New development: Is it time for New Public Service Bargain?

Governments should realize that public sector organizations are no longer the employer of choice. Public sector organizations face the challenge of attracting, recruiting and retaining skilled, competent and talented personnel. The public sector now competes with other sectors in a digital economy often offering better remuneration and working conditions. Decades of neoliberal public sector reforms and austerity measures have eroded the extent to which public sector organizations are attractive as a potential employer. The article suggests the idea of a New Public Service Bargain between politicians and civil and public servants as a more effective and sustainable approach to building public sector capacity to deliver services. Extant research has shown that the civil service and public sector are no longer an employer of choice. This article explores the reasons for the declining interest in the civil and public service as a career, and argues that decades of neoliberal public sector reforms and New Public Management, with a focus on efficiency and cost-effectiveness, have contributed to the reputation of the public sector as having comparatively lower pay, being under-resourced and having high levels of performance accountabilities. The author argues for a paradigm shift in human resource practices in order to attract, retain and employ skilled and talented civil and public servants to ensure governments' capacity to deliver public services. The author suggests a New Public Service Bargain with public sector and civil service employment based on more of a human relations approach, providing more meaningful and rewarding work and to ensure the capacity of the state to effectively deliver public services.