THE APPLICATION OF THE COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

The competence framework for human resources management developed by the IPA 2010 Twinning light project “Support to Strengthening Administrative Capacity through Development of the Competences Framework in Civil Service“ was conducted by the Ministry of Public Administration in coordination with the Dutch Institute for Public Administration in 2014. The framework can be implemented in selected state administrative bodies through a pilot project and after the evaluation it can later on be implemented in other state administrative bodies. The competence model can also be used in preparing the competence frameworks in other segments of public administration in order to ensure efficient and rational human resources management by applying standardized methods of evaluation. The development of human resources in public service could be carried out by an independant department whose tasks would include the following: a centralized method of the competences evaluation of those candidates who are interested in working in public administration as well as the evaluation of those who are already in the sytem, preparing individual plans for career development, elaboration of the evaluation framework, motivation and remuneration of work. All these would enhance both the level of professionalism of human resources and the quality of the services provided. The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that by applying the competence framework in human resources management, the higher level of professional behaviour of personnel could be encouraged which would then lead to the efficiency of public administration. The methods applied were the methods of analysis and synthesis, inductive and deductive methods, method of description and method of compilation. The result of the research based on the working hypothesis is: the application of competence framework in human resources management would lead to the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of public administration in the Republic of Croatia. The fundamental conclusion is that the rationalisation of public administration can be initiated with the introduction of centralized and standardized evaluation of civil servants' competences which would ensure career development according to the organisational aims, as well as an economical way of managing human resources.