In the situation when great emphasis is placed on effectiveness of public administration it is important to estimate current strengths and weaknesses of human resource development (HRD) in public administration of Latvia, as well as assessing whether HRD activities ensure a strategic perspective in the light of rapid changes in economy and labour market, as well as with pressure of society for small and effective public administration. Since one of the factors influencing organization performance is employee satisfaction and motivation then the purpose of this article is to assess the level of satisfaction of public employees with current HRM policy planning and implementation as well as with the working environment in the public institution. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was applied to assess public employees’ attitude to public administration HRM policy in Latvia and to assess public employees’ satisfaction rate with the working environment in a respective public institution. The survey shows that public employee’s do not have a clear institutional and functional setup in the HRD policy planning and implementation in the public administration of Latvia. The HR system focuses on the performance of administrative functions, but the strategic dimension of HR planning and implementation is missing. Assessment of the factors influencing employee satisfaction with the working environment in a respective institution shows that content of the job and working environment are most positively valued in comparison with HR planning and development and the linkage between pay and performance, which got the lowest scores in the assessment of eight factors.