The National Institute of Administration (INA) has published the Study on the opportunity of introducing flexible working ways within the Romanian public administration, thereby joining the European initiatives to identify new forms of work, in the context of the health crisis we are going through. This initiative, supported by the General Secretariat of the Government and the World Bank Group, aimed to: highlight the measures implemented by the public institutions from central and local public administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, determine the appropriateness of using modern ways of carrying out the activities on the long-term and also measure perception of the public administration personnel on the organization of working time.

The study revealed that, in this context, competencies of digitization and autonomy in performing the tasks were developed. Overall, the flexible working arrangements are closely linked to the digitization of public administration. The digitization of administration involves easily accessible and interoperable databases, computerized internal and external flow of documents, electronic signatures and last, but not least, continuous training in this regard for all public administration personnel.

According to the results of the questionnaires, the perception still persists that working at home does not involve the same effort as working at the institution headquarters. Almost half of the respondents among managers considers switching to a more flexible program would increase productivity and the encountered disadvantages are still solvable (lack of coordination between employees, structures and institutions). There are also social, economic and environmental benefits, as traffic flow increases, pollution declines and institutions have fewer maintenance costs for buildings.

The study includes a series of recommendations among which: purchasing the certification for electronic signature; developing new working procedures; providing IT&C equipment for the personnel that carries out the activity using flexible working arrangements; updating the national normative framework; training of personnel on digital tools and digital workflows; developing a guide on the implementation of flexible working arrangements.

The methodology applied on this research had four components: developing and applying two online questionnaires (one at management level and one at executive level), organizing a webinar with relevant institutions in the field, analyzing the national legislative framework and consulting European studies on flexible working arrangements in public administration and their impact.

The two questionnaires were applied at national level between September and October 2020. The number of responses registered was representative for the validation of the results, respectively 3,285 for the executive personnel and 776 for management personnel.

The study has been carried out with INA’s own resources and can be a starting point for initiatives to update the legal framework in the field.

The summary of the study: http://ina.gov.ro/research-and-development/

The full study: http://ina.gov.ro/studii-si-publicatii/