Listen to the latest episode of PESPod to hear from Kristina Fleischer from the Croatian PES (HZZ) and Bernd Becking from the PES Network Secretariat in the European Commission as they share their views based on nearly 50 peer PES assessments between them in the past seven years. Learn about how the heart of the benchlearning assessments is a PES Excellence Model comprised of 31 performance enablers that makes it possible to identify strengths and weaknesses for all PES, regardless of their size and level of maturity. As Kristina Fleischer highlights: “Each of our employment services is good in one field… some smaller employment services put a lot of effort in some section of their operations and they're very, very developed.” This means that every PES has something to share, and every PES has something to learn. Hear just how much PES appreciate the recommendations provided by each assessment visit, which not only identify areas where the PES has room for improvement, but also which PES they can look to for inspiration – all feeding into future mutual learning activities. A crucial principle of the assessment exercise for Bernd Becking is that “it is not an examination; it's not an audit. It's a well-intended peer-to-peer approach and this is really the beauty about the entire exercise.” He also shares his views and recollections on the hard work, camaraderie and commitment shown by the groups of assessors during each visit. Listen to the episode to discover more about how the peer PES assessments are organised in practice, including how they cover all aspects of PES operations from the Heads of PES to frontline local offices. Hear also how they incorporate a crucial self-assessment phase and how they deal with the wide diversity of governance models amongst PES, including highly decentralised models. Finally, discover how the regular benchmarking assessments not only enable PES to compare themselves with their peers, but also track their own progress over time and about how the next cycle of assessments starting in 2024 will seek to encourage a greening of the process. Download this episode wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen online.

For more information on the main outcomes of the 3rd benchlearning cycle 2020-2023, see our recent news story: PES Network’s latest ‘Benchlearning’ cycle: a success story of European solidarity.     If you want to contact us with ideas for interviewees, or questions you would like movers and shakers in the EU employment world to tell you about then just email us: EMPL-PES-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu