Starting on 27 September 2021, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) held a three-day strategic session to sketch out the agency’s brand-new Human Resources Management (HRM) Strategy. The workshop was organized under the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”.

“Within the Integrated border management, human resources play an important cross-cutting role as their performance has an impact on all areas: from daily operations at the border to joint interagency work to international cooperation. Through a number of projects, the European Union supports SBGS in aligning their HRM system to modern up-to-date approaches and good EU practices”, commented Xavier Camus, Head of the Good Governance and Democratisation Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.

The strategic sessions brought together 20+ participants from various SBGS structural units who jointly worked on a range of topics starting from the Vision of HR management in SBGS, its Mission and further to the backbone of the HRM Strategy. Apart from visualizing the future of human resources management within SBGS, the exercise was aimed at building the agency’s capacity to use modern analytical and planning tools and methodologies.

“We are interested in learning the methods and practices proved to be effective by EU Member States’ border agencies. At these strategic sessions and before them, we explored new angles and new ways of approaching our usual work but also learned much about previously unknown methodologies”, stated Ohanes Martyrosian, Head of the Recruitment Unit at SBGS Department of Human Resources Management.

Before the strategic sessions, the EU4IBM project undertook extensive studies and analyses. The experts reviewed existing EU Member States’ concepts and methodologies in human resources management to find the best fitting and pertinent to SBGS. A staff engagement survey undertaken for the first time in the agency’s history attracted around 45% of all SBGS personnel. Combined with the results of a deep maturity and gap analysis of the existing HRM system, it paved the road to further strategic decisions to be definitively shaped within the SBGS HRM Strategy, and a Road map for its implementation.

“The development of the HRM Strategy and the respective Roadmap for SBGS is just the first stage of our joint work. ICMPD will further support the implementation of a number of specified initiatives within the ongoing project phase, and plans to continue this work under EU4IBM-2, to help the SBGS Human Resources Management move strategically towards the EU standards”, concluded Arunas Adomenas, EU4IBM Team Leader.

Background information: The project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)” funded by the EU and carried out by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). It supports the implementation of the reforms approximating the border management system of Ukraine to the EU standards and best practices in line with the Integrated Border Management Strategy of Ukraine adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers on 24 July 2019. The project runs from December 2019 until June 2022.