Public Personnel Management

The word “personnel” can be defined in the most general terms as “people who work in an organization.” When a group of people begin to work in the institutions of a state, they acquire the status of “public personnel” or “public officials” and begin to take an active part in meeting public services in collaboration with stakeholders.

Over time, the increase and diversification of the duties and functions of the state have led to the employment of a larger number of public officials. As a result of this, public institutions recognize that personnel management is a crucial issue that requires close attention, and they have begun to establish personnel units inside their own organizational structures.

While structural elements include “classification, wage regime, personnel units, and status rules to which public officials will be bound,” functional elements can be listed as “labour planning, recruitment, training, evaluation, motivation, and encouragement.” Over time, in parallel with the transformation in PPM, the contents of these structural and functional elements have begun to transform, and new elements have been added.

The strict, hierarchical, and bureaucratic traditional public administration approach was replaced in the 1980s and 1990s by a new approach that is more flexible, accountable, and market-oriented. With this understanding, the idea that the values, methods, and techniques used successfully in the private sector can be transferred to the public sector has gained prominence. One of the important areas affected by this transformation was personnel management.

With the HRM practices in the public sector, it is aimed to increase the abilities and skills of public personnel and to provide a transparent, reliable, and contemporary structure by considering the public personnel system with a holistic perspective. HRM is concerned with the process of assembling and managing the productive capacities of the members of an organization within the framework of the employer-employee relationship. It is based on a management philosophy that puts the “human factor” at the center of the organization and views the employees with an integrative perspective.

HRM has four basic functions, which can be described as “employment,” “development,” “remuneration,” and “integration.” The main feature of the employment function is to determine the number and quality of the personnel needed by the organizations. The development function includes activities aimed at revealing the knowledge and skills of the personnel in order to increase their work performance. The remuneration function is the evaluation of works to create a fair wage system in organizations and the determination of the wages to be paid to personnel and additional payments other than wages. As for the integration function, it is aimed to ensure that the personnel commits to the organization and that the organization’s goals are realized within the framework of a well-functioning organization-personnel relationship.

Merit refers to a person’s suitability and competency for work. It expresses the strength, ability, or capacity of a person to perform a job. The merit system is a system in which entrance to public services, assignment, and promotion in the service are open to everyone, and these processes are based on the criteria of suitability, competence, and achievement. Thus, it is possible to prevent all kinds of discrimination and political and ideological favoritism in public service recruitment and promotion.

Classification refers to grouping of interconnected service units within the framework of hierarchy. Employment of the personnel, determination of their financial and social rights, and their educational and career opportunities are carried out based on classification. Classification is a very useful principle in ensuring standardization in recruitment, applying merit and career principles, establishing a fair, regular, and adequate wage regime, and determining the rights, obligations, and conditions of service of public officials.

Position classification is a type of classification based on the task. In this model, the duties, authorities, and responsibilities of the positions are determined, and the qualifications and wages of the personnel to be appointed to these positions are specified. In this classification format, which is primarily used in the USA and Canada, service is kept in the foreground. It emphasizes equal pay for equal work principle.

In this classification, the career principle is brought to the forefront, and personnel is taken as a basis. This system, which is mostly seen in the UK, France, and Germany, provides personnel with the opportunity to start from the lowest level in a class suitable for their qualifications and to advance within their class by time. Distinguishing public services according to certain specializations, skills, and disciplines creates a vertical division. Separation of services according to different levels of education and professional experience indicates a horizontal division.

Performance is the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the extent to which an institution, person, or group has achieved its intended goals in relation to the work undertaken. From the standpoint of public administration, performance is important in terms of using scarce public resources in the most efficient way. The results of this measurement and evaluation should be delivered to those concerned and should be used in areas such as career management, remuneration, motivational elements, promotion, dismissal, and training.

Public personnel management in Türkiye has developed as an extension of the understanding of public administration, and the changes and transformations experienced in public administration have also been decisive on personnel management. The Turkish administrative system with its roots in the Ottoman Empire, was carried over to the Republic, while retaining its structural and functional characteristics.

The most important step taken in the field of PPM after the proclamation of the Republic was the enactment of Law No. 788 on Civil Servants, dated 1926. The Civil Servants Law No. 657 (Devlet Memurları Kanunu), which is still in force, was enacted in 1965.

There are several key features that characterize the Turkish PPM System. The civil service is based on the idea of a closed career. When a person is recruited into the civil service, he/she enters a profession that will last a lifetime.

This principle basically indicates that “the state public service duties and civil servants employed in such positions are classified according to the qualifications and professions” (art. 3/A). Law No. 657 has adopted “rank classification” from classification types.

This principle, regulated in article 3/B of the Law, provides civil servants with the opportunity to advance to the highest degrees in their classes, depending on the knowledge and competence required by the service they perform.

This principle, which is based on competence and success in admission and promotion processes, is regulated in article 3/C of the law. It is of vital importance to ensure that merit-based practices are implemented in the admission to public service positions, in advancement and promotion between classes, and in termination of employment.

The scope of the narrow definition of public officials is outlined in the 1982 Constitution. The definition of public officials in a broad sense refers to all public personnel working in the public sector, from the President, minister, and mayor to public workers, who have different legal statuses.

According to Law No. 657, there are three types of employment in the public sector. These are “civil servants,” “contracted personnel,” and “workers.”

According to Article 70 of the 1982 Constitution, “Every Turk has the right to enter public service. No criteria other than the qualifications for the office concerned shall be taken into consideration for recruitment into public service.”

In accordance with these articles, in-service training is organized to train civil servants, increase their productivity, and prepare them for further duties. It can be stated that a “training unit” in charge of organizing, running, and evaluating these training activities should be established in each institution.