Outgunned on salaries by the private sector, the civil service often struggles to recruit and retain world-class talent. Stuart Watson attends a CSW round table on how to bring top employees into Whitehall – and keep them there.
The government is facing a complex set of challenges, from providing services for an ageing population to protecting the UK’s interests in a world of highly mobile people, money and data – and it knows that new technologies and innovative forms of service delivery will be required to meet them. To achieve this, the civil service will require new skills and capabilities.
In part, it will have to develop its existing staff – but improving their skills will take time. Meanwhile, controls are in place to prevent departments from plugging the gap with consultants. So most departments are trying to recruit specialist talent on the jobs market, in competition with private sector firms.
To bring together some of those in the frontline of this search for skills, Civil Service World teamed up with recruitment specialists Totaljobs to host a round table on recruiting and retaining talent in the civil service and public sector. It attracted a full house of HR professionals, who considered how to attract the brightest job seekers into the public sector – and to make the best use of the talent already available.
What skills are needed?
In order to plug talent gaps, it’s first necessary to identify the holes. Iris Anderson from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said there is an increasing need for project and programme management skills, and for candidates with greater commercial acumen: “I work within the energy bit of the department, and we have a lack of skills on negotiating commercial contracts, procurement and knowledge of the money markets,” she said.
In addition to those skills, the recently-published civil service Capability Plan places a strong emphasis on digital skills. James Norton, head of corporate talent at Civil Service HR, added: “It also asked how we ensure that we are growing and developing leaders able to deliver large-scale change across the civil service and the wider public sector.”
Recruiting young talent
A number of the panellists were concerned that poor public perceptions of the civil service are putting off potential candidates. “We have a fantastic story to tell about the diversity of things that people can get involved in and the scale on which they can do things, but quite often I think the way we go about putting the story out is quite low-key,” said Andrew Archer, an IT profession manager from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
It was agreed that while civil servants can do little to change attitudes in the news media, delivering a strong message to young people directly can help to combat any negative preconceptions. Totaljobs’ Kathryn Adam suggested that online video is an excellent way to enthuse graduates and youths. However, the MoJ’s engagement specialist Rob Neil said that the civil service is currently “missing a trick” by failing to produce up-to-date promotional videos.
Some delegates expressed concern about the policy which has required all agencies and departments to shut their own websites down and migrate to the gov.uk portal. Robin Harbach, HR chief at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, commented: “That means that straight away we have been cut off from our talent. I am very keen to understand how Cabinet Office is going to make sure that the gov.uk website is an attractive proposition so that it attracts graduates.”
However, Mike Booker from Totaljobs argued that civil servants may be worrying too much about their reputation in wider society: his company’s research has found public sector recruiters very concerned about their image, but 87% of graduates expressing a willingness to work in the public sector. Indeed Gwynne Goodfield, a training expert from HM Revenue & Customs, reported that last year the department received 16,000 applications for 200 places on its four-year professional scheme; in 2008, she added, there were just 2,000 applications. Local factors, it seems, can play a big role in shaping interest in particular kinds of work: “One of the reasons why we have been successful is there has been a change of attitude in the public about tax avoidance,” he said.
Bridging the pay gap
Entry-level pay for civil service jobs compares favourably with that offered by private businesses. However, round table participants recruiting senior staff reported a wide gap between private and public sector salaries, and consequent recruitment problems.
Goodfield is currently recruiting 136 qualified accountants: “A number of them are probably working for the big four accountancy firms, so in attracting them to come and work for us, pay is a stand-out issue,” he lamented. And Paul Markwick, chief executive of the Vehicle Certification Agency, said he faces similar problems in recruiting trained engineers. His recruitment and retention difficulties are exacerbated by a thriving UK automotive manufacturing sector, he said. “My staff can immediately earn 25% more, plus a Range Rover, if they want to take that leap back into the private sector.”
