Digital Skills and Maturity in the Public Sector: A Review of EU Guidelines

The development and application of digital technology have a strong impact on the way the public sector operates today and require public servants to develop and strengthen their skills. This study provides a scoping review examining grey literature around digitalization practices and digital skills in the public sector in EU member countries and proposes a framework for analyzing twenty-first-century digital skills in the public sector as per different stages of digitalization maturity. To uncover relevant “grey” literature, an established methodology was used including a search on Google.com using keywords identified from existing literature on digitalization HRM practices in the public sector. Out of 630 sources, seven relevant documents related to the relevant guidelines were included in the analysis. Then, two additional documents were added, making a total of nine documents. These were analyzed qualitatively with the help of an integrated framework of twenty-first-century digital skills, organizational dimensions, and digitalization maturity stages. This review contributes to the body of knowledge on digital transformation in the public sector by proposing a framework that can serve as a guide for understanding what digital competencies are essential and applicable at different phases of the digital transformation process. It demonstrates the importance of comprehensive policy guidelines that are linked with digital skills development. This study also suggests future research directions, emphasizing the need for continuous adaptation and advancement of digital skills in public sector training and development programs.