The implementation of this model will bring the management in our Foreign Service closer to that of the Foreign Services of other countries in our environment, as well as to the European External Action Service.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation has approved the establishment of a new system of management by objectives and evaluation of compliance for its personnel, with the aim of improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of its performance.
This new tool will serve to promote better compliance with the strategic objectives of the Ministry, guide training plans aimed at improving the performance of the functions assigned to the staff and facilitate the optimal allocation of human, material and financial resources of the different units.
The new system of management by objectives and evaluation of its compliance will be applied, in a first phase, to the civil servant and eventual personnel that occupies the higher levels in the relations of jobs of the Ministry (levels 28 or higher in the central services and Chancellor or superior posts in the offices abroad). It will also apply to personnel who are the heads of the governing bodies, regardless of whether they provide their services in the central services or abroad, and to those who, without being a civil servant, have the status of senior management and are holders of a General Directorate. in the Ministry, of a Headquarters of Diplomatic Mission or of a Headquarters of Permanent Representation.
The Office of Management by Objectives and Evaluation, which is expected to be established shortly, will adopt the necessary measures to ensure the proper functioning of the system and will periodically propose the necessary modifications both for its eventual improvement and for its progressive implementation to the rest of the Ministry's staff .
The management cycle by objectives will take place on an annual basis. It will begin in the month of November with the assignment to all the staff of the objectives and competences. The objectives must in all cases be aligned with the priorities and objectives set out in the External Action Strategy, in the annual External Action Reports and, where appropriate, in the letters of instructions received by the Headquarters of a Diplomatic Mission or of a Permanent Representation. The competences and behaviors associated with each of them will be included in a catalog that will be reviewed periodically.
In the month of May of the following year the follow-up interviews will take place, while the self-evaluations and the evaluation interviews will take place during the following November, that is to say, one year after the cycle has begun. These last interviews will also serve to assign objectives and competences for the next 360º evaluation cycle. At the same time, in November the evaluation of the performance of the personnel's competences will be carried out by those who work under their direct hierarchical dependence, as well as by those who, exercising the same level of responsibility, share the treatment of matters related to the respective areas of responsibility.
It is foreseen that all the personnel that will be subject to the new system will follow in the coming months the necessary training courses to know their operation. The first cycle of direction by objectives will begin in November 2019 with the assignment of objectives and competences. The formal follow-up interviews will take place in the month of May 2020 and the self-evaluations and the final phase of the evaluation will take place in November 2020.
This system will be developed in parallel and complementary to the adoption of a new code of ethical conduct for staff, the implementation of practical mechanisms for reconciling personal, family and work life, as well as the promotion of greater digitalization of the daily work. In fact, a new computer application will be used to complete the evaluation questionnaires.
The instructions for the implementation of the system have been developed through a participatory process in which the main units of the Ministry and the most representative trade union organizations have been involved in recent months and in which INAP experts have collaborated. The definition of the model has also taken into account the contributions of the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE), of the Association of Spanish Diplomatic Women (AMDE), as well as of the civil servant staff that voluntarily participated in the consultation process opened at the end of last April.