Not every public recruiter is struggling: Paul Slade, the Government Digital Service’s capability chief, said the GDS has managed to find accommodations within the existing rules. “The market rate out there is so much higher than the standard grades in the civil service, but we have been able to come up with mechanisms to bring people in on market-rate salaries,” he said. In most places, though, frozen salaries and shrinking benefits are making the civil service less competitive in the jobs market – and the problem will intensify by 2016 as the private sector recovers, predicted Totaljobs’ Booker.
In response, he argued, the public sector needs to emphasise its own strong selling points: “In our research we have examined the reasons why people are looking to join the public sector, and pay doesn’t figure highly. It’s much more about the potential for training; the opportunity for career development; and the desire to provide public services.” He added that departments should think about how to attract people showing potential into entry-level roles so that they can be developed into skilled professionals.
Retaining and managing talent
Identifying people’s aspirations and helping them to achieve their goals is essential to retaining staff and getting the best out of them, argued MoJ training manager Kevin Cowley: “The danger sometimes is that we identify people with the potential to be senior leaders, and then we do nothing with it,” he said. “We want to retain people who have clear skills that we can use going forward. Even though we are reducing in size, in some ways that actually creates more opportunities; it makes the civil service a more exciting place to work, because it gives people the opportunity to extend their skills.”
Liam Nwanze, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) talent manager, said that civil servants often don’t know where their skills are most in demand. And the DSTL’s Harbach warned that the need for specialist professional expertise shouldn’t undermine the development of leaders with all-round skills: “There is a risk because if you create all these vertical silos in the business, you prevent people from moving around and getting that broad experience.”
Progress on diversity
The civil service’s success in attracting and promoting talent from minority groups was one of the most hotly-argued topics of the day. “The figures for BAME [Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic] on the fast stream are terrible; awful,” argued the MoJ’s Neil. “It’s not where it should be if we are to attract talent from all the different parts of our communities.” DECC’s Anderson concurred: “In my department there is a particular ‘type’ that are groomed and pushed forward,” she said. “They are not from ethnic minorities; not part timers; some women, but only if they fit the profile; not disabled; not over 40.”
However, Civil Service Commission chief executive Clare Salters said that most recruiters are more open-minded. Half of those appointed to ‘Top 200’ civil service jobs in the past three years came from outside the service, she said, arguing that employers “aren’t looking to recruit in a mould; they are looking to recruit the person who best meets the criteria for the job.” And Civil Service HR’s Norton said that the numbers of ethnic minorities joining the fast stream are on the rise.
Opening up the silos
The attendees discussed the potential to build links with the private sector, adopting some of its methods to develop the skills necessary to support reform. “With my fast streamers, I encourage them to go and talk to private sector companies,” said the MoJ’s Archer. “The risk is that someone will say: ‘You’re a jolly bright person: come and work for us’. But that’s part of it, otherwise you are constraining them. We need to think about how we make it possible for people to go out, learn extra skills and bring them back. It’s about creating contacts and maintaining networks.”
The MoJ’s Cowley recalled a programme under which some civil service finance managers were seconded to Marks & Spencer: “It re-energised them, and helped them understand a bit more about what goes on [in the commercial sector] before bringing those skills back into the organisation,” he said.
However, Goodfield cited a recent example of the risks inherent in getting too close to the private sector: “The Public Accounts Committee came out this week with a damning report about the relationship between the big four and HMRC,” he said, noting that placements had allowed accountants to “go into the Treasury to help form policy, and then go back with the knowledge to help their clients avoid tax.”
Norton added that people don’t need to leave the civil service to gain experience of different organisations and roles. “Where we do identify talent we tend to hoard it within departmental silos,” he argued – but “part of growing and developing people is taking risks to give them a broader range of experiences across departments.” For the employing department, those risks include the loss of precious specialist staff to places of greater need within the civil service – but if the civil service is to both make the best use of its top talent, and give its best staff the chance to develop their careers, departments will have to raise their eyes from their own problems and consider how best to equip the government as a whole with the skills to address the complex set of challenges facing the UK today.
