The study summarizes Russian and international experience in forming human resource management systems in state and municipal service, driven by increasing demands for transparency and effectiveness of public administration. The aim of the work is to identify discrepancies between strategic goals and actual HR practices and to determine adaptable models that ensure human capital development and institutional sustainability. The novelty lies in the integration of legal, institutional, and managerial perspectives with quantitative verification based on key indicators of HR technology implementation. Materials and methods include comparative legal and management analysis, a systemic approach to recruitment, assessment, motivation, training, and development subsystems, as well as the processing of statistics and sociological surveys. The empirical base covers reports from Russian government agencies for 2020-2022, a sample of international practices from OECD countries, and aggregated data from more than 1,500 employees across pilot regions. Descriptive statistics, correlation-regression methods, and document content analysis were applied to compare declared goals with actual procedures. The results reveal a systemic gap between the declared meritocracy and existing practices dominated by formal bureaucratic processes. A lag is observed in the implementation of the competency-based approach, KPI/MBO, and automated recruitment (ATS) relative to OECD averages, with some progress in digital HR document management. Staff turnover is highest at the municipal level and in remote districts, coupled with a lack of transparent career paths. Training programs in digital transformation and project management are found to be the most effective, while formalized compliance courses show minimal impact. The digitalization of transactional HR processes correlates more strongly with employee satisfaction than the digitalization of evaluation procedures. The discussion interprets modernization as a phased transition from quick wins to deep transformation. A recommended sequence includes: priority digitalization of service HR operations to increase employee loyalty, targeted training in areas of competency shortages, process reengineering, and pilot implementation of competency-based models and performance management in prepared agencies. Emphasis is placed on the need to transparently align goals with budgeting, as well as to develop talent pools and cross-cutting HR platforms. Limitations include self-reporting and regional heterogeneity; future directions involve longitudinal assessments, expanding survey panels, and testing causal hypotheses. Additionally, attention is drawn to the need for regional specificity and the step-by-step adaptation of international practices to Russian conditions.