Wed, 20 Jun 2012

Public sector organisations are increasingly finding challenges recruiting and retaining skilled staff, particularly at senior level, as a result of cuts to the sector and damage to its image.

This is according to the annual Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/Hays ‘Resourcing and Talent Planning’ survey of over 500 employers.

The survey shows that 82% of public sector organisations reported problems in filling at least some vacancies over the past few months, up from 66% in 2011.

This is the biggest year-on-year jump in any sector – and coincides with a large jump in vacancies at such employers. In 2011, the median number of vacancies in organisations with more than 5,000 employees was 150, and this has near doubled to 275 this year.

However, over a quarter of organisations report they will be reducing the number of new recruits they hire in 2012 and a fifth (19%) will be implementing a recruitment freeze.

In total, 43% of public sector employers cited pay as one of the reasons for particular difficulties in filling vacancies at managerial, senior and director-level roles.

In addition, the public sector was also almost three times more likely (24% compared to 9%) than the private sector to report that image was a problem in terms of attracting new recruits.