THE OPENNESS OF PERSONNEL POLICY AS A FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Abstract

The article examines the openness of personnel policy as a systemic factor in the development of a professional public service in the context of European integration. It is argued that the openness of personnel policy should be understood not merely as the publicity of vacancies, but as institutionally guaranteed transparency of rules, criteria, data, and outcomes of HR decisions, ensuring equal access to public service, merit-based recruitment, accountability, and traceability of career development. Based on an analysis of Ukrainian legislation, OECD/SIGMA standards, the Ukraine Report 2024, analytical materials of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service (NADS), and recent Ukrainian scholarship, the paper identifies key indicators of open personnel policy, including competitive and competency-based recruitment, transparency of evaluation and promotion procedures, digital traceability of HR processes, accountability, and continuity of professional development. The study demonstrates that within the European administrative space, the openness of personnel policy is directly associated with meritocracy, integrity, public trust, and institutional resilience. At the current stage, Ukraine combines the normative consolidation of European principles with a number of practical constraints, including formalized competition procedures, staffing shortages, uneven institutional capacity across levels of government, fragmented digitalization of HR processes, and limited transparency in certain career and remuneration decisions. The article proposes priority directions for improvement, including the implementation of HRMIS, strengthening competency-based selection mechanisms, ensuring the publication of criteria and results of HR procedures, integrating job classification with transparent remuneration systems, promoting needs-based professional development, and extending open personnel policy standards to local self-government service. The scientific novelty lies in conceptualizing the openness of personnel policy as a measurable characteristic of public service HR management and in substantiating a system of indicators and implementation priorities adapted to wartime conditions and the process of European integration.