Human Capital in Public Administration: a public administration capable not only of attracting qualified and motivated individuals, but also of welcoming them, developing their skills, and recognizing their contributions. This is the goal of the strategy promoted by Minister of Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo, which integrates career guidance, innovative access, training, merit-based promotion, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence. The Attractiveness Model developed by the Department of Public Administration provides a unified framework for this transformation throughout the entire career cycle.
We discuss this with the Head of the Department of Public Administration, Paolo Vicchiarello.
What is the Department of Public Administration’s strategy for attracting qualified and motivated individuals to the public sector?
Today, the issue of attractiveness cannot be reduced solely to the need to hire new staff. A public administration may succeed in recruiting well-prepared individuals, but if it is then unable to welcome them, develop their skills, recognize their contributions, and offer credible career prospects, that result is not sustainable.
For this reason, under the guidance of Minister Paolo Zangrillo, we address attractiveness throughout the entire professional life cycle: from the initial exposure to public service to entry into the administration, through to growth and the recognition of the experience gained.
We are not looking for the “one in a million”—the single exceptional talent. We focus on the abilities and potential present in each person and on the responsibility of public administrations to create the conditions that allow these qualities to emerge, develop, and contribute fully to the public mission.
Working in the public administration means contributing to the quality of services, the growth of communities, and the everyday lives of people. It is a defining characteristic that we must make visible, supporting it with appropriate opportunities and working conditions. This is also confirmed by the extensive survey we conducted starting last year, involving young people who already work in the public administration and others who are not yet part of it.
And what picture emerged from this survey?
The results were very encouraging. Among young people who have had direct experience in the public administration—for example, through InPA internships, apprenticeship contracts, or training-and-work contracts—more than seven out of ten consider the public administration an attractive employer and an environment where it is possible to grow.
This is a true “experience effect”: there remains a gap between the public’s external perception of the public sector and what people discover when they experience it from the inside. Direct contact tends to significantly improve perceptions of public sector work.
Motivations are also changing. Job stability continues to be valued, but it is no longer the sole deciding factor. Young people recognize in public service the opportunity to contribute to their community, region, or country and to see a tangible impact of their work on people’s lives.
The public administration therefore has a very strong distinctive advantage: its mission. But its appeal cannot be merely described. It must translate into concrete knowledge of the roles and professional fields within the public administration, the skills required, and the value that the work of government agencies brings to communities.
How are you trying to raise awareness of the public administration among those who are not yet part of it?
We’ve started reaching out to those who don’t yet work in the public administration, building relationships early on with students and young people who are choosing their educational and career paths.
Through the GenPA initiative, aimed at people under 30, we’ve experimented with different communication styles, opportunities for direct interaction, and gamification tools to make the public administration more accessible, showcase the variety of public sector careers, and help them see that government can be a place where they can put their skills, aspirations, and desire to contribute to change to good use. We do not simply promote “public sector jobs” in general; instead, we create opportunities for learning and guidance, because a choice can only be an informed one if one understands the context, the responsibilities, and the opportunities offered.
What aspects of public sector work have you chosen to highlight for the students?
Through specially designed activities, we’ve worked with them to explore what public administration actually entails, what kinds of professionals work there, and what skills will be increasingly in demand.
This is the approach of Prossima – The Next-Generation Public Administration, an initiative aimed primarily at students in secondary schools and ITS Academies. Following the first stops in Parma, Milan, and Rome, we are working to make Prossima a permanent and widespread program across the country, structured around early career guidance pathways.
We want to show that the public administration employs professionals not only in the legal field, but also in technology, engineering, economics, statistics, communications, and organization—and, at the same time, to engage young people on a civic level. Working in public institutions means taking on a responsibility toward the community and contributing to how problems are addressed and how public services are designed and delivered.
GenPA and Prossima are complementary: the former presents the public administration as a potential career path; the latter intervenes earlier, in educational and training contexts, to make it better known, more accessible, and easier to understand.
The next step is to systematize these initiatives and amplify their impact. On the one hand, we are working on the “Public Civic Makers” program to build a network of employees capable of bringing—through their professional experience—firsthand accounts to schools and local communities about how the public administration is changing, innovating, and investing in people; on the other hand, we are building a community of “attractors” that connects local governments, identifies the most effective practices, and transforms them into replicable formats and tools.
