f. In attracting and rewarding civil servants
Implementing the policy of attracting and rewarding highly qualified and specialized civil servants to work in agencies under and directly under the state reserve sector still faces some difficulties, mainly due to the lack of attractive policies, especially regarding the salary mechanism. Treating talents with an average nature like the current salary regime has not created a strong motivation for stimulating the creative potential of talents. The policy of treating civil servants is not really satisfactory, there is still a leveling in the treatment policy for all components, without distinguishing between talented and non-talented people. In terms of awareness, there is no consensus in identifying talents in the state reserve sector; there is no attractive policy to attract and retain them to serve long-term in the sector.
3.3.4.3. Causes of the eight-fold limitation
Regarding the causes of the shortcomings and limitations affecting the development of the civil servant team of the state reserve sector, the student presented in chapter 3 of the thesis, including two basic factors: subjective factors and objective factors.
* Objective reasons
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The state reserve civil servants are also subject to the same objective impacts as the civil servants nationwide, which can be listed in a number of main causes, mainly as follows:
- A large part of the state reserve civil servants have transferred from the military, or have been recruited according to the sector's planning quotas, and have not been systematically and methodically trained, especially in state management knowledge. The majority of those who have been trained are informal, mainly in-service, specialized, and distance training... Including a significant number of civil servants in the sector who are currently holding leadership and management positions. This is an objective factor that controls and affects the development of the state reserve civil servant team.
- Our country has only really entered the market economy for about 20 years now, along with the transformation of the economy, the team of civil servants in the state reserve sector has only just begun to get acquainted, so they have not yet fully grasped the operating mechanism of the market economy, except for a number of people who have just been trained in market economy management. This reason has affected
greatly affects the quality of the industry's civil servant team, many civil servants appear confused and lacking in knowledge when faced with changes in jobs and positions.
- The process of international integration is taking place rapidly, leading to changes in the functions and tasks of the state administrative apparatus in general, including the state reserve sector in particular; changes in standards for those performing the work... This reason makes the gap between job requirements and the existing capacity of those performing the work tend to be increasingly further apart.
- The lack of uniformity and tightness of the legal system on state civil servants in general and state reserve civil servants in particular is one of the important reasons affecting the development of the civil servant team in the sector in meeting the requirements of current work; integration requirements, modernization requirements of the sector and the country.
- The State is slow to reform the salary policy synchronously to attract and encourage the staff of public employees to work. The salary of public employees is an issue of great significance in terms of economy, politics, society, directly related to people's lives, the state budget, the level of economic development, equity and development orientation of society. There are still shortcomings in the salary regime that is not commensurate with the tasks and contributions of public employees, does not follow the principle of distribution according to labor, and at the same time does not really ensure the reproduction of the expansion of labor force and is consistent with the gradual improvement of living standards in society, so that public employees can feel secure and diligent in their work in their positions in the state apparatus. Currently, the salary policy is really the driving force to promote labor productivity and work efficiency, improving the quality of the staff of public employees; Salary is just a pure expenditure for consumption, not really an important investment for the stability and development of the country, not really an investment in the human factor, the decisive factor of economic and social development.
- Specialized management departments do not have specific guidelines on recruiting civil servants in their management sectors. For example, in addition to general requirements, there must be specific requirements for the sector such as: specialized exam content, standards, etc. This is also a factor affecting the development of the sector's civil servant team.
Some basic limitations due to objective factors affecting the development of the state reserve civil servant team in each field are as follows:
a) Regarding training and development of civil servants:
The system of legal documents regulating training and development is incomplete and inconsistent. The mechanism and policies on training and development of civil servants are not unified. The policies on treatment, use and evaluation are not really based on the capacity to perform public duties, which has reduced the motivation to study and improve the qualifications, dynamism and creativity of civil servants, affecting the effectiveness of training and development activities.
The facilities and equipment of training institutions are still lacking and degraded, not meeting the requirements for scientific research activities. Training programs and documents, although being innovated, have not kept up with the development of science and technology. The quality and effectiveness of training are not high because they only focus on equipping knowledge according to standards of qualifications, positions and titles, but not on equipping skills and working methods.
Regarding training and fostering activities, they are still heavily subsidized and have not changed in time with the new market mechanism, which has failed to encourage and motivate training and fostering institutions to improve and enhance professional quality and teaching methods.
