This report presents insights from 56 980 central administration employees across ten OECD/EU members in 2024, offering a comprehensive overview of factors influencing workforce performance. It explores key areas such as leadership quality, organisational performance, employee engagement, well-being, learning and innovation, and working arrangements. Serving as a valuable resource for policymakers, organisational leaders, and human resource professionals, this report aims to foster a resilient and high-performing public sector workforce. By highlighting common challenges and successful practices, it provides actionable insights to support continuous improvement across public administrations, which in turn can lead to better public policies and services for the citizens.
This report was coordinated by Ayeesha Abbasi and Nina Handlos Thomassen under the guidance of Daniel Gerson and Natalia Nolan Flecha, senior project managers in the Public Management and Budgeting division of the OECD Public Governance Directorate, which is led by Elsa Pilichowski, Director. Jón Blöndal, Head of Division, and Andrew Blazey, Deputy Head of Division provided strategic oversight.
Ayeesha Abbasi and Nina Handlos Thomassen drafted Chapter 1 ‘Overview’, Nina Handlos Thomassen and Omer Faruk Metin drafted Chapter 2 ‘Employee engagement and well-being’, Ayeesha Abbasi drafted Chapter 3 ‘Team and organisational performance’, Nina Handlos Thomassen and Ayeesha Abbasi drafted Chapter 4 ‘Leadership and management’, Ayeesha Abbasi drafted Chapter 5 ‘Learning, development, and innovation’, Nina Handlos Thomassen drafted Chapter 6 ‘Pay, working conditions and remote working arrangements’. Supporting technical documentation (Annex A) was drafted by Nina Handlos Thomassen, Manuela Sánchez Parra and Ayeesha Abbasi. Data visualisations and statistical support was provided by Manuela Sanchez Parra and Ömer Faruk Metin.
Santiago Gonzales, Lech Marcinkowski, Toby Baker, Angela Hanson, Piret Tonurist, Alana Baker provided valuable feedback. The report also benefitted from extensive feedback from the project’s advisory group comprised of public officials from the eight project countries as well as the two observer countries, and the European Commission SG REFORM, Cristina Luchici and Mina Shoylekova. The report was prepared for publication by Meral Gedik.
The project was funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the OECD, in co-operation with the European Commission.