13.8 Options available for a new chief statistician

13.8 Options available for a new chief statistician#

13.8.1 The role of the chief statistician#

The chief statistician is the leader of the entire NSS, with responsibilities (ideally) defined and assigned in the Statistics Law, including specific provisions related to his/her appointment and dismissal in relation to the principles of objectivity and professional independence (see Chapter 4.3.3 — Chief statistician). In most cases, the function of chief statistician is assigned to the head of the NSO, but in a few rather large countries, the chief statistician is the head of a statistical authority or a coordinating body outside the NSO and overseeing the entire NSS. This section refers to the most common scenario where the chief Statistician is heading the NSO but could also apply, with some adaptations, to other organization structure of the NSS.

The expected qualifications and skills of the chief statistician are the following (see also Chapter 6.4.1 — Chief statistician and Chapter 4.3 — Organization of national statistical systems):

should be proficient in statistics or have a profound understanding of statistics;
should have a proven track record and relevant professional experience as an economist, statistician, demographer, data scientist, IT expert, government specialist, sociologist;
should be capable of running a large professional organization and understand and be sensitive to the wishes of users;
have communication skills that are required for public communication and user relations
ability to understand complex processes which is essential for day-to-day decision-making.

The job of a chief statistician is not only about professional statistics-related competencies. With the rapidly changing landscape of official statistics where NSOs operate in new environments, and expectations have developed (data stewardship, data custodian, open data, etc.) the chief statistician must be able to:

Provide expert opinion on many different subjects. Perceived gaps in their expertise may diminish the perception of professionalism that is expected from an NSO.
Be a master strategist who can recognise threats and opportunities, a psychologist who can understand and address the problems of people working in the NSO and a political scientist who understand interests of the environment in which the NSO is functioning.
Demonstrate an enormous capacity of dialogue, listening, understanding, appreciation, discernment and other soft-skills required for such a position.

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Links to guidelines, best practices and examples:

Appointment of US chief statistician (🔗);
Appointment of India chief statistician (🔗);
Appointment of PSA chief statistician (🔗).

Choosing a chief statistician can be a difficult task for the nominating authority, as the post requires a combination of skills that is not easy to find in one person. An illustration of the difficulty in filling the post of chief statistician:

UK fails to fill the national statistician role (April 2019) (🔗); but eventually, UK national statistician was appointed (August 2019) (🔗).

13.8.2 Challenges facing a new chief statistician#

Given the complex and multi-faceted responsibilities and expectations, a new chief statistician would need staff with specialist knowledge, institutional memories and the relationships they have established with NSS members and stakeholders to provide recommendations and consult them as much as possible. One main challenge is that a new chief statistician inherits the current staff and can only operate minor staff changes. Annual recruitment represents only a small share of the total number of employees and is unlikely to make a profound difference in the short term. Sometimes, and this is bad practice, the new chief will inherit a completely new middle-management team after a change in government. This practice might create a change in direction as often as once every four or five years, or even less; corresponding to the election cycle. Moreover, the management being called up to tender its resignation may have just mastered the mechanisms of the system, whereas their successors are unfamiliar with them. The result is that the second level of the staff, or perhaps an even lower level, must take charge of day-to-day operations.

Whether or not the existing team is ideal, it is prudent to keep it intact (to do so may also be the only option under the law) and make improvements through gradual additions, taking advantage of voluntary departures and retirements. However, a newly appointed chief statistician may worry about being overly dependent on the existing staff and be concerned that they may take advantage of the situation. This would be less of a concern if the new chief is an internal appointee (e.g., former deputy chief statistician). In either case, new chief statisticians may wish to bring in someone they have worked with, whose judgement they trust and with whom they can discuss options. While this practice may provide a certain cushioning, it may well have the unintended effect of widening the gap between the head of the NSO and the regular staff; particularly, if the chief statistician’s adviser is hired at a high-hierarchical level.

One of the first actions of a new chief statistician should be to organize and meet with the internal management committee (see Chapter 6.4.2 — Internal advisory and decision-making bodies). The new chief statisticians should also communicate their leadership vision and strategies to the entire organization early on when they take on the position. One of four key functions of leadership and coordination is to ensure that the appropriate foundations (for planning, management and control) are in place to support the production, management, availability and use of high-quality statistical information.

To provide the appropriate foundations for a national statistical organization, planning, management and control mechanisms must be in place, along with the infrastructure needed to achieve the desired results:

Sound human-resource management: leadership does not mean running the system single-handedly; rather, it means that the leader implements and builds an organization and a team that will mobilize to achieve the organization’s objectives.
Effective communication networks within the organization: to promoting the leader’s vision, one must ensure that employees follow a shared vision and values, as well as keep information and communication channels open and transparent. Employees must be consulted and mobilized around the organization’s activities and priorities.
Implementation and development of a transparent and effective planning process: this process should also be flexible enough to remain open to new initiatives and innovation.
Budget management: in general, the chief statistician has full authority to establish the organization’s priorities within an overall budgetary envelope. By implementing a control system with the appropriate checks and balances, the leader can delegate his or her powers, while ensuring that the system is managed appropriately.

13.8.3 Practices of Onboarding New chief statisticians#

One option for a new chief statistician is to participate in customised leadership training programmes. In 2016, PARIS21 launched a Leadership Training Programme for Director-Generals (DGs) of NSOs (🔗) — targeting chief statisticians who have recently been appointed to the position. The programme helps chief statisticians actively lead the “strengthening of the NSO’s co-ordination role in the new data ecosystem and develop partnerships with new actors from the private sector, civil society, media and academia to integrate new data sources into statistical production and work for the greater and better use of data and improved statistical literacy”. The training’s main objective is to improve and strengthen the leadership, management, governance, and coordination capabilities of chief statisticians within statistical offices. The training provides them with a forum to discuss operational matters, share experiences, network, and elaborate on personal-development action plans. Finally, the training workshops equip heads of statistical offices with the skills needed to become successful national statistical system leaders.

CARICOM Statistics, recognizing the need for Training in Leadership and Management, provided a Training to Heads of Statistical Offices in the CARICOM Region in 2011, as an activity under the 9th European Development Fund and recommended that this be continued. Since then, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDP), in collaboration with other partners, has provided support in the region by providing similar training to Heads of Statistical Offices, Deputy Heads and other Senior Managers.

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