This report presents findings from a study of change in recruitment procedures and practices in the Western Balkans between 2015 and the end of 2018.The study focused on change since the completion of the 2015 ReSPA baseline study on merit-based recruitment in the civil service in the Western Balkans. In order to identify change, the 2018 update took a similar approach based on the analysis of legal material, qualitative interviews with senior civil servants and external experts and, in particular, a survey of personnel managers from public sector institutions to compare recruitment practices in 2015 and 2018. The survey generated 713 responses, which implies a response rate of 62 per cent as compared to 58 per cent in 2015.