Development of government workplaces in Sweden
Development through cooperation
Sweden has a long tradition of cooperation by the social partners in the labour market to improve the work environment and create productive and efficient workplaces. The Development Council for the Government Sector (Utvecklingsrådet för den statliga sektorn) is a resource for local development activities in the Swedish government administration. Government agencies may obtain financial assistance for their own development projects, or benefit from development activities conducted by the Council on a national level. These activities encompass the whole government sector, with a total of around 240,000 employees ? roughly 6 per cent of the Swedish labour market.
The partners in the Council are the Swedish Agency for Government Employers and the trade union organizations in the government sector, namely OFR (the Swedish Public Employees' Negotiation Council), SACO-S (the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations ?Government) and SEKO (the Swedish Union for Employees in Services and Communication).
The purpose of the Council is to facilitate for local development efforts in the form of financial support, arrange working networks between government institutions, provide guidelines, books, arrange seminars and conferences etc. All activities are based on the cooperation between the social partners, locally and at the central level. Representatives of employer and employee organisations form steering committees and work together in central and local projects. The Council provides funds for project management, documentation and evaluation, the local institutions usually provide resources of their own to participate in the development projects.
Financial assistance to government agencies
Projects conducted jointly by employers and trade union representatives at the workplace can receive financial assistance. Local development activities may comprise development of the organization of work, skills development, participation and cooperation, leadership, work environment, diversity, ethical and gender issues, efficiency and quality of activities or pay formation. Cooperation across government agencies is enforced.
The financial basis of the Council comes from funds but also from contributions each year from all government agencies.
At the cutting edge of change
The Council also conducts several central development programmes. The objective is to develop methods and provide information to support the work of development at workplaces in the government sector. These programmes often involve both practitioners and researchers. The nature and direction of these activities vary over time. They may focus on forms of cooperation and openness, increasing equality of opportunity and improving the work environment and work organisation to reduce absence through illness and stress. The government agencies acquire the results of this work and actively participates in various projects.
Publicerad: 2010-02-09