At Veredus we have been directly involved in numerous appointments of people with private sector backgrounds to the public sector. We have teamed up with the Sunday Times to start an online debate over the issues surrounding attracting private sector executives to the public sector.
Executives entering the public sector from the private sector can experience a considerable degree of culture shock. Any senior position can involve a degree of risk, but this can be exaggerated when the organisation is alien to the incoming executive.
The process of decision making can be different, a wider range of interest groups are involved in decision-making, the motives of the people that you are working with will can be different and the outcomes of your decisions can affect a far wider range of people.
What are the key challenges that people should expect when they take on a public sector role from a private sector background?
How can these challenges be mitigated?
Hi
I have been frustrated of late as there have been a number of public sector initiatives (NHS trusts and Police forces in particular) centred around a subject I have over 10 yrs experience in, from consultant through to directorship level.
Having started my own freelance business recently, I have had absolutely no responses from either direct approach or roles advertised by recruiters. This is not sour grapes, as a vendor I have contracted with a few public sector bodies and have always been suprised with the ease with which they spend money as opposed to execs in the private sector.
I felt confident that I would be able to assist them far more cost effectively than they would achieve contracting me via a vendor but I keep falling down on the ‘you have all the correct skills, but no direct public sector work!’ Is it me, or are their some nervous people in the public sector who fear the abilities of private sector counterparts?
We’ve had a very interesting (and mixed) set of experiences set out here, which perhaps illustrate most clearly the simple fact that it is very hard to generalise.
I’ve offered some advice elsewhere in this debate about the importance of “qualifying” opportunities as you would a complex sale: ask robust questions before putting yourself forward; and then think very hard about you can mitigate the potential risks of appointing you - if you have a track record of transformation then this will largely speak for itself and shouting even louder about this probably won’t have much effect - the challenge is to show that you have a thought-through strategy for transitioning between sectors. This is about using the right language and going along with the conventions of application relevant to the sector, but it’s also about networking to meet people with similar jobs and understanding their joys and frustrations. It’s also about homework - a staggering amount of information about public sector organisations is freely available on the web - much more than you would dream of coming from a private sector perspective. And if you’re thinking about Local Government, you can, as a member of the public, attend many meetings simply to observe and learn. Or even watch the meetings video-broadcast over the web in some cases.
I was written to by the NHS earlier this year with the statement that my resume had been seen and that I was the type of senior management executive from the private sector that the modern NHS was trying to attract to bring in new blood (forgive the bad pun), commercial thinking and more profit based philosphies and economies.
In every case my application was rejected with the statement that although my experience and expertise was impressive the position required working history within the health service.
I have had a similar experience with local government particularly within social housing which is closed to outsiders.
The ombudsman service ran advertisements this years. The requirement was for outsiders to police and deal with local government complaints. Specifically outsiders from the private sector in order that they may be independant to some degree. Again I was told that only those working currently within local government would be considered.
Two weeks ago I received a request from the NHS to participate in the Gateway to Leadership programe to attract senior private sector managers. After a long career with all this hard won experience I would like to work for the benefit of my community but after so many disappointments I will not apply.
As a freelance change manager I have ‘made the transition’ between the private and public sectors ( and back again ) quite a few times over the last 16 years.
From my experience I can see that both sectors have a lot that they can gain from the other.
The private sector tends to be driven by the profit motive whereas the public sector is driven by the service motive. ( Huge simplification warning ! )
Understanding this key difference provides an insight into methods for advancing change management programmes through the identification of the local organisation’s key drivers and the motivation of its people.
As has been mentioned before in this thread, consensus gathering and governance characterise public sector changes. This can, to a private sector manager, seem to result in slow laborious even sluggish operations that are resistant to change and difficult to improve. However, to the experience public sector manager, governance and consensus can be used to advantage and actually builds robust change that has considered the wider implications of the transformation. These are also things that the private sector can use to its advantage as well. Too many times I’ve had to work on fixing the aftermath of hasty changes or local fixes that have been rapidly implemented with little or no governance and without consideration of the big picture. The private sector can sometimes seem like herding cats. Every individual with a mind of its own and a direction of travel that has little to do with the group as a whole.
Each sector has its own challenges and each has its own set of rewards. Making the transition is difficult and does not suit everyone. I’ve worked with another manager recently who could not accommodate the change in mindset and was constantly driving the public sector organisation I’m now working with along hard commercial lines. After 2 months it was clear he did not fit in and he left.
Once you have made the transition, however, the subsequent moves in either direction become somewhat easier. So, when you do make the move and have become comfortable working in the alternative culture, keep an eye open for the opportunity to move back again. The private sector does have a lot it can gain from experienced public sector change managers and a spell back in the commercial world is a good ‘shot in the arm’ to revitalise the portable skills that the public sector so urgently needs.
