Improving Monitoring and Communication

Governments need to be able to chart the course of the policies they are implementing in order to ensure that objectives are being achieved. Policy monitoring needs to build on well-defined objectives, targets and actions, as well as a set of output and results-based indicators that provide information on progress. Communicating objectives, actions and results internally and externally can help generate a common understanding of the aims of the strategy, as well as sustain momentum for its implementation.

Monitoring implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs

The APJ sets a clear policy objective—enhancing sustainable private sector employment—and identifies more than 300 actions that are expected to help achieve this objective, with a timeline and targets for delivery for the institution responsible for carrying out each action.9 Regular quarterly progress reports track the implementation of actions. In 2013, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Forfás also conducted an initial assessment of the impact of the APJ on employment, competitiveness, delivery and implementation, institutions and processes.

The extent to which scheduled actions are completed within a given timeframe may provide information on the performance of inputs. The current effort to assess impact offers precious data and information on the outcomes of the APJ. That said, it would also be important to track the impact of actions on the achievement of intermediate outputs and long-term outcomes relating, for example, to the creation of innovation-driven jobs. The performance assessment framework could also seek to measure the impact of activity across the full range of policy

9. Government of Ireland, Action Plan for Jobs 2013: Table of Actions, http://www.djei.ie/publications/2013APJ_Annex.pdf

initiatives (e.g. Pathways to Work, the programme for public-sector reform, the ICT action plan, the energy-efficiency action plan, support for higher education, science and technology, research, development and innovation, and the local government reform strategy) on long-term job creation and sustainability.

A logical framework that links the APJ’s objectives with policies and results could provide a better sense of the direction of progress and help ensure that the more than 300 actions effectively contribute to those over-arching objectives (e.g. Figure 2). If, during the implementation process, performance information demonstrates that target outcomes are not being achieved, the performance framework can provide the government with the opportunity – and the information it needs – to change course. A thematic Public Governance Review could provide some practical guidance on the development of this performance framework along with more in-depth assessment, using an international comparative perspective and good practices in this area.

Figure 2: Key steps for indicator development

Source: OECD (2013), Poland: Developing Good Governance Indicators for Programmes Funded by the European Union, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Communicating the objectives, actions and results of the Action Plan for Jobs

The APJ builds on existing efforts to reach out to key stakeholders within and outside government. Progress reports on the APJ and related plans are easily accessible on the government website and the launch of the APJ itself received high-level support and media attention. Improving communication around the APJ is recognised as an important issue, and some dedicated resources were assigned to this task in 2014. It will thus be important in future years to assess the impact of these incremental resources dedicated to communications on the achievement of the government’s communications objectives for the APJ.

The risk is either complacency or irrelevance if implementation progress and results are not communicated strategically across key stakeholders within and outside government. Within government, the APJ could be a key reference point for any current and planned reform that can contribute to improving the business environment. Objectives, actions and results could be regularly shared not only at the top but also with line managers in key departments. Externally, the objectives, actions and results of the APJ could inform communications with such external stakeholders as business leaders, unions, training institutions and academics. Key APJ Champions, identified within the Government, could lead communications actions under the guidance of the Economic Recovery and Jobs Committee.