There has not been a competitive mechanism established in general human resource training by attracting academies, universities, and research institutes with capacity to participate in training work; at the same time, creating favorable conditions for the state reserve sector to choose training programs and time appropriate to the requirements of performing tasks.
The content, programs and methods of training and fostering have not yet met the practical requirements of leadership, management and implementation, especially in the field of state management of state reserves in regional state reserve departments. Some training and fostering programs in general are still heavy on theory, scattered, without connection, inheritance, even overlapping in content, lacking practicality, and have not gone into depth in training skills and specialized expertise in state reserves. Therefore, although having been trained and fostered, many people are still confused.
The implementation of tasks and the resolution of practical problems arising in state reserve work are still limited and have not met the requirements of state reserve tasks in the new period.
b) Recruitment of civil servants
In reality, the state reserve sector currently only organizes recruitment exams mainly for specialist positions, equivalent to specialist positions, staff positions, equivalent to staff positions, and warehouse keeper positions. There are no regulations on new recruitment exams for higher positions and some leadership and management positions in agencies under and affiliated to the sector, leading to a narrow scope of competition for appointment to the main specialist, senior specialist or leadership and management positions among state civil servants, and there are no opportunities for new recruitment of civil servants to the main specialist, senior specialist, leadership and management positions. That has somewhat limited the attraction of talented and experienced people to work in agencies of the state reserve sector.
c) On the work of planning civil servant staff
The system of documents on the organization of the state reserve sector is not really complete. The organizational structure is still in the process of being perfected, some places are unreasonable, affecting the operation of the sector. The criteria and procedures for commenting, evaluating, and planning the civil servant team are available but not complete, leading to difficulties in evaluating and planning the civil servant team. Party committees, leaders, especially heads of some agencies and units in the state reserve sector, have not yet had a deep understanding of the work of planning cadres, have not focused properly on directing and implementing this work, so the quality of planning is not high; some Party committees have not closely linked the work of planning cadres with the stages of cadre work, have not developed specific plans to carry out training, fostering, and rotation.
d) On the work of evaluating civil servants
Our Party has had resolutions, decisions, and regulations on personnel work and on cadre evaluation; however, the implementation of these documents depends on the level of attention of leaders with responsibilities and tasks of managing and evaluating civil servants. Regarding the measure and basis for evaluating results and effectiveness of completion
The duties, tasks and actual contributions of civil servants are still not strict and scientific. The standards and criteria for evaluating civil servants are still general, so it is difficult to quantify specifically and evaluate in practice.
d) On the appointment of civil servants
We have regulations on conditions and standards for leadership and management positions, however, some positions are still regulated in general terms, not specific, or the conditions and standards for appointment are not close to reality, there is still a situation of applying or owing the prescribed standards. Some agencies when carrying out appointment procedures do not closely follow the work of planning cadres, the appointment process is still formal.
The regulations on taking a vote of confidence for some key staff conferences do not clearly specify the composition of key staff attending. Therefore, it will be difficult for each agency to determine the scope of key staff attending the conference, which will be different.
e) Regarding the rotation of civil servants
Because the current guidance document on rotation work does not have specific regulations for the state reserve sector, the actual implementation in some agencies in the state reserve sector is still confusing, sometimes the rotated person understands that he is "being" rotated, so the rotation work is sometimes difficult. In fact, there have been some cases of rotation from localities and from other sectors to some state reserve agencies, showing limitations in capacity, qualifications as well as work experience that is not suitable for the leadership and management positions assigned at the transferred unit. Some units in the sector have not fully recognized the position and importance of the rotation of cadres, so the implementation of the rotation policy for training, practice and testing is still limited; in some places, localism, localism and regional culture still exist, so they do not want to rotate cadres from other places to take up leadership and management positions at their units.
f) On policies to attract and treat civil servants
There has been no focus on building a truly objective mechanism and policy on remuneration to discover, nurture and make good use of talented people; some new remuneration policies only compensate for the work effort and do not attract capable and talented people to the state reserve sector or retain capable people working in the sector. Some of the remuneration policies applied such as preferential occupational allowances, hazardous allowances, seniority allowances, and policies to attract people from remote areas... in the market economy are no longer commensurate with the characteristics of the state reserve sector, leading to a situation where capable people have asked to leave the sector, especially those with high professional qualifications.
* Subjective causes
Firstly, the State Reserve sector (General Department of State Reserves) has not yet conducted job analysis.
