War for Talent or Trawl Fishing? Balancing HR Needs and Quality in PSOs

Since the 1990s, Italy has significantly reduced its public sector workforce, reversing the growth trend of the 1980s. Recently, as hiring has resumed, the public sector faces two major challenges, a logistical challenge driven by a surge in applications, coupled with a loss of recruitment expertise. Italian public sector organizations need to balance short-term recruitment needs with the necessity for long-term quality hiring, which requires strategic innovations in the recruitment cycle. This study assesses how public administrations are adopting these innovations, using a recruitment value cycle model to analyze recent survey data.