics that would be most beneficial to their daily operations. An online survey could be used to collect this information. While such a training might initially target new employees, it should quickly be expanded to existing staff, depending on the needs identified through the survey. This programme should be updated taking into account the latest development as well as feedback from staff who had received it to ensure that it always remain relevant and useful to the needs of NEA staff.
In today’s data-driven world, capacity building should also include using new tools and fostering data literacy across all levels of the workforce. The NEA is currently in the process of updating their IT infrastructure and introducing new digital and AI-based tools. Training staff on using these new tools and get the maximum out of their usage is key. Only if the staff can remain afloat with technological improvements, the potential of technology can be fully leveraged. In addition, the ability to read, interpret, and act on data is essential – not only for specialised analysts, but also for managers and frontline workers who make daily operational decisions. This empowers employees to contribute meaningfully to evidence-based decision-making, track their own progress, and align their actions with measurable outcomes. It is also key with respect to guiding both jobseekers and employers, as reading and interpreting labour market data especially at the local level is important to be able to counsel people who may not have access to this information.
The Swedish PES – provides a mandatory introductory training programme to newly hired managers and employees, as part of their onboarding process. This comprehensive programme covers a wide array of topics4 aimed at equipping new staff with the knowledge, skills and tools to fulfil their duties as public sector officials. It also provides information on the mission of the PES while gaining a clear understanding of the expectations and responsibilities associated with staff roles as civil servants within the Swedish government and public administration. A part of this training programme focuses on environmentally sustainable development (see also Chapter 5 on green transition initiatives). The programme combines in-person courses with online learning for a flexible, blended learning experience. Following the onboarding programme, employees participate in more role-specific training programmes.
In addition, several initiatives have been introduced to strengthen the digital skills of the PES staff in line with the evolving demands of the digital economy. These include a dedicated digital unit that that provides targeted training as well as a European Social Fund (ESF)-funded project, called "Democratic Digitalisation", focused on building digital competencies for PES staff who work directly with clients on a daily basis (OECD, 2023[3]). Additionally, the PES provides in-house coaching to support staff’s individual development.
The Swedish PES has also developed a comprehensive approach to training its staff on the green transition. One key component of the mandatory introductory training programme for all new employees focuses on environmentally sustainable development. This segment introduces new employees to regulations on environmental management within the public sector, the objectives of the Swedish PES related to the green transition, and how these objectives contribute to the national environmental goals set by the government. This part of the training also aims at fostering general awareness of the green transition in the daily work and provides guidance on how to act to strengthen sustainability in the labour market. The PES also hosts an annual event, the “Sustainability Week”, where staff participate in seminars and workshops on various sustainability aspects and the 2030 Agenda. The 2024 three-day program featured awareness-raising sessions on the green transition in the north of Sweden and discussions on taxonomies for labelling green occupations (Lauringson, Pantelaiou and Westlake, 2025[4]).
As part of its efforts to integrate sustainability across the entire agency, the PES provides a comprehensive training sessions for its staff. These training sessions cover key topics such as environmentally sustainable development, gender equality, diversity and inclusion, and compliance with the Swedish Anti-Discrimination Act. Basic sustainability training is delivered through e-learning for all employees, while advanced sessions are tailored for specific roles, such as procurement specialists.
2.4.2. Mentorship and "train-the-trainer" programmes can help transfer knowledge from experienced to newer NEA staff
Mentorship and coaching are powerful, yet often underleveraged, tools for capacity building. While formal training programmes can deliver foundational knowledge and skills, mentorship and coaching programmes can support nuanced development of judgment, confidence, and culture-specific know-how, providing significant benefits, particularly for newer employees. Structured mentoring programmes – pairing emerging talent with experienced professionals – not only accelerate personal growth but also create stronger interpersonal connections within the organisation. Coaching, whether by managers or external facilitators, can help individuals clarify their goals, reflect on performance, and navigate complex challenges. This approach would not only enhance employee performance but also strengthen teamwork and knowledge-sharing across the organisation with minimal resources.
Where training to counsellors to support a diverse range of clients, especially those with more complex or specialised requirements, is not possible, implementing train-the-trainer workshops would enable counsellors to pass their specialised knowledge on to their peers, fostering a broader understanding of these horizontal topics and ensuring that all staff are equipped to support clients with diverse needs effectively (as pursued, for example, by the PES in Germany).
