In December, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, said the civil service recruitment process was “a barrier to getting good people in”.
Having delivered application workshops to nearly 4,500 current and aspiring civil servants in the last two years, I would agree the civil service application process can be a real barrier for some people to get in and get on. Most challenges I’ve heard about through surveys, feedback and research fall into three core themes.
- Awareness – Feeling unfamiliar with or confused by what’s written in job descriptions or what is expected of you during the application process
- Confidence – Assuming you’re underqualified for roles you’re interested in or ruling yourself out for fear of not fitting into the culture
- Accessibility – Limited access to guidance, encouragement and feedback to help you improve your application
The quickest and easiest way for applicants to overcome these challenges is to seek advice from people in their network who have “insider knowledge” about how the civil service works. In my experience, this advice represents information or support that couldn’t be accessed in many other ways, and it has played a crucial role in my career so far.
Exploring how socioeconomic background affects civil service career progression, the Social Mobility Commission’s 2021 Navigating the Labyrinth report found that informal networks heavily influenced career progression in the civil service by helping people to navigate the “unwritten rules” of success. Crucially, the report also argued that the importance of connections in “getting ahead” meant people without access to these networks face an uphill battle to master the system and compete equally.
This represents a system where the pace and pathway of progression can be heavily influenced by your proximity to people who can share these “unwritten rules” with you. As a result, many talented applicants can miss out on or be delayed in accessing opportunities, due to a lack of know-how rather than a lack of talent.
In my experience, one of the most significant barriers to progression is a lack of confidence and proficiency with applications. And right now, too many people lack access to guidance to help them effectively navigate the process.
Recognising this, I co-authored Entering the Labyrinth: An Unofficial Guide to Civil Service Applications with Joe Oakes in 2022 to demystify the application process by sharing lessons that helped us get into the civil service. The response was overwhelming, reaching over 200,000 people online and many more through word of mouth, careers advisers and university careers pages.
We followed this up by launching three new application guides at a careers day on the Darlington Economic Campus in October 2024. Since then, it’s been downloaded almost 5,000 times.
Wherever you work, there’ll be colleagues who recognise or struggle with some of the challenges mentioned above. For some, these challenges will feel like a nuisance; for others, they will feel like an insurmountable obstacle.
Solving these problems is in everyone’s interest, as it would help more people realise their potential and feel optimistic about their prospects, while further diversifying the talent pipeline.
Here are a few things managers could do in their teams, divisions and directorates to support colleagues who may face barriers to progression:
- Have honest conversations with colleagues about feelings towards applications, struggles, and top tips
- Set up support systems, such as teach-ins or peer reviews, and offer them to people proactively
- Share job adverts on LinkedIn (or other social media platforms) to reach a broader audience and put a face to the posting
No recruitment process is perfect. Every system has the potential to unintentionally create winners and losers. However, we are all responsible for recognising and addressing inequities by making the process as inclusive and accessible as possible, so that talent can thrive wherever it is and whatever it looks like.
Nathan White is a skills strategy adviser for the Department for Education. His Unofficial Civil Service Guide is available to download here. Nathan can be contacted at team@unofficialguides.co.uk