FROM AUGUST 2014'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Despite cuts to budgets and significant structural change, the public sector is still hiring but never before has the need for ‘quality over quantity’ been more critical. totaljobs.com’s Kate Kavanagh explains

Moving in the right direction

The UK economy grew by 0.8% in the second quarter of 2014 — the sixth consecutive quarter of GDP growth. These promising figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the economy past its pre-crisis peak, and as a result, UK unemployment is at its lowest level since 2009. 

However, while the private sector booms, the pressure of job cuts and reform continue to challenge the public sector. The unprecedented scale and pace of change of the coalition’s reforms have created huge challenges for workforce planning. This is demonstrated by a report from the Institute for Government, which states:

“Whitehall is changing beyond recognition … 54,000 staff have been cut from the Civil Service in 18 months, more than was achieved over four years in the 1980s. Many departments are now fundamentally changing how they work to maintain their effectiveness and, in some cases, building whole new capabilities, changing the face of Whitehall as we know it.”

While redundancies have followed cuts to departmental budgets, a number of job opportunities have been created in light of recent changes. In 2012, totaljobs.com predicted that 1.5m public sector placements would be made by 2017. 

Based on our data, the sector appears to be on track to deliver these opportunities and ONS statistics show that the public sector accounted for 18.2% of total employment at the end of 2013. We’re clearly moving in the right direction. 

A public sector skills gap?

As the economy moves out of recovery and into growth it is important to better understand how to ensure that hiring into the public sector is fit for purpose. 

A recent report by totaljobs.com and Dods Research — ‘Recruiting for Today’s Public Sector’ — identified that the public sector believes it lacks essential skills to meet objectives and deliver public services.

Given the reductions to workforce headcounts, made necessary by budgetary constraints, it is crucial to ensure the workforce is made up of those with critical skills and that the public sector attracts diverse workforces with the necessary agility, business acumen, attitudes and technical skills.  

Our report found that while the public sector workforce in general feels that cuts to staff numbers hamper their ability to carry out the government’s reform agenda, HR professionals — perhaps closer to the hiring and personnel needs of an organisation — feel that it is not staff numbers, but rather skills shortages, that hold back the sector’s ability to deliver public services effectively.

The four areas that were highlighted as having the biggest ‘skills gaps’ were: the perceived lack of leadership, IT, commercial and project management skills. 

According to our report, greater fresh talent is needed to breathe new life into leadership roles responsible for providing a clear strategy. While many public sector respondents agreed that external recruitment is needed to bolster talent (43% of the senior central government workers), hiring for such roles is still quite limited to those already in the sector. 

Attracting the right talent 

How can the public sector ensure it attracts the people it needs to move forward? It’s no easy task, but a recent example of successfully bringing talent in from outside the public sector is Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who enjoyed a 13-year career with investment banking, securities and investment management firm Goldman Sachs before entering the public sector through the Bank of Canada in his home country and subsequently the Bank of England. 

This is a positive sign and highlights the argument for external recruitment. 

The public sector can also draw inspiration and examples of best practice from innovative programmes, such as the London Councils project-based internship scheme or the National Audit Office’s (NAO) apprenticeship programme to make sure it’s developing the talent of the future.

The sector must continue to ensure it has a more positive employer brand to improve its appeal and attract the highest calibre candidates. A survey of jobseekers in 2014 by totaljobs.com found that 52% of jobseekers are actively looking for a job in the public sector, compared to 87% in the private sector.  

These figures echo previous research carried out by totaljobs.com and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, which found that “poor perception of the public sector” was the most common issue recruiters faced when scouting for new talent. 

However, there has been significant progress with emerging talent initiatives. In fact, another recent report totaljobs.com conducted showed that 87% of graduates are willing to consider a career in the public sector. Candidates are starting to see the benefits of a career in the public sector in terms of progression, flexible working and health and well-being programmes offered by employers. 

In addition to this, the public sector is getting better at selling the benefits of working in the sector through improved job copy and targeted candidate attraction campaigns.

Riding the growth wave

Looking forwards, it’s important that the public sector reinforces an agile approach to its hiring. 

With the Scottish Referendum later this year and a general election looming, further changes and announcements to how public services are run and managed will undoubtedly follow. 

After all, it’s in everyone’s interest to have an effective public sector. The burden of recruiting and retaining an effective workforce needs to be shared by the public and private sector alike.

• About the ‘Recruiting for today’s public sector’ report: Dods Research surveyed 1,619 public sector workers on behalf of totaljobs.com in 2013. 

• About totaljobs.com: Totaljobs.com is a UK job board, attracting over 5.9m jobseekers every month.

Kate Kavanagh is manager of totaljobs.com’s public sector team

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