More generally, sharing good practices among staff across various areas would also be valuable. This can be done either by putting together a manual with good practices and disseminated across all local labour offices or/and by setting up a dedicated digital environment on NEA’s intranet where staff would have the opportunity to interact and exchange.
A reform-oriented mindset is steadily taking root within the NEA, laying the foundation for meaningful institutional change. However, lasting success will depend on the agency’s ability to embrace change with confidence and agility. Among the benefits of strengthened intra- and inter-agency collaboration is accelerated innovation and problem-solving. Reformed working arrangements could lead to greater flexibility and responsiveness. At the same time, aligning performance management and incentives with real impact will enhance accountability and help advance the NEA’s strategic goals.
2.5.1. A reform-oriented mindset is being cultivated within the NEA, but lasting success requires embracing change with confidence
Sustainable change within the NEA hinges not only on operational reforms but also on fostering a culture that is open, adaptable, and resilient. A change-ready culture requires building trust – both within the agency and with external stakeholders – and rethinking the system. A need to make the NEA more visible and appealing to the general public, particularly jobseekers and employers who may not fully understand the support it can offer, is apparent. As large-scale transformations such as digitalisation are introduced, uncertainty and hesitation are natural responses. To navigate this, the agency must engage in clear communication, inclusive planning, and provide adequate support to both staff and its clients. Effective prioritisation and well-structured implementation plans are crucial for ensuring reforms are not only executed efficiently but also embedded sustainably. Maintaining reform momentum beyond initial design and implementation will be critical to achieving lasting and sustained impact.
2.5.2. Intra and inter-agency collaboration can help the NEA
As NEA counsellors increasingly encounter the complex realities of jobseekers – especially those facing social and health-related challenges – the limitations of a siloed approach become clear. Many of these needs fall outside the counsellors’ expertise or the agency’s direct mandate, underscoring the urgent need for stronger inter-agency collaboration. Building effective referral systems and providing counsellors with targeted training to navigate cross-sectoral issues are foundational steps toward this goal. At the same time, leveraging partnerships with key external stakeholders – including ministries, local authorities, and social security institutions – is essential to creating a more integrated, holistic service delivery model. Clear communication, shared protocols, and co-ordinated case management can enhance both efficiency and the overall user experience, particularly for vulnerable groups who rely on multiple forms of support.
2.5.3. Rethinking working arrangements to enhance flexibility
The nature of work within the NEA is evolving, and so too must its internal practices. By modernising work models and investing in professional growth, the NEA can foster a more adaptive and motivated workforce ready to meet emerging challenges.
Currently, there is a lack of remote work options and flexible working hours at the NEA. This restricts the ability to adjust to changing workloads and accommodate employees' personal needs, potentially affecting productivity and work-life balance. Following the example of other PES, the NEA could embrace flexible working arrangements such as remote work, hybrid arrangements, and agile team structures, making use of modern communication tools and platforms.5 Enhancing flexibility in working conditions, along with strengthening skills development opportunities, could improve staff effectiveness and morale, while promoting better work-life balance and ensuring service continuity during periods of disruption. It could also help improve employee retention, as the current turnover rate is currently modest at around 10%.6 Before implementing these arrangements, the NEA could carry out a survey among its staff to gather insights into their preferences for the number of days to work from home versus in the office (as done, for example, by the PES in Flanders, Belgium).
Professional development opportunities are also important since they can improve staff expertise in key areas such as case management, communication, digital competencies and emerging topics like digital and green transitions. Providing accessible pathways for growth – whether through training, job rotation, or leadership development – signals a commitment to both individual and institutional advancement. Professional development opportunities – in conjunction with continuous training and mentoring – would also contribute to job satisfaction and reducing staff turnover, as NEA staff would have the opportunity to deepen their skills and take on more impactful roles within the organisation (as pursued again, for example, by the PES in Flanders, Belgium and the PES in Korea).
