The other day, I was talking to a friend who works for an arm of government that is more commercially-facing than most. The private sector companies he deals with pay almost twice what he earns, to people who manage only a fraction of the value of the contracts he does. He had his usual frustrations with his organisation and reward package and seemed at a bit of a crossroads. Why, I asked, didn’t he leave and earn significantly more money with, presumably, a lot less bureaucracy than he faces in the civil service?
Perhaps, as the head of a civil service union, that should not have been my question – but without hesitation he responded that he absolutely believed in what his organisation was trying to deliver, and that he had been shaping that vision over a number of years. He simply couldn’t and wouldn’t walk away from that – it was too important to him.
This is a true story. He chooses to remain in public service because of what he can achieve, and he’s not alone. A permanent secretary who shall remain nameless (it’s Lin Homer) has a nice line about her ambition for her department being “a good place to work and place to do good work”. The FDA’s vice president is one of her employees, and a senior tax professional. When asked what he does for a living, he says simply that he’s a builder; his work helps to build schools, hospitals and roads. For some reason, HMRC seems to be the natural home of nice pithy lines about public service.
Celebrating and building a broader understanding of the role of public services and public servants is something I fear we’re not very good at in the civil service. There’s pride and universally-accepted admiration for the NHS or Armed Forces, but you can’t imagine the Department for Work & Pensions having its own segment in the Olympic Games opening ceremony – despite the welfare state being one of this country’s proudest achievements.
Commercial organisations perhaps understand the value of public service work better than we do. You only need to look at the adverts placed in this publication, where businesses proudly laud their achievements. They make a virtue out of their role in delivering public services, and wouldn’t dream of not exploiting it for all it’s worth. Presumably this approach has an impact on the bottom line, or they wouldn’t keep doing it.
Yes, it’s more difficult to bang this drum in the civil service. It’s closer to government, so can look like a political move celebrating the achievement of a particular government. The civil service also has a hand – directly and indirectly – in delivering most public services, so it doesn’t have a single theme like the NHS; and some of what we do is less universally popular.
Yet the work we do deserves to be celebrated; and what’s more, the civil service provides unique, fascinating and challenging jobs that are more than just about maximising profit for shareholders. Some people commit to that for their entire careers, while for others it can draw them in at different stages of their lives. The job satisfaction this provides is not a replacement for a decent reward package: both are part of the equation. But if we celebrate the meaning and value in public service, it should be a source of pride for civil servants, the public and government; and critically, it should help public services to continue to draw in talented people who are driven by the promise of ‘good work’.
Back now to HMRC. It’s a part of the public sector that attracts its share of criticism – both fair and unfair. By its very nature, it has the potential to create antipathy among the general public, but ultimately it is integral in delivering the public services we rely on as well as a fairer society.
HMRC is holding a celebration of its work at Westminster Abbey, with representatives of all faiths and none attending. It was a different GOD that created HMRC ten years ago (maybe the event’s managers were thinking back to Gus O’Donnell’s involvement in the organisation’s establishment), and I’m sure there’ll be many cynics quick to criticise the initiative. But whether or not it’d be my choice to take this approach, I can’t help but feel that HMRC should be applauded for its courage in celebrating its work so publicly and boldly with staff and stakeholders. In doing so, staff know they’ll take a few knocks, both for the simple act of ‘celebrating’ what they do and their choice of vehicle to deliver it; but I, for one, think it’s courageous.
Every day, we achieve much that the public either doesn’t see or takes for granted. Perhaps it’s time for a few more of us to stick our heads above the parapet and risk the odd pot-shot to champion those achievements.