Experts propose open recruitment mechanism in the public sector to find talent

The Department of Home Affairs of Can Tho City is seeking comments on the draft Resolution of the City People's Council on policies to attract and value talented people in the area in the period 2026-2030.

The subjects of application include Professors, Associate Professors, Doctors, specialist doctors, Masters, resident doctors, excellent graduates, along with cadres, civil servants, and talented public employees working in Party agencies, government agencies and public non-business units of the city.

According to the draft, those who are attracted must meet the conditions of age, expertise and commit to a working time of 5-10 years. The city proposes to provide one-time support from 80-500 million VND depending on their qualifications, of which Professors receive the highest level of 500 million VND. Excellent graduates working in communes and wards are supported with 80 million VND/person.

Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Dr. Dao Hung - Department of Public Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Economics and Law (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City) - said that the specific characteristic of the public sector is that output products are difficult to quantify specifically, while administrative efficiency is a default factor.

This makes it very difficult to build a set of criteria and evaluation mechanisms to recognize "talented cadres, civil servants, and public employees" in a substantive, transparent and avoid emotional way.

He said that many countries around the world have applied models such as anonymous assessment, peer-to-peer assessment or 360-degree assessment.

However, choosing an assessment method is always a trade-off between accuracy, comprehensiveness and flexibility and practical implementation ability. The more comprehensive the assessment, the more complex and resources-consuming it is" - Dr. Dao Hung assessed.

According to Dr. Dao Hung, in the long term, it is necessary to change the current way of evaluating civil servants and build a separate KPI framework for the "talented" group. However, this will lead to changes in the entire public human resource management system.

From a short-term and medium-term perspective, he proposed building an internal recruitment mechanism in a competitive and open direction. Accordingly, instead of just looking for talent from outside, it is necessary to recognize that high-quality human resources already exist in the public sector and create conditions for them to be arranged in the right positions.

He suggested building an information platform or electronic portal publicizing positions that need to add high-quality personnel, allowing civil servants and public employees in the system to apply, submit applications and participate in recruitment exams. Recruitment can be organized regularly to transfer capable people to places that are truly necessary.

According to Mr. Hung, this approach has the advantage of taking advantage of available human resources in the public sector, reducing competitive pressure with the private sector and limiting complex administrative recruitment procedures. At the same time, this method also creates healthy competition between agencies and units in attracting and using capable people.

He emphasized that the core issue of talent policy is still to clearly define "talent" and build a mechanism to measure work efficiency appropriately for this target group.

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