2.5.4. Performance and incentives aligned with impact can drive accountability and support the NEA’s strategic goals
For the NEA to truly unlock its staff’s potential, performance management must evolve beyond simply meeting national and local targets that is currently the case, and instead focus on driving meaningful outcomes and recognising individual contributions. This means aligning individual outputs with organisational goals through clear metrics that reflect the actual workload, case complexity, and contribution of each staff member. Current efforts to improve performance assessment and the use of financial and non-financial incentives are steps in the right direction. However, these systems must be continually refined to ensure fairness, transparency, and motivational value. Well-calibrated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), tied to both efficiency and impact, would help foster a sense of purpose and accountability. Recognition -whether through formal awards, peer acknowledgement, or career advancement – serves as a powerful incentive for continued excellence and innovation.
Introducing measurable performance metrics at the individual level such as caseloads, referrals to ALMPs, and job placement success rates, would significantly enhance accountability and the ability to assess and reward individual effectiveness. These metrics could also serve as powerful incentives for improved outcomes, encouraging staff to focus on results. Moreover, tracking such data would help the NEA to identify specific training needs, enabling more targeted professional development and ultimately leading to more effective service delivery and better outcomes for clients.
Going further along these lines, the NEA could establish a set of performance indicators and clear targets for staff at the national level – both as averages and specific to individual roles – that cover the entire service delivery process and can serve as benchmarks. These indicators and targets could be identified through a feasibility analysis, considering factors such as labour market conditions, the capacity of the agency, the availability of financial resources, target groups, the NEA’s strategic priorities as well as previous performance results (following the examples of the PES in Sweden and Estonia and the Flemish PES in Belgium, among others). Targets could be further broken down into the local level to ensure that they are tailored to the specific needs and challenges of different areas. Customer satisfaction targets can be consistent and uniform nationwide. The NEA staff can play a key role on the target setting by providing valuable feedback on the proposed indicators and targets, in order to ensure that they are linked with actual performance, realistic and attainable. Performance management practices rely heavily on the use of digital and online tools such as dashboards, performance indicator trackers, target-setting and monitoring systems, as well as performance review sheets. Simplified dashboards with a quick overview of key indicators and their evolution can be provided to the NEA’s top management, as well as the MLSP.
References
[2] European Commission (2024), Annual Report 2023, https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=27376&langId=en.
[5] European Commission (2021), PES practices database, MyDYPAlive: Tele-counselling services to jobseekers and employers, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1206&langId=en (accessed on 30 October 2024).
[1] European Commission (2016), Assessment report on PES capacity – 2016, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, ICON-INSTITUT and Peters, M., https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5407aa8d-e13a-11e6-ad7c-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
[4] Lauringson, A., I. Pantelaiou and E. Westlake (2025), “The pivotal role of active labour market policies and public employment services in the green transition”, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 321, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/94710fbe-en.
[3] OECD (2023), “Organisation of public employment services at the local level in Sweden”, OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers, No. 2023/03, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/24edca19-en.
← 1. 84% of the staff and individuals aged 30-59 making up 87%. This highlights a significant underrepresentation of men and younger workers. Additionally, the majority of NEA staff hold at least university degrees (17% bachelor’s degree and 69% master’s degree), reflecting the agency’s demanding hiring criteria, as civil servant positions are only open to candidates with university qualifications.
← 2. These include frontline roles such as chief, senior and junior experts, as well as legal consultants, financial controllers, system administrators, information security staff, and European project and programme managers.
← 3. In April 2024, the Greek PES launched a 200-hour training programme for 1 000 job counsellors, in partnership with the University of Athens. The programme combines theory and practice to strengthen counsellors' ability to support jobseekers and employers. Counsellors have been also trained to read and use the dashboards of the Labour Market Diagnosis Mechanism, a tool for monitoring and analysing labour market trends as well as to myDYPAlive platform, a tool offering tele-counselling services to jobseekers and employers, particularly benefiting people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups (European Commission, 2021[5]).
← 4. Topics include employee responsibilities and managerial roles, sustainability with a focus on environmentally sustainable development, equal treatment in accordance with the Swedish Discrimination Act, public sector core values, information security, and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additional areas include recordkeeping and information management, public access and confidentiality, disclosure of official documents, bribery prevention, conflict of interest management, and adherence to the rule of law.
← 5. Over the longer term, the NEA could consider offering additional support options for staff, such as providing access to mental health consultations or wellness programs to address stress management and work-life balance.
← 6. Staff turnover is defined as the percentage of total employees who leave an organisation over the course of a year, regardless of the reason – including retirement, voluntary resignation, redundancy, and other exits.