Is training the key solution to counteract recruitment difficulties in the territorial civil service (FPT)? Can it limit the increasingly frequent departures of civil servants to other communities or even to the private sector? This is one of the avenues mentioned in a recent report. Nicolas Chevalier-Roch, specialist in local authority management, deciphers the major issues: retaining agents at each stage of their career, supporting developments in the FPT and winning back public service missions.
40 % local authorities are facing significant recruitment difficulties. And this, regardless of the geographic sector, sectors or job categories. This is the cruel observation of a recent report of the Superior Council of the Territorial Civil Service, the General Inspection of Administration and the association of HR managers of large communities.
Thus, the public sector does not escape the global context of talent shortage. You have certainly heard, in recent months, of “Great Resignation” or “Silent Resignation”. These two expressions appeared in the public debate after the health crisis. They translate the difficulties for employers to retain their employees and attract new ones in sectors previously considered attractive. They therefore illustrate several developments in the labor market. First, a reversal of the balance of power between candidates and recruiters, with the fall in the unemployment rate. But also, and above all, a change in the priorities of the French in their personal and professional lives.
And it is perhaps in the public sector that this phenomenon was most difficult to anticipate…
From the professional Holy Grail to the labor shortage
Today, too many public employers are still convinced that they will always find candidates to fulfill public utility functions. An illusion inherited from a traditional vision of the civil service: job security, real or imaginary advantages, a civil servant status perceived as a professional Holy Grail because it is reserved for the winners of a competition... But the image has lived on .
In fact, you don't need to be a public sector actor to measure the reality of labor shortages. Everywhere, there is a shortage of women and men to carry out the major missions of public service. We observe it both at school and in the courts, or even in the hospital. In local communities, the situation is just as glaring. The territorial civil service must overcome its share of pitfalls. First, she is young: she celebrated her 40th birthday in 2023. Secondly, the richness of her professions suffers from a lack of advertising. Finally, it suffers a certain denigration despite the technical complexity of the missions carried out by the municipalities, the public establishments of intermunicipal cooperation, the departments, the regions and all their satellites.
Faced with this painful observation, the report provides avenues for make the FPT attractive and retain its agents. It is a question of remuneration, management, organization… but also training.
Training to support and retain agents at each stage of their career
Training first plays an essential role in the long-term management of civil servants' careers.
If job security has long constituted an essential and reassuring argument, it has become, for some, a source of anxiety. The anxiety of remaining confined to the same place, the same tasks and the same status all your life. Every year, annual maintenance should therefore make it possible to explore the professional aspirations of civil servants. But it rarely goes beyond formality.
"These wishes have little more future than New Year's resolutions, only to fade from our minds day by day, to be drowned out by the return to everyday life and the flood of tasks to be accomplished.
However, he is crucial to better hear and consider these desires for change at their true value.
Here are a few ideas:
- organize workshops to discover different professions within the community
- develop both collective and individual training plans
This type of approach could reshape the image of local authorities, often perceived as bureaucratic entities insensitive to the development of the individual. This would also allow meet the recruitment needs of communities. First internally, by retaining the best elements, already acculturated to the specificities of the public sector.
Depending on the size of the community, these actions can be carried out either internally by the human resources department or externally by training and professional development professionals.
Training, the first tool to support developments in the territorial civil service
The crucial role of training also stems from the principle of mutability of the public service. Historical principle which, in recent years, has been completely accelerated. Evolution of the legal powers of communities, modernization of techniques and practices, strengthening of the expectations of those administered... These developments, ever more rapid and strong, are above all the agents who are subject to them.
Thus, they adapt as best they can to the new tasks assigned to them, to the new tools that are provided to them, to the new legal and regulatory framework that is imposed on them. Not to mention all this software which is constantly changing, the dematerialization of administration requires. Each time, they demonstrate the resilience to adapt and give the best in their position. But, it’s natural: at one point, they become discouraged, give up and flee…
That is why each development that modifies the framework, method or tasks of a position must give rise to training. This is particularly the case for the use of digital tools. Because, contrary to popular belief, many agents have poor mastery of software, starting with basics of office automation.
Training to regain public service missions and restore meaning to the public service
Training finally constitutes a solution to restore meaning to the public service thanks to reintegration of outsourced functions.
In recent years, local authorities have inherited increasingly complex responsibilities. They have often found it simpler to 'outsource' them to the private sector.
For example:
- management of drinking water, sanitation, public transport and certain equipment
- collection and treatment of waste
- maintenance of green spaces and building maintenance
- increasingly, carrying out study and strategic development missions
After the outsourcing of these missions, civil servants have almost no contact with the population. They therefore lose the feeling of serving the public.
The challenge today is to train agents so that they can take over strategic tasks, thus giving new meaning to the vocation of civil servant. Concretely, this can translate into practical training in law, including updating knowledge, in areas such as town planning, waste management or even public finances. Training in technical skills, such as computer network management or territorial marketing, will also meet current needs.
In practice :
Managers and project managers should be the first to benefit from training activities. This would indeed make it possible to irrigate all services and agents.
Where to start ?
For example, through training “ Launch and monitor a project in the public sector » which addresses essential points mentioned in this article.
In particular, the training would make it possible to address various issues:
- better respond to political orientations;
- promote internal skills;
- strengthen internal communication;
- manage projects from A to Z;
- organize internal monitoring;
- better take into account the human aspect of change management.
In summary, the training opens a tangible path towards the revitalization of the territorial civil service. It offers practical solutions to breathe new life into the vocation of agents. In a global context of labor shortage, it constitutes a first level of response to retain talent. To attract new recruits, communities will also be able to explore other avenues, such as the employer brand to assert their values, the positive impact of their missions and career prospects.