However, this focus is only the first step. Simple and transparent access procedures, effective onboarding pathways, investments in training, and growth opportunities must bring our vision to life while simultaneously meeting the professional needs of local governments.
Can you give us a concrete example of how you’re connecting young people’s skills to the needs of local governments?
One example is the initiative aimed at ITS Academy graduates, which promotes highly specialized technological pathways aligned with the technical profiles sought by public administrations—for example, in the fields of information technology, communications, and data.
Many public administrations, especially local ones, struggle to find qualified technical professionals. The requirement for a college degree generally delays entry into the civil service and can make it more difficult to quickly recruit individuals who already possess specialized skills in these fields.
Promoting ITS Academy graduates means aligning the skills developed through the education system with the needs of government agencies, opening up a qualified career path in the public sector for young people without compromising the quality of the training required.
What solution have you identified?
We have introduced a new option on a pilot basis: allowing ITS Academy graduates to enter the civil service with an initial fixed-term contract, even if they do not yet hold a bachelor’s degree, and to immediately make their highly sought-after skills available to government agencies.
During this period, the new hire can work while simultaneously earning the degree required for permanent appointment to the civil service. During their university studies, they can also benefit from the incentives provided by “PA 110 e lode,” the Department’s initiative that supports public employees’ access to university education. Upon the contract’s expiration, the completion of the degree and a positive evaluation of their work experience allow the contract to be converted to a permanent position.
The minister’s stated goal is to make this measure a permanent feature, allowing for the utilization of existing skills without waiving the degree requirement for permanent entry into the civil service.
However, meeting the needs of government agencies requires more than just introducing new channels or modifying access rules. It also requires infrastructure capable of making the matching of skills with opportunities offered by the public sector simple and transparent.
How can technology make access to the public administration simpler and more transparent?
A key step was the launch of the InPA portal, which has become the national infrastructure for access to public sector jobs and staff mobility across government agencies. The portal now has over 3.2 million registered users, of whom approximately 3 million have an active profile. In a single digital environment—accessible even from mobile devices—people can create and update their resumes, identify available opportunities, submit applications, and track the selection processes; administrations, in turn, have more standardized, transparent, and efficient processes for finding the necessary professionals.
We have also developed an artificial intelligence solution to match the skills listed in a candidate’s profile with the requirements of published job openings, thereby recommending the most relevant opportunities to candidates and helping government agencies identify the most suitable candidates.
Technology does not make decisions on behalf of people or government agencies, but it can reduce information asymmetries and help match the supply and demand for skills.
And once recruitment is complete, why is onboarding necessary?
It is a crucial step. Recruitment does not end with the selection process and the signing of the contract: during the first few months, the relationship between the individual and the organization is built, along with an understanding of the role and a sense of belonging.
Onboarding isn’t just about providing credentials, a workstation, and the necessary tools; it’s about helping the individual understand the government agency’s mission, their responsibilities, organizational relationships, and opportunities for growth.
Some large public organizations already have well-established onboarding systems. To enable even less-resourced government agencies to offer a high-quality initial experience, we’re working on two complementary tools. The first is a training program aimed at those who manage or participate in the onboarding of new hires, designed to provide methodologies, tools, and operational standards for planning and managing the entire onboarding process in a structured manner. The second is an artificial intelligence agent designed to provide personalized guidance to individuals as they navigate their entry into the administration.
But onboarding also serves another crucial function: it is the moment when the government truly begins to get to know the individual. The competitive exam selects candidates based on requirements and tests, but it cannot fully capture their skills, experiences, motivations, and potential.
And how can management identify what the initial screening process fails to capture?
Screening processes, especially when they involve large numbers of candidates, are necessarily based on standardized criteria and, for this very reason, cannot capture the full spectrum of candidates’ abilities.
In recent years, there has been a growing focus on situational tests and the assessment of soft skills, but certain qualities can only fully emerge through actual work experience: the ability to collaborate, take on responsibility, communicate, learn, and handle unexpected situations.
