UK civil service reforms

The BBC reports:

Some civil servants are “lazy” and need to be moved from their jobs, Britain’s top civil servant has said.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was defending a scheme in which the bottom 10% of staff are targeted for improvement or moved out.

He also backed allowing ministers to “hand-pick” staff in their private office and limit permanent secretaries to five-year terms.

The last two things are already the case in NZ.

Sir Jeremy said suggestions top civil servants were opposed to a major revamp of the way the civil service operates, launched last year, were “wide of the mark”.

Under the scheme, the top 25% performers in each government department are rewarded – some with cash bonuses – and the bottom 10% identified for action to improve their performance or be moved out. 

No figures were available for the numbers who left their posts, but Sir Jeremy said there had been a willingness to implement the scheme, as “nothing annoys good civil servants more than seeing lazy civil servants going year after year without addressing that performance problem”.

Bonuses for the top performers, and assistance or moving on for the worst – sounds good to me.