Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. Working Group on Civil Service Author(s) Mariana Dimitrova New Bulgarian University Sofia Bulgaria Title Human resource policy in public administration in the period of crisis: the case of Bulgaria File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract HUMAN RESOURCE POLICY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE PERIOD OF CRISIS: THE CASE OF BULGARIA Assistant Professor Mariana Dimitrova, PhD Centre for Public Administration, New Bulgarian University Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract In periods of economic crisis traditionally the attention and expectations of society are focused on a decrease in public spending of the central governmental bodies, i.e. ministries, agencies and etc. It is considered that ineffective human resources management and the applied policies indirectly could deepen the problems of the real economy and could cause waste of time and resources, including wasted opportunities for launching of adequate governmental measures in response to the crisis consequences. The global economic crisis has forced the governments of the most affected countries (in which budget deficits arose, the banking system collapsed, important enterprises bankrupted massively and unemployment and people relying on social safety nets rose consistently) to undertake urgent, both internal and external reforms, in state administration. In order to make public reforms more successful, the state administration should reform itself. In similar situation the Bulgarian state administration is facing the necessity to respond to the complex expectations of the society, EU institutions and the economic system for rapid reforms. These reforms should comprise changes in the model of state governance, reduction of civil servants, restructuring of the ministries and the agencies, and a cut in whole budget spending for civil service. In the present paper, government measures for reallocation of state expenses for civil servants and the envisaged changes in HR policies for civil service are being presented. They let institutions to adapt to the situation of crisis. Special attention is paid to the staff reduction policy and the policy for restructuring of central administration institutions in the context of ageing of labour force and severe competition for talents with the private sector. The attitudes towards these reforms are being summarized, especially for the period of November 2009 to March 2010, within which most of them should take place as a result of the implementation of the reform package of the newly elected Bulgarian government (since July 2009). Examples of good practices for staff reduction and reallocation of civil servants are presented. An attempt is made to give global estimation of the impact to the civil service system in view of both short and long-run changes in the recruitment and dismissal policy, training and development, reductions in pay for performance and salary reductions. Recommendations for a more effective use of the performance appraisal system are made as a tool for better motivation and engagement of civil servants. At the end of the paper conclusions and recommendations are given for HR policies improvements, which will help to keep and enhance the administrative capacity of civil service in this crisis period. Key words: human resources polices, civil service, crisis measures
