Performance Management in Public Employment Services

There is a wide variety of practice in European PES in institutional design, services provided, welfare and unemployment benefit regimes and welfare spending. Some PES are responsible only for labour market services to the unemployed, while others are also responsible for the administration of unemployment and other welfare benefits, services to employers and occupational or worker licensing. Despite this variation, recent years have seen the increasing adoption of ‘activation’ as an approach to delivering labour market services and the use of performance management or Management By Objectives (MBO) as a management practice. The use of performance management has become more critical and widespread as PES resources have become more limited and there is a resulting increasing emphasis on demonstrating the impact of PES interventions as well as value for money. This report considers the variety of practice across EU Member States and makes suggestions about how all EU PES might learn from one another to strengthen their own practice, specifically in relation to labour market services to jobseekers. It incorporates a review of the research evidence on performance management in EU PES and draws out the practical implications of these approaches for the EU, policy makers, senior PES officials and employment counsellors.

There is a wide variety of practice in European PES in institutional design, services provided, welfare and unemployment benefit regimes and welfare spending. Some PES are responsible only for labour market services to the unemployed, while others are also responsible for the administration of unemployment and other welfare benefits, services to employers and occupational or worker licensing.

Despite this variation, recent years have seen the increasing adoption of ‘activation’ as an approach to delivering labour market services and the use of performance management or Management By Objectives (MBO) as a management practice. The use of performance management has become more critical and widespread as PES resources have become more limited and there is a resulting increasing emphasis on demonstrating the impact of PES interventions as well as value for money. This report considers the variety of practice across EU Member States and makes suggestions about how all EU PES might learn from one another to strengthen their own practice, specifically in relation to labour market services to jobseekers. It incorporates a review of the research evidence on performance management in EU PES and draws out the practical implications of these approaches for the EU, policy makers, senior PES officials and employment counsellors.