For this reason, after hiring, the administration must continue to observe, support, and develop the individual. Onboarding and training also serve to highlight what the initial selection process was unable to identify.
How can training contribute to the development of these skills?
A key reference is the Training Directive adopted by Minister Zangrillo on January 14, 2025. The Directive sets forth a broader conception of training: not merely the updating of knowledge and skills, but a lever for empowering individuals, strengthening role awareness, and enhancing the capacity of public administrations to generate public value.
The Directive assigns specific responsibilities to public administrations and management, integrates training into planning and the performance cycle, and sets a target of at least 40 hours per year for each employee. Learning thus becomes a routine component of work and career development, rather than an occasional or separate activity.
The main tool the Department has used to support the implementation of this vision is Syllabus, the platform dedicated to training public sector employees. Syllabus provides public administrations with a structured offering of courses on the priority competencies needed for the transformation of the public administration and enables them to guide and monitor employees’ learning and professional development paths.
Thanks in part to investment from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Syllabus has expanded to a national scale. The platform now has more than 1.2 million registered employees and over 10,000 public administrations, with 3 million courses completed. The current offering includes 166 courses, organized into 53 training programs, totaling over 420 hours of cataloged training.
In line with this vision, the Department has also developed the advanced training program “Essere PA – L’accademia del valore,” which integrates humanities knowledge and managerial skills to strengthen critical thinking, interpersonal skills, role awareness, and a results-oriented mindset. Each of the three tracks that make up the program also includes experiential sessions in the GenAI Bootcamps, dedicated to the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the public sector. Nearly 300 sessions have already been held, involving over 200 government agencies.
Training thus becomes an integral part of human capital management and an investment that supports both the professional growth of individuals and the quality of services.
How does the recently approved merit-based law fit into the strategy to enhance the attractiveness of the public administration?
Promoting merit does not mean seeking out a few exceptional individuals, but rather enabling everyone to fully contribute to the public mission and to see that contribution recognized throughout their professional career.
The approval of the merit-based law, following approximately one year of parliamentary review, holds particular political and cultural significance. The minister strongly championed this law to ensure that those entering the public administration can count on a career path based on results, demonstrated competencies, and responsibilities.
The ability to attract qualified individuals also depends on the ability to offer them a clear career path. We cannot ask someone to invest in the public administration without showing them that the quality of their work and the contributions they make can be recognized.
What are its main provisions?
One of the most innovative elements concerns the possibility of also recognizing the professional expertise already present within government agencies when promoting individuals to leadership positions.
Traditionally, one becomes a manager through the competitive training program at the National School of Administration or through competitive exams held by individual public agencies. The new regulations supplement these channels with a pathway aimed at recognizing—within the quota established by law—the skills and achievements of those already working in the public sector.
This is neither an automatic promotion nor a mechanism based solely on seniority: it requires evaluation, selection, and verification of the skills necessary to assume managerial responsibilities. Internal career advancement thus becomes a structural component of human capital management.
How is the new pathway to management structured?
The pathway is designed to ensure selectivity, transparency, and compliance with constitutional principles. It takes into account performance and accumulated experience, requires a properly substantiated application, and involves a comparative process, tests, and qualified evaluation committees. The initial assignment of managerial functions is also accompanied by ongoing verification of the skills actually demonstrated.
Merit must be documented, evaluated, and confirmed over time through results. Precisely for this reason, the pathway is neither short nor automatic, and it allows for the promotion of internal talent while avoiding discretionary choices that are not sufficiently justified.
What role can artificial intelligence play in the transformation of the public administration?
Artificial intelligence is another strategic pillar of the ongoing transformation, but not an end in itself. It is an enabling technology that can help us redesign processes, reduce repetitive and low-value-added tasks, and make better use of data and information, while maintaining human responsibility and control.
I have already mentioned some concrete applications: on InPA, AI improves the match between people’s skills and available opportunities, while the dedicated onboarding agent will provide personalized support to new hires through the various stages of joining the administration.
The latter, in particular, will be made available within Agorà, the marketplace we are developing to provide public administrations with secure, modular, and governed agent-based solutions, ready to be adopted and configured within the specific contexts of individual administrations. The goal is to overcome the fragmentation of individual initiatives and build a shared infrastructure capable of supporting the entire professional lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding through training, mobility, and knowledge transfer.
