Rewarding bureaucrats: Can incentives improve public sector performance?

Some of the fundamental challenges governments face include determining the right types of individuals to select for public sector jobs, finding effective ways to recruit these candidates, and motivating them to perform well on the job. Governments often look for specific characteristics such as high intrinsic motivation, integrity, and relevant abilities which may predict better on-thejob performance – but it can be difficult to identify the right characterstics during the hiring process, and long-term performance also depends on the job environment and incentives offered. Offering incentives is one potential strategy to address both the aims of attracting stronger candidates and motivating better job performance in the public sector. This brief synthesises lessons from the latest research on strategies to improve the performance of public sector workers, including government administrators and frontline service providers, such as teachers and health workers. The focus is on strategies for recruiting and motivating the public sector workforce. Effective public service delivery in developing countries ultimately depends on the performance of public sector workers. What can governments do to recruit, motivate, and retain the best candidates? This brief explores the role for performance rewards to improve public service delivery. Rewarding bureaucrats: Can incentives improve public sector performance?

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