Diversity in the public administration

Description

The National Institute of the Public Administration (INAP) is responsible for the selection of officials for civil service of the Central Government Administration. The data analysed from 2007 to 2011, show:
• There are small numbers of candidates to fill the positions reserved for people with disabilities (which account for 8.9% of the new staff members incorporated during that period)
• Almost 50% of the candidates for medium and higher level positions come from Madrid, which accounts only 14% of the Spanish population
• Over 60% of the active civil servants at medium level positions hold a graduate degree.
• In the case of active officers at the higher levels, a at least 28% of their mothers and 33% of their fathers had already been public sector workers (managers, technicians or ground-level employees).

Against this backdrop INAP would like to transform the public sector to better represent the diversity of the Spanish society.

Target

The challenge is located in Madrid, but the target community is the whole country, with an special emphasis in regions other than Madrid.
Target community: People with disabilities, young people with a bachelor's degree and professionals from the private sector, people from outside Madrid, people with no family ties to the public administration, racial minorities and other. Basically all the groups less present in the public sector.
Part of this challenge is to build that link and attract these target groups toward public service and make them realize that it represents a career opportunity for them.

Competencies

The challenge is part of the Institute's Strategic Plan for 2017-2020, whose objective is to contribute to build a strategic public administration that is sustainable, professional, collaborative, innovative, rigorous, digitalized, permeable, diverse, accountable and committed to ethical values.
The INAP has internally promoted corporate social responsibility initiatives and holds the Bequal Plus quality seal; has developed a Social Responsibility Policy and an Operational Plan for its execution, in collaboration with Be On Diversity, part of the holding company the of the ONCE Foundation. It also periodically publishes a Social Responsibility Report, has launched the INNAP Inserta collection about labor integration in the public sector and has produced a "White Paper on the access and inclusion in the public sector of people with disabilities". All these initiatives were aimed at promoting access to public employment for all the diversity of citizens in conditions of equity.

Innovation

There have been no previous solutions implemented, beyond the dissemination in the press of public employment offers. That is why the INAP is looking for new innovative initiatives.
We hope to obtain (for example):
a) Insights about the career prospects of the target groups and comparative studies with other European countries.
b) Insights about the perceived image of the central public administration and the key elements that shape it.
c) Best practices from other countries and public administration of different tiers of government; and performance data.
d) Tools targeting the the identified groups that help them prepare for the access examination process,
e) Potential redesign of work positions and/or performance criteria for these groups.

Commitment

We also have access to researchers who collaborate with the INAP, with access to the institutions of the academic world (universities and foundations) and with extensive experience in the preparation and publication of studies in matters of public administration, public policy and organizational management, as well as with a solid presence and influence over the Latin American public sector administration. These capacities although not specifically devoted for the present challenge, have contributed significantly to the diagnosis of the problem and to the comparative analysis of the situation in other public administrations. Also, these resources could be used to strengthen the work of the solution providers to expand the scope of the proposed solutions.

We would like to have a follow-up on the results of the possible solutions to be implemented, as well as with comparative data with previous implementations of the solution or the performance indicators that the solution provider has taken into account in its proposal. If the solution has been already applied in other contexts, we would be very interested in organizing activities for the exchange of experiences and inter-administrative cooperation. 

Compliance

Yes, the challenge complies with the established ethical standards and does not raise issues of this nature from the social point of view.
In addition, INAP's Strategic Plan for 2017-2020, as the previous one, articulates the mission, vision and objectives of the institution around values that are present in all its activities: transparency, effective equality, inclusion, diversity, sustainable development, responsibility, representativeness, participation and integrity.
These values also inspire the development of the Service Charters of the INAP, documents which inform citizens about the services offered and of the quality commitments assumed in their provision by the Institute.
Likewise, the Corporate Social Responsibility Plan reflects the commitment of INAP in the application of these values to its internal management activities and its relationship with employees, users, suppliers and other stakeholders.