The government should scrap success profiles and offer civil servants the choice of having higher take-home pay at the expense of less-generous pension contributions, the Institute for Government has said.
The Whitehall-focused think tank has presented Keir Starmer with a 20-point plan to address problems with the civil service that have dogged his prime-ministerial predecessors.
It proposes new measures to put the brakes on departmental churn, such as minimum-service requirements that would give managers greater discretion over when staff can apply for roles in other departments.
One such measure it puts forward is giving officials the opportunity to choose how pay and pension entitlements are balanced in their reward package as a way to counter the falling value of real-terms pay. It says departments could potentially offset some recruitment difficulties if they were able to give staff the chance to have higher take-home pay at the expense of less-generous pension contributions.
The IfG's suggestions – all of which it says could be implemented without new legislation – also include setting departmental targets designed to limit turnover, and holding permanent secretaries accountable for meeting them.
Earlier this year, the IfG's annual Whitehall Monitor snapshot of the state of the civil service reported that 11.9% of staff either moved between departments or left the civil service altogether in 2022-23.
Although the figure is lower than the 13.6% churn recorded 2021-22, the IfG said it was the second-highest rate since at least 2010-11.
The IfG is also calling on Starmer to scrap the civil service's success profiles system for assessing job candidates.
It says that although the framework is "well intentioned", it is confusing for external candidates but allows those "in the know" to tailor their answers to ensure they tick all of the right boxes to maximise their chances of securing the job they're applying for.
According to the IfG, the system should be replaced with a "more adaptable framework" of guidance for departments to follow, but one that does not jeopardise the principle of recruitment on merit.
The think tank's proposals also include the development of a comprehensive long-term workforce plan for the civil service and the creation of a pay-review body for officials employed below senior civil service grades.
IfG senior researcher – and report co-author – Jack Worlidge said the steps outlined in the 14-page paper would enable Starmer to put the civil service on a footing for success.
"The new government has inherited a civil service in urgent need of reform, after successive administrations neglected longstanding problems which hamper its effectiveness," he said.
"The 20 reforms we propose would tackle these problems – from excessive churn to poor management – and are essential if the government is to achieve its ambitions."