The article explores approaches to determining the criteria for a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the civil service. Based on the study of scientific publications, the views of domestic and foreign authors on the problems associated with assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of civil servants' activities are considered. An analysis of legislative and regulatory legal acts made it possible to summarize the most pressing issues that take place in the practice of assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of civil servants in the Russian Federation. The ways of improving the ex23isting organizational and legal mechanisms and introducing new ones are proposed, which will allow determining the criteria for a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the public service and assessing the performance of public civil servants based on other approaches.