{"id":4677,"date":"2023-09-19T04:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T21:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogroupconsulting.com\/?p=4677"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:53:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:53:56","slug":"rethinking-pay-policy-to-make-the-civil-service-more-attractive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurogroupconsulting.com\/en\/etude\/repenser-la-politique-salariale-au-service-de-lattractivite-de-la-fonction-publique","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking pay policy to enhance the attractiveness of the civil service"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On June 12, 2023, Stanislas Gu\u00e9rini presented a package of measures to boost the purchasing power of all civil servants, making the attractiveness of the civil service one of the major projects of the Minister for Public Transformation and the Civil Service.<\/p>

These measures are designed to respond to the concerns of civil servants, in a context of high inflation, but also to the difficulties of recruiting and attracting certain professions and profiles.<\/p>

If remuneration alone is not enough of a lever to solve the problems associated with\u00a0attractiveness<\/a>It is nonetheless a structuring element. However, in the civil service, the rules governing employee remuneration are mainly based on statutory principles that leave administrations little room for manoeuvre.<\/p>

Today, it is ultimately on the compensation component - which represents on average between 15 and 30% of staff remuneration - that public employers can consider concentrating their efforts to gain flexibility and better respond to their HR strategy and ambitions.<\/p>

For public-sector HR departments, the challenge is to use the IR tool as part of an overall, coherent and assertive pay policy - integrating all the other components of this policy - to boost the attractiveness and loyalty of their staff.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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1. KEY DRIVERS OF ATTRACTIVENESS<\/h2>

Thinking about attractiveness means simultaneously examining several dimensions at the heart of the employee experience. The levers of attractiveness in the civil service can be summarized as follows:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Remuneration is both a component of and a lever for enhancing attractiveness, and should be taken into account as part of an overall approach to attractiveness. Nevertheless, and particularly in the public sector, the subject of remuneration as such can seem\u00a0a priori\u00a0<\/em>even though it is the subject of strong demands in the current period.<\/p>

So.., attractiveness cannot be summed up by remuneration alone, without taking into account all the elements that contribute to the agent's experience:<\/strong> quality of the living and working environment, the dynamism of the position and the projects to be carried out, the values conveyed and supported by the employer, working and management conditions, career and skills development prospects, etc. It's the combination of these factors, along with remuneration, that defines a satisfactory agent experience.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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2. REMUNERATION: AN IMPORTANT - BUT NOT EXCLUSIVE - FACTOR IN ATTRACTING AND RETAINING STAFF<\/h2>

Against a backdrop of high inflation, the question of salaries and purchasing power is particularly acute. The survey carried out in October 2022 by IFOP for the Observatoire des Politiques Publiques reveals that the issue of remuneration is an obstacle to career prospects in the civil service, particularly among young people.<\/p>

Similarly, the\u00a0salary outlook conference<\/a>\u00a0de la fonction publique published in March 20222 highlights that a significant proportion (over 40%) of civil servants consider themselves poorly paid, with disparities linked to status and professions. This tension around the question of remuneration is further exacerbated by working conditions deemed to be deteriorating, whether in terms of increasing workloads, work organization, working environment (management, relations with constituents, real estate, etc.) or equipment.<\/p>

Today, the challenge around attractiveness is to be able to take into account and combine remuneration with the many factors that contribute to a satisfactory agent experience:<\/p>