Interviews with heads of five HRM units, analysis of documents received from five HRM units. Professional HRM can be ensured either by establishing an HRM unit/function in all bodies or by outsourcing or pooling HR services (e.g. the HRM unit of one institution provides services to another, smaller institution). The situation is analysed for five central government bodies, which include two ministries (the same in all assessed countries) and the three other government bodies with the highest number of civil servants reporting to the government, CoM or the prime minister. The assessment determines if the institutions meet the following four criteria: • In the assessment year, at least one person from the HR unit benefited from training on modern HR tools (appraisal, evaluation, organisation of trainings, etc.). Technical training on how to register personnel files does not count; • The HR unit participates in HR network professional activities (community of experts meetings, newsletters, online discussion forums, etc.); • The HR unit provides managers with regular reports that have quantitative data, qualitative data and forecasts; • The organisation has an HR strategy or action plan for at least one year. Points are awarded for the number of occurrences where the sample institutions meet each of the criteria. The maximum possible number of occurrences is 20. Point allocation: • 2 points = 14-20 occurrences • 1 point = 7-13 occurrences • 0 points = 6 or fewer occurrences