The demands of Brexit, combined with other challenges in public service such as ICT, are set to drive up the number of temporary workers required to deliver a wide range of services, according to YPO, the UK’s largest public sector buying organisation.
In the last year, the overall number of civil servants has risen by 2.7%¹, and it’s expected that staff numbers will continue to rise in preparation for the UK’s departure from the EU. Indeed, the number of people employed in central government has risen steadily for over five years and the latest figure for December 2017 (3.07 million) is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1999.²
A flexible framework solution
An innovative approach to temporary staffing is key to helping achieve better outcomes in recruitment strategy, according to YPO, which has developed a framework for temporary workers.
Lizzy Grayson, Corporate Services Category Manager at YPO comments, “YPO’s procurement services team has developed the framework through customer and supplier engagement sessions.
The main objectives are to provide a route to market for central government organisations wanting to establish a flexible approach to a wider range of temporary staffing solutions. It allows civil servants to scope a solution which reflects their likely needs for the next 3-4 years. The framework will help support the civil service as the public sector undergoes future challenges, change and business transformation.”
Recruiting temporary labour
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are just one of the many sectors where central government organisations are looking to recruit to meet the particular challenges facing central government. The urgent need to find experienced temporary support staff is central to YPO’s Temporary Recruitment framework which covers all areas of temporary labour within central government. The framework includes a managed service for temporary labour which coordinates all temporary workers in an organisation. The framework can be used by all public sector organisations including central government, housing, higher education, and emergency services. The managed service for temporary labour can be delivered through three different models,
watch this short video to understand how the sector delivers through the variety of models or
click here to download the user guide.
“Joining the dots between demand and supply, particularly regarding temporary recruitment can be a challenge. We are committed to working in partnership with customers and providers to help tackle this situation,” continued Lizzy Grayson.
YPO’s well established delivery models are regularly adopted and are designed to simplify and streamline the temporary recruitment process. Increasingly, providers are looking to push boundaries to develop more flexible solutions that meet the specific needs of the organisation. As the UK’s leading public sector buying organisation operating more than 80 frameworks, YPO can offer its expertise to meet the temporary recruitment challenge.
Is your temporary recruitment strategy right for you?
To help assess your current temporary recruitment strategy, YPO has prepared five questions to help you reflect on decisions about current and future recruitment requirements.
Is your current recruitment model outcome focused?
A tender specification should be about the outcomes you wish to achieve through your agency staffing contract.
How do your outcomes support your recruitment strategy?
For example, there is a time and a place for agency staffing. Procuring an agency worker might be the most cost effective solution for a particular situation.
Does social value play a role?
Think about how social value can be adapted into your specifications, such as engagement with unemployed individuals and job centres, apprenticeships, graduate schemes, and local community engagement.
How can your temporary recruitment fit with talent pools management, redeployment solutions and your permanent recruitment outcomes?
Consider ways in which your recruitment strategy can be integrated.
What’s your tender process?
To make sure your tender process reflects your requirements it should describe a solution that meets your needs and offer the provider as much information as possible about your current situation. From this approach will come an innovative response to your recruitment and social value requirements.
A provider should be your partner and constantly shaping a service to meet your requirements - it’s much more than just fitting into the traditional models.
About YPO
YPO is the largest public sector buying organisation in the UK. Fully owned by 13 local government member authorities, YPO has also established formal relationships with further 53 organisations - known as associate member authorities - across local government and the wider public sector. It has an annual turnover in excess of £660 million, with a range including approximately 80 public sector framework contracts and 30,000 products.
Established in 1974 to aggregate the procurement spend of its owning local authorities, YPO has helped drive public sector efficiency savings through its bulk buying power for centralised contract services initiatives and product supplies.
Contact Us
Find out more on the YPO HR Framework
here or contact lizzy.grayson@ypo.co.uk / M: 07800718904
¹ Institute for Government https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/civil-service-staff-numbers
² Office for National Statistics, Public sector employment, UK: December 2017.