Low salaries and risks silently threaten the quality of public personnel

3 risks of erosion

The situation of civil servants leaving the public sector or having to work more left-handed jobs to make a living is still a hot story in the National Assembly forums last November. Although the basic salary has been adjusted to increase sharply to 2.34 million VND from July 1, 2024, for many civil servants and public employees, this increase still makes them struggle to cope.

Under the lens of modern human resource governance, Dr. Doan Van Tinh - Deputy Head of the Faculty of Human Resources Management at the Academy of Public Administration and Management - said that the impact of low salaries does not stop at the story of "priced rice shirt" of individuals, but is creating 3 erosion risks with great risks for the public sector.

First, the asymmetry in the flow of talent. The public sector is at risk becoming a "free human resource nursery" for the private sector.

"We are witnessing the phenomenon of "grey bleeding" at the peak of their careers (10-15 years of seniority). The worrying thing is not the shift in personnel, because it is the law of the market - but a one-way shift.

The flow of talent from the private sector to the public is very limited, leading to the risk of "hollowing the intestines" of high-quality successors, leaving a highly uncompetitive human resource structure" - he said.

Second, the decentralization of resources and the risk of personalizing power. Low income forces civil servants and public employees to maintain the mindset of "the outside legs are longer than the inner legs". As a result, the golden time and the most elite intelligence are shared with outside work.

More dangerously, livelihood pressure can promote the act of "commercializing public power" - where work positions are turned into tools to create technical barriers or group interests to seek compensatory income, distorting the created environment that the State is trying to build.

Finally, the expert mentioned the erosion of psedic contracts. He stressed that this was an invisible loss but the greatest risk.

When income does not ensure labor productivity, the relationship between civil servants, public employees and organizations will shift from a state of "dedication" (commitment, loyalty, service) to a state of "transaction" (as much as you do, so much will you receive).

When the practical mentality takes power, the motivation for innovation will be eliminated and the civil service will lack people who dare to think and dare to do for the common good.

Determining the salary level for each position and job

Dr. Nguyen Tien Dinh - former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs - said that studying salary payment for cadres, civil servants, and public employees according to job positions is not a new issue that has been discussed for many years.

He cited that Resolution 27/2018 of the Central Executive Committee on reforming salary policies has oriented the development of a new salary table system according to job positions, titles and leadership positions to replace the current salary table system.

Mr. Dinh also emphasized that paying salaries according to job positions and titles is a scientific way of doing things, the whole world is doing things, but the most important thing is the way of doing things. Determining accurate job positions will be the basis for determining the standards.

That is, based on job positions, the authorities must determine how many focal points are needed in an agency, how many positions each focal point needs, how many leaders, how many specialists... At the same time, each job position and title standard need to be calculated and perfected. On that basis, the salary level for each position and each job is determined.

"Determining a job position is very urgent. Only when it is completed first can other things be done, including streamlining the payroll, rearranging the apparatus as well as improving the quality of the team of cadres, civil servants and public employees" - Mr. Dr. Nguyen Tien Dinh said.