Think this is an interesting discussion. I personally have over 20 years in industry and the last 12 years in Services and Technology sectors. I have worked with businesses in highly specialised and technical fields, who have recruited me as a consultant/interim for the skills set I bring rather than any previous experience in their field - I have always been able to quickly get up the learning curve in ‘the language’ used in these organisations and deliver assigments successfully. It is claimed that there are cultural differences, which are simplified to public is ‘consensus’ driven while the private sector is more ‘directive / results’ driven. I don’t think this distinction is that important, as it will depend on the personality type and preferences of the individual (not all private sector people are donald trumps!). To cut a long story short, I have lots of service process expertise and also use of technology to deliver services (doesn’t matter the type of service, and presumably the public sector is mainly about delivering value for money, efficient services to the public that achieves greater than 95% user satisfaction?). I have recently looked actively again for interim/permanent roles, and have had the opportunity to look at many public sector advertisements that fitted my profile, except for the inevitable “only those with previous expereince of XXXX need apply”. You would think the public sector is a closed shop and not open to best practice (having said that the public sector people I know are genuinely frustrated, and would love to improve!). Maybe the way forward is for companies like Veredus to identify roles which don’t need “previous experience of XXX public service” and where the skills set itself is relevant, and persuade the client accordingly? Btw, the other sector that is equally ‘closed shop’ is the Financial Services sector, and, of course, they are in fine health.
To Veredus - are you passing these comments to public sector HR?
To public sector HR - how much change in your recruitment procedures has there been recently?
I speak as one who last year actually made a transition (albeit on a contract basis) after 16 years within private sector manufacturing to public sector (transport) services.
I had some concerns, as you would about switching any position, and the first few weeks were difficult, mainly in terms of getting to know people and how things work. Again, this would be the same in any role.
However, what I focused on was using my ‘portable tool kit of skills’ (technical accounting, tax, HR, systems, reporting, negotiation, influencing, logical reason etc) that I had built up over the years, and just applied them to different types of problems.
Although the role was contract, and therefore no doubt different than permanent, I found acceptance very quickly within an organisation that was ready for change. I also noticed that although there were many differences between private and public, many of the issues are just the same.
Of course there are always going to be different ways of working, but for skilled professionals who are committed and aware, flexibility and simple application of experience will work most of the time (life’s 80/20 after all).
And yes, old school public sector bods may pigeon hole and make assumptions, but it is possible to convince them otherwise once your foot is in the door. Positive thinking…
It has been my personal experience of being “pigeon holed” recently. I have a wealth of experience in running my own business, working for a corporate organisation and of late being a key part of an organisation with P&L responsibility and key targets which I have achieved.
As I believe that the private sector are crying out for more commercial acumen and abilities I would urge the decision makers and not the HR teams to make the decision as to whether an applicant is suitable for a particular role.
I will be joining this site as a result of this debate.
Some very insightful comments on this blog - I hope the following will add constructively.
I agree that it can be difficult to ensure clarity of purpose in public sector organisations compared with the clarity that comes from the commercial sector focus on profit and the customer. However, this is the very essence of the challenge currently faced by the public sector - ie how to build a commonly agreed clarity around priorities and at the same time develop and improve the focus on finances. I am sure we will hear much more of this debate over the coming months.
I also agree with those who highlight the challenge of understanding the ‘way things get done’ in the public sector, and being able to operate in the sector in an effective manner by gaining consensus and agreement. In essence, this is often much more challenging than some commercial sector approaches which may rely on compliance. For this reason, I believe some senior managers in the public sector are much more adept at building engagement than their commercial sector colleagues (although again I realise that there is good practice in both sectors - it all depends on individual practice and the lead given by the person at the top of the organisation).
Research also shows that those who work in the public sector do so out of a sense of commitment. The challenge for the change manager in the public sector is to help people understand that organisational change does not necessarily act against this commitment. Managing change in the public sector is no less challenging than it is in the commercial sector.
Significant hurdles for those seeking to ‘cross over’ from one sector to the other are the preconceptions of those involved in recruitment and selection decisions. Individuals are often ‘pigeon-holed’ as being either a public sector or commercial sector candidate. Much more constructive would be a clear analysis of skillsets required, such as finance/cost/profit focus, abilities in building engagement and consensus etc, rather than seeing individuals as square pegs in round holes.
As the public sector is being challenged to adopt commercial sector approaches, there is a need to find individuals who already have the skills to cross the divide and work in either sector. As the public sector takes on the disciplines of effective financial and time management from the commercial sector, it will be increasingly difficult to define skillsets as either ‘public sector’ or ‘commercial sector’ - at least - as a taxpayer, I hope it will!
However, the challenge is set for those making recruitment decisions.
My experience to date, as someone seeking to make the transition to the public sector and hoping to use my experience in industry to help the former to ‘do more, with less’ as David Cameron put it, and Alistair Darling no doubt means (but isn’t allowed to say…), is how difficult it is.
While recruiters may say they welcome applicants from the public sector, when you look at many of the person specifications, reality differs. It’s not just a matter of adopting the language in an application form - a ’stakeholder’ here, a ‘diversity’ there, and a ’sustainable’ for good measure - it’s that, in all too many cases, they’re scoring it by a set of criteria that exclude many of the people who could help them transform their appallingly low productivity rates, at a time when such input is most needed.