MICHAEL  AHR

Personalmanagement in der öffentlichen Verwaltung (HR management in public administration)

Haufe Verlag, 2025 – published in German

About the book

Effective HR management in the public service

Public administration faces fundamental change: demographic upheaval, a sharpening skills shortage and rising expectations among citizens meet limited resources and structural obstacles. What authorities need now is not another HR strategy on paper but a holistic approach that treats HR management as an integral part of the administration’s strategy.

Who is this book for?

The book is written for HR leads and senior managers in local authorities, districts, public authorities and other public-sector bodies who are looking for proven solutions that can actually be implemented under the specific conditions of the public sector. It offers concrete orientation beyond management jargon and theoretical ballast.

Contents

  • The fundamentals of HR management in public administration
  • Workforce planning and requirement analysis, recruitment and selection
  • Onboarding and integration of new staff
  • Performance management and objective-setting
  • Staff retention and motivation
  • Managing departures and succession planning
  • Digitalisation in HR management

What makes this book different?

A systematic approach, not piecemeal work

Holistic HR management along the employee lifecycle – from planning to departure, clearly structured and grounded in practice.

A systematic approach, not activism

The book structures every area of HR management along the employee lifecycle – from strategic workforce planning through recruitment and onboarding to development, retention and the professional management of departures. This process-oriented approach creates clarity and reveals connections that are often overlooked in day-to-day administrative work.

Practice before theory

Concrete recommended courses of action, checklists and examples from real administrative life – immediately applicable rather than purely theoretical.

Practice before theory

Every chapter combines well-founded specialist concepts with direct applicability. Readers will find concrete recommended courses of action, checklists tested in practice and examples from real administrative life showing how other organisations have mastered their challenges.

Realistic & honest

Strategies that work even under tight budgets, legal requirements and an inert organisational culture.

Realistic & honest

The book takes the real conditions of administrative practice into account: limited budgets, legal requirements, structural inertia and an organisational culture that does not change overnight. Instead of describing unrealistic ideal states, it sets out ways in which professional HR work can be delivered even in difficult circumstances.

What readers can expect in concrete terms

Strategic clarity

The book shows how workforce planning and requirement analysis can be designed so that they create real value for the organisation instead of remaining a formal exercise.

Successful recruitment

Concrete approaches to building a strong employer brand and to developing recruitment strategies that also work in the competition for scarce skilled staff.

Professional onboarding

Systematic integration of new staff that goes beyond the usual “welcome chat and a tour of the desk” and creates genuine commitment.

Targeted staff development

Methods for requirement-based training and for developing clear career paths that keep staff motivated over the long term.

Effective leadership instruments

Practical approaches to performance management, objective-setting and a feedback culture that is actually lived.

A modular structure for everyday work

The book is designed to be read in full or consulted chapter by chapter, depending on the challenge at hand. Every chapter stands on its own and offers approaches that can be applied immediately.

What the organisation gains

Professional HR management is not an end in itself; it is an investment in the administration’s ability to act. Well-chosen, systematically developed and motivated staff are the key to a capable public administration that meets the expectations of citizens.

This book helps to develop HR work from reactive administration into strategic design. It helps to put HR policy on an evidence base and so to secure the organisation’s ability to function over the long term.

Published in June 2025 by Haufe Verlag

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