After the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants was promulgated in 2008, effective from January 1, 2010, the Government has issued relatively complete Decrees guiding the implementation of the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants. However, in reality, the implementation of new regulations of the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants in the state reserve sector is still slow and does not meet requirements. The civil service regime has shifted from a career system to a combination of a career system and a job system, but the determination of job positions as well as the implementation of amendments and supplements to the system of standards for civil servant titles have not been carried out strongly and with unified direction throughout the sector.
Because job analysis has not been conducted, there is no specific job description, leading to duplication, overlap of work or lack of responsibility, and pushing work in the performance of public duties. When civil servants do not clearly understand their work, responsibilities, obligations and rights, the performance of public duties will not be highly effective, and even cause obstacles for those involved in that work. Because of the lack of job analysis, it is not possible to establish criteria for evaluating the level of work completion, leading to the evaluation of the work performance of cadres and civil servants.
The new position is only a nominal, general assessment. Due to the lack of job analysis, the need for training and improving the quality of cadres and civil servants cannot be correctly identified, and it is impossible to recruit competent civil servants who meet the requirements of the job...
There are a few civil servants who have held leadership and management positions for many years, but do not pay attention to studying. The ideology of "settling down" and "peace is precious" also weakens the capacity of civil servants. They do not dare to fight against the wrong and do not dare to protect the right; "easy on others, easy on me".
Second, the use of civil servants in the state reserve sector still has many shortcomings.
The biggest limitation in the use of civil servants that the state reserve sector has encountered over the years is the failure to carry out the key steps: planning, training, and scientific and impartial use. The reality in the state reserve sector shows that these three steps are not closely linked together, and are even separate from each other. The issue of full and serious awareness in the arrangement and use of cadres and civil servants in some agencies of the sector is still limited. In some positions, there are still civil servants with good professional qualifications, management and operational capacity, and good qualities but have not been considered for promotion or appointment to appropriate positions. The phenomenon of assigning tasks contrary to the training profession and not in accordance with the structure, although not common, still exists in some agencies of the sector. Some departments, offices, and affiliated units have not really performed well in their advisory functions to the Party Committee and leaders of the sector on cadre work. The management and use of civil servants in departments, divisions and affiliated units are still loosely disciplined, the inspection, supervision and evaluation of the quality of civil servants' performance are very formal. A number of civil servants are still used to working in the old way, due to the influence of the previous centralized, bureaucratic and subsidized mechanism; their working style is sloppy, their working methods are unscientific, they are passive, waiting, shirking responsibility, and their work handling is still awkward and lacks sensitivity. Even a few civil servants are authoritarian, causing difficulties for the people and customers in the process of handling work.
Research on the current situation of using civil servants in the state reserve sector shows the following shortcomings in each area that need attention:
a) In recruitment
In the past, there were still agency leaders who had limited awareness of the importance of recruiting civil servants, which is the first step in the process of managing and using civil servants in the industry, and is the deciding factor in the good or bad operation of an agency.
b) In planning work
The work of planning the civil servant team subjectively still has weaknesses, such as the construction and implementation of civil servant team planning in some units in the sector is not mainly based on the assessment of the civil servant team, not based on the requirements of tasks and practical capacity of the civil servant team, not linking planning with training, arrangement and use of staff, leading to planning being formal and lacking feasibility.
Assessment and planning are still subjective and emotional, and in some cases, there are also formalities and leniency. Some places have made plans, but there is no training and development plan, so when introducing people in the planning for appointment, they are still passive, not meeting the standards, leading to having to choose people outside the planning. The limitation in the work of planning cadres in many places is that there is still a lack of foresight, and it is limited within each agency.
d) In the evaluation work
The evaluation of civil servants is still formal, not reflecting correctly, not really based on work efficiency and satisfaction level of organizations and people; Evaluation of civil servants is still somewhat emotional and considerate, therefore it is not able to accurately evaluate the capacity level, work completion results and moral qualities, lifestyle of each person. On the other hand, because the standards have not been quantified as well as the job positions have not been described in many organizations and agencies in the sector, the comments and evaluations are still inaccurate.
The spirit of criticism and self-criticism during the evaluation meeting is not high; heads of agencies and units are afraid to express their own opinions and evaluations of their subordinates, and are still respectful, afraid of conflicts, and afraid of losing favor, even when commenting and giving opinions to their superiors. The disease of achievement still exists in some agencies and units, because if the actual evaluation of the unit's civil servants is not achieved with high rankings, it will affect the collective and the prestige of the head.