The Northern Ireland Civil Service has launched a mass recruitment campaign seeking 500 permanent administrative officers for roles across all government departments.
The campaign comes 10 months after the NICS lifted a recruitment freeze that was put in place in February 2023 after officials were told to cut 10% from their budgets.
The campaign is specifically encouraging Protestants, men, young people, disabled people and would-be civil servants with a minority-ethnic background to apply for the roles. “All applications for employment are considered strictly on the basis of merit,” the Department of Finance said in a press release about the campaign.
Pay stats for the NICS show a gender pay gap in favour of men and Protestants, with both groups earning 7.4% more on average than their female and Catholic counterparts in 2022.
The figures were found to reflect the fact that lower-paid grades are dominated by women and Catholics, while there were more men and Protestants in more senior roles.
The recruitment campaign appears to address this by seeking to diversify the intake for the junior AO roles. Both groups are underrepresented across the NICS, according to the recruitment campaign – as are people under the age of 35, disabled people, and those minority-ethnic communities.
The campaign will recruit AOs to be placed across Northern Ireland.
Applicants will be able to speecify their three preferred work locations, as well as their preferred working pattern, but there is no guarantee that their preferences will be met.
"Whether serving customers or supporting teams delivering services or projects across the NICS, administrative officers play a vital role in an organisation that touches the lives of people here every day," the DoF said.
Four years ago, the DoF admitted the NICS needed “fundamental change” in the way it recruited staff, after the Northern Ireland Audit Office found a lack of workforce planning across departments had led to almost 1,500 vacancies and an agency staff bill of £45.7m in 2018-19.
The NIAO called for “urgency, pace and investment in strategic workforce planning, organisational development and people management” to rectify a system it said was “cumbersome, slow, and [did] not provide sufficient assurance that the right people are placed in the right posts”.
Among other things, the watchdog criticised the practics of appointing civil servants to grades rather than specific job roles, while “skills and experience most relevant to positions are not always tested”.
Job applications for the AO drive close at noon on 6 September.