Recruitment and selection are central to building professional, merit-based civil services, directly shaping workforce quality and organisational performance. This regional workshop on strengthening civil service recruitment and selection brought together senior civil servants from EU Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood administrations to exchange experience and identify practical reform actions.
Drawing on evidence and international practice presented in the SIGMA paper on civil service recruitment and selection, the event explored how administrations can modernise their approaches in response to evolving skill needs, labour-market competition and technological change. Discussions focused on key areas such as workforce planning, candidate attraction strategies, effective and fair selection methods, and the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence.
Through peer exchange, case studies and structured dialogue, participants were supported in identifying feasible, context-specific improvements to their systems. The workshop ultimately aimed to strengthen evidence-based practice and generated concrete, actionable reform priorities across participating administrations.
