Development of a Human Resources Development Strategy in Croatian Civil Service

Modernisation of the Croatian civil service system and harmonisation with European standards should not be seen as mechanical and undiscriminating copying of western models, but as the process of creating a responsible, law-abiding, and politically neutral public administration. The basic orientation ought to be towards the professionalization of public servants and strengthening the status of quality servants, depoliticization of top positioned personnel, and introduction of the merit principle in the civil servants’ regulations and practice of administrative organisations. That requires numerous measures at normative, organisational, personnel, and technical levels, at all levels of the territorial administrative system. One step of the Croatian civil service towards these objectives is adoption of HRD Strategy. The missing, strategic framework for HRD has been put in place now and the change process can be accelerated in order to attract, develop and retain the bright and competent people in the civil service. The authors emphasize the importance of connecting civil servant's individual development with organisational development. The traditional HRD based on organizational stability and uniform CST oriented towards career development has been replaced with modern HRD oriented towards strategic personnel development through integrity in organisational mission and its objectives.