Artificial intelligence can assist, suggest, analyze, and simplify, but decisions that affect people must remain transparent, verifiable, and overseen by humans.
The role of human resources must also evolve: HR departments must become strategic partners within the organization, capable of assessing skills, planning workforce needs, supporting organizational transformations, and enhancing the employee experience.
The challenge is to free up time and capacity so that people can focus on activities where judgment, relationships, experience, and responsibility truly make a difference.
However, the effectiveness of these solutions also depends on the quality of the data and the interoperability among the systems that collect, exchange, and use it. Through the Minerva project, we are building a common infrastructure and a shared language for skills, profiles, and professional needs, gradually connecting the main systems of the Department and local governments. In this way, the public administration’s information resources can serve as a knowledge base to better plan for professional needs, identify skills gaps, and guide policies on training, development, and mobility.
To what extent does the issue of compensation affect the public administration’s ability to attract and retain staff?
Compensation is an essential component of the employment relationship: motivation to serve the public cannot replace the need to ensure compensation that is commensurate with the professional skills and responsibilities involved.
In recent years, we have made up for lost ground by completing the 2019–2021 collective bargaining cycle and finalizing the 2022–2024 cycle. Most recently, the contract covering the 2025–2027 period was also signed a year and a half ahead of schedule—an unprecedented achievement in the history of the Republic.
Overall, these renewals will result in pay increases ranging from 16 to 20 percent between 2022 and 2027. This means restoring continuity to collective bargaining, helping to restore purchasing power, and strengthening the credibility of public service work.
Alongside the continuity of collective bargaining, the minister has also taken action in recent years to address pay disparities within the public sector. In an initial phase, an equalization fund was established to reduce disparities among central government agencies; subsequently, a second measure addressed the gap between central and local governments, with the aim of curbing internal competition in the ability to recruit and retain staff.
The stability of compensation continues to be valued, but compensation alone is not enough to guide career choices or retain people over time. Opportunities for growth, recognition, training, organizational well-being, and the quality of leadership also matter. An effective strategy to enhance attractiveness must therefore balance both dimensions: adequate economic conditions and a professional experience capable of motivating and valuing people.
Are there other levers of attractiveness and retention that local governments can use?
Measures related to compensation are important, but they do not exhaust the topic of attractiveness. Local governments have a very powerful lever at their disposal: their proximity to the local area and the ability to directly impact their community. Many young people want to stay in the places where they live and be able to see the tangible effects of their work.
Often, however, the main challenge is retaining people over the long term. To achieve this, organizations must be able to offer a high-quality work environment, ongoing training, opportunities for growth, flexibility, inclusive leadership, and genuine recognition of individual contributions.
An employee stays when they feel they can grow, take on responsibilities, and contribute to the administration’s results. For this reason, retention depends not only on compensation but also on the organization’s ability to create a motivating professional experience that aligns with people’s expectations.
In conclusion, are competent and motivated professionals already joining the public administration?
Yes, and we see this in our ongoing engagement with government agencies. The community of human resources directors and training managers—promoted by Minister Zangrillo since 2022—reports that new hires are well-prepared, motivated, and eager to make a tangible contribution. This is a positive sign that reminds us of our responsibility to create the conditions for these individuals to grow and fully realize their potential.
In the coming years, generational turnover will be significant: we will not only have to replace those who are leaving but also rethink skills, roles, and work methods, taking care not to lose the wealth of knowledge possessed by our most experienced staff.
For this reason, the Public Administration Attractiveness Model dedicates a specific phase to the enhancement and transfer of knowledge: leaving public service should not result in the loss of accumulated knowledge, but rather become an opportunity for knowledge transfer and exchange between generations.
Career guidance, recruitment, onboarding, training, merit, innovation, and knowledge transfer thus contribute to a unified strategy, based on investing in people throughout their entire professional lives in the public administration.
This is how we are building a more competent administration that is mindful of its mission, where digital technology amplifies human capabilities, merit opens up real opportunities, and people’s work generates value for communities and for the country.