FAS Russia best practice of measuring employees' professional performance in regional offices

Abstract

Given the optimization of staffing levels provisioned by the Government of the Russian Federation, rational use of human resources is currently one of the main challenges for public authorities. In the context of limited funding, all public institutions should concentrate on the creation of a transparent, clear and fair rewarding mechanism based on the employees' performance. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), represented by 84 Regional Offices located in every constituent of the Russian Federation, should play an important role in this process The article represents pilot project by FAS Russia aimed at the development and implementation of a unified professional performance measuring system. The project has started in 2014 and currently covers more than twenty Regional Offices. Performance evaluation methods described in the paper has been developed in a close cooperation with the Regional Offices and successfully tested in 2015. As such during first two stages of the pilot project of 2014 - 2015, FAS Russia developed its own set of performance indicators, which has been later tailored to the project needs. As an outcome, the FAS Russia was able to increase transparency of internal funds allocation process and improve performance of its employees, without additional funding or third-party consultants. The authors describe the performance evaluation process, including the methodology based on the quality indicators, which were tailored to the employees' roles in the FAS Russia structure. In particular, a qualitative assessment of employees performing supervisory and control roles, e.g. Heads and Deputy Heads of Regional Offices, has been conducted. FAS Russia's experience in public servants' performance assessment can be utilized as a best practice by other governmental authorities in creation of transparent and fair employees' reward systems. Authors believe that the discussed approach allows for enhanced distribution of workload between employees and, thus, results in efficient planning and decision-making management by the FAS Russia's Central Office.